Does your club have less than 20 members?

20 members minimum is the target Toastmasters International sets as the operational level for successful Toastmaster clubs. If you have less than 20, then your members are not getting the full benefit of their membership.

How can you recruit several new members in one campaign?

There are long term methods which really work - an active website is the best. But that takes time to kick in. You want something that will generate 5 or 6 new members in a 3 month campaign. This is the way it works.

Run a community based publicity campaign

This campaign style is based on the method developed by Mark Richards DTM in the chartering of Canning Vale Toastmasters. For his method for new clubs go to Publicity for New Clubs 

There are several important stages. Check them out.

Get your funding in place

You are going to need money - it took about $800 to set up Canning Vale. $800 - can your club afford it? Yes it can, with help, which is readily available. You will have to work for it, but you can generate that kind of money for such a purpose. For ideas, and help, go to Finding marketing funds in WA Toastmasters

Set a date for the Demonstration meeting

You are going to run a Demonstration meeting at your club, at its usual venue, on the usual day and time.

• Not too soon, because you need time for the publicity.
• Not too far away, because your helpers will grow tired of waiting.

Recruit your team of helpers.

You will need club members to fill the usual Toastmaster meeting roles, like Sergeant at Arms, Toastmaster, Table Topics Master, Table Topics Evaluator, Speakers, Evaluators, Timer, and, very importantly, Workshop Presenters.

• Have 2 speakers - it is best if one is a fairly inexperienced rookie and one is experienced
• Have 2 five minute Workshops from 1 or 2 different presenters. The Workshops should be about basic skills, and involve audience participation.

Market your meeting

• Mark and Robyn used professionally printed flyers which they letterboxed.
• Ask for a phone response so you have an idea of how many will turn up.
• Contact a reporter from the local newspaper - provide some preliminary information to get them intereste

Have a look at the Canning Vale Flyer

Make the demo meeting the best and liveliest meeting you can.

• Involve your audience by showing them some basic speaking skills in an interactive workshop - get them to stand up, show them good stance, where to put their arms and hands, and eye contact.
• Get them involved in table topics.
• Have a demonstration Icebreaker
• Have a question and answer session at the end.

Have a look at the Demonstration Meeting Agenda

Sign them up!

Yes, invite them to join the club.  Get them to fill in the New Member Application Form.  If they don’t have the money, which is likely, still get them to fill in the form, and arrange to collect the money at the next meeting.

Keep a record of everyone who attended

Get their phone #s and email addresses so you can follow them up, and invite them to attend further meetings.

It works for others. So give it a go.

Register for the course on Saturday, Aug 16

Speechcraft is a short course training program developed by Toastmasters International. It is a high quality program which can be of great value to your club and to you personally.

Why would you run a Speechcraft Course?

Your club needs more new members and more funds for educational purposes You want to acquire the skill and the experience to run public speaking training courses. You will need a Success Leadership Module for your Advanced Communicator Gold.

Register for the Speechcraft Train the Trainer Course

Venue: The George Burnett Leisure Centre, Manning Road, Karawara / Como
Date & Time: Saturday morning, August 16th, 2008 from 9-12 midday.
Cost: $20 (to cover the venue charge and the sumptuous morning tea)

Why would you attend the Course?

This course is being run by Western Founders Toastmasters. Right now there are many opportunities to take part in or coordinate Speechcraft courses. This training module will explain how Speechcraft operates overall, the structure of the course, and the skills required. You will get to practise many of the skills in the training session.

How to Register

Download the Registration Form trainthetraineraug08regofrom

and get it to David Nicholas. You can post it to him with the $20 cheque made out to Western Founders, or scan the form to pdf, pay the $20 by Direct Bank Transfer (066163 10398582 Reference your name) and email it. If you have some queries or want more information phone David Nicholas on 9457 6468 or email him.

Netmasters

A new kind of Toastmasters Club

The times they are a-changin
Bob Dylan’s song was prophetic in 1964 when he released it. It was true then and it is strikingly true now of my experience of Toastmaster administration and marketing since I joined in 1995.

