The new Toastmasters year started with a bang, as the area directors of D1 (Zsófia Bodó), D4 (Manuela Krawagna-Nöbauer) and D6 (Olga Kutsche) had organized a lively online club officer training (COT) on July 11th, 2020. More than 80 Toastmasters officers and members used the Saturday afternoon to learn and grow and to socialize with Toastmasters from other clubs. Hosting an online training in English enabled guests from far away too, to join our COT. We happily welcomed participants from Division C, G and F.

After a warm welcome from Division Director Stephanie Hobert and all Area Directors of Division D, Toastmaster Peter Hall prepared the large group for an afternoon to remember with a fantastic warmup round by using the online tool „Miro“. Experienced Toastmasters Deepak Nagaraj, Isil Calvelli, Michael Wegelin, Guilherme Samora, Mikhail Zolotko and Ronald Graefe from Division D introduced the club officers to their new roles. Craig L. Curtis, Divion F PR- Manager shared his wisdom on public relations with the newly elected Vice Presidents PR on Public Relations. These sessions empowered each club officer to get familiar with their new role.

The second part of the training consisted in inspiring presentations by very skilled Toastmasters and speakers. Division D PR-Manager Gabriela Pohlenz shared her expertise on the “Distinguished Club Program”. Ranjith Venkatesh highlighted the importance and the benefit of mentorship. Axel Krauth explained how to make the best use of EasySpeak. Special guest Jenny Haka from Prague shared her incredible wisdom on creating the perfect online meeting with us with many creative ideas.

Now we are looking forward to the second COT of the current Toastmasters year!