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Time to Give a Little Love to Our D91 Online Clubs

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“Online clubs are not proper Toastmasters clubs.” I would be quite rich if I had £1 for every time I have heard or seen that in the last few years. I beg to differ: They are ‘proper Toastmasters clubs and in fact they are vitally important to keep our organisation alive and thriving.

Pre-2020, online clubs were serious outliers, most were un-districted although that had started to change, but by early 2020 ALL clubs were either online or closed until they could return to regular meetings. I would like to take a moment to thank all those wonderful Toastmasters who went online, kept their clubs functioning and growing and most probably helped to save our entire organisation from having to rebuild from the ground up.

What did those online Toastmasters clubs discover? Wow! An entire world of clubs to visit, plus a mass of new visitors for their clubs. People joined clubs who would not have been able to join a club before even though they might have had a desperate need to do some confidence building and learn some valuable skills.

I want to be clear here that I am talking about online-only clubs, not hybrid which is a story for another day.

As far as I can gather there are now about 126 online clubs of diverse types worldwide listed on Toastmasters International. I am fairly sure that only one D91 online club is on that list even though I believe there are at least ten online-only clubs in our District, including closed corporate clubs.

As D91 Alignment Chair even I have found it hard to find those clubs, so I am not very hopeful for the public finding an online club if they wanted to find one.

A quick Google search brings up the Toastmasters International website listing for Online-only Clubs, with its one D91 club but little else of any help.

Let me explain why we need to show our online clubs some extra love and attention: Basically we are missing a huge opportunity to gain not only new clubs but also to spread the word about Toastmasters outside its usual demographic of people.

Belonging to an online Toastmasters club in the UK offers several advantages. Just like being a part of any Toastmasters club, they focus on developing communication and leadership skills, plus here are some specific advantages of being a member of an online Toastmasters club:

  • Convenience:  Online clubs offer a convenient platform to work on your speaking skills from the comfort of your own home. You can participate in meetings and events without the need to commute. This not only saves time but also eliminates transportation costs and environmental concerns.
  • Flexibility: Online Toastmasters clubs allow members to attend meetings from anywhere with an Internet connection. This flexibility is particularly useful for individuals with busy schedules or those who live in remote areas.*
  • Diverse Membership: Online clubs often attract members from various locations, backgrounds, and cultures. This diversity can enrich the Toastmasters experience, exposing members to different perspectives and communication styles.
  • Networking Opportunities: Online clubs enable members to connect with professionals from various parts of the UK and worldwide, potentially expanding your professional network.
  • Skill Development: members will be learning skills that are needed increasingly in the workplace.
  • Feedback and Evaluation: Speeches are often recorded at online meetings to give members detailed constructive feedback with the opportunity for them to review their performance and rapidly see where improvements can be made.
  • Personal Growth: Just like a traditional Toastmasters club, the online club can boost self-confidence and self-esteem in speaking and leading in a supportive and non-judgmental environment.
  • Cost-Effective: Online clubs may have lower membership fees compared to in-person clubs since they do not have to rent physical meeting spaces. This makes Toastmasters accessible to a wider range of individuals.
  • Accessibility: Online clubs can be a great possibility for individuals with physical disabilities or other limitations that make attending in-person meetings difficult.
  • Cultural Exposure: If you join an international online club, you can gain exposure to various cultural nuances in communication, which can be a valuable skill in our interconnected world.

Overall, an online Toastmasters club provides an excellent opportunity to enhance your communication and leadership abilities, offering the same benefits as in-person clubs with the added convenience of remote access.

Online clubs can easily become ‘niche’ clubs by specializing in a single interest, humour, a sport, a hobby, advanced speaking skills and the online platform makes it far easier to attract members to those clubs. They can be international or local hubs for rural areas.

Online clubs can attract speakers and presenters from across the world to speak on a wide range of topics. They can attract ex-pats and international visitors as members to add to a club’s diversity.

Who are the prospective members for a locally based online club? People who cannot attend a regular meeting, due to work commitments, caring commitments, costs, transport difficulties, physical, emotional, and mental health issues that make it difficult to travel.

Those who live outside London do not always have reliable regular public transport.

How many people have heard stories of people who take weeks, months or even years before they feel able to visit a club in person? Attending an online club is a gentle way to start the journey of personal development.

There was a recent post on the Toastmasters Facebook group from a member who has just received her DTM with her online club where she is a Division Director in Founders District in USA and ironically, she is based on the Isle of Wight.

I have just had a talk with a member who must leave the club she currently belongs to as she is moving because of a new job in which she will have to do a lot of online presentation. She in now interested in joining an Online Club to help improve her skills.

