Saturday, May 18, 2019

Election of Club Officers for 2019-2020

It was no ordinary Toastmasters meeting today at my home club, the BF Community Toastmasters Club. Today, we had the Election of Club Officers for the Toastmasters year 2019-2020.

Attending in today's meeting were (L-R): First row: Me, Leonzo Escolar, Ching Bognot, Glendy Artes, Sugar Loise Banez, Ed Ramirez and Cristina Yung. Second row: Russell Santos, Alvin Panghulan, Marilyn Malinao, Beth Pableo, Dolly delos Reyes and Ellen de Guzman. Third row: Pam Patacsil, Leah Catapia, Tanya Chloe de Guzman and Jude Ola. Nelle Cirjules had to leave earlier.

(photo credits: Ching Bognot)


Election Preparations

The meeting was scheduled to start at 2:30 pm but as early as 2 pm, which was the regular meeting time, members were already coming in. Immediate Past President Leah, the election committee head, was early and busy preparing for the elections.

Everyone seemed to be in a happy mood and eager to see how the elections would unfold. The early birds were joking, comparing our club elections to the recently held national elections for senators and local officials last May 13, 2019.


We were making fun of the "budots" dance style of campaigning in lieu of meaningful campaign speeches and even the delays of the transparency server. Haha.

Since we officially had 26 members in the TI website's dashboard, we needed 14 members (26/2 +1) to constitute a quorum. Well, 18 members showed up!


Robert's Rules of Order Parliamentary Procedure

Leah wanted to adopt the parliamentary procedure in today's proceedings. So she had opened the floor to more nominations for the positions.




As it turned out, no further nominations were successful because those nominated all declined. Russell Santos declined but promised to be an officer again next year.

Previously, I already accepted online nominations for the position of VP-Public Relations, Secretary and Sergeant-at-Arms (which I currently hold). The online nominations were announced during the May 4 Toastmasters Meeting.

Both the President and VP-Education positions were unopposed, so no campaign speeches were necessary. Alvin (below-left) was nominated for VP-Membership and gave his proposals. I gave a mini-speech for the VP-PR position. Jude Ola (below-right) gave his campaign speech for SAA.


After the speeches (timed at 2 minutes each) for each position, voting was done. Shown below, they're "making a list, checking it twice."


Or should I say "thrice". Haha.


Some members of the hardworking Elections Committee (below): Leah Catapia, Pam Patacsil, Marilyn Malinao with Ching Bognot.


As shown below, I could honestly say that members of the BF Community Toastmasters Club are NOT camera-shy.



Results of the Election of Club Officers

Finally, all the votes have been cast and tallied and Leah proclaimed the winning candidates. Apparently, all those who delivered mini-speeches today won!


Outgoing President Ching Bognot congratulated Incoming President Cristina Yung and handed over extra copies of the Club Leadership Handbook for the new set of officers.


She then announced upcoming activities: the Club Officers Training 1 at Fluor Daniel at 9 am, and the Division Turnover/ Installation of Officers at 6 pm at Vivere Hotel. Both events will be on the same day, June 22, 2019, a Saturday.


Shown below are the official results in today's Club Officer Elections. The new set of officers will start their term on July 1, 2019 except for Incoming Secretary Ed Ramirez who will take over Renzo Vergel de Dios (resigned as Secretary) effective immediately.

It is only Treasurer Marlon Sanchez who retained his position. Ed, Cristina and I have new positions, and the rest are new officers.



Break Time and a Raffle!

During the sumptuous break of chicken wings and fries, Ed raffled off a mysterious box. Incoming VP-Ed Loise Banez was declared the lucky winner as all eyes were on the box.


The contents of the box revealed a tiny flashlight, complete with batteries. Well, that was enlightening! Pun, intended.


After the break, four club members shared some of their experiences and learning from the recent District Convention (DISCON) held in Cebu last April 26-28. These were Cristina (below-left), Dolly delos Reyes (below-right), Leah Catapia and Ed Ramirez.


Cristina and Dolly mentioned how they were "fired-up" right after the successful convention. Leah shared her learning from Dananjaya's educational talk. Ed discussed Dananjaya's preparation of the winning speech, "I See Something".


This certainly was no ordinary meeting, meaning, no prepared speeches and no table topics. But, unexpectedly, we had so much fun!




And that's... a wrap!