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

Facebook?

What’s that, you might say? Wasn’t that something Kevin Rudd used for his election campaign? Or was that MySpace? Anyway, what are they?

Facebook is a networking opportunity, a rapidly growing Internet facility to link people with shared interests, tastes and needs. So, it is an opportunity we can use to publicise the benefits of Toastmasters to potential new members.

The CEATS Group or Team Toastmasters @ Central TAFE

This is a group of 3 students - Melanie, Caitlin and Alisha - from TAFE who opted to study marketing on a practical level by preparing a Business Plan to market Toastmasters in WA to Generation Y, the 18-35 year olds in our community.

Presentation to WA Governors

The CEATS group presented to WA Governors at their December 13 meeting. There was a video and an oral presentation. It was an eyeopener to WA Governors members, most of whom do not belong to Generation Y, born between 1975 and 1991. Generation Y people are different from those before them, so we need to market ourselves in appropriate ways to interest them in our product.

Generation Y - what are they like?

Generation Y are the most connected generation in history - connected to each other, the ’system’ and the market. Think of the saturation of the internet and mobile phones, the power of virtual marketing and the proliferation of consumer blogs. The more communicative the technology (the faster, easier and cheapter it connects people, the more popular it is with Gen Y - just look at the growth of the internet and mobile phones.

ichat

Ceats proposed that we set up a sub-group of Toastmasters in WA named “ichat” They have designed us a snappy logo. Potential customers are 18-35 year old students at TAFE or universities wanting to develop their communication skills and help with their career prospects, and also young professionals who wish to improve their skills to get ahead in the work force.

What’s in it for us?

Each Perth club will have the chance to run an “ichat” session each month over a 3 month period. During the events, potential “recruits” will have the opportunity to interact with members of Toastmasters, whilst learning about the organization and creating networks.
This will be done in the form of speed networking with the event set out so that people will have the opportunity to sit down at their screen for a set time and interact with other guests and members and participate in group activities whether word games or presentations on a specific topic.

Promotion

Facebook will be used to promote the product by sending “ichat” applications to potential members. Users will be able to add the “ichat” application and connect to people wioth the same interests. This will lead to brand awareness and link them to the “ichat” website where they can access information regarding Speed Networking.

Where to from now?

Some of the WA Governors members are studying the Business Plan prepared by Caitlin, Melanie and Alisha. We will be consulting further with the CEATS group to plan how to take advantage of their proposals. In the meantime, if you have further ideas or suggestions on this marketing approach, please add your comments below so we can all benefit from them.