District Leadership 2019-20

Over the last couple of months, I have been dispatching Open House boxes to our clubs. Many clubs are using the opportunity of Talk up Toastmasters to promote their clubs, invite guests along and showcase what Toastmasters is all about.

https://youtu.be/Y7wkM1xEGZg

What’s in the box?

There are ribbons, badges, pens, leaflets, timing cards, badge holders, table topic cards and Toastmasters promise cards.

These materials help you run the event. Though the hard work begins way before you receive the box of goodies.

 

It’s all in the promotion of the event. I accepted an invitation to attend the Open House held by Ascot & Bracknell Speakers, to assist by running the Table Topics session. In arriving early, they put me to work, setting up the room and putting out chairs.

The members managing the registration desk were prepared with guest packs and smiles. The doors open, guests arrive, and the guests keep coming. From this point on, the club members were set to work, greeting guests, showing them to seats and chatting about Toastmasters. This created a fantastic atmosphere and a buzz around the meeting venue. When the club VPPR came up to me as said, ‘Wow, the promotion on Facebook worked.’ Similarly, aghast and chuffed all in one.

The promotional activity and marketing is key. Focusing efforts on this side reaps results. There is £100 available to help cover venue hire and marketing of this event. This is the question I receive most, how to claim the £100? The District Finance Guide is the starting place https://d91toastmasters.org.uk/district-finances/ You will need receipts for the expenses.

Good luck to all those with Open House meeting planned for the next couple of months. Remember to post on social media afterwards too. Encourage members to like and share you posts. Add in hashtags #Toastmasters #wearetoastmasters #whereleadersaremade it all helps raise awareness.

Pizza time…. Renewals of your club membership, it now this time of year. Help your club Treasury’s by renewing your membership with them as early as possible. Our incentive the 80:20 pizza challenge is back too. This proved to be extremely successful in the Autumn with clubs managing to retention 80% of their members and along with renewing 20 plus members. Clubs have already started submitting renewals, which is fantastic.

And finally…

At events I have attended; the London TLI which kicked off 2020, Division TLIs, contests, club launches and Open House meetings, it’s you the member that makes the magic happen. You have made me so welcome. Thank you for all your hard work over the last couple of months. It is much appreciated.

 

At a Toastmasters Leadership Institute last weekend, somebody invited us to think differently about how we market Toastmasters. We were challenged to market it more along the lines of “Toastmasters will change your life” rather than along the lines of “it’s a structured programme, there are Pathways that will teach …”

In other words, we should begin with the ‘Why’ of why somebody might be interested in joining Toastmasters instead of focus on the ‘What’ and ‘How’.

This approach strongly resonates with me though it often requires thinking outside of the box. As we are in this busy month of February, remember to begin with the ‘why’ when you Talk Up Toastmasters and perhaps organise an open-house meeting to promote your club. Don’t forget to use the ‘why’ when collecting membership renewals and to simply ask ‘why’ if someone is unsure about renewing. We can’t change somebody moving overseas to start a new job, but we can do something about supporting members in our clubs and providing them with new challenges.

https://youtu.be/p2XIJMSHo-c

Don’t forget too about the #MyWhy campaign that Toastmasters has been promoting for a few years. Your members’ stories are powerful tools to inspire someone to join or rejoin your club. A smartphone is all that you need to begin collecting stories. What’s more, the District created many #MyWhy videos that you can find on our YouTube channel alongside may other goodies too!

https://youtu.be/EjFqZutWRow

Fellow Toastmasters, as we head to the mid point of this Toastmasters year, it’s time to reflect on how we have progressed over the first half of the year.

The first major achievement, the membership renewals. The mantra on club membership numbers, 30 is the new 20, has been well received. What this autumn renewals has demonstrated, is many of our clubs love pizza in winning £50 for their clubs. The retention measure of 80%, proved achievable along with renewing 20 members. Given it’s success, this incentive will be running again in the spring.

The club growth activity has been steady. As we head into 2020, there are many new clubs on the horizon. In London, there are corporate clubs that meet during the day, members that have the opportunity to visit and support these fledgling clubs would be welcomed. With two new corporate clubs in London,  AWS and Bank Speakers joining the fold recently. Demonstration and launch meetings are pending across the District, if you are interested in being involved, contact me or Bob Bowes. More hands make light work.

Clubs considering hosting an Open House meeting as part of a membership drive is steadily gaining in interest. From the recent stock take, there are supplies which will have to be reordered from Toastmasters online shop. If you are planning an Open House in January, February and March, please contact me to ensure I can dispatch the materials to support this effort.

Raising awareness of your events. For those putting on anything from Open Houses, workshops, training, Club Officer Training, Toastmasters Leadership Institutes etc… remember to include @ToastmastersUK&I. As well as, encouraging club members to share and like the post.

In the new year…. Look out for the incentive clips which were filmed recently. A fun way to spend a Sunday with Toastmaster members. Of course, lunch was pizza. Our District PR Manager, Susan Rayner worked so hard to put the day together and at times it must have been like herding cat, thank you for your patience.

Have a wonderful festive break,

Your Club Growth Director

Helena….

Recently while visiting a club I was asked “What is the main thing you’ve learnt through Toastmasters as a leader?” and I replied “Turning a vision into reality is possible!” Most of you are familiar with our District vision of 1 – 70 – 100 whose ultimate goal is to support every member in becoming whoever they aspire to be. Realising this goal requires excellence and choosing excellence is choosing extraordinary.

Together as a District, we are choosing extraordinary this year! For the first time in years, we’ve renewed more members in the Autumn than in the Spring of the same calendar year. This happened thanks to you all. Through the friendly conversations you’ve had with fellow members. Through persisting in reaching out to members you hadn’t seen in a while at your club. Through laying on great club meetings that inspired people to renew their memberships.

Now more than ever is the time to plan ahead for more successes. Let’s start 2020 with a big bang that will resonate across the Toastmasters world!

Information on our District Incentives is now available in our District website here. More information will be added in the coming weeks, including a fully interactive version of our incentives board.

Some of you may have heard about our open-house initiative. The objective is very simple, spread the word, attracts loads of guests to your club and convert them into members! District will provide you support with both equipment and funds. Consider organising an open-house in early 2020 and start your year with a bang!

Stay tuned from more exciting news in December. Except to see some more new videos too following our successful filming day last week-end too!