Online meetings can be vibrant and fun if you choose to make them that way, be available for socializing at the start and end of meetings. Competing is just as viable online as in regular clubs as shown by our District 91 International Speech Contest Winner this year, Anthony Garvey.

Our existing and potential new Online Clubs need attention from us all. Find out where there is an online club so you can point people to it. There are people who do not know about online clubs but would benefit from joining. Regular community clubs are not providing what they want and need.

Online clubs are not something to be hidden aways and shunned as inferior. They are part of the future of Toastmasters.

We can only go forward now and integrate the new, going back was never an option.

Barbara Saph DTM

District 91 Alignment Chair

*Travel costs are £16 every time I visit my nearest in-person-only home club – ed.

 

 

The Laughing Toastmaster: Green Room Gossip

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Green Room Gossip - Sonia Aste

As Toastmasters we visit a lot of Green Rooms doing public speaking. Personally, I’d prefer if they were white and padded (especially before an important gig), but at this point in my ‘thriving’ public speaking career, I’m just glad there’s a ROOM.

After being squeezed into corridors, cubbyholes, and janitor’s closets (it’s amazing how little space mops take), I can boast there’s a Green Room. And toilet paper in the Ladies’ Room! Success at last!

Now let’s not confuse ‘Green Room’ with the evergreen section in your local Garden Centre. A Green room is defined as: ‘A room in which speakers can relax before and after they perform on stage’. ‘Relax’ is not exactly the word I would use. More like, ‘She’s hyperventilating, looks like she’s going to pass out’!

I didn’t, but it was close. Where’s a brown paper bag when you need one? Plastic bags won’t do. You’ll not only hyperventilate but asphyxiate and die. Plenty of time to do that on stage.

I like Green Rooms. They remind me of my true love: chocolates. They come in all shapes and sizes and bigger is definitely better.

Take the last corporate event I did. The Green Room was a huge seminar suite filled with posters praising the benefits of hard work:

  • WORK and MAKE IT HAPPEN!
  • No Shortcuts: WORK FOR IT!
  • WORK HARD! Get AHEAD!

Very inspirational. I must remember to follow them one day.

For quirky Green Rooms, the winner has to be a B&B room in York, annexed to the conference room we were performing in. One speaker took a shower, the Keynoter took a nap, and I took all the biscuits. Hey they were free!

Close second is a Curry House in Birmingham, hired for an office party award ceremony. The Green Room was beside the kitchen. I wasn’t exactly on top of the stove but close enough to go on stage smelling like Chicken Dopiaza. Turned out the audience went ballistic and wanted more and more! Curry.

My personal favourite? A large brewery near Chicago. Was it the tank’s reflexion that made all the speakers shine? Or the fact the audience was doubly intoxicated due to what I call ‘alcohol osmosis’?

Green Rooms have rules too. As far as I know these remain unwritten, so for the benefit of all you rookies out there (in public speaking that means anyone with less than 101 years’ experience):

  1. Don’t be a jerk… but be prepared to meet a few.
  2. Avoid asking ‘Is this the Green Room?!’ With a smirk on your face. Go back to point 1.
  3. Don’t brownnose the event organizer … too much. A little ‘mocha’ nosing is expected, but most people will see through ‘You’re the best person in the world!!’ And those who don’t are best avoided.
  4. Fans and groupies are not allowed in the Green Room. My grandmother is in Spain so not a problem for me.
  5. Don’t be greedy. The organizer has kindly put out drinks and refreshments for ALL the speakers. Taking the Gin and Vodka bottles home is not cool. Plus, I have yet to be invited back to that specific event.
  6. Be nice to the host/MC. They have the power to introduce you as: ‘We believe in giving new public speakers a chance, I’ve never seen her before … so anything goes’…
  7. Don’t believe speakers that boast about how they have won all the speaking competitions in the world, especially if you’re performing in the cafeteria of an accounting firm in Sunderland. (See point 8).
  8. Do boast that YOU have won a Toastmasters’ speech competition as the name of our organization carries a lot of clout. Never mind it was third place at club level and there were only three speakers.
  9. Don’t say, ‘You really bombed!’ to the Key-Note Speaker (even if it’s true). Don’t be tempted to give them an evaluation (even if they really need it). Do say ‘Have you thought of joining Toastmasters’?

