District 23 Director MyChelle Andrews has no idea whether her year as the district’s top leader will involve an entire year of online meetings. Whether or not it does, she is confident the district will thrive.
After all, when COVID-19 disrupted her year as program quality director, she had already prepared the district to conduct online trainings. The original purpose was to give members in smaller cities opportunities to receive training without having to travel.
“I could tell we weren’t getting enough people trained when I came into office in July. I saw online meetings as an opportunity. We started in 2019, so we were prepared for COVID without knowing it,” she said.
The first Toastmasters Leadership Institute during the COVID-19 pandemic took place online on June 6 of this year and drew 188 members, a new record for District 23 training.
Another responsibility of the program quality director is contests, which had always been face-to-face by rule. Andrews’ contest team, like her training team, quickly adapted in time for division contests, meeting frequently with contestants, judges, Zoom masters and chat monitors.
“It was always driven into me that whatever we do, we do for our members. When contests had to move to Zoom, we had to take care of our members and make sure they had what they needed,” she said.
Andrews, the lead data architect for the City of Albuquerque, is responsible for the city’s quality of data. She has worked for the city since 2006 and in the information technology industry for 36 years.
Toastmasters isn’t Andrews’ only interest outside work. She and her husband have collected comic books since they started dating in 1984. Their favorite movies and TV series are Marvel-produced. Their newest hobby is COSplay in which fans dress up as superheroes at conventions. Although she hasn’t made a costume yet, she plans to design and make the costumes in the future.
Other hobbies include painting, crafting, and other types of artwork. She has worked in jewelry, polymer clay, paint, sewing, crocheting, knitting and quilting.
“I grew up in the rural part of Oregon and always kept my downhome roots,” she said.
Her hobbies, though, have to come after she completes big goals as District 23 director, which include leading the district to Smedley Distinguished status. This prestigious award requires the district to grow by 8 percent in members and clubs and for 55 percent of clubs to be distinguished. Andrews said the goal is important for the sake of members.
“It’s not the goal that is important in and of itself. By achieving Smedley Distinguished status as a district, it will indicate that we have helped our members succeed in achieving their goals, and the Smedley Distinguished status is just a way to document the changes in our members,” Andrews said.
She realizes the goal is lofty but believes it is attainable.
“I don’t want a goal that’s easy to obtain; I really want us to stretch ourselves this year,” she said, adding that it is imperative that the district at least maintain the number of clubs it has now because districts must have at least 60 clubs and District 23 started the year with 71.
“Don’t keep Toastmasters a secret. Don’t think, ‘I can’t ask them because I’ll be harassing them.’ I can almost guarantee the person is thinking, ‘I’m not good enough so they haven’t invited me into their special group.’ We must give the gift of Toastmasters willingly and to everyone we know,” she said.
Even with this big goal, Andrews has a vision even more important to her that she thinks online meetings have helped the district start fulfilling.
“A year from now, I hope my proudest accomplishment will be how close our district has gotten. I don’t want Zoom to be our future, but we might be on Zoom my whole year as director. I’ve never felt like we were one big unit, and I really, really want us to be one unit supporting one another,” she said.
