TestToasters Award Presentation

Area G5 had a string of successes last year. It was the first area to achieve the rare honor of being Presidents Distinguished. All the contests hosted by the area, including the Division G spring contest had record number of attendees and raised the bar in many other respects. We won the Silver Scribe award for the newsletter. We had a unique potluck. In summary, last year was a huge success for Area G5. The success belongs to all of us and not just me. So, I convinced the District that I need to recognize at least a few key people to thank them and encourage them to contribute more in the coming years. I selected 1 to 3 members from each club to be honored. I deliberately chose 3 members from your club because your club did contribute substantially, in spite of being new and in spite of the troubles you were internally facing in the company. But more importantly, your club needs the encouragement and celebration to become stronger. Karthick Perumal, Philip Joung, and Angel Comonfort demonstrated their leadership skills and were appropriately chosen. Karthick made significant contributions throughout the year towards all the area activities. He was instrumental in helping host the Spring Area Contest at your location. Always responsive to e-mails, Karthick was by-and-large the primary bridge to your club. He helped represent your club for the planning meetings for the contests. As VPE, I can see that Karthick helped keep the momentum in the club. He helped with the open house of the club as well and gave excellent speeches. Philip, as the new president of a new club demonstrated new vision and showed keen willingness in taking it forward. He is very open to ideas and has a very pleasant personality needed to create the right environment to grow. Philip seems to be quite committed to the club in spite of the recent catastrophe of losing significant number of members. A leader needs to be optimistic and promising at times of disaster, as Philip is rightly demonstrating. I’m sure Test Toasters will be back bright and shining, pretty soon, thanks to Philip’s leadership. Angel, very cheerfully accepted to organize the potluck for the Area. He asked the right kind of questions and sought right kind of inputs from me for this activity. He and his team made sure that the potluck would be an enjoyable and memorable one for all of us. As VPM, Angel also contributed quite a lot to the club. I’m sorry that the club lost him, but I do hope that Angel will return pretty soon to the club. Fellow Toastmasters, please join me in honoring the outstanding achievers of your club, Karthick, Philip, and Angel. All though Angel is not here today, let us include him in our appreciations and applauses.