And finally,

  1. If you have an issue with any of these rules – ignore them like I do.

Sonia Aste is a Harvard MBA, Engineer, MEng, writer, public speaker, and comedian. She’s a Toastmaster at Riverside Communicators Club
More from Sonia on her website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

Bloomberg Corporate Recognition Award

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Bloomberg Corporate Recognition Award By Debbie Williams, Club Growth Director Introduction You may never have heard of it, but the Corporate Recognition Award is somewhat of a big deal at Toastmasters International. Corporations from around the world have formed symbiotic relationships with Toastmasters. By sponsoring a club at their workplace, companies are allowing the Toastmasters … Read more

The Laughing Toastmaster: The Geeky Feminist

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The Laughing Toastmaster: The Geeky Feminist Who says the age of miracles is past? Here’s one for you: I’m a GEEK! Me, the woman who has spent her life trying to be ‘cool’ but always ends up with parsley stuck between her teeth. Last week I successfully completed an after-dinner speech at an IT conference, making me … Read more

The Laughing Toastmaster: What They Don’t Tell You About the D91 Conference

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When Rakhi Jain (conference PR) suggested I write an article on, ‘Why Attend the D91 Conference’ I was all for it! At the same time, I thought, ‘Shouldn’t she ask someone who’s a bit more Toastmasterly?’ And by that, I mean people who say things like, ‘Everybody’s a Winner!’ Not a bitter person like me who thinks, ‘If everybody is a winner, why didn’t I even PLACE?‘ and starts to cry?

But then I realized these Toastmasters are too busy doing Toastmasterly things, like TED Talks, or travelling to far-away lands to get photographed with their Toastmaster magazines.

So, you’re stuck with me, which isn’t such a bad thing. Who better to convince you to go to the conference than someone who’s prepared to tell you what nobody else will?

Let’s start with the Evaluation Contest, in which one courageous speaker gives a speech and then waits for ten contestants to tear it to pieces (I mean analyse it thoroughly and thoughtfully) and provide constructive feedback.

Under these circumstances you’d think first prize would go to the speaker for their bravery. Not the case. Another set of evaluators (called ‘the judges’) evaluate the evaluators evaluating and decide on ‘BEST EVALUATOR’. Besides being a terrifying tongue twister, it begs the ultimate evaluators’ question, ‘Who judges the judges?’

Next up are the Workshops, not to be confused with pawnshops, which is where I ended up in order to buy the ticket (cost of living crisis and all that).

Workshops are divided into two main categories, EDUCATIONAL and INSPIRATIONAL, below some excellent examples:

EDUCATIONAL

  • Using Storytelling to do your Tax Returns
  • Learning When to SHUT UP (reserved for advanced Toastmasters)
  • Overcoming Procrastination (usually postponed)

INSPIRATIONAL

  • If You Can’t Convince Them, Confuse Them.
  • When One Door Closes, Pick The Lock
  • Why Toastmasters make good lovers (always oversubscribed with a massive waiting list)

Then there’s the Keynote Speaker, who usually features as the headliner of the event. Now, in most conferences around the world, the keynote speaker is a smashing success! An outstanding communicator! A worthy conference headliner!

But this is Toastmasters.

And what the keynote speaker does not realize is that their world-renown-speech is being scrutinized, analysed and evaluated by every single Toastmaster attending. We can’t help ourselves, it’s part of our DNA! In fact, I would argue the keynote speech should be followed by an evaluation, if only to make the speech even better? Just my opinion.

This leads to the most important event of the conference, The International Speech Contest, which alone is worth the family silverware I had to pawn.

This is the Superbowl of Speakers! The Cricket Cup of Communicators! The Olympics for Orators! And like in the Olympics, these outstanding speakers have faced huge hurdles to get to this point: CLUB, AREA and DIVISION levels. They now face the DISTRICT, which is not so much a hurdle but more like a POLE VAULT, the stakes are so high!

Because of all the years you would want to reach the World Championships, this is the one to do it, as the event will be taking place in beautiful Nassau! Imagine! A beach combo of sizzling sun, sea, sand, sex, speeches and speakers!

But we’re not there yet, and while the more Toastmasterly folk from D91 will be saying, ‘May the best speaker win’, I’m cheering,  ‘May my club member win!’

Finally, there’s the Gala Dinner. An opportunity to relax with fellow Toastmasters while enjoying a delicate meal and drinking responsibly. Ha, ha! Wishful drinking. More like skipping the meal and hitting the booze for a decadent-debauched-downright-degenerate-all-nighter!

If you think this is some kind of joke, it’s not. This year the conference title is ‘Inspiring Futures’ and the gala dinner is sure to inspire all kinds of shenanigans and  over the top fun! Not to mention the perfect opportunity to practice what you learned in the Lover’s Workshop:

Why do Toastmasters make good lovers? They practice body language, know about pace and rhythm and get to the point.

I won’t go into any more detail, because as every Toastmaster worth their speech knows,

‘What happens in the Toastmasters Gala stays in the Toastmaster Gala’.

See ya there!

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