Mike Raffety, DTM, PDG, your next International Director from Region V

The settting: Your Toastmasters club meeting.
The date: September, 2017.

What do you see? Does your club still exist? Does it have 20 or more members? Does it have great speeches, constructive evaluations, and effective leadership?

I have a wide range of experiences, from growing up on an Iowa farm, to visiting rural Cambodia, to volunteering in a global climate warming research project, to graduating in the top 5% of my MBA class and running a mission-critical global corporate computer network.

My skills in business as well as in Toastmasters will help guide our organization through the next few years, as we seek to shape our program to be more attractive to the next generation, while preserving the values that have served it so well for the last 83 years.

My progress in Toastmasters has focused on the leadership track -- at one point, I was a CTM/AL; I had completed my (old-style) AL before my first ATM (most Toastmasters go all the way through the communications track before working on an AL).

Here are some of my major offices held and accomplishments:

Club President: President's Distinguished
Club Coach: First coach in D30 to be assigned, and to bring club to distinguished
Area Governor: President's Distinguished, and Area Governor of the year
Division Governor: President's Distinguished
Lt. Gov'r of Marketing: Excellence in Marketing award, and distinguished
Lt. Gov'r of Education: Excellence in Education award
District Governor: Distinguished

I have over 20 years of business experience in a global environment. Every day, I work with colleagues in London, Zurich, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, and more. I love traveling and have been to over 30 countries on five continents. I'm very excited about the first overseas Toastmasters convention in 2010 in Sydney!

I seek your input on issues that concern you and your district. I strive to be a listener -- I need to understand what's important to you. Toastmasters is full of people with a love of speaking -- but as a leader, I love to listen too.

Please browse through my web site to become more familiar with me, but it is no substitute for talking face to face. As I visit the district conferences this autumn and spring, and at the June regional conference, I look forward to meeting you and listening to your concerns. Don't hesitate to contact me before or after as well, whether you're from my district, my region, or anywhere else.

Now, I ask for your support in my quest to serve this organization as International Director from Region V. I want to make sure you can answer yes to all of those questions about your club in 10 years. I want to be YOUR International Director!

Visitors to my web site:

Time until the 2008 business meeting: (days:hours:minutes:seconds)