Updates & Posts

We will be adding more articles to this page. To start: here are articles on speaking and articles giving personal views on the on the power of Toastmasters and an exciting joint meeting between London and Namibia.

A busy year

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The new Toastmasters year provides all members with the opportunity to review their personal goals for the year ahead. Already there is interest in establishing new Toastmasters clubs across the District. With many members seeking to complete their Distinguished Toastmasters Award by June 2020, there is support for club sponsors, mentors and coaches and running speechcraft, speaker to trainer and youth leadership workshops for High-Performance Leadership (HPL) awards.

A busy year ahead beckons.
To support all the activity, it’s all about teamwork. With the backing of the District Director, Florian Bay and Program Quality Director, Arnaud Sartre, this year, I will be assisted by Club Extension Chair, Bob Bowes and Member Retention Chair, Seema Menon. With the addition of each Division providing a nominated representative to service on the Club Extension Committee.

With this experienced team, members wishing to set up a demonstration meeting to set up new clubs, help is available. Each division has expressed a projected level of new club activity, there may well be an opportunity to be involved, right on your doorstep. There are plenty of occasions for members to volunteer to serve to support and learn more about themselves along the way. Help is at hand. The District will provide you with a demonstration box to assist you in running the meeting. Along with volunteers to assist with the running of the meeting too.

Many clubs organise membership drives, during the year. Interest in hosting an Open House Meeting for this year has already begun. You may find members wishing to manage this event as their HPL project. The District will support your club when you undertake this activity. There is an open house box of goodies too.
For your events, you are not alone. Established members are often seeking openings both inside and outside their own clubs. Their experience is invaluable; from running advanced club meetings, organising club, area and division events, Toastmaster specific training sessions and to cutting-edge and forward-thinking workshops on speech and leadership. The great gift of being a member of Toastmasters is when you ask for help, it will be there. If you are hosting an event and seeking support, ask for help.

Member retention will be a key focus this year. Our District is ahead of the curve in putting in place provision for membership numbers before this becomes an aspect of the Distinguished Club Program. To encourage our clubs this year, there is a new incentive this year of 10+. This award will be given to clubs that grow from their membership base number as of 1 July 2019, to 10+ members by 30 June 2020. The 10+ is in addition to the member retention element to the pizza challenge.

I am looking forward to serving all our members and driving the Club Extension Committee. It’s going to be a fantastic year ahead.

Imagine this

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A keen individual, let’s call her Carmen, has heard about Toastmasters from a friend and tries to contact her local club via the internet. A few days go by and she hasn’t heard back, so she then picks up the phone to call. Because Carmen is super keen, she manages to get through to a previous committee member who gives her the information required for your next club meeting.

David, on the other hand, has worked up the courage to explore Toastmasters, after hearing about it from his elder brother for years. He hears nothing back and does not pursue things further. Does any of this sound familiar? Every year, between May to July, we go through a leadership transition period in our club’s and Districts. Sometimes it takes a while to for handovers to complete. Toastmasters International remains one of the primary search tools for people looking for their local club. Are the contact details in club central current? How long does it take for your club to respond to an enquiry?

Over the last few months, we’ve all experienced a new member experience to anything ever before. With most of our clubs adopting virtual meetings, our ‘network break’ may not feel the same. In some cases, it’s been a lifeline for long-standing members to get involved as it may be easier for them to dial in and not have to worry about childcare or a commute. Some may wish to stay connected to the club but opt for shorter meetings due to the other screen time they have.

As you plan as far as you can for your club’s success this year, I’d invite you to engage all your members in feedback. This could be by running a survey or facilitating one meeting just to ‘Moments of Truth’ – a way where all members can get involved in quite literally doing an MOT of the club.

