PRM2021 : My first campaign message

Dear District Leaders, Dear Presidents and VP Education of District 59,
Dear Fellow Toastmasters,

I have been nominated candidate for the position of Public Relations Manager (PRM) by the District Leadership Committee. Hence I’m running for election for this role at the Online District Council Meeting on 8th May 2021
Since 2014 I have been a Toastmaster and my journey with you has been an incredible chain of learning experiences.

All these experiences have allowed me to learn, to evolve, and to interact with seasoned Toastmasters who taught me a lot. I have had so much feedback, so many examples to follow, so many mentors and so many coaches to guide me through this ongoing journey : Thank you all for your contributions to the Toastmaster I am becoming day after day.

On this journey I have been given many opportunities to serve as Club and District officer. Do you remember the antique world… when in-person events were possible? I served in 2018-2019 as District Conference Chair for Marseille Conference. It was the last in-real-life live event we shared together as a District. I hope you enjoyed your time there!

Professionally I am an IT specialist coaching more and more companies with their digital strategies. In my career I have been a System Engineer, an IT Architect, a Project Manager, and I have successfully managed huge website projects including the website for the French Ministry of Health and the French Ministry of Work’s.

This year, as District IT Manager, I am using these professional skills to support the District Core Team, working closely with our PR Manager on the websites, the Digital communication and the Public Relation duties of the District.

My ambition for next year is take the District’s communication several steps further to make Toastmasters famous and make Pathways the best known education programme for self-development in all our countries.

I plan to carry out this role by appointing a team which will include PR Assistants, Community Managers, Content Producers, as well as Division representatives and all the Club VPPRs. And I already have ideas of challenges to propose to the team for next year. Some very serious and corporate, some totally crazy. (Well, we do need a bit of crazy, right ?)

Of course we will work to develop the recognition of the Toastmasters’ brand, of course we will continue to improve our websites and attract people to them. Of course we will be present on social channels (LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Flickr…) Of course we will spread news about what is going on in the District and beyond. But that’s only a starting point.

We can make Toastmaster radiate even more than today, we can make our clubs shine. After the pandemic I believe our clubs will need help to attract more people. We can provide training, guidance, ready-to-use and localised PR material, good practices, tools to help Club VPPR, Areas, and Divisions to reach the world.

During these weeks of campaign I’ll publish several posts on my blog to give you more details about my vision for Public Relations next year: https://vilarem.net/en/pascal4prm

Curious about this? Wishing to ask me anything? Do you want to support my candidacy? Be part of PR Team next year? Please contact me at: pascal4prm@mytoastmasters.club and share with me your comments.

I hope you are all good on these pandemic times and hope that you’ll vote for me on 8th May and elect me, Pascal Vilarem, for District 59 Do you want to Public Relations Manager! #Pascal4PRM

Pascal VILAREM