Welcoming the World to Toastmasters

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By Tina Plamadeala

City of London, Open House, 17th January 2023

The City of London Toastmasters held a successful Open House event on the 17th of January, which drew over 150 attendees who were interested in improving their public speaking and leadership skills. The event was organized by a dedicated team of Toastmasters members and the committee, who worked tirelessly to ensure its success. The speakers at the event demonstrated a clear commitment to their personal development, each bringing their unique style and perspective to the event, making for an engaging and diverse line-up. For a flavour of the venue and the great atmosphere and vibrancy of the event we have made a take away video which you can view here:

What Made the Open House a Success?

Teamwork

The success of the Open House can be attributed to the collaboration and teamwork between club members and the committee. By working together, the team was able to ensure that the event ran smoothly and effectively achieved its goals of attracting new members and promoting the club.

The team was composed of members with diverse skill sets, such as marketing and promotion, event planning, organisation, and public speaking. Having a positive and supportive team dynamic, where members encouraged and supported each other, shared ideas and skills, and worked together to overcome challenges, helped build a strong and cohesive team.

Effective Communication

Communication was key to the success of the Open House. Effective communication within the team helped ensure everyone was on the same page and that tasks were completed efficiently. Clear and concise communication in promoting the event on social media (including this eye catching graphic) helped attract more guests. Effective communication also created a welcoming atmosphere, providing attendees with information and guiding them as needed.

Execution

The execution of the Open House was critical to its success. From setting up the venue to welcoming guests and promoting the club, careful planning and attention to detail were necessary for a successful execution.

Free Pizza!

Providing refreshments and creating a comfortable and engaging environment also contributed to a positive experience for attendees.

Converting Guests to join us…

What we try to impress on Guest attendees is that a Toastmasters club in your local area has so many benefits, a few of which include:

  1. Improved Public Speaking Skills: Joining Toastmasters community provides the opportunity to improve public speaking skills in a supportive and encouraging environment. Members can practice speaking in front of a group, receive constructive feedback, and build confidence in their speaking abilities.
  2. Personal and Professional Growth: Toastmasters not only helps improve public speaking skills, but also provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. Members can develop their leadership abilities, enhance their communication skills, and improve their listening and feedback skills, leading to increased confidence and opportunities for growth and advancement.
  3. Sense of Community: Being a part of a Toastmasters community provides a sense of belonging and a supportive network of individuals who share a common goal of improving communication and leadership skills. Members are encouraged to support and encourage one another, fostering a positive and uplifting atmosphere.

At City of London Toastmasters we strive to create a safe and supportive place for personal and professional growth. The Open House gives us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that and to invite Guests to come back and eventually to join us and be part of a community dedicated to improving communication and leadership skills. We hope that the success of our Open House inspires other Clubs to organise similar events to welcome potential Members in their area.

If you’re already a Toastmaster but in London want to join us here’s our Club website : https://cityoflondontoastmasters.org/faq/

Tina Plamadeala, VPPR, City of London Toastmasters

If you want to find out more about how Tina promotes her Club then you can check out this interview with D91 PR Manager, Chris Arning.

The Laughing Toastmaster: All You Need is LIKES. Love in the Age of Social Media

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Love in the Age of Social Media

When my boyfriend asked me what I wanted for Valentine’s Day I didn’t hesitate, ‘Can you get all your office colleagues to LIKE my page’?

Yes Toastmasters, it has come to this, I don’t want to be loved, I want to be LIKED. Boyfriend can send cards and flowers, but that won’t make me feels as loved as 50 new LIKES. As the Beatles’ song would say now, ‘LIKE, LIKE me do’.

This isn’t me talking. Experts say social media is changing our concept of love and in the future our self-worth will be measured by the number LIKES, FOLLOWS, FRIENDED and LITTLEHEARTS we get. Guess I’m just ahead of the times! With 7.63 billion people in the world, the opportunities are endless!

Of course, many people moan and say it’s the end of romance and that getting an e-card is like drinking decaf coffee, you don’t feel anything and it’s sad. Millennials on the other hand will cry, ‘You want a PAPER card?’ and accuse you of personally destroying the Amazon, the forests, the eco-system, the planet, the universe, the future, their livelihood, the-possibility-of-ever-buying-a-home-I-resent-you … you old fogey.

Being an old fogey myself (defined as someone who still uses Facebook), I admit it’s difficult for these youngsters-doomed-to-live-with-mum-for-the-rest-of-their-lives…to comprehend what went on in ‘fogey times’.

