Toastmasters Leadership Training and Radiosport

(Note: This was actually written on 18-July 2022, re-discovered just after finishing the previous blog on this same subject.)

When I joined Toastmasters, it was all about [the] speaking and speaking improvement. 
When I began serious radiosport (around 1996), then, it was all about [the] operating
and discovering new/different events to be a part of contest operations.

In both activities, I put little attention on what it takes to run a multi-people event. 
Toastmastering a meeting as well as participating in and sponsoring a speech contest
presented me with a direct look at what it takes to put a contest together.  I have since chaired
many contest events and have been a competitor in every available event for the last 8 years
(excepting the ones, I have organized).

In radiosport, before 1996 I randomly played around in radiosport contests and routinely
joined the W6SW Field Day group, largely ass their 20-M Cw OP; altho I also found time
to run Ssb on the lower bands in the evening, after many of the operators headed for their
sleeping bags.  

In 1996, I began operating the November Sweepstakes GiGs from a portable setup I cobbled
together every year from the Ojai valley (the biggest difficulty being the QTH being located in
a valley).  Running a filter-less Kenwood TS-50 radio into a 22' high Alpha Delta DX-CC dipole,
the radio's front-end was constantly plagued by N6VR (directly above me atop the hill) with his
pair of FT-1000mp's amps and monstrous yagi-array.  (Ironically, years later, I eventually purchased
one of his FT-1000mp's and now run it as a backup rig in my Alameda setup.)

In 2000, I spent the next 4 years joining W6ML (W6KC, W6SW & W6JTP) as a multi-multi CQP Expedition operation from a cabin in Mammoth Lakes (MONO County).  It was with team-W6ML
that I received a taste of what happens behind-the-scenes of a multi-OP operation, helping set up radio stations and hang wire antennas from trees.  Years later, I joined up w/team-NX6T in Fallbrook (beginning with the 2009 Ssb Sweepstakes). Later, I began assisting with antenna work.  It wasn't until years later that Dennis (N6KI) would include me in team planning discussions.

Joining up w/N6GEO for 6 different CQP operations, we just naturally split up the duties required
to make each unique operation work.  I took on the organization tasks of registering a special event callsign, taking PiCs, submitting the CQP log and stats and writing up the results for this WQ6X Contest Blog.

When I joined up with the Amateur Radio Club of Alameda (ARCA), with each passing year,
I took on increasing responsibilities for organizing radiosport events, beginning w/CQP 2021 and
this year's K6QLF Field Day event near the beach in Alameda.  How DiD I learn all this?  I simply used the WB6ACU (Joe Walsh) method of acting like I know what I am doing, encouraging those around me to join me in making it all happen.

Some people prefer to organize events rather than be a part of the competition.  I love to compete, and am grateful for people who enjoy doing what it takes to make a tip-top operation possible, which makes it possible for me to focus on performance delivery, confident there will be no surprises, during any given operation.

Competitive events require participants as well as organizers.  Exposure to BOTH sides of the
activity adds to the excitement overall.  In BOTH radiosport and Toastmasters we learn leadership empirically.  Elmers (in radiosport) and Mentors (in Toastmasters) encourage us to figure it all out, furthering a game that has gone on for decades and will continue on for decades long after we are
all gone.

Have YOU ever been a part of organizing radiosport and/or Toastmasters events?

What lessons have YOU learned?