The Roll Call, the Forecast, & the Legacy: Division G Achievers Day 2020

I delivered this speech as Division Director-Elect at the Toastmasters District 80, Division G, Achievers Day on 6^th June 2020.

The Speech

I thank the organisers.  They are the movers and shakers of the Division.  They made this event happen.

From the current Division Council, I commend two people for stepping up.  Murugappan Dhanabal moves from Area Director, G2, to Assistant Division Director, Programme Quality, G.  Tejasvene Ramesh moves from Division Manager, Administration, to Area Director, Area G2.

Murugappan has proven himself.  He organised three Division contests and chaired the Division contest.  As our incoming Assistant Division Director, Programme Quality, he will keep teaching us what he has learned.  I see him as a future leader at District level, not only at Division.  He is quiet, unassuming, and brutally efficient.

Tejasvene is more than our Division Manager, Administration.  She is also the pillar of her club, TLCS Bilingual Toastmasters Club.  She is so ubiquitous that visiting Toastmasters assumed she was the Vice-President, Education.  She is, for the incoming term.  She also replaces Murugappan as Area Director, G2.  Area G2 is fortunate.

Eric Tan, DTM, is the foundation of AIA Toastmasters, the pillar of Division G, and the anchor of the District.  He is the paragon Toastmaster, the epitome of effective communication, and the servant leader of servant leaders.  He should be the next District Director.  I am glad to have him as our Trainer, Executive Development, to deliver leadership development.

Wekie Tay, DTM, has been with the Division since its inception.  He is the thread that binds us all, from the first Division Director to the present.  He has agreed to continue as our Division Advisor.  We hope to learn from his experience.

We have thrived despite the complications of the last few months.  Now we look to the next term and its challenges.  We are on the cusp of a post-pandemic world.  The incoming Division Council has done much behind the scenes.  We met on 22^nd May.  We have our dates.  Club Officer Training I is on 11^th July.  Club Officer Training II is on 9^th January 2021.  Achievers Day is on 12^th June 2021.

Even as we speak, the final preparations for COT are under way.  We began training our Area Directors in May, and they are ready.  The day after my confirmation as Division Director-Elect, I issued the Division roadmap and strategic plan.  The Division Council was confirmed that week, with officer release forms included.  We have a proposed training programme, a mentorship programme, workshops, and even a club charter programme.  We are ready for war.  The countdown starts on 1^st July.  The real work begins then.

I look forward to your support.  I look forward to your goodwill.  I look forward to continuing this journey with every one of you.  We will bring this Division to the next level and set an example for the District.  We will end the term with our heads held high, knowing we took on a challenge and left a legacy.  I want it to be our collective victory.

Commentary

The World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11^th March 2020.  It ended the global emergency on 5^th May 2023.  Toastmasters paid the bill.  The March 2022 CEO report puts the pandemic-driven membership decline at 20 per cent and calls it a drop to 2012-2013 levels.  Membership was 314,761 on 30^th September 2021 and 265,261 on 31^st March 2025.  That is a further fall of 15.7 per cent.  Paid clubs stood at 13,833 in June 2025.  New clubs outpaced suspensions that year for the first time since 2020-2021.  Recovery took five years, and it is still partial.

I declared the Division ready for war.  The evidence was a roadmap, a strategic plan, a confirmed Council, training, mentorship, workshops, and a charter programme.  That list was real work.  It deserved credit then, and it deserves it now.

Dwight David Eisenhower, then President of the United States, told a defence conference in November 1957 that plans are worthless, but planning is everything.  He had commanded the Allied invasion of Europe.  He knew what a roadmap was worth the moment the enemy arrived.  My enemy that year had no regard for a roadmap.  The Division’s ability to rewrite the plan mattered more than the plan.  That is the test I would apply to any Division Director, myself included.

I closed by promising a legacy.  A legacy is measured by who runs the place after you leave.  George Washington declined a third term as President and handed over power in 1797.  That precedent held until Franklin Delano Roosevelt broke it in 1940.  Developing successors was the right instinct.  A leader who builds the next leader has left something behind.

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Terence Nunis, DTM | Division Advisor, District 80 Division M | Club Advisor, AIA Toastmasters | Past President & Founder, Awesome Toastmasters