  • When ‘strong or weak’ did not refer to passwords, but traits of your future husband.
  • A hashtag (#) was the first step to playing Ticktacktoe, not a way to communicate with as little effort as possible. #IluvU
  • Click-through Rate (CTR) was how many times your husband changed channels on the TV remote control and Conversion Rate (CR) was strictly for religions.
  • If you FOLLOWED someone it was stalking and GOING VIRAL was a pandemic waiting to happen.
  • Lastly, a HANDLE was attached to a door and PLATFORMS were reserved for 1970 shoes.

Please understand, I’m not against social media, on the contrary! I believe it comes with love-enhancing opportunities that us ‘old fogeys’ would have relished!

Let’s start with dating. Remember those blind dates your well-meaning friends hooked you up with? The date would turn up with the personality of an amoeba and more dandruff than a tax inspector? Then it turned out he WAS a tax inspector? Now you can google them to death and then check Tinder, Grinder and REMINDER to swipe them left. Forever.

Equally reassuring are ‘dinner dates’ which today consist of sharing pics of your Deliveroo while texting ‘Yummy’. What a relief not to worry about stupid chit chat or having to drown your burps while eating that enchilada.

Remember those love letters people wrote? (Ok, I wrote). So long and convoluted they made War and Peace look like a Tweet? Such a waste of time! I never got any action anyway. Nowadays just send an inappropriate pic of yourself and you’re in!

Then there’s the ‘Wedding Scene’. Gone are the days when you picked the bridesmaids because they were your friends. Now you choose them because they’re photogenic. No budget for your wedding? No worries! Get married in front of a green screen background and post a Bahamas wedding! Because what’s important are not the vows, but … you guessed it, the LIKES. Never mind your honeymoon includes sending round-the-clock pics to your 801,702 followers, because if you don’t post, it’s like it never happened. Today Descartes would claim, ‘I POST, therefore I am’.

Now you’re married and it’s all about ‘puppy love’. Not that pimply, prepubescent love of yesteryear. Today it’s about your puppy in a Cupid Costume with hubby and you in the background kissing. #AdorablyCute. A billion LIKES!

Finally, its break-up time, better known as #HateUDivorceU. Millennials have it so easy! No more awkward moments when friends you had as a couple have to pick sides and say things like, ‘Let’s stay in touch!’ and never talk to you again. Social Media allows you to take the initiative and DEFRIEND, DELETE, DEFOLLOW, DE-LINK, DEHANDLE, DECLINE. #NeverLikedYouAnyway

What a LIKE-able time to live!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to target the 7.63 billion people in the world, starting with the 280,000 Toastmasters in 144 countries who I’m hoping will LIKE, FOLLOW, FRIEND and LITTLEHEART me back.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sonia Aste is an engineer, writer and comedian. She’s a Toastmaster and member at Riverside Communicators Club.
More from Sonia on her website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

D91 Leader Letter January 2023 Club Growth Update

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Club Growth Update

Reflecting on our membership growth: retaining members and converting guests

Since the start of the Toastmasters year, we have welcomed four new corporate clubs and 1054 new members to District 91. We are now at the halfway point of the Toastmasters year. Now is a good time to review how your club is doing. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Guests are the lifeblood of any Toastmasters club. If you are struggling to get guests to your meetings, you may want to review your marketing efforts. Please also review whether your club’s contact details (address and contact number) are up to date on ‘Find a Club” on the Toastmasters International website, and on your club’s website (if you have one).

2. Are you converting your guests into members? Please take time to speak to each guest at meetings and invite them to join your club, the fact that they have turned up means that they are ready to start their Toastmaster journey. They will stay if made to feel welcome and asked to join.

3. Do you have an onboarding process for new members? How new members are onboarded is key to the longevity of their membership.

  • Do you offer mentors?
  • How quickly are they onboarded to Pathways?
  • How quickly are they integrated within your clubs?

4. Are your members attending meetings and doing speeches and roles? If a member has not attended for a while, then please get in touch with them. You could even send a survey to all your members to see what your club could do better or conduct “moments of truth”.

5. Review your club success plan and check how you are doing against those original plans. If you didn’t create one, don’t worry, it’s not too late to put one together and plan the rest of the year.

6. Are your meetings fun and enjoyable? Try new things at your club such as themed meetings, debates etc. You could even visit other clubs to pick up further ideas.

