Bonnie Ann Smith – UCCS

When I joined UCCS Toastmasters it was a Distinguished Club with over 20 members. I enjoyed it. Ir was good. Then we sponsored a new Toastmaster Club where several of our members (and officers worked). We no longer had the experienced club leadership – even I was an officer! An VP of Education and an Area Governor gave me the vision of regaining our vitality and doing an HPL. They formed my guidance committee. My vision was restoring the club to former days! Grin. My guidance committee suggested that was not how HPL goals were created and we settled for less ambitious goals. I failed to achieve each of these less ambitious goals. Please understand. I could have stopped there. I had learned a lot. Learning is the purpose of an HPL. I had learned is that I was a poor leader and that we needed better. I become an area governor. That is when I started understanding Toastmasters at a whole new level! I helped get our club a coach. I became acting president during a critical month. We gained members and regained the Presidents Distinguished award. That was the point that I turned in the paperwork to claim completing my HPL.