Smedley Toastmasters wins Golden Gavel award
Sri Lanka’s Smedley Toastmasters Club has been awarded the prestigious Golden Gavel for the third time in recognition of it achieving the various criteria set out by the Toastmasters District 82.
The Golden Gavel was presented to the club at the District contest held in Chennai recently, where Smedley veteran Anoma Perera received the award on behalf of the club.
The Golden Gavel is the awards recognition programme carried out by the District for every individual club and it is a true honour to receive it. The consideration for the award was done from July 1, 2012 - May 15, 2013.
To achieve this award, Smedley had to produce four Competent Communicators and two Advanced Communicators. Further, the club also had to produce two Leadership awards.
Smedley added more than ten new members during the consideration period which also contributed to receiving the Golden Gavel award and also its officers took part in the officer trainings held both in July and January to achieve this.
The Golden Gavel award also requires a club to publish at least three newsletters which Smedley did to great effect. The club also has an active Facebook page and website, further requirements that needed to be fulfilled in order to achieve the award. Toastmasters International (TMI) is a world leader in communication and leadership development. Today, its membership is 280,000 strong. These members improve their speaking and leadership skills by attending one of the 13,500 clubs in 116 countries that make up TMI’s global network of meeting locations.
Smedley Toastmasters club has produced many famous speakers within the District and also is set to produce the World Champion of Public Speaking as Member Dananjaya Hettiarachchi has yet again been selected from District 82 to compete at this year’s World Championship, together with contestants from the other 89 Districts.
Hettiarachchi is ranked among the top 100 speakers in the world and was the semi-finalist at the World Championship of Public Speaking held in the USA in 2011, making him the only Sri Lankan to receive this award.