Your District Governor in London

As you probably know (because I have been talking about it constantly), I was invited by the British Computer Society to give a talk in London, mid-April, all expenses paid.

It was fantastic!

I arranged to visit two clubs while there. I visited the advanced club Excalibur on Wednesday evening, a few hours after getting off the plane. They meet in a pub, so they can take a break to get a fresh pint. After the meeting they hang around for another pint and a chat-very civilized!

The Early Bird Speakers meet at 7:00AM Thursday morning in the Masonic hall, which is a glorious palace! The room is almost intimidating. I acted as GE, noting the usual points that make up a "perfect meeting." They were amused. They were even so polite as to vote me best Table Topics Speaker for the day!

We retreated to a café for breakfast that lasted an hour plus.

Later that afternoon, I had the pleasure of meeting Abdirashid, who had graduated from Mandera high school in Kenya, where I was a Peace Corps teacher in 1975-76. I "endowed" a scholarship for a student to the tune of one camel per year.

My talk to the BCS went over superbly! They were wildly happy and laughed at all the right places. (Below: Why a computer bug is like a lizard that drops its tail.) They took me to another pub afterwards, where we discussed the nuances of Alan Turing's work and the directions for tomorrow's scientists.

Bil,

I just wanted to say what a pleasure it was to meet you last night, and to thank you for giving us such an interesting talk on your "Omniscient" debugger. Not only was your presentation extremely clear, it was also very convincing as I think you could judge from the audience reaction.

Geoff Sharman, British Computer Society

The last day, I had the pleasure of a guided tour from one of the members who had some free time on her hands. We hit a few of the classic tourist spots, with a particular emphasis on the Globe. Me and Will Shakespeare go way back, so I really wanted to see his digs. We got a lovely tour. We had a clothing demo (an hour and a half to get dressed?!) and what Elizabethan tour would be complete without two young men going at it with swords?!

Then it was time to head home. I jumped the plane to Amsterdam, where I was about to jump on a plane back to the states when I got special permission to spend the night! Lucky me.

I staggered off the plane in Boston, made it home long enough to shower and shave, then head out to the Contra dance!

Life is Beautiful!

-Bil

 

 

 

 

 

 

The British Computer Society

...is flying me to London to give a talk in April. I got an email from them last week, inviting me to come because one of their members had been impressed with the talk I gave at Google.

OMG! The British Computer Society is flying me to London! I am speechless! This is so cool! This is such an honor! The BCS!!!

[Calmness returns] And it will make me money. At some point, somebody who sees me speak in April is going to invite me to consult on a project or give advice to a research group.

Outside of bragging (which is kinda fun), this carries a lesson for all of us. The reason they invited me is partially because I am the seminal researcher in my area (debugging "backwards in time"), but mainly because I give a really good technical talk, using my Toastmasters skills. The technical aspects are my invention. The presentation aspects come from observing other Toastmasters and from trying things out in clubs.

And it's those Toastmasters skills that prompted them to invite me.

Fellow Toastmasters, do you want your version of the BCS to invite you to London?

Then do what I did. Apply yourself. Push a little bit harder. Step up and become a leader. Become an Area Governor. Talk to us. Get to know your district officers. Talk to everyone. Come to the spring conference. Participate! Then make that extra effort and move from good to great.

You don't become great by wanting to become great. You become great by taking the important steps that allow you to become great. Toastmasters is one of those steps.

It takes time. It takes effort. It's worth it.

-Bil

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And it’s Worth Money…

Dear Fellow Toastmasters,

For eight years I traveled the world, speaking on my area of expertise in Multithreaded Programming. I spoke about 50 days a year and pulled down a bit over $100k. I was able to do this in part because of my experience in Toastmasters. You can do the same. (But you have to work for it.)

The upcoming TLIs (all members are invited) are fantastic opportunities for you to work on exactly those skills that will allow you to speak professionally, advance in your current career, or start your own company.

• As a club officer, you get to discuss with your peers how your year is progressing and think about things you can do to improve.
• As a presenter, you get the opportunity to speak to a large audience and work on your interaction skills.
• As a dean, you get practice organizing people and running events.
• And as the Lt. Governor of Education and Training, you get to create events and lead teams in executing them.

 

All of these help make you better at what you are doing and open new opportunities that eventually end up being worth piles of money. Our 2002 International Speech contest winner, Darren LaCroix, does not make $1,000,000/yr. giving speeches. He makes $1,000,000/yr. coaching other people to make speeches. He’s using exactly the skills that we are using.

