Off to a Great Start – Some Great News
Many congratulations to the 25 clubs who have so far won the August Early Payment award! We already have 854 members registered as members until at least March 2022. Several clubs unfortunately missed out by registering 12 members. This is the third highest August membership payments numbers since our District was formed in 2014/15. Several of the winning clubs have already been notified by email and the remainder will be emailed during the first week of September.
The 854 members includes the 171 new members who have joined since 1st July. A warm welcome to each of you and I hope that you have a rewarding Toastmasters journey.
The high number of membership payments is testament to the hard work club officers have put in during the month, encouraging their clubs to win the £25 incentive prize. We will be running another Early Payment incentive in February 2022, so please look out for details. I know from what several club officers have told me that many of these members have signed up for the following six months by paying an annual fee as well, giving these clubs a “head start” for the February Early Payment incentive.
If you don’t want to miss out, please make sure your club claims its reward within 30 days of the email notification date.
More Incentive Prizes to be won in September!
September sees the chance for clubs to win more incentive prizes from the District. Once again District 91 will be running their 80/20 incentive programme. To win your club must be one of the first 16 clubs in D91 to achieve both an 80% retention rate and have 20 or more members on 1st October. The winning clubs can claim for either Toastmasters items purchased from the Toastmasters International online shop, on social media advertising, or maybe even pizza!
One club, Mole Valley Leatherhead (D53) has already won a Smedley Ribbon award for their club banner. Several others are hard on their heels, recruiting 3 or 4 members in August 2021. Winning a Smedley Award ribbon for your club will help achieve the Net 5 growth award in December worth £50.
Open House Meetings
Several clubs are planning Open House events in September, please remember that you can claim up to £75 in total to help cover advertising and for light refreshments, if the meeting is a face-to-face meeting. I would encourage you to bring a non-Toastmaster friend to a meeting, to help build numbers. “Word of Mouth” or a personal recommendation is a great way to grow club membership. I joined after a friend of mine mentioned how Toastmasters had helped them and how much fun he was having at the same. In place of just telling your friends about Toastmasters, encourage them to come along!. You never know they may just enjoy it and decide to join.
Finally
To help members transfer between clubs, can you please let me know what your meeting arrangements will be if you know them for the next six months. This will help the Club Growth Team advise members to transfer between clubs if their personal situation prevents them from attending face-to-face meetings or you are remaining online and have members who wish to return to face-to-face meetings.
Diane Richardson
District 91 Club Growth Director