This was actually three trips over five weeks. The purpose was two-fold. One, to finally visit several Toastmasters clubs outside of the Kansas City metro area -- I had heard much good about them and knew many people in these clubs. The other reason was to information sharing and getting volunteers. I took on the assignment to be the coordinator of all five of the Toastmasters District 22 Winter Club Officer Training sessions (December and January). I am using this as a High Performance Leadership (HPL) project that will complete my third Advanced Leader Silver (ALS) award. The ALS requires more work than any of the other six Toastmasters awards. I am working towards my third Distinguished Toastmasters award. At least in our District 22, only about one percent of everyone who joins Toastmasters earns a first DTM. Only about 10% of that 1% earn a second DTM. And only a third of those who earn a second DTM earn a third one.

• x
• x

TOPEKA:
It has a few attractions for out of town visitors plus a couple of universities

SPRINGFIELD-JOPLIN:

WICHITA:

MISSED VISITING:
--Several clubs in Springfield -- they meet on different weeks
--Pittsburg club Gorillas -- they meet on a different week plus it is summer for a college club
--Several clubs in Wichita -- it would actually take a total of three visits to hit all the clubs here since there are so many. I was unable to visit: The Bundlers (and found out they moved their meetings from Wednesdays to Mondays), Wichita Jam-n, Plane Talk, McConnell (although through Roger Klingman I sent them the three laminated orange sheets I was giving to all clubs I visited), EXCELlent, Collegues of Wisdom and Toast to Health.

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in these areas:

• Both Springfield and Wichita are good sized Midwestern cities that have large shopping areas including big department stores. Many wonderful people live in these cities. They simply lack the population and the amenities to be a huge metro area.
• x

The Bests:

1. Finally getting to visit the super clubs of Heartland and Springfield -- these clubs are consistently among the best in the district each year
2. Finally getting to visit the super clubs of Wichita. I knew well over two dozen members in them before visiting and met many dozens more.
3. Wichita Botanical Gardens are beautiful
4. Best of all, I got the Site Managers for the club officer training sessions along with several volunteers for some of the positions
5. Setting a club visitation record of nine clubs in one week

The Worsts:

1. Springfield club meetings being all over the calendar, thus, difficult to visit more than two of them in a short period of time. It would take 2 - 3 solid weeks to catch them all.
2. Wichita Botanical Gardens had some guy with a very loud smelly diesel-powered vacuum cleaner following me around cleaning up. When in a botanical garden, I was quiet, serenity and the smell of flowers.
3. Wichita construction had a couple of intersections closed thus requiring detours

The Totals:

• Miles Driven: 548
• Driving: 14 hours in 8 days (plus maybe another 15 hours in the four towns of Topeka, Springfield, Joplin and Wichita)
• States: 2 -- Missouri and Kansas
• Major Universities: all small ones - Missouri State, Drury, Missouri Southern State, Pittsburg State and Wichita State
• Pictures Taken: 165 (and deleted 5 of them)
• National Parks: 1 (George Washington Carver Memorial)