Finally, we have a number of clubs in our midst this year that could genuinely do with some additional support. To that end, I have appointed a Club Retention Committee charged with finding and matching appropriate ‘Club Coaches’ to such clubs. Could this be you? More information can be found here: You are invited to get in touch to support the members of these clubs get back on track

I wish you a fantastic start to the 2020-2021 Toastmasters year and every success with your personal educational goals this term.

High Impact Online

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How to look and sound professional in an online world

Online communication is now a way of life, even when we return to what was considered “normal”. The world has changed and there will be some sharp changes in the workplace. Every interaction is a moment of truth, and leaves an impression, whether in person or on-line.

This webinar will be focusing on looking professional on camera and communicating with impact and authority, so that your first, second and last impressions is a positive experience.

We will look at three essential elements of online communication to develop an online presence to maximise the impact:

Being professional and developing an impactful online presence will help you stand out positively, increase visibility and demonstrate professionalism to your manager, your customers and your peers

It could be the difference between:

  • Winning or losing business
  • Being promoted or being passed over
  • Keeping a job or being made redundant

There are two scheduled dates to choose from

Friday 19th June at 8 pm – Register now

Sunday 21st June at 6 pm – Register now

Ending an extraordinary year

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Time flies and it’s hard to believe that we’re already in the middle of June with the end of the 2019-20 Toastmasters year just a fortnight away. The least I can say is that this year was a very interesting year for the District and a very successful one on so many levels.

You still have time

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As we head towards the end of the Toastmasters year, we have one key message for our clubs. You still have time to bring your clubs back to a strong membership position.

We are currently in the middle of a membership drive called Beat The Clock for clubs to increase your membership by 5 and we are encouraging everybody to engage with these efforts. The mantra 30 is the new 20, still stands.

Ensuring your club hits the 20 member mark, will enable some clubs to achieve DCP level. For members requiring the opportunity to complete educational awards, there’s still time to organise mega meetings and events to assist them to achieve their educational goals. Plus, this provides you with an opportunity to invite non-renewed members and guests to attend.

Here’s how you can help.

1. Members and renewals – during March and April, some of our members did not renew, but are now starting to come back. If you have members that decided not to renew earlier, now is the time to contact them to invite them to renew.

2. Increase your membership – clubs can host their own Open House Meetings to invite guests and non-renewed members too. To support this, there’s £100 available from the District for marketing the event, e.g. Facebook ads, Meet Up registration etc.. Keep the receipts to claim the expenses back. To benefit in this Toastmasters year, the event must take place between now and the 30 June 2020.

3. Club Finances – review the club’s budget for the year ahead. The slower than usual renewal payments have affected some clubs more than others. When we come out of the lockdown, clubs may struggle to hire the same venues, for a variety of reasons. An option is to switch to annual renewals from September (rather than 6 monthly) as this will greatly assist with budgeting. Discuss with your members now as this change impacts them.

We acknowledge that these have been challenging times over the last couple of months. Throughout this time, for members facing uncertainly, their Toastmaster meetings have been a constant. Many clubs have stood up to support their members. We are not alone. It is particularly heartening to look at the clubs in Italy, with the testing situation there, to witness their members continuing to be actively engaged, providing invaluable support for each other and in turn, have helped their clubs to grow. The measure of this success, clubs achieving distinguished and having a strong membership-based. We can learn from this if you have established and experienced members that haven’t yet renewed, it is time to bring them back into the fold. As well as welcoming guests to join meetings and continuing to attract new members. Ensuring new members are registered with Toastmasters International by the end of June.

Some clubs are excelling, they have increased their member base. If that is your club, are you sharing your good practices with other clubs? Can you help a neighbouring club that is struggling? We have pre-charter clubs that are close to chartering and looking for support, can you get involved? This is your opportunity to support all clubs to bring them back to a strong membership position. While we are at it, let’s Beat The Clock!

It has been an absolute delight and pleasure to serve as your Club Growth Director this year. I look forward to continuing to serve you, next year as, your Program Quality Director.

Helena Boden-Brewer, DTM