Pathways Electives to become DTM [District 91 Division A TLI Jan 2021]

Haritosh Srivastav. I hope I've said that right, Haritosh. Haritosh joined Toastmasters in 2016 and was a member of clubs in D41 and D11, but is now a member of Basingstoke Speakers and Pioneers 17, and he is chartering, as I think he's already mentioned, a global online advanced Toastmasters club. He enjoys working on his YouTube channel and new podcast. He says, in 2019 we celebrated the 85th anniversary of Pioneer 17 Toastmasters Club. It was an exciting, amazing experience to be president of the oldest club east of the Rocky Mountains and celebrating that very special moment. And to top it all, it was his HPL project and it was a fun and learning experience. Now please give Haritosh Srivastav a really warm welcome.

Good morning everyone, how are you doing? Uh, okay, it's Saturday, I understand, but we can have some fun. So I'm here with PowerPoint, but we are going to talk about pathways, specifically a little bit about electives, but we have a little more things to come. So I'm gonna start with something. If somebody says he doesn't know about this person, he needs to go to Toastmasters website. Is the Ralph C. Smedley, the founder of Toastmasters, and who said communication leads to discovery of so many hidden abilities. And you are part of this family. I wish you that you will discover lot more things, and Pathways allows you to do even more greater things. Now there's one more quote by Ralph C. Smedley, which I really personally love, and that is, we learn in moments of enjoyment. I hope we'll have some fun today. If it was a physical meeting, I would have gladly liked to have this cookie shared with you, but since it's an online, maybe we'll have to settle with virtual cookies. Uh, we're gonna have some cookie moments in the presentations. First of all, what is this Distinguished Toastmaster? It's the highest level of educational achievement in Toastmasters. As they say, it's a symbol of excellence. We have less than 1% people who join Toastmasters go on to become Distinguished Toastmaster. Now at this moment, I would like people who are Distinguished Toastmasters to either raise their hand physically or raise their hand in the chat. And let's all unmute for a moment and recognize this is the highest level. So let's give a big round of applause to all the distinguished Toastmasters present. That is an achievement we all are so proud of. Thank you. You may unmute— you may mute yourself again. We'll have some more moments on movement, hopefully. Now we talked about what exactly is Toastmaster, but I'm gonna have some riddle because we have a number of distinguished Toastmasters. I'm gonna touch some of the knowledge that how much do you know about Toastmaster, uh, distinguished Toastmaster history. So we are gonna have a sort of trivia. So let's see who can answer this first question. Do you know when was the first DTM issued? Let's put it in chat and let's see who knows it best. Okay, 1975. Mhm, uh, quite close. 1924 would have been much earlier. That was just Rousey's meddling. Establishing Toastmasters, 1986. Okay, somebody got it right. Is the president of Solent Speaker. Yes, the first DTM was issued in year 1917, just 14 years before I was born. So quite a number of years. Now let's have some trivia about District 91. Now District 91, can we guess how many DTMs have been issued or awarded to District 91 members? Let's have some guests in the chat. 19, uh, that's too low. 500,000, yep. 80, uh, no, William Moore. No, not 25,000 for sure. All right, let me give you the answer. Somebody was quite close, it's 143 DTMs that have been awarded in District 91 since 2014. Now let's talk about current year. Now I think you've got some fair idea about DTMs, so let's guess how many DTMs for this Toastmaster year have been already issued to District 91 members. Put it in chat, let's see who can come close to 20, 15. Okay, I think we are getting really good at guessing game, so We have 12 DTMs already issued in District 91. So congratulations to all the distinguished, latest distinguished Toastmasters of this year. Now I want you to open your phone and scan this code, and if you are not able to scan, go to a website called menti.com and enter this code. I'm also gonna put a link in the chat which will allow you to directly go to the questions. And we're gonna have some other screen sharing. All right, people are so proactive, they are already entering which path they are part of. So we have quite a level playing field going on, but leadership development is moving up. Oh my God. Oh, I didn't see the Presentation Mastery.

Wow.

Toastmasters is all about speaking better and communicating, so Presentation Mastery seems to be leading.

Wow.

