An All-Star PRM Team

“Is Marketing boring? Not with Izza and the district PR team! I joined the team not really knowing what I was doing. Quickly we had work to do and we got organized. We saw the skills everyone had; some more creative, some more technical. We learned the tools and how to use them, but most importantly, I gained more confidence and leadership skills.”

“Joining the PRM team this year was definitely a growth year for me as I learned how to set up Eventbrite, how to create an event, and how to use design banners and posts in Canva. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about promoting your club.” 

“I enjoyed my time on the District PR Team this year.  Learning new skills and remembering that I love to create images; something I did many years ago in CorelDraw.  It is so good to learn the new tools. Thanks, Izza for letting us play and learn.” 

Cathleen Fisher is a proud member of both Stittsville Toastmasters and the District 61 Public Relations Team. As a member of the PR team, Cathleen has learned several new skills that have stretched her imagination and abilities in many ways; these skills will also help her in her own entrepreneurial adventures. The highlight of Cathleen’s PR year is leading the team to present the Learn to Promote full day workshop with the help of the PR team. This culminated in earning her HPL! Most importantly; however, Cathleen has made wonderful friends while having fun, despite challenges of ‘the stretch’, and she looks forward to meeting them in-person one day soon!

Claude was VP PR of Tunney’s Toastmasters when he saw a social media post recruiting members for the 2020-2021 District Public Relations team. “I saw the opportunity and reached out to the Public Relations Manager’s call. From the very first meeting, I found Izza  to be a most welcoming individual and inspiring leader. The opportunity to learn while having fun with a great group of helpful and enthusiastic teammates made the journey incredibly interesting. I cannot believe how much I have learned with this group from a public relations perspective. Learning to use promotional and marketing tools such as Eventbrite, Google My Business, Canva, and Mailchimp has been so helpful for both my home club and at work. I am very grateful for what I have learned and the people I met along the way and I encourage everyone to consider joining the 2021-2022 team. You will not regret it.”

“I have enjoyed my year on the PR Team for the District. I have learned a great deal this past year and look forward to learning more in the future especially using Canva and Eventbrite. It is challenging but I am up for the challenge. I am active in the various Toastmasters Clubs that I am involved with.”

Ms. Charmaine E. Ralph is an author, public servant and an active member of her Toastmasters Club.  As a member of the District 61 PR Team, she is instrumental in publicising events by creating social media posts with graphics.  She also edited articles for four newsletters, using bilingual skills. Learning how to use Eventbrite and Canva was challenging, but eventually enjoyable.

Eric Idjidina is a civil engineer. He joined Toastmasters in October 2019. He is a member of two Toastmasters clubs: Le club Toastmasters de Charlesbourg and the advanced club, Les passionnés. He is currently the President-elect of Le Club Toastmasters de Charlesbourg. He is also a member of the District 61 Public Relations team where he discovered a new passion: marketing and promotion. As a member of the District 61 Public Relations team, he helps promote events using tools such as Eventbrite, Canva and Mailchimp. He was the editor of the February 2021 Toastmasters District 61 newspaper publication. He also provided training on the use of Canva at workshops organized by District 61.

Michael joined Ottawa Collab Toastmasters in December 2019 and is currently serving as Club Treasurer. A CPA by training, Michael is a serial entrepreneur having built and sold his own accounting and financial planning businesses and currently running two businesses. Always looking to hone his marketing and PR skills, Michael answered the call for volunteers for the District 61 PR team. “I would highly recommend the experience for any entrepreneur, because the skills you learn (e.g. Canva, LinkedIn, Facebook marketing) are easily transferable to your own businesses.”

Minnie Yujia Chen is a student in her last year at the University of Ottawa studying a major in Political Science and a minor in Public Administration. She served as the VP of Public Relations in Le Club Bilingue Toastmasters. Minnie joined the PRM team this past January. During her journey as a member of the PRM team, she learned many valuable skills that are useful in her current job. Minnie recently got hired by National Campus Life Network as the Ontario Regional Coordinator. In her role, she needs to make lots of graphics for the Ontario NCLN Instagram page. She thanks being part of the PRM team this year because this helped her to grow her graphic design skills a lot.

Craig has served in a number of roles at his clubs and in the District team. He seems to gravitate to technology, because he works with a software company by day and as our chief information officer (CIO) by night, when he isn’t working on his own paths in Pathways. He also serves as webmaster, video curator, video editor, Zoom team, provides random support for questions related to the technology used by District 61.

While Information technology does not directly create new clubs and support clubs in achieving excellence, it is an integral part of informing, perhaps even entertaining, and keeping records in a modern world. It’s been fun to provide the platform on which to present the creativity and hard work of the highly collaborative PRM Team, with tight deadlines.