Every 6 months Rio Copa Toastmasters elects new officers.  This term we have several new club officers! 

• Dave Endres (pictured right) will be our new club president for the first time.
• Ken Mueller will be Vice President Education for the first time.
• Debbe Asher-Kelley and Janet Price will be serving as an officers for the first time.
• Patrick Fitzgerald will be VP Membership for the first time.
• Tim Farley and Steven Martindale will be remain in their offices.
  

Darren Pullar (pictured left) is an Account Manager in Sales and Marketing at Avnet Communications since 2007 and previously the Business Development Manager at Limelight Networks.  He joined Rio Copa Toastmasters in June of 2009.  Darren will represent Rio Copa Toastmasters at the Rio Division Area four Humorous Speech Contest on September 30, 2009.  

On the evening of September 30th, Darren Pullar represented Rio Copa Toastmasters in both the Humorous Speech Contest and the Evaluation Contest.  Darren placed second place in BOTH the Humorous Speech Contest and the Evaluation Contest!

The Management Administrative and Training staff at Maricopa Community Colleges can now receive professional growth points for completing the communication and leadership tracks in Toastmasters!

A MAT employee who achieves their Distinguished Toastmaster Award in Toastmasters is elligible for 300 professional growth points.  They receive 120 points for their DTM award, 100 points for the Advanced Leader Silver award, and 80 points for the Advanced Communicator Gold award.  A minimum of 400 accumulated points is needed for consideration of salary compensation.

For more information see the MAT professional growth website: http://www.maricopa.edu/mat/pg/certifications.php

We're currently seeking support from other employee organizations within Maricopa for Toastmasters:

Each year our club tries to meet the needs of our members by following the Toastmasters Distinguished Club Program. The focus of this program is to encourage our members to work through their educational awards, for our club officers to attend training and participate in the successful club plan, and to ensure that we meet all deadlines set forth by Toastmasters International.

Each year only 10% of Toastmaster Clubs achieve the President's Distinguished status. 

In our six year history as a club Rio Copa has achieved President's Distinguished Status for the last five years!

We almost didn't make it this year.  With the economy, people changing jobs, and other factors we lost six members during the April dues renewal.  We achieved all 10 club goals well before June 1st but we didn't add our 20th member until a week before the deadline!  This year we will be much more diligent about recruiting new members!

 Our year in review:

Rico Burton who left the club in March due to job changes won Outstanding Toastmaster of the Year for Area R1.  She was also an Area Governor this year and her Area achieved Select Distinguished Status.

Club Officers that served this year:

JAN-JUNE 2009

President: Patrick A. Fitzgerald, DTM
VP Education: JD. Austin, DTM
VP Membership: Kenneth Harry Mueller
VP Public Relations: Dave V. Endres
Secretary: Jeff Stafford, CC
Treasurer: Dave V. Endres
Sergeant at Arms: Steven R. Martindale, ACB, CL

JULY-DEC 2008
President: Rico Burton
VP Education: Kathleen E. Cleveland
VP Membership: Steven R. Martindale, CL
VP Public Relations: Anne L. Posey
Secretary: Jeff Stafford
Treasurer: Dave V. Endres
Sergeant at Arms: JD. Austin, DTM

Seth Williams works at Test Advantage in Tempe, Az and is the Technical Program Manager for two software products that are used by large semiconductor manufacturing companies all over the world. 

On May 13th during our 6th Anniversary meeting Seth (shown left) achieved his Competent Communicator Award!  During the 14 months he worked to achieve the Competent Communicator award he gave speeches that covered a wide range of topics from music, golf, social networking sites, and even the legacy left by his mother.  As he continues on to achieve his Advanced Communicator Bronze Award he will be working out of the Technical Presentations and Story Telling manuals. 

Seth's award allowed our club to achieve the 10th and final Distinguished Club Program goal.  We need two more members to be a President's Distinguished club for the 5th year in a row!

Steven Martindale and Mike Trier have been members of Rio Copa Toastmasters since we were founded in May 2003.  On May 13th on the 6th Anniversary of our club's founding we presented Steven and Mike with Distinguished Service Awards in appreciation of their support of our club over the years.

    Since Steven Martindale helped found our club he has served as Vice President of Publc Relations, President (2 terms), Vice President Education (2 terms), Secretary (2 terms), Vice President Membership, and Sergeant at Arms (2 terms).  He has competed several times in Toastmasters Area contest; he won the R4 Tall Tales contest in 2007 and took 2nd place in the R4 AreaTable Topics contest in 2009.

Mike Trier was Rio Copa's first President and has served as Vice President Membership (twice).  Outside of Rio Copa Mike has been a United Way Chairman Coordinator and Management Administration and Technology President (an employee organization).