George,
We miss you and I have held on to your award since then...Hope to see you back soon. It's understanding work comes first.
However, I do my best to schedule my work around Toastmasters and tell my clients that Thursday afternoon are not available. Unless they really only have that time available. I find that they generally have other days to choose from. To me helping you guys at Toastmaster is a priority in my weekly schedule. You are important to me.
Just do your best to come. I hope it's not too much to ask but our membership is on skeleton crew due to holidays and Matt being away...it's getting harder near Christmas. We need to invite more people to come out and consider joining us.