Division E is changing...

Over the past few years, Division E has welcomed a lot of new lunchtime clubs! That growth means lots of new Toastmasters, lots of new faces at Area contests - and new responsibilities for Area Directors.

To help spread the load, Division E will soon be changing the way our clubs are organised into Areas. The change will create one new lunchtime Area, and reshuffle the existing lunchtime Areas so that the clubs in one Area are reasonably close together.

The changes (or "realignment") have been through an extensive consultation process, and the resulting plan is supported by every affected club. Thank you to all those involved in consultation! The next step is for the whole country to vote on the plan at the May District council meeting. If that vote is successful, clubs will move into their new Areas on July 1st.

To see what Division E will look like after the change, check out this Google map - or see below for the full realignment report that's going to District.

Realignment report to Program Quality Director            Division E, District 72

1. Overview

This document proposes a realignment of clubs between Areas in Division E. The realignment will achieve three positive outcomes:

·        Reduce the geographical spread of several Areas, making it easier for the Area Directors to serve all their clubs;

·        Realign clubs that have changed their meeting time or location so that they are aligned with similar clubs;

·        Accommodate recent growth in the number of lunchtime clubs by creating a new Area in the lunchtime slot.

After this realignment, Division E will be made up of eight Areas organised by time and location. Two of the lunchtime Areas will have four clubs each, allowing room for growth in the most popular timeslot.

I recommend that you support this realignment plan.

Gael Price, Division E Director

11 March 2016

2. Realignment plan

Club name	Club number	Current area	Proposed area
ANZ Wellington Toastmasters	02284399	E10	E6
Assurity Testmasters	02906557	E1	E9
FearBusters	01215362	E6	E3
Five Crowns	00001461	E9	E4
Harbourside	00000774	E2	E10
High Noon Bankers	00007422	E3	E6
Police Toastmasters	04849467	E6	E4
Solnet Toastmasters	05291627	In formation	E6
Statistically Speaking	01153385	E6	E3
Terrace@12	00007243	E9	E4
Toast Health	01822420	E6	E4
Trade Me	04426115	In formation	E9
Wellington City Council Toastmasters	04725084	In formation	E9
Willis Quarter	00798878	E3	E9

3. Maps (daytime clubs only)

Current alignment. Red = E3, blue = E6 and yellow = E9. Black = clubs that meet in the afternoon but are currently in Areas that meet mostly in the evening. Pale blue flags are clubs in formation.

Proposed alignment (see Google map for club and Area names)

4. Discussion and text descriptions of Areas

Area E1

Current (6 clubs)	Proposed (5 clubs)
Capital Wellington Public Service The Gourmet Cupcake Communicators Assurity Testmasters	Capital Wellington Public Service The Gourmet Cupcake Communicators

Assurity is a corporate club facing quite different challenges from the mainly evening community clubs in E1. To enable the best support between clubs, it makes sense to group Assurity with a mix of corporate and community clubs.

Assurity is an afternoon club meeting at 4.45pm. That means it could potentially be grouped either with evening clubs, as it is now, or with daytime clubs. Area E9 has several corporate daytime clubs meeting nearby, including two clubs in formation (see the E9 proposal below). These clubs would be well placed to support and be supported by Assurity. I propose moving Assurity into Area E9.

Area E2

Current (5 clubs)	Proposed (4 clubs)
Capital Breakfast Capital Chatterers Business Breakfast Vodafone Capital Harbourside	Capital Breakfast Capital Chatterers Business Breakfast Vodafone Capital

Harbourside has changed their meeting time and now meet in the early evening, whereas the other E2 clubs meet at breakfast time. To ensure the club has support from other similar clubs, it makes sense to group Harbourside with other early evening clubs. I propose moving Harbourside into Area E10 (see the E10 proposal below).

