2019-20 Annual Awards

In District 101, we recognize efforts by Toastmasters who lead the way through their example. We have special annual awards to be presented to Toastmasters in various roles for their great contribution throughout the year.

Take a look at the criteria and submit your nomination (Self or otherwise) to the District Director at dd@d101tm.org by June 15th.

Club Officer of the Year

This award recognizes a Club Officer whose dedication, commitment, and area team significantly contributed towards achieving success for the Club and its members.

Criteria

Club Officer of the Year 2019-2020 – Abhijeet Joshi, TC3

I am thankful to the leadership of the district for this award. I want to express my gratitude to my mentors, Sonya Kleshik, Dan Merget, and Dennis Dawson for their guidance which helped to instill the values of compassion and servant leadership. I am grateful to my fellow Nspeak Toastmasters for believing in me and giving me an opportunity to serve them.

One turning point during the journey was the club officer training by Michael Chojnacki. Michael inspired me to be an effective officer.

I want to appreciate Pavan Datla for encouraging me to take the next step to grow into bigger shoes. Without his encouragement, it would not have been possible.

I want to acknowledge the support of fellow Toastmasters who inspired me along the way. Last but not least, I am grateful to my family for their support. I look forward to serving the district in a variety of roles.

Area Director of the Year

This award recognizes an Area Director whose dedication, commitment, and area team significantly contributed towards achieving the district mission.

Criteria

Area Director of the Year 2019-2020 – Ines Ben Cheikh, CC, CL

When I joined Toastmasters 6 years ago, my main objective was to improve my English. Nothing more. I had never thought of becoming a club officer, let alone an Area Director.

I did not suspect that when you integrate into the Toastmasters community and find yourself surrounded by uplifting and supporting members, you become stronger and able to achieve your wildest objectives.

However, when we are not involved with Toastmasters outside our own clubs, we don’t get a full Toastmasters experience.

When I had the opportunity of becoming an Area Director, I seized it. This enriching experience helped me grow as a leader and allowed me to become a better listener, communicator and most importantly, a better person; more empathetic and understanding.

I would like to thank our past District Leaders (Pavan Datla, Vaibhav Singh and Shyamala Sista) and their respective teams for their dedication and hard work.

I also had the chance to work with a supportive Division Director (Shoba Rao) as well as a group of fantastic Area Directors (Declan, Shanthi, Chandana and Prashant).

A big “Thank You” to all Area B5 club officers for their collaboration. It was a pleasure working with all of them.

This year I am happy to be serving District 101 as the Public Relations Manager.

Division Director of the Year

This award recognizes a Division Director whose dedication, commitment, and Division team significantly contributed towards achieving the district mission. Several activities and accomplishments are categorically listed.

Criteria

Division Director of the Year 2019-2020 – Shoba Rao, DTM

“Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.”–Vince Lombardi.

When I took up the Division Director role, I committed to work hard and achieve the goals as humanely as possible by me, be it getting many officers trained through COTs, increasing membership or achieving educational goals. My mission was to help my team achieve their goals while leading by example . Little did I know that it would be made a lot easier by an excellent team of dedicated Area Directors who were with me every step of the way and fun to work with. I am very honored to have been distinguished as the Division Director of the year and would like to thank all the Division B Area Directors including Declan Shalvey, Shanthi Raman, Ines Cheikh, Prashanth Bhatnagar and Chandana Kalluri for making this journey worthwhile. I would also like to thank all the various trainers and other district officers who were ready to help at every juncture. My best wishes to the incoming team of officers.Let us all work hard to be effective leaders.

Toastmaster of the Year

Toastmaster of the Year award recognizes a Toastmaster whose dedication, commitment significantly contributed towards achieving the district mission.

Criteria

Toastmaster of the Year 2019-2020 – Mythili Prabhu, DTM2

I had a slow Toastmasters year when my son was born. Once I was ready to put in more time, I wanted to try something new. Having led many teams and having taken on several roles, it was interesting to me to work on new strategies as a team member. I had the fantastic opportunity to work with the Club Growth Team and worked on member and club outreach to help with membership. It was a long-term commitment, but very fruitful and engaging. Another interesting endeavor this year was leading the District Conference. What started off as a standard conference took many unexpected turns and gave me an opportunity to learn something new and lead the first-ever 2-day online Conference. Having led the Conference twice in the past, this was an unusual one and posed brand new challenges.

This is exactly why I love Toastmasters. There’s always something new to learn, some unknown to experience, and some new self-discovery to make. I enjoyed working with so many fellow Toastmasters and learned from them all. But it all started with a small idea to try something new. Toastmasters is a powerful platform to try, sometimes fail, but always certainly learn. I’m grateful for the opportunities that came my way this past year and look forward to many more in the future.