A challenge was given to the Division Directors, of which I was one, and that was to find a potential new club for their Divisions.
The process of starting a new club has taught me many things. Ask for help, stay positive. Ask for more help. It’s truly amazing, as many of you know, if you ask for help in anything at Toastmasters, toasties will step up. And that has certainly been the case with my startup journey. Many times I’ve thought about giving up, and each time a member of the district stepped up with generous guidance.
One of the biggest obvious things I’ve learned is to not be afraid to fail. Hmmm, a common theme in Toastmasters. And perhaps life. Try something, if it doesn’t work, get creative and try something else. I’ve become more aware of how different clubs need to cater to their demographics to keep a healthy membership level.
The main focus in Toastmasters always needs to be holding quality meetings.
A club won’t survive for long without them. A guest forms an opinion of Toastmaster largely on their first meeting. I’ve taken mental notes from my visits to various clubs over the last couple of years. Some do things in unique ways, such as splitting up the Grammarian role, Ah Counter, and Word of the Day. This gives members of a large club more opportunities to speak. However, it may not suit a new club starting out with low membership. As I found out. With some sage advice, we paired down the roles. Whatever it takes to hold a quality meeting.
As a lunch hour club, we found that many members were unable to get to the meeting for noon or shortly after. Half of the attendees were showing up late. Work comes first. So we pulled a prepared speech and modified the start time to 12:15. Members that show up early can socialize, which can be a nice thing to do and doesn’t hurt club camaraderie one bit. The meetings flow much better now. Also, there have been meetings with 5 people and others with 1. When a large group would turn out, we simply shortened the table topics to 30 seconds. When it was small, we extended them to 3 or even 4 minutes, if everyone was up the the challenge. And they always are! It’s amazing to see that personal growth flourish when there is little worry of certain failures. The key is to keep the quality while being somewhat flexible.
All of these changes came through pieces of advice from seasoned Toastmasters. And all were somewhat foreign and radical to me at first. Yet there was still one thing I learned that surprised me the most, in fact it challenged my common sense.
I learned how important it was to not be afraid to show the value of Toastmasters.
Specifically, I mean the value in dollars. After all, that’s the only way to get a club off the ground. I learned to not be afraid to risk scaring them away by asking them to join the club. Of course I had to show the value of Toastmasters first; showing and sharing the love I have for what it’s given me and keeps giving me. However, some people just aren’t ready to commit. And with a new club, unfortunately you need them to do just that. When you’re starting a new club it’s different than trying to turn a guest into a member at a regular club. Nearly everyone is guest when starting a new club. And that takes time and energy. After several months, there were several members that still had not committed yet. They were doing speeches, growing in their journey, but would not commit. I kindly asked them to join, with no luck. I had to be more forward, and in doing so, some stopped coming; but some did join. Sometimes you need to be subtle, sometimes you need to be straight to the point. It depends. But if they go away, that may be for the best. This can be most difficult, especially when you can clearly see how Toastmasters can help them. If they walk away, that’s okay. Maybe they’ll join another day, another year, or at another club. The ones that truly appreciate the value will join.
There are many things I’m still learning with this new club. I accepted the challenge. Failed. Asked for help. Received help. Failed again. Asked for help again and started to see some success.
Starting a new club is just another of the many fantastic learning opportunities that you can challenge yourself with your journey in Toastmasters.
Heartland Exchange Toastmasters Club chartered June 26, 2019
Glenn Wark, ACS/ALS
Club Sponsor & Immediate Past Division E Director