Email

I didn’t have email then, and it wasn’t part of our member contact list at all - postal address and phone number - that was it. What about now? There are a few members in a few clubs who don’t have email. And they are a problem because clubs, District Officers and World Headquarters itself now use email almost exclusively to communicate with members.

The new communication frontier

It’s the internet of course. And of course it’s “of course” to most, but not all, of our members right now. Right now a powerful communication method is sweeping through the internet in a similar way to email replacing snail mail. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. MySpace. Facebook - Prime Minister Rudd had great success in the election campaign with his Facebook site. There are many other examples springing up right now, across the net. They are coming in right now, and soon using them will be commonplace among many or most of our members, and, even more importantly, among our non members who might be persuaded to join Toastmasters.

Netmasters is showing the way

Netmasters Toastmasters Club has just been set up in WA to investigate, to trial and to use these new communication methods to recruit new members, to enhance club activities and to pioneer the setting up of online clubs.

An online Toastmasters Club?

WA is a very big state - 1/3 of Australia. We have recently chartered Touch of Gold Toastmasters in Kalgoorlie, but outside Kalgoorlie there are many mining centres. Workers there can’t get into Kalgoorlie to attend the meetings. Oh, that’s their tough luck! Isn’t it. We can’t provide any Toastmasters experience for them. Or to the tens of thousands now of similar workers scattered through the booming Pilbara mining region in the north west and south east of the state.

Or can we?

Michael Malone, CEO of Iinet and President of Durack Toastmasters, is one of our many innovative and visionary WA Toastmaster leaders. He thinks we can. No, he knows we can. The technology exists right now to conduct effective Toastmaster meetings that bring together members from all around our enormous state - and our enormous country Australia - and the world itself. They can’t physically come to a meeting next Tuesday evening from Port Hedland, Broome, Coober Pedy, Yallourn, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Devonport, Beijing, etc, but they can all meet online next Tuesday night.

It will be a bumpy ride

There will be technical problems, but they will be easy to solve, using today’s technology and tomorrow’s which will be even more efficient and user friendly. The big problems will be around mindsets. Some, perhaps many will claim - You have to physically attend a venue. You have to stand up in front of an audience to deliver a speech - otherwise it’s not public speaking. Toastmasters will never agree to charter an online club!!!!! We will see.

What do you think

Post your comment and join in the discussion.

First Perth

Perth Division reached President’s Distinguished Division last Friday, June 20, 2008. At that point Gil Alexander was the only President’s Distinguished Governor in District 73. Congratulations, Gil.

Now Western

And now today, June 25, 2008, Western Division has reached President’s Distinguished. Congratulations President’s Distinguished Governor, Mark Richards.

Plus a triumph for District Governor Mike Helm

Yes, District 73 has reached Distinguished status and may be on the way to Select Distinguished. More of that next week.

A success story - Mark Richards and Canning Vale

Mark Richards

Mark Richards has been attending Victoria Quay Toastmasters every Wednesday night for the past 7 years. Sometimes Robyn came along for social functions, but she wouldn’t join - they live in Canning Vale, which is almost half an hour away. “Why can’t we have a club in Canning Vale?”

So, this year, Mark’s year as Western Division Governor, he decided to start a club in Canning Vale - if Robyn would help. And of course she did.

Here is how they went about it. It’s a great story, with a lot of valuable advice on how to start a community club. But you can use the techniques as well to attract a lot more members to your existing club.

This is Mark’s story. Read his advice.

Get your funding in place

You are going to need money - it took about $800 to set up Canning Vale. See below for how he did it.

Apply to World Headquarters to Organise a Toastmaster Club.

That costs US$125 which is about A$135 at present (early 2008). For that you get a big box with 20 New Member kits, and a lot of other helpful publications.

Open a bank account

• With no fees - yes, societies accounts still exist.
• You use the Club Number supplied by World Headquarters.
• You need a preliminary business meeting to appoint a temporary President, Treasurer/Secretary and Vice President Education. This meeting authorises the bank account.

Find a venue that is central to your target audience

Mark located (well, Robyn actually) the Canning Vale TAFE who were happy to let the new club use a big room with lots of facilities every Tuesday night for a very reasonable cost.