It is easy to dismiss trainings, telling yourself “Oh, I can do the job OK now.” And you probably can, but the whole point of Toastmasters is to improve ourselves and assist our fellow members doing the same. That’s why it’s so important you come and participate.

When I was in University, I thought I knew how to play volleyball pretty well. (Sure, we got killed by Ohio State, but their players took home gold medals from the Olympics, so I don’t feel soooo bad.) Still, it wasn’t until I joined the Peace Corps in 1974 and started coaching my high school team there, that I realized how much I didn’t understand about the game. Trying to clarify something for someone else makes that thing all the clearer to you. TLIs give us that opportunity—to study how we run our clubs and how we can improve.

Bil with his Players at Muhoho High School in Ruiru, Kenya

Plus the fact, these are going to be the best TLIs ever! We will show our new “Perfect Meetings” video, “The Fantastic Functionaries.” We’ll tell you how the district is going. We’ll have excellent officer breakouts and second sessions on “Running Contests,” “Perfect Meetings,” and “Re-energize and Grow your Club!”

You’ll get to see some of the district’s best speakers and see how they construct and deliver speeches. (You’ll notice they always manage to work some little personal story/picture into their presentations.) You’ll have time to meet your peers, discuss your successes and your concerns. You’ll get a peek into how Toastmasters International runs.

You will not be disappointed.

-Bil

 

 

 

Dear Fellow Toastmasters,

Fall! When the winds blow, the leaves drop from the trees, and small kids roam the streets in scary outfits!

I will be spending Halloween evening on a CCTV film crew, interviewing trick-or-treaters and acting appropriately frightened when they say "Boo!" (I'm very good at being appropriately frightened.)

This is also the season of contests, and I've been to some doozies! I now know all about the Pillbury Dough Boy; Driving School for the wife; the "shopping" gene; Lynn, Lynn, the city of Sin/Tin/Gin/Him/...; magical unicorns (not to be confused with the non-magical sort); the Dreaded Junk Mail Shreader, getting stepped on by horses, and oh! so much more!

Ben, Stefano, and I will be visiting all the division contests this coming week and then it's on to the conference!

And what a conference Ben, et al, has planned for you!

Soar with the Eagles!

Bil Lewis, DTM
District Governor

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"What an elegant hat!"

I cannot tell you how many tiems during the convention someone
said that to me. It was very sweet of them, but I couldn't help
thinking "It's just a hat! I wrote an important letter in the
current issue of the magazine. You should be talking about that!"

But, I didn't say it. I just smiled and thanked them. And suggested
they read the letters to the editor.

Ah! The international convention! Assembly of the greatest
speakers and Toastmaster leaders in the world! It was especially
exciting to go as a district officer and be involved in the
running of the organization.

My part of the adventure started at 4am on Sunday, when I stumbled
around my bedroom, hoping I had my shoes on the correct feet. I'm
pretty sure we flew in an airplane, but the details are hazy. All
I really remember is Sherri's friend, Jim Herren (who was our parlementarian
in spring), picking us up at the airport and going to breakfast
(er, lunch?) in Palm Springs. We sat outside and had a fine Mexican
meal under the misters. It was 'only' 105.

Monday I goofed off, found a place to run a few miles from the hotel
and popped back for an afternoon swim. They have a little 25 meter
lap pool that I got to share with this amazing woman. I have swum
with a lot of swimmers, but she was best woman I've ever seen. The
way she came smoothly, almost lazily, into the turn, flopped over
effortlessly and gently kicked off was beautiful. I struggled through
400 meters, she sailed through 2,000.

I chatted with her a bit during a rest. Seems she did not quite make
the US team in 2000.

7am on Tuesday, Ben, Stefano, and I were all down at the training.
The next two solid days was session after session after session.
I wish I could say how wonderful they were, but they weren't. Our
TLIs are better designed and better taught. Exactly one session was
up to my standards (Joe Jarzenbek). You can imagine what my evaluation
sheets looked like.

None-the-less, I did come away with some good ideas and connections
to my peers in our new region.

The conference got off to a roaring start on Wednesday evening. The mayor's
chief of staff wished us a great conference and assured us that
we would be comfortable because "it was a DRY heat." For me, the
heat wasn't a problem at all. It was the air conditioning in the
hotel that practically gave me pnumonia.

After a few greetings, the parade of flags entered with our
own IPDG, Sherri, bearing one of the flags.
The keynote was then announced, Todd Newton from Quincy. Quincy?!
How come I didn't know one of our own was speaking? (The answer was
that he's not an active D31 member and lives mainly in Mo.) In the
middle of his speech he asked for someone to say a few words on
stage. Scanning the audience, he selected someone sitting in the
front row--Sherri! (How does she do this?)

