History
Quality is Job 1
By Keith Hardy, DTM
“Nobody does it better.” That’s what Carly Simon crooned about James Bond. Ford’s motto is “Quality is Job 1.” Tina Turner sings “Simply the Best.”
Indeed in District 6 Toastmasters Saturday Morning Live! aims for high quality and to be one of the best clubs. That’s why speakers know that if they want to know how good they are, they’ll find out at SML. That’s why, too, our standards are set higher than other Toastmasters clubs: we’ve finished as a top 10 club in the District three times and have produced five Region IV speech contestants in our history.
A brief recap of SML’s history
The club formed in summer 1992 from various Toastmasters who wanted an advanced club on the east side of the Mississippi. Toastadas was the District’s only advanced club at that time and met west of the river. After the first meeting in August 1992 at Arden Fasteners in Little Canada, the members knew the level of quality we wanted for the club.
That quality includes the following:
- Members should give speeches from an advanced manual and should put more time and practice into the speech than they would at a non-advanced club
- Speakers should give a copy of their manual project (yes, all speeches are to be manual speeches!) to the toastmaster, evaluation team leader and other two evaluation team members.
- Speakers notify the sergeant at arms about room setup and equipment needs.
- The toastmaster of the meeting should prepare the agenda a minimum of a week in advance so that minimal changes needed to be made at the meeting
- The general evaluator ensures that the evaluation team leader and speaker communicate with one another at least a week prior to the meeting.
- All members in the audience, including guests, are invited to write detailed comments to each speaker for additional feedback. As time permits during team evaluations, oral comments are welcome from the audience.
- The general evaluator should devote time during the general evaluation to give specific feedback to each evaluator.
- If you can’t fulfill an assigned role, find your own replacement and let the toastmaster know who that is. This is a crucial courtesy that we established!
I encourage all SML members to help maintain the great history and high quality of our club! When a new CTM visits us to consider joining an advanced club, let’s show him or her that we’re “simply the best” advanced club option in the District!
Please also visit our Accomplishments Page
SML! History Timeline
May 1992 Idea for club generated in Area 14 Council meeting
Aug.1992 First meeting at Arden Fasteners in Arden Hills
Nov.1992 SML! moves to Grumpy’s Restaurant in Arden Hills
Feb.1993 SML! charters with 20 members—we have never ended a Toastmasters year below 20!
Dec. 1993 SML! moves to former Ramada Hotel in St. Paul
Oct. 1994 SML! moves to Coldwell Banker Burnet in Woodbury
July 1999 SML! finishes #5 in District 6 in Distinguished Club Program points
Dec. 2010 SML! Moves to Como Park
Oct. 2011 SML! Moves to Affinity Plus Credit Union (St. Paul)
Aug 2013 SML! Moves to Affinity Plus Credit Union (Roseville)
March 2017 SML! Moves to MN State Capital (St. Paul)
March 2020 SML! Moves to online meetings temporarily due to COVID-19 precautions.
| SML Presidents | ||||
| 1993 | Dallas Sursely | 2004-05 | Keith Hardy | |
| 1993 | Keith Hardy | 2005-06 | Mary Torno | |
| 1994 | Kris Thompson-Green | 2006-07 | Theo Black | |
| 1994-95 | Judy Southwick | 2007-08 | Harvey Bernard | |
| 1995-96 | Pat Croal | 2008-09 | Caroline Baker | |
| 1996-97 | Dan Field | 2009-10 | Pat Croal | |
| 1997-98 | Linda Larson | 2010-11 | Tim Kelly | |
| 1998-99 | Bill Sutherland | 2011-12 | Ravi Rai | |
| 1999 | Alex Matheson | 2012-13 | Linda Ruhland | |
| 1999-00 | Ken Kendle | 2013-14 | Carol Duling | |
| 2000-01 | Wayne Johnson | 2014-15 | Susie Bergh | |
| 2001-02 | Pat Croal | 2015 | Glen DeGuzman | |
| 2002 | Orapat Sivitanpisit | 2016 | Linda Ruhland | |
| 2002-03 | Mark Haugh | 2016-17 | Pat Croal | |
| 2003-04 | Orapat Sivitanpisit | 2017-18 | Keith Hardy & Steve Crooks | |
| 2018-2019 | Jamie Ogborn & Gopu Shrestha | 2019-2020 | Carolyn Caba | |
| 2020-2021 | Leo Smith | |||
