Toastmasters Year End Tips #2

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Here is the second of our series of Year End Tips for all our leaders.  We both hope that they will be helpful to both outgoing and incoming leadership teams.

Finishing off this Toastmasters Year in Style

Membership Growth – Your District Needs You!

At the beginning of this week, we were a Distinguished District and we had just welcomed in Tech Data as our newest club in Area 46. Today, as I write, we are Select Distinguished and have achieved the President’s Distinguished Goal for Club Growth.  We have had some great membership growth this week– 116 new members, including a new charter club – welcome to Payments People also in Area 46!

We are getting close – we need to register every new member and encourage them to join up this month to achieve our goal of President’s Distinguished District with 90% of our clubs being distinguished.

You can keep track of how we are doing together both on our website and on the Toastmasters International dashboard.

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High Performance Club Leadership

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Leadership is the key ingredient that makes the difference between an average club & a great club

leadershipLeadership is the key ingredient that makes the difference between an average club and a great club.  High performance leadership at club level is multifaceted and requires a combination of strategic thinking with thorough attention to detail.  It is important to remember that all club officers can make a significant impact on their club regardless of their role.  It is all down to you whether this impact will be positive or negative.

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My journey from stammer to public speaker

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By Tia Atanasova 

Why did I join Toastmasters?

I haTia Atanasovave always had a very lively, energetic, social personality.  I absolutely love being around people!  But as a child growing up with stammer, it was hard for me to find my voice.  Engaging an audience, no matter how big or small, was a deep rooted fear.  On the one hand, it made me a good listener.  But on the other hand, it was holding me back from what I wanted – to be a strong and eloquent speaker.  Not being able to express my thoughts, I spent a sufficient amount of time reading, mostly classic Russian novels, Ancient Greek literature and philosophical essays.  I ended up having so much to say, but at the same time so little confidence to stand up and do it.

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How to do a Club Success Plan..

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With Post-It Notes!

Goals Goals Goals.. yes I know the Euros are on but those aren’t the sort of goals I’m talking about…

I’m talking about your educational awards, your progress in the Toastmasters Program.

Now, not everyone wants to set goals and I’m completely fine with that. One of the many wonderful things about the Toastmasters program is the fact that it is entirely self-paced. It’s up to you when you what to do something and there are lots of people who are quite happy attending meetings and just having a good time not concerning themselves with goals and progress and recognition (oh my!)

CSP Poster 2This idea is for members and club committees who do want to set themselves goals and do so in a fun way.

I spotted this idea on the The Official Toastmasters International Members Group on Facebook.  Many thanks to incoming VP Education Kathy Shine, DTM of Cream City Communicators, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

Her club completed Moments of Truth two weeks ago. They have already implemented several suggestions from our members and have begun to develop plans for further action that will be included in their 2016-2017 Club Success Plan.

One suggestion was to find a way to display member goals and progress in a non-threatening and non-embarrassing way for all members, and to encourage others who are taking a slower pace as they focus on building self confidence.

Their solution: they invited their members to sign their name and indicate their goal on a super-sticky post-it note, then placed them all on a large poster board marked simply as “2016-2017 GOALS.” They plan to have a second poster labelled “2016-2017 GOALS COMPLETED” and members can move their post-its from one board to the other in a simple recognition ceremony during a club meeting. What a great photo opportunity!

CSP PosterThey have several fun, colorful shapes:

  • crown shaped post-it notes for members who want to work toward their Triple Crown award
  • red apple post-its are for members who want to serve as mentors – they will be paired up with a green apple / mentee
  • dialogue post-its for people who want to attend their first conference or convention
  • other post-its for goals specific to their club, for example Club Ambassador, being part of their traveling “Cream Team” (a Capture the Banner program, which sounds a lot like Thomas the Travelling Gavel in Area 55)
  • stars for Competent Leader and Communicator awards
  • clouds for Advanced Leader and Communicator awards

It’s a Club Success Plan on a poster board! Why not try it in your club? If you do, send photos to dltdistrict91@gmail.com.

The Toastmasters Promise

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web_res_vk_086Why did you join Toastmasters? Why have you stayed?

We all have very different answers to those questions. Maybe a boss told you you really had to improve your presentations or you wouldn’t be able to advance your career. Maybe you had to make a best man’s speech and you didn’t want to let your friend down. Perhaps, like me, you wanted to meet new people with different experiences.

I suspect that, no matter the range of answers to the first question, the answer to the second is pretty much the same for all of us.

Toastmasters has changed our lives.

We discovered capabilities in ourselves we didn’t know we possessed. We felt good about supporting a fellow member. We laughed, cried and developed long-lasting friendships with fellow members, and sometimes more, as I did.

It’s a pretty great place to be, isn’t it!

Wouldn’t you love to share that feeling with others?

When you joined Toastmasters, you made an agreement with your club – The Toastmasters Promise. You might not remember, but it’s there, on the back of the membership form you signed, and in the front cover of your Competent Leader and Competent Communicator manuals. There are ten promises and I’d like to focus on just two of them:

  • To help the club maintain the positive, friendly environment necessary for all members to learn and grow
  • To bring guests to club meetings so they can see the benefits Toastmasters membership offers

If you look around your club though, is there anyone you haven’t seen for a while? Perhaps a friend, maybe an acquaintance. Do you ever wonder how they are doing? Why not give them a call, just to say hi and let them know you’re thinking of them and ask them to come back to the club for a visit.

I encourage you to invite a friend to your next club meeting. Share with them how Toastmasters has affected you. They’ll probably recognise the changes you’ve made but be unaware of the reasons why. Invite them to your club so they can experience the Toastmasters program.

Grow and be strong!

Best wishes,
Vanessa King, incoming District Director 2016-17