Persistence is a Leadership Trait

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: Wesley A. Whittaker

Cell: 810-397-7466

Email: VPPR-699671@toasmastersclubs.org

Persistence is a Leadership Trait

Since March of 2020, the Fenton Area Toastmasters club has been persisting in the face of the pandemic to maintain its weekly meetings. They were able to move to the ZOOM platform and keep their regularly scheduled meetings. The club had been meeting in the Training Room of the Fenton Fire Department. Membership was growing and the club was thriving. That changed when Fire Chief Robert Cairnduff had to prioritize the health and welfare of his firefighters and the fire station was shut down to all except authorized personnel.

All has not been smooth. Several members chose not to participate online. A few even chose not to renew their membership because of the uncertainty. There was a core nucleus who stuck with it however, and they got to witness one of the more surprising and unexpected phenomena of the COVID-19 outbreak. Toastmasters has been a global organization throughout most of its 96-year history. Thanks to online meeting platforms like ZOOM, Microsoft Teams, and others, Toastmasters from all over the globe got to visit other clubs in real time. Fenton Toastmasters had a former member join a meeting from Italy where he now lived. Members visited other clubs around the country and made new friends in Florida, Texas, Canada, New York, and even India.

Toastmasters have shown that persistence pays off in expanding one’s network and in developing true leadership skills. You can develop those skills that are the hallmarks of business leaders. Learning how to run an effective meeting by using an agenda, giving supportive performance evaluations, developing an effective one to two minute “elevator pitch,” or persisting during a time of crisis are just a few of the skills you will learn when you join Fenton Area Toastmasters.

Chief Cairnduff has told us that we are welcome to return to the fire station as soon as the state gives the “All clear” and life begins to return to something resembling normal. In the interim, we are transitioning back to in-person meetings at various locations. Check out our website at www.699671.toastmastersclubs.org to find out where we will be meeting this coming Friday. Meeting times are always Friday mornings from &:45 to 8:45 AM.

If you would prefer to attend online, send an email to Robin Riddell, VP-Membership, at VPM-699671@toasmastersclubs.org and ask for a “Visitor’s Pass.” You will be sent the Zoom credentials that will allow you to participate in the Fenton Area Toastmasters online meeting. The meeting room is usually open 15 minutes before the start of the meeting.

Turn this “stay at home” time to your advantage by checking out the new and improved training opportunities available at Toastmasters. Dare to discover the leader you were born to be.

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of more than 16,200 clubs in 145 countries. Membership now exceeds 364,000. You can visit the Toastmasters International website for a list of other clubs now meeting online anywhere in the world. The address is https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club.

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