January Not Published - District 73 Toastmasters

Toastmasters International Presidentto Visit District 73 by Edmund BreenToastmasters International President Jana BarnhillDTM AS, is coming to District 73 in May 2009.This will present a rare opportunity for manyToastmasters in District 73 to meet an InternationalPresident face to face. There will be many opportunitiesfor you as a Toastmaster to come and talk tothe International President.Jana Barnhill may be an extraordinary person butlike all of us started her career in Toastmasters at anordinary Toastmasters meeting wishing to improveher speaking skills. Today she is the leader of over235,000 Toastmasters in 90 countries.I implore all Toastmasters to make an effort to comeand meet Jana Barnhill. I met Jana back in 1993 and Ican assure you she is one of the most approachablepeople you will ever get the opportunity to meet. Wecan all learn from Jana’s experience in Toastmastersand life – she is one of the most inspirational speakersI have ever heard (and I have heard a lot). She wasrunner up in the World Championship of PublicSpeaking (can’t remember the year, old age!!!) with aspeech “Is your lamp lit?” That speech still sticks in mymind more than a decade later.Jana’s visit will mainly be centred around Melbourneand at our annual convention in Hahndorf in theAdelaide Hills. At this stage we are still putting togetherthe program for Jana’s visit and we hope to give youmore details in the next edition of Southern Cross.Being Toastmasters we are open to any suggestionsyou may have for Jana’s visit. There is certain protocolattached to Jana’s visit and as much as we would like herto just drop by every club in the District it wouldn’t be aneffective use of her time. So why not drop me an emailedmundbreen@gmail.com with your suggestions.I will try and respond to the hundreds of emails Iwill get.While I would dearly love to bring Jana to Tasmania(my home state) and Western Australia it wouldbe physically exhausting to take Jana to all parts ofour vast District. So for those of you in Tasmania orWestern Australia why not come to the convention inHahndorf, meet Jana and have a wonderful time atthe convention at the same time.Who is Edmund Breen (a bit like the James Boagsadvert)? I’m a Past District Governor of District 73(1993-94) and I have been given the job of organisingthe International President’s visit. Some people whohave been around Toastmasters for a while mayremember me. I took some time out and have nowcome back with a renewed enthusiasm. So it is withgreat excitement that I have taken on this role oforganising Jana’s visit and renewing my acquaintancewith her. I look forward to catching up with a fewold faces during the visit and meeting a lot of newfriends.So until we meet again keep talking, keep listeningand keep expanding your horizons.Did you know?A camel can shut its nostrils in a sandstorm.A newborn crocodile is three times the size ofthe egg it is hatched from.Canberra and Nevada are two varieties ofcauliflower.It takes a week to make jelly beans.The Statue of Liberty is wearing sandals 7.6 metreslong. That means her shoe size is 879.The first recorded game of golf was in Scotland in1456. The ball was made of wood.Bees kill more people every year than snakes.There are more registered gun dealers in the U.S.than there are petrol stations.On the Hawaiian island of Maui, 30 000 peoplesigned a petition to change its name to Gilligan’sIsland.As part of his fee for appearing in Terminator 2,Arnold Schwarzenegger was given a jet.Birmingham U.K. has more canals than Venice.d73.toastmasters.org.auEdition 54 • February 20093