Monthly Archives: October 2012

Top Ten Important Tasks for Toastmasters Club President

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I am almost halfway through my term as president of the Toastmasters Club at Abbott Bioresearch, and I am glad to say that I am enjoying the challenge. As president, I set the tone and general direction of the club, and of course I want our club to be successful.

Here are the top ten important tasks of the president, I think, to make the club successful:

1. Together with the board, plan and set goals for the year as soon as your term starts. Aim to be a president’s distinguished club. Plan and schedule events such as regular meetings, membership drive, open houses, speech contests, and officers training.

2. Be a cheerleader at every meeting. Congratulate members on their accomplishments.

3. Open and close meeting with enthusiasm, and announce at every meeting the progress of the club goals.

4. Work closely with the VP of Education in filling out roles and making sure that the educational goals of the members are being met.

5. Work closely with VP of Membership and VP of Public Relations in holding open houses and recruiting new members.

6. Mentor new members. Make sure to guide them at least during their first three speeches.

7. Motivate members to finish their Competent Communicator award as soon as possible. Also, motivate members who do not regularly come to the meeting to participate more. Ask them to sign up for roles so that they will be obligated to attend the meeting.

8. Introduce yourself to guests and greet them enthusiastically.

9. Work closely with the treasurer to make sure dues are paid on time.

10. Be prepared to give speech anytime. Speakers make last minute cancellations and be ready to step up to fill in the speaking role.

BYOD

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Recently, I attended a security seminar on the newest buzzword in the IT industry – BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device – to complete my CISSP CPE (Continuing Professional Education) requirement for the year. The seminar was sponsored by ISC2 and the speaker, Brandon Dunlap, is a seasoned, insightful, and very entertaining speaker.  I highly recommend the seminar.

BYOD came about because of the popularity of mobile devices – iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, etc.- , the consumerization of IT, and employees getting more flexible schedules.    Companies are starting to allow their employees to use their own devices – to improve productivity, mobility, and supposedly save the company money.  The millennials, in particular, are more apt to use their own devices.  Owning these devices for them signifies status symbol or a fashion statement.

However,  does it make sense to allow these devices into the company’s network?  What are the security implications of the BYOD phenomenon?

From a technology standpoint, there are a lot of innovations to secure both the mobile devices and the company’s applications and data, for instance, using containers, to separate personal apps and company’s apps.  Security companies are creating products and services that will improve the security of BYOD.  But from a policy and legal standpoint, very little is being done.  Companies who jumped into this BYOD buzz are getting stung by BYOD pitfalls as exemplified by one of the greatest IT companies in the world – IBM.   In addition, recent studies showed that BYOD does not really save company money.

Companies need to thoroughly understand BYOD before adopting it.  It is a totally new way of working.

The seminar highlighted the many problems of BYOD, and the immense work that needs to be done to make it successful.  No wonder the organizer entitled it “Bring Your Own Disaster” instead of “Bring Your Own Device.”