CCET. and on the way to the District

“On a mid November day in 1997, a small band of dedicated toastmasters made their way to Kaiserlautern following the call of Bernie Pease, DTM. Bernie had an objective: to create a structure in continental Europe, the CCET, to mirror a full Toastmasters District. He also had a vision: to ultimately build it up into a full district.” (A Toast to 20 Years, by Henry Blount, Clarion January 2000)

When council was formed in 1979, according to Rob Cockburn, “there were clubs in Brussels, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Laar, Luxembourg, Munich, Paris, Stuttgart, Vienna , Wiesbaden, Würtzburg, Zürich, and Zweibrucken. The Council initially met only once a year, primarily to hold speech contests. Club officer training consisted of the outgoing President handing over some books saying, “here read this”. There was no Area Governor training.”

With the foundation of CCET. the situation in European Toastmastering changed. Area governors (during that time there were already 5 areas in Europe), started to receive training from the District representative. At conferences, the number of educational sessions almost doubled and contests were held not only in English, but also in German and French.

The first Table Topic contest winner was Henry Blount, the chairman of the CCET 1996-1997. The first CCET’s Area Governor of the year and the first DTM in Europe was Tim Keck, who later would contribute hugely to the CCET becoming an official District.

Adding regular contests and conferences

At that time the CCET paid a lot of attention to having contests and conferences regularly. Among the speech contests that were hold in 3 languages, the CCET had a speech contest among District officers, who according to TMI official rules, were not allowed to participate in the regular contests. Also, one of the specialties during the CCET era were special contests in Parliamentary Procedures.

As former CCET. chairman, Lawrence Applebaum, recollected:

“The parliamentary procedures contest was very entertaining. Each candidate was the chairperson of an executive committee meeting. The members of the executive committee, usually four or five Toastmasters, worked from a prepared script. Obviously, the candidate had no prior knowledge of the script. However, the candidate was permitted to make notes as the contest progressed.

The meeting followed Robert's Rules of Order. The time limit was 10 minutes, that is, after ten minutes, the meeting was over whether or not they got through the script or not.

The focus of the script was to get the committee to agree on a course of action. Someone on the committee would initially present an idea. The idea was alwaysrelated to something in Toastmasters. For example, the committee could discuss asimple campaign to increase club membership or an internal program to improvethe club educational sessions.

Next came the discussion and then they began making motions, amendments to motions, points of order, etc. There were also problems such as people not waiting to be recognized before speaking, trying to vote on the principal amendment beforedealing amendments to the amendment, etc. The goal was to get the committee toagree on the final motion, clearly state what was to be done, and then vote on themotion.

As simple as the whole operations started out, sometimes it became verycomplicated.”

All conferences were well organized and had a great value that all participants once one conference was over, were looking forward to the next one. As Ralph Jones, a former secretary in CCET. recollected:

“When it comes to conferences in Europe, there was an expectation that any gathering, there would not only be good Toastmastering, but also good conversation, good socializing, good food and drink, and most of all, a good time to be had by all. In essence, I viewed District 59 Conferences as an event, not just an activity. I even had fun just traveling to conferences with my fellow club members. It was like a mini-vacation. They were not only an event, but also a cultural event and something to look forward to every six months.”

The Impossible Dream

Now after building the CCET, the next dream and challenge for the future District was to become an official District and not only a mirror of a district to fulfill the vision of Bernie Pease. That was not an easy step. It took about 20 long years to achieve that.

As Bill Hamilton, former CCET. chairman reflected on the long way the CCET. had passed on the way to become a district in his article “Impossible Dream”:

“A little over four years ago at the General Meeting of the CCET in which I became Chairman, it was stated that we could never become a District because we would never have sufficient clubs. On the drive home from Buxtehude I didn’t ask “why”, I asked instead “why not?” I looked over the continent of Europe (excluding England and Ireland, which already were District 71) and upon arriving home in Heidelberg I wrote Ian Edwards who would become the incoming International President of Toastmasters, requesting admittance as a district. He immediately turned my letter over to the Executive Director of Toastmasters International, and he in a lengthy epistle explained to me why we could not become a district and all of the multitudinous steps that would be involved in us ever achieving that Impossible Dream. Therein began our quest. At the upcoming Toastmasters International Conference which was held in August, I, Chris Magyar, the Vice- Chairman for Education and Rob Cockburn, then a former CCET Chairman, met with Terry McCann, the Executive Director of Toastmasters, along with some of his assistants, Stanley Stills and Daniel Rex, and we began the lengthy process of advancing to the coveted position of becoming a district within Toastmasters.

Becoming a provisional district would be our first goal. We were told that we needed more clubs, especially within central Europe, as Toastmasters at that time were not interested in the fringes of Europe (those nations which had been behind the Iron Curtain), nor other countries far removed from our central base of Germany, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. We also needed to increase the membership in our existing clubs, and embark on a program of leadership training for our Area Governors and Club Officers. In October Chris Magyar with the assistance of Peter Kenton, arranged for our first ever two-day session of the CCET Executive Board in Metz, France. For the first time an important contingent of French-speaking Toastmasters was in attendance. Officers Training and a session of Parliamentary Procedure was presented by the CCET Executive Board. Rob Cockburn and Gavin Alexander, both former CCET Chairmen, joined in the team by providing instructions and training. This was something that had never been done before in the CCET. It was a huge success. Our next step was in joining with our big brothers, District 71, in their Fall Conference held in Dublin. Besides myself, accompanied by Ardelle, were Peter Kenton, Jim Huggard, and others from the CCET. We received a warm welcome by Ken Norman, their District Governor, Ted Corcoran, their Immediate Past District Governor who was embarking on a campaign to become the International Director from overseas, and all of the many other club and district officers. The following February Ken Norman and his wife came to Paris. There they met with our Executive Board to draft strategy to assist us in becoming a district. New budget proposals which were presented by our treasurer were approved and later presented to and adopted by the membership which has put us on a solid financial footing. Subsequently, our contributions to the campaigns of Tim Keck to become the Third Vice President of Toastmasters International and of Ted Corcoran as the International Director for Overseas Districts were rewarded by their presence at the Fall Conference held in Heidelberg in 1997. Each played a vital role in our quest for Provisional District status. The impossible dream which I had, has ultimately been brought to fruition through the major efforts as the torch was passed to the following CCET Chairmen, Henry Blount, Chris Magyar, Desmond McGettrick, and now Rob Cockburn. Through them a formal petition, along with the approval of a necessary quorum of clubs, was recently presented to Toastmasters International, and was considered and announced at their August meeting that we have been approved as a Provisional District, and will take effect on July 1, 2000. We, in Europe, will close out the Continental Council of European Toastmasters and welcome ourselves to a new status at the advent of the new millennium.”