Okay, we have Presentation Mastery and 10 more paths in Pathways. Great. Now let's have some more fun and we're gonna play a small game. So if you have not— oh my God, this is the first time I see so many names coming up. So we're gonna have some real fun. Are you guys ready? All right, so you might be getting first question. This might be a simple one if you are already in Pathways, but let's see who can get it fast. Is it 4, 5, or 6 levels in Pathways? 6 seconds to go. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. All right, time's up. Okay, the correct answer is there are 5 levels in Pathways. 24 people got it right. And let's hear, let's see who was the first person Okay, quite a close competition between Earthman and Skidz. Oh, I think it might be in a microsecond that he— Skidz missed. But yeah, let's move on to the next question. And the question is, how many paths are there in Pathways? This again should be simple. We just answered that I'm hoping we'll get more correct this time. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, time's up. There are 11 parts in Pathways as of date, unless they exclude another part which I'm not aware. There are 11 parts in Pathways. Now since we have done 2, let's see what the leaderboard is all about. Okay, there seems to be a lot of changes in the leaderboard. We have Dan coming up at the fastest, then we have Arnold. Okay, our district director is leading the path, and then we have team at number 3. Now let's move on to the next question, and the question is At which level in Pathways does the elective start? Now, not, not simple, but not too difficult also if you have done that. Is it level 1, level 3, or level 4? 5 seconds to go. 3, 2, 1, and let's see the answer. I'm impressed with all of you, 39 members got it right. So We are doing something good in Division A and District 91. Let's hear the leaderboard. Okay, not much changes in terms of the leaderboard. Dan— oh, Arnold is now leading, then Dan, and then Ruth. We have a new entry in top 3. All right, so we are going to the final question. Get your fingers ready. And the question number 4, which is certainly a tricky one. Let's see who can get it right. And the question is the leaderboard. Uh, let's see. I'll give it one more try.

Okay.

All right. It's technology. Okay, which of these is not a requirement to be DTM in Pathways? The options are complete 2 paths and DTM project, being a district officer for 12 months, participate in any 2 speech contests, being a club officer for 12 months, or doing club sponsor speechcraft. Okay, we have got decent number who got it correct, so 22 members. And let's see, is Arnott still the winner? And the leaderboard is going. Okay, Arnott, you get a virtual cake from Division A for winning this contest. I think you certainly are leading the district, not only in Toastmasters but also in winning games. All right, so let's move on and talk a little bit more about Pathways. So switching the screen sharing, we had some fun, so I'm not going to repeat much, but yeah, we know we have 11 paths including Dynamic Leadership, Effective Coaching, Engaging Humor, Two-Team Collaboration, and Visionary Communication. There are 5 levels. Level 1 is fundamentals. Level 2 is where you get learn about your own style, whether it's communication or leadership, and also get up, get a bit of taste about mentoring. Level 3 is when you increase your knowledge, you have some required project, and then you have to play some Toastmaster, Topicmaster, and evaluator. And we have 2 elective projects, we're going to talk about that in a moment. And Level 4 is when you build on the skills and get a little bit of expertise. And then in Level 5, you demonstrate your expertise. Now, this is the path to getting a Pathways GTM. You complete 2 paths in Pathways. You do club leadership, being a club officer for 12 months. If you have an annual club officer, you become an officer for a year. If you have 6 months, then you become 2 times club officer. Do a project on, do a district leadership, we have become a club mentor or coach, and then also do Distinguished Toastmaster project. So let's move on. I like this way, and there's another way to represent the same thing. If anybody wants a screenshot, you can take a grab of this now. There's another slide after this that also represents how can you get pathways. So So feel free to take the screenshot. And anyone who's being a club coach, I'm pretty sure you must be knowing, but if you have been a club coach ending your term on June 30th, 2019, 20, or 21, you satisfied both the club coach as well as the district leader requirements. So if you have done in past and yet to apply, please consider so. Now this is breaking. I literally saw it today morning in one of the district speechcraft, which is one of the requirements in Distinguished Toastmaster. We have got a digital bundle in Basecamp that's breaking, and you can now get the whole digital kit in $50. Go to toastmaster.org and go to shop, and you can search This is amazing. People have been struggling to find how can they do speechcraft virtually. Now let's truly talk about electives, and I saw Barbara talking about one of the quotes from earlier two of the course. Now this one is very good from John C. Maxwell, which says, life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you. So now we are going to talk about what all choices do you have level 3 onwards. Now level 3, as we just discussed, is all about increasing your knowledge. You have one required project based on the path you have selected, and you have couple of elective projects. There are in total 13 electives, and you get a number of choices to choose from. Now let's talk a little bit about— I've taken a sample of 7, uh, in next couple of slides, projects. And that, let's see how you can help it. So delivering social speeches, this is very, uh, interesting project because you can really apply it in your social gathering. Uh, you're having a birthday party, you're having some social gathering, you can deliver and practice that. So great, uh, elective. Then you have presentation software. I mean, we are in virtual world, and if you're not using PPT Yeah, sometimes it's close to committing a sin, if not actually committing a sin. Connect with storytelling. Now, story— stories are one thing which directly goes to our unconscious mind. And if you look at the news, look at the trends, even the corporates are spending a lot of money in learning about storytelling, in having workshops about storytelling. In Pathways, you have an option where you can really go deep and learn how to deliver an unforgettable story, a story which people will remember long after you are given. So that's another interesting, uh, elective that you have. Then you have Connecting with Your Audience, where you do a lot of activities. Moving on to 3 more, um, Prepare for Interview. We know that, you know, the interviews are now happening virtually, and what better than Toastmasters to practice your interviewing skill. I remember, I think 4 or 5 weeks back, our Zoom Master Kit, who was also a proud member of Business Talks Speaker, we did an interesting project where one of the members, which was actually me, interviewed him about what has been his experience and how did he come over all the challenges. That was such an interesting talk and we put it on Facebook. And we got so many engagements. So that's another way, knowing your sense of humor. And this probably project I have to do. My sense of humor, pretty bad. And I still need to learn the sense of humor. That's another elective. If you are part of Engaging Humor, that becomes, I think, your mandatory project. But that's another project that you can really hone your humor because humor connects human. Active listening. Uh, you can also be a topic master and play this role. Very, very interesting. So this is where the fun starts to begin in terms of Level 3. Now let's talk a bit about Level 4, where you are building skills, you are getting to the expert mode, and you have really, really interesting project. You have one required project based on the path that you have, and you also have one elective out of 7 options. You have plenty of options to choose. I have taken 4 as a sample that you can do. Creating a podcast. Now, as Barbara mentioned, this is something new I've been trying for this year. I started my podcast, Small Town Bigger Dream, and it's so fun to learn about podcasts. And there are so many platforms. So you have a project right there in Pathways where you can learn more about podcasts, how you can do podcasts and how it can serve the larger audience even when they are not watching you. Building a social media presence. I know we have a number of sessions lined up today, so I'm not gonna really stress on that. We're gonna listen a lot more about that. Manage online meetings. You can be a Toastmaster, you can play any role in an online meeting and complete the objective of this. This will really help you in your be it your work, be it your personal celebration, it was fun. And then Manage Projects Successfully. Again, you take up a project and you take it from the conception to the execution, and then you, uh, present about what has been your learning to the club. So very interesting project. So that was Level 4, where you're building skills and you're getting towards the expert level. And now let's talk about Level 5, where you are an expert and you are now demonstrating expertise. So you get one required project based on the path, and again you have one elective project with a number of options. And then you have another project which is basically what has been your journey, what, what did you learn. So basically a reflect on your path. So 3 electives. I heard there is a club which is all about debate, so I'm pretty sure they must be utilizing this project very well. In their club moderating a panel discussion. A very interesting project. We— and if you are doing any, uh, panel discussion, whether it's your club, whether it's your area, uh, you're part of a TLI where you are having debate, you can get this project and it's a really interesting project. Then leading in any volunteer organization, and it's not only Toastmasters. If you are part of any organization, you can do a project and then present about that. And last but not the least is the high performance leadership. Where you take up a project, high-performance project, and you deliver it. So that's a high-level couple of samples from electives. Uh, the point here is if you plan it well in advance, you look at the different electives, you'll find that even though, uh, you have a number of projects, you have a number, a lot more electives that you can choose. And very, very interesting based on if you want to do more on social media, you want to do more on podcast, you want to do more on presentation, or you want to do more on project management. You have a number of opportunities. It's just about how do you plan, how do you execute. Now, I've been talking a lot, so let's hear. This is, uh, again a true or false question. As a Base Camp Manager, which is President, Vice President Education, or Secretary, to get a credit in DCP, Distinguished Class Program, do you just need to approve level requests, or do you need to do something else? Let's hear it in the chat. False, true, false, something else. Okay, I, I like, I really like to see what is something else. False, false, false.

