May 2007:

Gordon Boggs From the beginning...  

At the District 33 conference, held on May 4-5 in Las Vegas, they asked for the person who had been a member the longest to stand up. After some consultation, it turned out that Ventura Club #24 member, Gordon Boggs, had been a Toastmaster longer than any other attendee, more than 40 years.

Gordon first joined Toastmasters in the mid-1960s. He had been in a terrible auto accident that kept him in a three-month coma and left him unable to speak. In fact, his memory of an entire year is gone, from six months before the accident to six months after. In order to regain his voice, his brother suggested Toastmasters. Gordon started going to meetings and learned to speak and walk again. He enjoyed it so much that he kept going, joining and even starting a number of clubs along the way. He's even a charter member of a club in Australia! He still enjoys traveling and recently returned from another trip down under.

Says Gordon, "My only regret is that I didn't pursue the DTM - Distinguished Toastmaster. Now of course, it's much more difficult to get." Ventura Club #24 is honored to have this longest-term (note we didn't say 'oldest') Toastmaster.    

Upcoming Conferences  

The Toastmasters Regional Conference will be held June 1-2 in San Diego, California. This conference promises to be exceptional, with contest winners competing to go to the International Finals, educational seminars, and a Pirate opening dinner. (Yes, Pirate. We don't know, we just report.) There will be carpools going to and from the conference: ask Dick Ellis for details. This conference has fewer than 90 spaces left and will sell out, so sign up now at www.toastmasters.org .

The 2007 International Conference will be held August 15- 18 in Phoenix, Arizona. It features seminars, the International Toastmaster Speaker of the Year contest, and the awarding of the Golden Gavel to author and relationship expert Barbara DeAngelis (nasty aside from the spinster editor: All of her books seem to be dedicated to a different husband du jour, so how much of a relationship "expert" can she be?). A crowd of 2,000 Toastmasters is expected. It's rare for the international conference to be held on the west coast, so if you want to go, now's the time.