David Nicholas coordinated a Training course on behalf of Western Founders Toastmasters for members interested in coordinating or helping with Speechcraft courses.

16 Toastmasters from a wide range of clubs took part in the course, with a skilful group of Trainers - 7 from Western Founders and 2 other experts. They were Mida Liddle, the WA Speechcraft Coordinator, and Mark Richards, the District 73 Public Relations Officer.

The aim of the course was to provide information about how Speechcraft operates, to give practical advice in how to run the courses, and to advise in the process for clubs to set up courses directly or use Mika’s assistance in finding the participants.

As WA Webmaster, David has a Speechcraft page with lots of information, and a Bookings page, supervised by Mika.

Checkin

After the welcome and an outline of the day’s program, everybody checked in, revealing what they hoped to get from the course. Mostly the participants wanted to learn more about Speechcraft and how they could take part in it. Some wanted the Coordinator role, to complete their Advanced Communicator Gold award. Some wanted to take part as helpers to get the experience to later on act as Coordinator. Some realised that Speechcraft is a good way to raise funds for their club’s educational program. Others were just curious.

Overview

Alan Smith did a general survey of the Speechcraft program. He distributed copies of the Speechcrafter’s Handbook and the Speechcraft Coordinator’s Guide. Alan took us through the index - always a good place to start - and then the various chapters. He particularly noted that recent editions of the Handbook and Guide have removed Powerpoint presentations from the course.

First Discussion Group

Glenis Nicholas introduced a discussion on participant needs. What do we think that Speechcrafters are looking for when they sign up for the course? The participants were divided into 3 groups with a mix of Toastmasters and Trainers. Each group appointed a leader and a reporter. The report back segment confirmed that each group had been energetically addressing the issue. Most groups had similar results, but each had some individual contributions to make. These were some of the suggestions

• Overcoming fear and anxiety about public speaking
• Learning speaking skills
• Specific work related presentation skills
• A short course with no ongoing commitment

Training Workshops

Charles Fisher presented a segment on the importance of workshops to demonstrate specific skills. He suggested that the Toastmaster Better Speaker Series provided material for these workshops and he demonstrated such a presentation. In the discussion following during the course, others suggested that shorter Workshops involving specific Speechcrafter involvement were very important.

Morning Tea

Resident chef Gawain Simpson prepared a sumptuous morning tea. The 20 minute break hardly gave enough time to do justice to it, along with the vigorous conversation that took place.

Meeting Styles

Sue Voloczi gave a Powerpoint presentation on the kind of Agendas that were appropriate for the 2 kinds of courses we offer - the public courses, and the inhouse business courses. She distributed a handout relevant to the public courses.

Money!!

David Nicholas gave a brief exposition of the Toastmaster Fundraising Guidelines and had copies of the rules for those who wanted to study them in detail. Essentially, we can use Speechcraft to raise funds for educational purposes. This includes sending voting delegates to World and District Council meetings, as well as acquiring sets of Manuals for the use of Club members. We must not set up in competition with outside businesses selling public speaking training. Our current fee structure meets the requirement that it must be reasonable.

Getting participants for local courses

Mark Richards, the District 73 Public Relations Officer, outlined ways clubs can publicise their Speechcraft courses. Of course, after the great success of the Canning Vale Charter, Mark strongly recommended a letter box drop as the most effective and economical way of advertising our courses in particular localities.

Getting participants for the central courses

Mika Liddle, the WA Speechcraft Coordinator, explained the extraordinary service offered to Clubs and members through the central courses she administers. We advertise the courses through the toastmasterswa.net website and there is a steady stream of eager participants. The 6 week courses are conducted at Caddencrowe where she works in West Perth. They alternate between Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings during the year. Mika handles the bookings and collects the fees. The net proceeds are distributed to the Clubs which run the courses, on a strictly proportionate basis, calculated by the number of sessions that members assist in, with the Coordinator getting a 3 times loading. The next course begins on Wednesday, August 20, and is being coordinated by Leonor Ragan.

Second Discussion Group

Robyn Lloyd led the final discussion session. What will I do about this? Again there was a break up into 3 groups, mostly with the same members. If anything, the discussion was even more vigorous as we all grappled with what we would do about Speechcraft now that we had all this information and help. Again there was a general consensus reported by the group spokesperson.

• Some had already spoken to Mika and offered their services for central courses.
• Some intended to negotiate with Mika.
• Some intended to go back to their clubs and propose a local course
• All groups felt inspired to do something, even if they didn’t quite know what yet.

Questions and Discussions

All the presenters gathered to stand at the front - no relaxed sitting here - as David invited questions. There was only 13 minutes allocated so it ran a minute and a half over time, with a great deal of further discussion after the course nominally finished. Most of the questions were directed to Mika - the service she offers is obviously very attractive to those who learn about it. Mark asked David to present a brief version of his 5 minute workshop on Basic Speaking Skills. Everybody had to take part, just as occurs in the first Speechcraft session in many of our courses.

