Prison Clubs

That’s Art Byrd, Area 13 Governor and works with the Changing Minds Toastmasters club in a prison in the Youngstown area.  Today on the table, he’s going to talk to us about prison clubs.  You do not want to miss this.

[Intro]

I found Arthur Byrd by a post he put on our District 10 Facebook page about his new blog What I Learned In Toastmasters This Week.  What a great idea for a blog!  We talked to each other just before Christmas about being an area governor, a club officer and about prison clubs.  All part of a day’s work for Art, who is the VP of Public Relations for Executive Club Number 408 in Youngstown, Ohio.  Art is also an instructor at Youngstown State University and has extensive professional experience in the media.

When he completes his term as area governor, he’ll receive his DTM.

[intro]

I found Arthur Byrd by a post he put on our District 10 Facebook page about his new blog What I Learned In Toastmasters This Week.  What a great idea for a blog!  We talked to each other just before Christmas about public relations for a Toastmasters club and about prison clubs.  All part of a day’s work for Art Byrd, the VP of Public Relations for Executive 408 Club in Youngstown, Ohio.  Art is also an instructor at Youngstown State University and has extensive professional experience in the media.

He’s also the area governor for Eastern Division Area 13, and once he completes that task, he’ll receive his DTM.

[start interview]

Prison Clubs

Kim Krajci: Art Byrd, how are you today?

Art Byrd: I am very, very good. How about yourself?

KK: I'm doing well, thank you. You are doing a yeoman’s work at Toastmasters. This year you are an area governor, and you are a club officer.  Talk to me about being an area governor to a prison club.

AB: That's interesting in the sense of, and I say this in a strange kind of way, I've been binge watching it, I don't know if you've been, I've been binge watching a show called Orange Is The New Black, and so it's based in a woman's prison. And when I went to the area, when I went to go visit the club, I had been there for a contest so I knew how good they were, but now going as an area governor, and I don't think the, the gravity of being area governor has really still hit me, because people go, “Oh, you're the are governor.” I'm like, “Okay. I'm here to help out.” and they're going, “No, no, no. You're the area governor.” I was like, “Oh okay.” And so my approach is always that I'm here for you, what is it that you need, in, within the prison, cause they'll ask for something. And I'll go express to the people who can get it for me, and they say well you already have that, or that I can already get that, but nobody told them that they could get that... so my job basically in the prison is to bridge the communication gap. Cause they seem to have like a communication gap where it's like, like they, they can get something but someone tells, no one tells them they can get it.

KK: So it's internal. Prison club members and their administration of the prison facility.

AB: Well they had a new person that took over from another person, and they never been a Toastmaster, they're just taking over. We're still trying to figure out what, so I'm trying to help them, I'm trying to help them what Toastmasters is expecting. That's why we have a situation with the dues, it's like, they say they paid their dues, but they have to pay yearly dues, and I'm like “okay.” So I kind of have to figure that out and then, and bridge that, and try to do, try to do that. And also watching the members. Because one of the things that I tried not to do when I went in there was change their,