Dear Mr. Menon,
I’m Portia, a 5-years Toastmasters member from SHIP TMC, Div.S, Dis.118. I’m writing to report an unjust treatment of area director interview and the concerns raised by it.
I applied for the S1 Area Director and had an online interview in 6, June with four interviewers. Three of them are the coming Dis.118 officers (Kate Lu, Jack Jia, Helen Zhou) and one is a senior member (Wei Shen). They asked me nine questions including three beyond the sample questions provided before the interview. The interview lasted for around 17 mins and Kate Lu told me the result would be given to me within one or two weeks.
But in fact, the interviewers made their decision that night and revealed the result to the other candidate (applying for the same position as me) the next day. I didn’t receive any form of interview result until yesterday afternoon (21, June). I was astonished to hear that when I was waiting for the interview result, my competitor had already played the role as S1 Area Director; when I was waiting for the invitation to DOT, my competitor already participated in it. What disappointed me the most is that the interviewers were not honest to me. I asked Helen Zhou (the AD of Dis.118) about my interview result on last Monday (15, June) and her reply was ‘you need to wait for two more days’. Four days later I asked Kate Lu (District Director) for the result but she didn’t answer. When I learned that the DOT of Dis.118 was launched at the past weekend, my anger was triggered.
I feel no integrity, no respect throughout the interview. The procedure of the result presenting is obviously unjust, which contributes to my doubting that the decision was made by personal preference instead of interview performance. What’s worse, as senior members and district officers, the interviewers shouldn’t have violated the core values of Toastmasters! Considering that Dis.118 is leaded by such kind of ‘leaders’, I’m worried about the future of our district.
My concerns about the district development are long-standing. I’ve noticed that some district officers behave more like bureaucrats than volunteers, and Toastmasters’ core values don’t get enough attention and implementation. I can offer several examples:
Eg.1: few years ago the TM headquarter raised the membership fee and I wanted to know the price increasing reason. So I asked a district officer. His first response was: why do you ask this question?
Me: as a member I have the right to ask.
Officer: you should ask your area director first . If she could not reply, she would report to upper levels...
[Am I talking to a bureaucrat or a TM officer? Then I turned to you Mr. Menon and you gave me detailed and patient reply. Thank you very much.]
Eg.2: a district officer visited my club to deliver a workshop on TM core values. One member welcomed him and asked his name in order to write it on the name label. He’s not happy: do you know who I am?
Member : sorry, I don’t know. May I have your name?
Officer: (looks annoyed)
[TM officers stand out for excellent service but not for title or position.]
Eg.3: district officer spoke to the fellow division directors at a meeting : the performance of our district last year ranks No.2. Why not No.1? You’d better give me a satisfying answer, otherwise I’ll teach you a lesson!
Division directors: to try all the best to pursue No.1, does it really benefit members?
[I’m not sure No.1 benefits members or not, but I’m sure this district officer is not a competent communicator.]
The examples above were my personal experiences or witnesses. My concerns deepen because I find the tendency to bureaucracy among district officers becomes increasingly obvious. I’m not willing to see that Toastmasters, as beautiful as utopia, is contaminated by the outside misbehavior. In my opinion, a true Toastmasters should apply what he/she learns from TM education system to the outside TM life instead of bringing some unhealthy customs back to TM world.
I write because of my love and gratitude to Toastmasters. I’ve benefited from it so much that I’m eager to give my contribution in return. I worry because I care. It doesn’t matter whether I’m chosen to be area director or not. It does matter that we members especially officers recognize and implement the TM core values. Toastmasters officers are not bureaucrats. Toastmasters is not someone’s vanity fair.
Hope my letter can catch your attention and cause some changes. Thank you for your time in reading it. Look forward to your reply.
Sincerely yours,
Portia Ning
2020.06.22
Dear Portia,
Thank you for your email.
I empathise with you for the challenges you have encountered in your quest to be appointed Area Director. I am grateful for your care, concern and adherence to our core values. It has always been our endeavour that we provide our leaders a thorough grounding in our core values.
I urge you to continue to be engaged as a member and mentor in your clubs and in the district. In these difficult times we need to be more flexible and accommodating than ever before. We need to build resilience so that we have the courage to rebound from any situation we face. Facing adversity with confidence makes us stronger.
Thank you for your dedication and commitment and for your continued service to Toastmasters.
Please take care and stay safe.
Warm regards,
Deepak Menon, DTM
2019-2020 International President
2020.06.24