Set a date for the Demonstration meeting

• Not too soon, because you need time for the publicity.
• Not too far away, because your helpers will grow tired of waiting.

Recruit a team of helpers.

You will need

• 2 Demonstration speakers - one should be a rookie and one should be experienced.
• 1 Table Topics Master and 1 Table Topics Evaluator.
• 1 Timer.
• 1 extra helper to be a speech evaluator.
• 2 experienced Toastmasters to be Mentors for the club for the first 6 months - they are very important - and of course they will fill some of the helping roles already outlined.

Market your meeting

• Mark and Robyn used professionally printed flyers which they letterboxed.
• Ask for a phone response so you have an idea of how many will turn up.
• Contact a reporter from the local newspaper - in Canning Vale they were pleased to get the story.
• Approach local schools to put into their newsletter to parents.

Have a look at the Canning Vale Flyer

Make the demo meeting the best and liveliest meeting you can.

• Involve your audience by showing them some basic speaking skills in an interactive workshop - get them to stand up, show them good stance, where to put their arms and hands, and eye contact.
• Get them involved in table topics.
• Have a demonstration Icebreaker
• Have a question and answer session at the end.

Have a look at the Demonstration Meeting Agenda

Keep a record of everyone who attended

Get their phone # and email address and follow up if you need to.

Bring application forms and ask people to join.

• Get them to fill in the New Club Member Application Form - it’s different from the standard New Member Application Form.
• Collect the money - or arrange for it to be collected next meeting

Complete the documentation and send it to World Headquarters

What is the procedure for electing/appointing Area Governors for 2008/09?

The standard procedure will not work when 2 Divisions are combined and reconstituted into 3.

In the standard procedure current Area Governors ask Clubs and members in their Area for nominations for the coming year. If only one qualified nomination is received, that person is appointed. If 2 or more nominations come in the Area Governor holds an Area Council Meeting to conduct an election. If no nominations are received the District Governor is left with the responsibility of finding the incoming Area Governor.

I have prepared a page which sets out the new structure in a much more user friendly style than previous lists. Have a look at WA Toastmasters in 2008/09.

The standard procedure wont work this time

For example, look at new Area W16. The 4 Clubs are

Foothills - was in W28
Successful - was in W21
Southsiders - was in W21
Canning Vale - was or is in W28

Which Area Governor is responsible for finding a new Area Governor for W16?
Judith Allen? the current W16 Governor with no clubs from her current W16
Ross Wilkinson? current W28 Governor
Steve Barry? current W21 Governor
None of these?

Judith has been busy finding a Governor for P30 which now contains the clubs that were formerly in W16. Michael Malone is the current P30 Governor. Presumeably he is busy looking for a Governor for new I1, which contains most of the clubs currently in P30.

I’m not attacking the new structure. There are very good reasons why W16 clubs have moved into P30 and P30 clubs have moved into I1. Judith and Michael have an easy job in identifying their target clubs. However as I have shown in the new W16 it is combination of 2 clubs from W21 and 2 from W28. Ross and Steve can be relied on to work cooperatively here, since they both belong to Fremantle Gateway and Cannington Communicators, but their cooperation has little connection with the standard procedures.

My suggestion is that the District Governor supervises a non-standard solution to individual cases which need it. The new P20 stands out in this regard - 3 clubs, all from different current areas, plus a club which wont be chartered by June 30. There are other situations with somewhat less complex origins, particularly in our new Innercity Division.

Whatever is done, has to be done quickly, so that we have Area Governors in place for District Officer Training on Saturday, June 28.

Post your comment or your suggestions in the box below.

Here are the dates and locations

Saturday, July 5 at the Palms in Subiaco from 1-4pm including afternoon tea
See this zoomable map (it shows the Palms bounded by Thomas St, Nicholson Rd and Rokeby Rd - the entrance is off Rokeby Road)

Thursday, July 17 at the Fremantle Bowling Club from 6.30-9.30pm including supper
See this zoomab Read the rest of this entry »