Nope.

Okay, that's correct. Most of you got it right. Apart from approving in Basecamp, you also need to go to the Club Central and submit the award application. That's when it reflects in your TCP course. This is just a reminder, do not forget you have got a free path. I mean, you're saving $20. Don't miss that opportunity. If you have not, please take and claim your free path. I've taken it. I've got Engaging Humor because, you know, I need to work on my sense of humor. Please take advantage of this. Now I'm gonna lead you. We have another interesting session, but one of the requirements to be a Distinguished Toastmaster is about leadership, where you serve one at your club level, you become an officer and serve tenure of 12 months or 2, 6 months. But another is about being a district officer, which is area direct— area director, division director, and other district director and other, uh, trio and some other leadership roles. I'm really excited for you to attend this session. Stepping up to area director level is going to be really, really interesting. I'm really looking forward to. So with that, I've come towards the end of my presentation, and we can probably take a few questions, uh, related to elective, uh, and then we can probably wrap up. That's correct or not? Only one have taken and we need to enforce it again and again. So you have any question, feel free to unmute yourself or put it in chat. Hi, I have a question. Yes. So when the— about the free pathways Is it available only for— is it an additional to the one we have for renewing of membership, or is it the same? Uh, yeah, so if you have renewed your membership before October 30th, uh, you get an opportunity to have additional paths. So even if you have one or two paths, you can take another. And I believe this is correct, but if it is wrong, please feel free to Timing. Okay, okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, I had a question if I could. I find that I'm not very good on technology, and okay, I have an iPad. I was used to the manuals under the previous system, and I'm finding it difficult with this new system. But I liked your two screens at the start which demonstrated the different areas of pathways. Would it be possible to email that? Maybe everybody else would gain from that, but I certainly would gain.