All up and down the main corridor there were the booths of the candidates
for office, including our own Bash Turay. There were also a few companies,
such as NSA, our own Darren Lacroix, the Canadian speakers association,
our own Bo & Ryan doing Toastmasters Podcast. (Get the feeling
district 31 is well-represented?) As we walked up and down that
corridor, agents from the different candidates came flocking to the
new district governors to lure us into their corners and ply us
with trinkets and candies. (The days of champaign and cavier are
long over.) My hat made me a prime target.

But in reality, we did want to talk with all the candidates and
I happily made appointements for us. The only down side was that
I never made a single educational session. Oh well.

Thursday began with the Board briefing on the state of the organization,
including a new way of calculating distinguished district status
for 2012. It was a good meeting, but still hard to keep awake.

The hall of fame followed where we joined 40 other districts, coming
on stage to receive our "Distinguished District" awards.

At 3pm the semi-finals began. Paul did the best job I have ever
seen him do and I figured him for first place by a good two
thumbs. Unfortunately the official judges did not concur. Kudos
to Paul for a superb job inspite of the judges!

As DG, I was asked to judge the next semi-final, where the other
judges were much more inline with my thinking.

Around 10:30 I wandered over to Ted's sing-along. (Past International
President, Ted Corcoren from Ireland, started a little singing
gathering a few years, where whoever feels inspired may sing,
recite, or just amuse us with their wit. Some are solos, some are
sing-alongs.) I had visited this the past two years and decided
that I was ready for my debut.

Ted had known my mother, so he gave me a wonderfully warm welcome.
With a bit of nervous hesitation, I proceeded to explain that
as a scientist, the songs I wrote were not always the most approachable
to a general audience. "Is there anyone here who does NOT have a
degree in micro-biology?" There were several. So I prefaced my
song with a one minute explaination of the Human Microbiome Project
and proceeded to lead them in the "16S Ribosomal Small Subunit Rap".

"I didn't understand a word, but it was hilarious!" was the standard
comment. Henceforth I would be known for hats and ribosomes, but not
letters to the editor.

Friday began with the candidate forums, where we would sit a in
a room and they would cycle through, giving mini-stump speeches
and answer a set of pre-selected questions. Alas, the majority
of the responses were designed to sound good and say nothing. I
feel that too many candidates are trying so hard to avoid saying
anything in the least controversial that they end up sounding
all the same.

Our Golden Gavel (the international version of the district's Communications
and Leadership) recipient was a woman who had moved up quickly
in the Trump organization and became his right-hand woman for his
TV show "The Apprentice." She was a delightful and enthusiastic
speaker who told a marvelous tale of hard work and good luck. Carolyn
Kepcher it was. She was absolutely mobbed afterwards.

That evening at the sing-along, I was welcomed most enthusiasically
and felt impelled to repeat the previous evening's performance.

The elections went smoothly Saturday morning, with all races being decided on the
first ballot, save the second VP. Bash survived the first ballot,
but lost in the second. The final vote was for George Yen, who
was a write-in candidate, just like last year. Although we won't
have a VP from our district, we will have his daughter, as Kelley
is coming out to MIT for the fall!

A total of 99 clubs granted the district trio the right to vote
their proxies and these were all voted in accordance with the
requests.

At our regional gathering (we've been transfered to a new region,
containing districts from NY north and west to Ohio?), we met our
new peers and Bash and Sherri announced their candidacy for
2nd VP and ID respectively, along with several others.

The speech contest was very interesting. The previous few years, the
speeches all ran to a tight formula. This year they were all
different. They were still motivational, but just a lot less "me"
in them. IMHO. The winner did a top-notch job.

At the closing dinner dance Jana Barnhill installed the new officers
as Gary with his date Carolyn(!) looked on. Out on the dance floor,
Ben cut a rug with his smooth moves, and my hat was "borrowed"
and made the rounds. It got more dancing in than I did.

As I was headed over to the sing-along, I bumped into none other
than Gary and Carolyn, who were headed the same direction. I found
her to be equally delightful in person as she was on stage.

No sooner did we walk in than Ted spotted me and announced to the
much expanded crowd that the "MIT man" was in the
house and brought me up directly. Slightly embarassed, but pleased
to be so acknowledged, I repeated my little rap to general approbation.

Sunday dawned, warm and sunny, but I didn't. I kept my pillow company
until almost noon, then mosied down, rented a car, and headed down the
hill to my sister's place in Chino.

It was a good convention.

-Bil

 

 

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JULY 2010 = 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