Toastmasters International strives for four qualities: excellence, respect, service and integrity.
All forms of leadership have these qualities, from club, area, division to district.
Every now and then someone goes above and beyond the call of duty.
Their very own Elinor Jack who is a member of Ringwood Toastmasters and Lilydale Toastmasters has received the award of Area Director of the year for 2021-2022.
Elinor was an integral part of guiding the clubs through one of the most difficult times when the State of Victoria was going into lockdown and coming out of lockdown. The buoyancy meant that Elinor had to be agile and think on her feet with the constant changes surrounding her.
When Area, Division and District contests were pushed online, after the agonising call was made not to have contests face to face because of the Victorian lockdowns. Elinor provided an outstanding service to the District to make sure that judges were briefed, that areas met their targets with enough judges and that protocol was followed consistently.
In Elinor’s own Area, Area R35 which was made up of Healesville Toastmasters, Lilydale Toastmasters, CFA D13 Toastmasters, LMC Toastmasters and Wandin Toastmasters got together to volunteer their time to ensure that the Area Contests ran smoothly by providing fluid teamwork. Members stepped up at the last minute to fill roles and meetings were held via SMS messaging to keep Elinor up to date with the area contests.
Elinor showed respect especially when challenges happened. They were faced together as a team.
Elinor had monthly Area Council meetings with all clubs both as a collective and also one on one to keep track with how the clubs were travelling during the challenging time of COVID.
All clubs were willing to strive for excellence and took part in a monthly article in the local paper to help create awareness of what they do in each club.
Elinor’s kindness and support help lift the clubs up during a time that was erratic and had many insecurities. All the clubs rode the wave together with Elinor.
It is little wonder that Elinor received the Area Director of the year award for her ongoing support and tireless service during what was one of the difficult and challenging times in Toastmasters.