Area E3 (see map)

Current (5 clubs)	Proposed (5 clubs)
Taxing Toastmasters Up Top Toastmasters BNZ Harbour Quays High Noon Bankers Willis Quarter	Taxing Toastmasters Up Top Toastmasters BNZ Harbour Quays FearBusters Statistically Speaking

High Noon Bankers and Willis Quarter are some distance from the other three clubs in E3. Taxing Toastmasters and Up Top meet very close to FearBusters (currently in E6), while BNZ Harbour Quays meet very close to Statistically Speaking (currently in E6). I propose grouping these five nearby lunchtime clubs together to encourage them to visit and support one another, while grouping High Noon and Willis Quarter with clubs that are close to them (see the proposals for Area E6 and Area E9 below).

Area E4 (see map)

Current (0 clubs)	Proposed (4 clubs)
Does not exist – new Area	Terrace@12 Five Crowns Toast Health Police Toastmasters

Despite meeting relatively close to one another (on Molesworth Street, Bowen Street and The Terrace), these four lunchtime clubs are currently in two different Areas. I propose grouping the clubs together to encourage them to visit and support one another.

This new Area is being created by realigning two clubs from each of Areas E6 and E9 (see the E6 and E9 proposals below).

Area E6 (see map)

Current (5 clubs)	Proposed (4 clubs, 1 in formation)
DIAlogue Police Toastmasters Toast Health Statistically Speaking FearBusters	DIAlogue ANZ Wellington Toastmasters High Noon Bankers Solnet Toastmasters [in formation]

These four daytime clubs meet very close to each other on The Terrace, Featherston Street and Waring Taylor Street. I propose grouping them together to encourage them to visit and support one another. Such a grouping will also restore Area E6 to full numbers, after the proposals for E3 and E4 realign four of the five clubs out of E6.

ANZ Wellington Toastmasters is currently an afternoon club made up of mostly new members and aligned in E10, an evening Area. Grouping ANZ Wellington together with High Noon Bankers, historically quite an active club, will encourage the club’s growth and participation in contests.

Solnet Toastmasters in still in formation at the time of writing, but interest has been strong and the club is very likely to charter by June. Solnet’s sponsors and mentors are members of High Noon Bankers, so grouping the clubs together will help to ensure ongoing support after the new club charters.

In the event that Solnet does not charter before 1 July, this Area will still comply with Protocol 7.0: “an area may consist of three clubs on July 1 only when an efforts to charter a fourth club is in process”, and such efforts will be in process in E6 with ongoing work to charter Solnet club.

Area E7

No changes proposed

Area E9 (see map)

Current (4 clubs)	Proposed (6 clubs, 2 in formation)
Victoria University Toastmasters NZX Wordstock Terrace@12 Five Crowns	Victoria University Toastmasters NZX Wordstock Willis Quarter Assurity Testmasters Trade Me [in formation] Wellington City Council Toastmasters [in formation]

The existing clubs in E9, Victoria University and NZX Wordstock, define a large area that encompasses Willis Quarter and the two clubs in formation. Hence, it makes sense to group all these daytime clubs together. The Area will still be one of the most geographically diverse, and hence will continue to suit an Area Director with a flexible schedule (as is already the case).

I also propose realigning Assurity Testmasters into E9. As noted above, Assurity would benefit from the support of other corporate clubs, of which E9 offers several. Assurity’s 4.45pm meeting time appears at first to be inconsistent with the other clubs in E9. However, E9 has a history of enjoying evening Area contests hosted by Victoria University club, which will work well with Assurity’s active participation in contests.

The two clubs in formation are both carrying out membership-building campaigns with the aim of chartering before July 1. Assurity’s relatively recent experience as a new club will provide a good source of support for the two newer clubs after they charter.

Area E10

Current (6 clubs)	Proposed (6 clubs)
Te Aro Toastmasters Mid City Toastmasters Advanced Wellington Wellington Professional Pipitea ANZ Wellington	Te Aro Toastmasters Mid City Toastmasters Advanced Wellington Wellington Professional Pipitea Harbourside

Harbourside and ANZ Wellington have both changed their meeting times. Harbourside has changed from breakfast to early evening. The club’s Willis Street venue is near the two E10 clubs which meet in the early evening on Wakefield Street.

ANZ Wellington has changed from evening to daytime. The club’s Featherston Street venue is near several daytime E6 clubs.

I propose realigning Harbourside into Area E10, and ANZ Wellington into Area E6, so that they can each be supported by similar clubs.