Attention Club Presidents and Club Secretaries: Have you made your Proxy Assignment? Did you review the Annual Business Meeting site and still have questions? You are invited to register to attend a District 10 Town Hall discussion.
Club Presidents (or Club Secretaries) have an important responsibility as representatives of your Toastmasters Club Members to assign who will be responsible for the 2 votes from your club. The Toastmasters International Annual Business Meeting (ABM) on August 18 at 7:00am ET will be electing our next International Officers and International Directors as well as any important items on the ballot. It is important at the International Level to achieve quorum. In order to ensure your Club Member Voice is heard there are three important steps.
- Proxy Assignment
- Acceptance of Proxy (Proxyholders or Delegates at Large)
- Delegates Vote
Assign a Proxy – Who should you assign?
Sandra Orland, DTM, District Director, along with Andrea Wells, Program Quality Director, and Preeti Venkataramani, Club Growth Director, have received training on how to best interview the candidates and have performed interviews. These international leaders are all well deserving of candidacy. Only ONE International Director will be elected from the candidate Regions (these Regions are up for elections 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13) and only ONE of each position Second Vice President, First Vice President, and International President-Elect will be elected. We will be in person at the International Conference and plan to attend the meeting.
In order to vote, you must assign yourself or someone whom you know that will be either online or in person for the ABM. I encourage you if you are not planning to attend the LIVE event in person or online, to discuss your voting preferences with your club membership. If you are not able to attend the ABM, you may consider assigning your Proxy Holder to me, Sandra E Orland, DTM, District Director, or another active member attending the meeting. They must be present from start to finish. You have a choice, as a club, to select how your votes must be cast or defer them to your ProxyHholder. Club President and Club Secretaries are the only ones from each club who have access to apply the proxy for your two (2) votes. Deadline: August 11 to perform the Assignment of Proxy. You must assign a proxy holder even if it is yourself.
If you assign to yourself we are happy to share our interviewing notes from all the candidates in a separate, non-recorded discussion. You are also welcome to review all the candidates and their materials. You may also sign up for interviews to ask questions (See the Googlesheet with all the details).
See the July 2023 Leader Letter article for detailed instructions for assigning a proxy.
How can we ensure our Club can complete Proxy Assignment?
To assign proxy your club for its two (2) votes must be an Active Club ( in good standing, 8 or more paid members, 3 of which are renewing members) (see Membership chart )
- If you are not an Active Club, your club will be ineligible to vote.
- If your Club Officer list is not submitted your club will be ineligible to vote.
What about the next two steps?
- On August 12-15 the Voting Portal will open to allow all Proxies to accept their assignment, and confirm intent to vote.
- On August 18, 7am ET, at the ABM
- Attend the meeting either onsite or online.
- Access the “ABM Voting Portal” on the Toastmasters website.
- Confirm their presence for a quorum.
- Consult their Proxy Summary Report.
- Complete the electronic ballot to cast their votes.
See the infographic shared from Toastmasters International regarding the ABM voting process.
