DTM is awarded when a member of Toastmasters meets all the requirements provided by Toastmasters Educational Program.
For example, make 30 prepared speeches, serve as a club officer, serve as a district officer, work to build a new club, be a mentor of a new member, plan and organize an event by leading a team, hold workshops, make presentations based on the provided program, etc.
Yes, there are too many things to do, and it took me almost 8 years.
It was great 8 years of journey; meeting many new people, experiencing various social manners as an Officer, learning leadership as a club president and an Area Director, experiencing some kinds of conflicts as a club mentor...
In the recent several years, I was in a hurry to achieve DTM as soon as possible. There was a clear reason for this;
Several years ago, we were notified that the Toastmasters Education Program to be renewed, and our current progress wouldn’t be recorded unless the one achieved DTM by the end of June 2020.
The new education system is also great, more suitable for the current social trends, but I was shocked to know that my past records may be deleted unless I achieve DTM.
At that time, I don’t have experiences of District officer, I hadn’t made much speeches... my road till DTM seemed to be—and actually it was—very looooong.
It seemed to be almost impossible, but I decided to try my best until the very end. But even after I made up my mind, I wasn’t confident at all.
Thankfully, in March 2018, a member of other club suggested me to be an Area Director. It was perfect timing for me to take one big step towards DTM.
I immediately decided to take the chance, and at the same time, I finally decided to work to achieve DTM, with full confidence—I didn’t want to regret, even if i couldn’t make it by the deadline.
The job of Area Director was not easy, sometimes hard. I needed to visit 4 clubs in my area at least twice a year and write reports. In order to strengthen the bonds between clubs, I decided to visit their club speech contests as well.
Area Directors were also asked to attend conferences several times a year, and we conducted workshops at Club Officer Trainings twice a year.
In the end, the most importantly, I organized Area Speech Contest with supports by club members in the Area.
At the same time, I was doing job hunting as an university student!
It was hard sometimes, but I do think it was very meaningful; thanks to that year, I could meet my current home club and my bonds with other clubs and members got stronger.
Another fortune came to me right after my term as an Area Director started; a close member, who worked together as a part of Division several years before, was trying to start a brand new club in Kofu, Yamanashi.
I knew it was one of his goals as a Division Director—to make the first Toastmasters Club in Yamanashi, and I asked him to let me join as a founding member, when I visited the first Demo Meeting in Kofu. It was October, 2018.
And thankfully he welcomed me as a club mentor.
What I could do to Kofu TMC was very limited—the only thing I could do is to make speeches with high quality, as a past finalist of All Japan (District 76 finalist, 2018).
It seems that there WAS a member who thought that I, as a past finalist, was not “timely”, saying it was a past thing and not seems to be important.
I wasn’t thinking to push myself forward—I was young, without enough experiences of starting a club.
But since others pushed me forward to make speeches, believing in my past experiences as a finalist, I decided to do what I could do as a young member.
Thankfully, currently there are many new members who joined this club, who say they were impressed by my speeches (I really thank these words!) and I could be their role model.
Also, as a High Performance Leadership Program, I was supported by many members of my home clubs.
In this program, I organized a team and held meetings to make my project—it was a workshop in my case—happen.
I asked my close Toastmaster, who was a founder of Kofu TMC, for advice how to organize a team and how to make plans, and asked experienced members of my another home club, Tokyo International TMC to be team members. They accepted my request immediately, and the team always gave me very supportive advices and feedback about my plan.
Under the pandemic of COVID-19, our club started online meetings, and the team members supported me to hold the workshop online.
They kept on supporting me until the very end of my project, with prompt responses to my messages, etc.
And finally, in order to achieve this, my 2 home clubs, 2 former home clubs and some other clubs gave me opportunities to make speeches many times at meetings. Thank you for taking your time, and thank you for your supportive evaluations all the time.
In addition to these long-term experiences, I had more precious and interesting experiences until I achieve DTM.
Without many people around me, I wouldn’t be able to achieve this goal. I cannot thank them enough.
Finally, I also want to thank my mother who also cheered me on to achieve this.
My journey of Toastmasters goes on—now I’ll start working on Pathways, the new educational program. And my another goal as a DTM is to make younger generations in Japan to know about this activities, by sharing my own experiences here at Toastmasters.
🏅BalleRirina🏅