The renewals window is open, and we would like every member to have reasons to stay within their club. This is especially important because happy members are attractive to guests who, in turn, will become our new members and future leaders within District 91.

I would recommend that you complete your renewals as early as possible. There will be an award of £50 for the first 30 clubs that renew 20 or more members by 28th February 2023. All renewals must be completed by 31st March 2023.

Debbie Williams

Club Growth Director

D91 Leader Letter January 2023 Program Update

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leader speaking to large audience

Program Quality Update

Training, contests, club success and the D91 Conference

We are now just over halfway through the Toastmasters year. It is a good time to review progress against your Distinguished Club profile.

At the District Officer Training this weekend we ran sessions to help Area and Division Directors identify what clubs need to achieve to become Distinguished by the end of June.

While becoming a Distinguished or higher achieving club is important for tracking members’ progress as well as that of the club itself, please also remember to have “high energy” and fun meetings, so that guests want to join, and members want to keep attending.

Training

The Club Officer Training sessions are now under way. A quick reminder that training in D91 is three hours long and includes a session specific to the officer’s specific role. It is important that training records are updated on a regular basis.

Area Directors, please let your Division Directors know as soon as possible who has attended your training and the role they perform at which club(s) as soon as possible so that the records can be updated. Doing this will avoid having to remind people to attend when in fact they have already attended a training.

Please also remind your clubs that if they have all seven club officers trained, they will win a set of club officer pins if this is the first time that they have achieved that goal this Toastmasters year. They can also win a £60 voucher if the club has already had 7 officers trained in the summer round of training.

Area and Division Training events can be found on the D91 Calendar

Contests

Please remember that club contests can be online, in-person or hybrid. Area and Division contests must be hybrid. This was agreed upon at the District Executive meeting in Brighton in September 2022.

Conference

The District 91 conference in May. The location contract is currently being reviewed and a conference update was provided at our District Officer Training over the weekend. Keep your eyes out for confirmation of the conference location very soon!

Diane Richardson

Program Quality Director

Distinguished Clubs, Educational Awards, Contests

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Congratulations!

Congratulations to the 47 clubs who have already renewed 20 or more members until September and have 5 or more Distinguished Club Points (DCP points) already. These 47 clubs are the first of many to gain Distinguished Club status. Another 16 clubs are close already to achieved distinguished status, they need just one or two more members to renew or one additional educational award.

Educational Awards

Unfortunately, 53 clubs have yet to record a single education award, yet I know from having visited some of these clubs that members are doing speeches and completing Pathways Levels. Please ask your Club President, VPE or Club Secretary to record your level completion after you have completed it. If you are unsure on how to complete a project, we will be continuing to run the new member drop in over the next few weeks, which will give both new and longstanding members who are unsure about how Pathways works. The next session with experienced Toastmaster Craig Moss will be at 5:00 pm on Sunday 23rd April, you can register via the link here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItfuGsqzgiGd0GtYFZdes1czpHG3-q9KLQ

Contests – A quick reminder

A quick reminder that if you are competing in any of the contests that you need to ensure that your club has paid the membership fee to Toastmasters International, otherwise you may not be eligible to compete in the Contest as officially you are not a member of Toastmasters even if you have paid your club. Again, with the International Speech contest your level 1 & 2 Pathways certificates must be registered with Toastmasters international.

1-21-100 – Trifecta

You may have seen some of the PR around the 1-21-100 incentive. Trifecta is another name that we are giving to the aim of 100%, 21 and 1 since it is like a sporting event with three elements to it. Debbie Williams our Club Growth Director is explaining in this blog post what the 21 means, but it is worth explaining why we have 100% and 1 as our two award criteria.

Why 100%, Why 1?

The aim at Toastmasters is to offer a great experiential learning experience using Pathways. This is why aim for 100% Pathways enrolment as it will help you strengthen your communication and leadership skills as you grow toward personal and professional success—all while having fun with others in the process! I often find that working withing a loose set of boundaries helps me to be more creative when developing ideas or writing speeches, rather than having unlimited options. Which is why we want all members to enroll in pathways.

The easiest way to demonstrate to others that you “the member” is benefiting from membership of Toastmasters is for you to show your progress by showing your educational certificate award, especially in corporate clubs where it may be an individual’s KPI. One award per member also encourages members to take a full an active role in each meeting they attend, rather than be a passive spectator, as it helps create fun and energetic meetings and brings about a faster learning experience .

Diane Richardson,

Program Quality Director, 2022-2023