Are you getting the most out of Pathways?

With contests, Speechcraft events, open houses and other events going on, I am seeing how Toastmasters are using Pathways to get guidance and helpful tips.

It’s that time of year again when everywhere you turn there is an event. We are taking on various roles, meeting new people, managing projects and teams, and marketing our events. This year we are doing all of this with the added challenge that everything’s being virtual.

As members are working through these exciting activities, we are identifying projects in Pathways to help. Many paths have a Managing Online Meetings project in Level 3 that has been helpful for those running these events. Making Connections through Networking is also in Level 3 of many paths. Manage Change is in the leadership paths and has helped when transitioning to the new online Speechcraft bundle and many of the other changes going on currently.

For those who are doing the marketing for these events there are several useful paths, such as Visionary Communication, Motivational Strategies, and Strategic Relationships, to name a few, that have projects to help you build a social media presence, help you develop a communication plan, write a marketing plan and provide public relations strategies.

For the chairs of these events, we have paths such as Innovative Planning and Team Collaboration that have projects to assist you in managing projects successfully, presenting proposals, managing teams effectively and debriefing your teams.

For those who are in leadership roles right now there are projects in every path to help you get feedback from the teams that you lead and show you how to create a succession plan to aid in the transfer of the role after you leave. Some offer you the opportunity to share with your club the lessons that you have learned through your journey.

I challenge you to check out the projects in Levels 3, 4 and 5 to see which ones would help you with projects and roles that you are already working on. If you haven’t already checked out my “Rock Your Path” series, go to http://d6tm.org/pathways/ to learn more.

I also highly recommend volunteering for District events. If you are interested in being a speaker for an event or if you are looking for a speaker for an event that you are holding, you can check out https://d6tm.org/speakers-bureau/. We also post requests for help for District events in the Current Openings tab on the District 6 website. If you have a project that you would like to work on, but you are not sure where it fits, reach out to me or any of our District leaders to share how we can help! I would also love to continue to hear what you are getting out of Pathways!

Jamie Richter, DTM