Welcome to the start of a new Toastmasters year!

On June 30th, we concluded one of the most successful years in District 31, becoming a "Distinguished District" for the eighth time in a row, and adding record numbers of new members and educational awards. We all salute our new "Immediate Past District Governor,"
Sherri Raftery, for her success. She has set the bar high for the incoming team.

As the new District Governor, I am overjoyed to have an excellent team in place now, and am looking forward to find a few more ambitious Toastmasters to cover a few remaining positions. My two lieutenants (Ben and Stefano) and I have been meeting regularly since our elections in May to ensure that we will have a successful year. And with these two by my side, I don't see how we can do anything less than outstanding. They introduce themselves below.

I am a computer scientist, having done AI research at SRI, IDEs and systems work at Sun Microsystems, taught at Stanford and Tufts, and most recently bioinformatics at MIT. I am best known in the field for the concept of "Debugging Backwards in Time" (Google my talk at Google!). I began as a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching High School in Kenya, and continue to teach at different levels (I work well with kids).

So much worked so well last year that we plan to keep it all pretty much the same. This gives us the opportunity to add a new focus for our club education efforts--Perfect Meetings. We believe that the quality of a club meeting is the most important factor in the health of the club. When the meetings run well, members stay longer, become more involved with the club, earn more awards, and more guests join. We have a series of ideas on promoting Perfect Meetings that you will be seeing a lot of.

It takes effort. It takes courage. But you can do it, and you too can...

                                   Soar with the Eagles!

Bil Lewis, DTM
District Governor