Sure, definitely, definitely. Put in your email in the chat or send it a personal IM, or I will— I'm also putting my email address in here and you can drop me an email. I'll be more than happy to share the presentation with you.

Okay, I think my email was registered when I started, but okay, I'll get that.

Yeah, good point. I'll get that from the registration team and we'll mail it.

Appreciate it.

Thank you. I've got a question. I recently joined Toastmasters. And I wanted to know if I, if I am also eligible for free pathways. Uh, when exactly did you join? It will depend on that. October. Okay, uh, that's a good question. Uh, we'll probably have to check with the club leadership or TI, or if somebody knows, please put it in chat. If somebody has joined in October, will they get a free path or not?

I have a question, please.

Is there any thought or research in why the uptake of the Three Pathways is so low? Can you repeat the question? Sorry, I didn't get that. Is there any thought or research gone into yet why it's only 1 in 5 that are taking up the Three Pathways offer? That's a good question. I'm not sure I, I am the person to answer that, but my guess would be that it's more about advertising and letting people know that such a thing is available. So since all the club— most of the club officers are here, I think I would probably tell you all to, you know, advertise it to your club officer. That would be a great incentive for them, uh, to tell them that, okay, you have the path and Don't wait till March 31st, 9 PM to claim that. You can claim it right away. You don't have to wait till that.

Can I ask a question, Haritosh Srivastav?

Yes, Kevin.

Just regarding the club officer requirement for DTM, if you have been a club officer, a district officer, sorry, once and got a DTM and you're doing a second DTM, do you need to be a District Officer again, or if you've been one once, does that count for, for all future pathways?

Now that's a good question, Kevin. So the number of times you want to become a DTM, the number of times you have to be a District Officer. So TI has a record of, now, if your credit has been used. If you are once a District Officer, it might have been used for your previous or traditional DTM, and now you might need to serve once again as a district officer to get Pathways situated.

Hi, Haritosh Srivastav. I was interested in what you said about your life is about choices and your choices make you, which I thought was a part of the premise of your presentation. Am I correct in saying that? I'd be interested just to hear you say a little bit more about that relating to pathways, like how you choose on pathways and the consequences of that sort of thing?

Sure, that's a really, really good question. Thank you, Philip, for bringing it up. So you have— when you have a number of choices, uh, it's very difficult to choose what you want to do, and that's where you would like to get back and see what you want to do. For example, I want to be a better presenter, I want to be a good storyteller. So when I see an elective about storytelling, that's probably gonna be the first one that I want to choose. If, for example, I am a project manager and I see a project about managing projects successfully, uh, the— my, my natural inclination should be towards, uh, taking that elective because that is going to help me in my career. So it, it all goes back to why you have joined Toastmasters and what do you expect out of it. If you expect it to be better better presenter, you choose projects accordingly, electives accordingly. Want to be a better leader, better manager, you choose your projects accordingly. The beauty is that you have so many options that you, you can choose based on what you want to take.

Question? Yes, me. Just look into the future and looking to where we are today and look at all these aspiring people on the screen. I just, I'm fascinated why we don't have a pathway for the aspiring retired. I've been retired for 10, 15 years. I've been a Toastmaster about 12 years. I've never worked in being a Toastmaster, and I do it for my mental health and to get that odd buzz and tell me with the voluntary work that I'm involved with. And I think in this, this day is where we are now, and everybody's struggling with their, to a degree, stress and mental health. I just think there's a screaming opportunity for Toastmasters to have an aspiring retired or retired pathway just designed to help them think, get a bit of adrenaline going, and maybe prepare them in a general way to volunteering and things like that.

That's a great thought.

As another Gavin, I definitely support that, particularly as I'm now into my 80th year.

Oh, wow. Congratulations. I think, yeah, Doug, to answer, I mean, I believe it was more of an opinion, which I truly admire. I'll probably not say it retired because some people take it not in the positive way. But definitely, I see, as I see in Pathways currently, we do have something called Visionary Communication where people who have been there, who have experience, I think they can really utilize that pathway But you have a valid viewpoint, and I would really suggest that you write an email or get it through the club leadership to Toastmasters. I am pretty sure that they would really look into making it even more interesting. Thank you for that.

I hope I've done that.

Okay, we are into last 1 minute, so thank you so much. You have been a great audience, and There are so many different sessions that are coming. Don't miss out on that. I'm really looking forward to the social media and the speechcraft one. What about you? Thank you so much.