Timing

Pascale Amberville-Colby kept a careful eye and ear on the whole course, and we did very well for Timing. It was only the final segment that made the finish one and a half minutes over. Pascale thought that was pretty good.

Finish

David closed the course on a very high note. Naturally he referred to the toastmasterswa.net website for more information on Speechcraft and the courses being offered, as well as to email contacts to Mika and himself for more information. And naturally, he promoted the benefits of the Western Founders Club which meets at the George Burnett Centre on every third Saturday morning.

WA has a new Division this year - Innercity. So, we have 3 new Areas. And recently we had some more new clubs. So we have a new Structure in WA Toastmasters this year.

Your club may now be in a different Area, and perhaps in a different Division.

Check the new structure and if you have a comment or a query, post it on this page.

To see the details of the new structure go to WA Toastmasters 2008/09

David Nicholas DTM
Email davidnic@iinet.net.au
08 9457 6468

Yes, our District went from No.46 last year to No.13 of 85 Districts in the world in this year.

Congratulations to District Governor, Mike Helm DTM

Mike produced a stunning vindication of his very narrow victory in the Council vote at Fremantle in May 2007. Could the District be governed from Perth? Or would the administrative burden prove too much for the WA leaders - Governor Mike Helm, Treasurer Alan Smith, Secretary Jeanette Farrar and Parliamentarian David Nicholas? The results speak for themselves.

And we could have gone higher had there been more effort to get our Clubs Distinguished. Look for the analysis below.

WA led the way

The figures tell the story. Not only did we have Mike Helm, the first West Australian District Governor, leading the way, but our stunning score of New Clubs propelled us up into the top group of Districts. And where did they come from? WA of course. Here is a breakdown of club numbers, State by State.

Club Numbers Analysis by State 2007/08

The big points area for Distinguished District is in the net increase in Club numbers. That’s where WA led the way for District 73.

Points for Distinguished Clubs

This is where our District did very badly. There are 10 points available, but we got only 2. Here is a breakdown of where the Distinguished Clubs were located, Division by Division. Note that the Tasmanian Clubs are located within Metro Division, which is predominantly a Victorian Division. You won’t be surprised at the WA results.

Distinguished Clubs Analysis by Division 2007/08

What were the sources of the WA success?

Effective Leadership at the top

• District Governor Mike Helm worked tirelessly to encourage our local leaders.
• WA New Clubs Coordinator David Nicholas recruited an excellent team of motivated and innovative workers
• WA Governors, a new concept in advanced clubs, developed by Mike and David, brought together each month key WA leaders.

Resourceful and distinguished work at every leadership level

• Our Division Governors, Gil Alexander and Mark Richards were both President’s Distinguished and distinguished themselves by the amount of work they put in to lead their teams.
• Our Area Governors We had 8 AGs. Michael Malone and Steve Barry achieved President’s Distinguished. Judith Allen was District Area Governor of the year.
• Our New Club Founders 12 New Clubs were in one year! Lots of members worked to bring this about, and particularly the Club Founders

Persistent, effective work

At every leadership level there were willing and able workers. I will be publishing a brief history of the new clubs push early next week. Many members were involved.

What do we do now?

Our own District in WA

This was the first, highly successful year of our campaign to form our own District in WA. We need to reach a target of at least 60 clubs, with a powerful growth trajectory.

We grew last year

We put on 12 new clubs, grew from 35 to 46 clubs, and formed a third Division - Innercity has joined Western and Perth.

We aim to do better in 2008/09

• We have 3 talented, hard working new Division Governors - Bill Hewitt in Perth, Ian Pickens in Innercity and Ross Wilkinson in Western.
• We have 11 Area Governors determined to at least match the 2007/08 records.
• We have a team of talented and proven successful new club founders and mentors

Look forward to another stunningly successful year.

David Nicholas DTM
WA Webmaster
WA New Clubs Coordinator

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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 zoomable map (it shows where to park in Ellen St)

Full details of the Agendas and times will be posted as soon as they are available.

Our 3 incoming Division Governors are working on the program right now

Perth Division - Bill Hewitt
Innercity Division - Ian Pickens
Western Division - Ross Wilkinson

Have you elected your new officers for 2008/09?

Elections are due now for the next term. Make sure that the new officers are posted on the Club Page on the World Headquarters website. Go to Club Login. You will need your club number and the club password.

Why should the new Officers go to Club Officer Training?

First, there is excellent help in handling the new role. This is of value to the individual in extending their leadership skills, and to the Club in the improved service from the Officer.

Second, it is a part qualification to the Club towards one of the 10 Distinguished Club Program goals. To achieve the 9th Goal Clubs need to have at least 4 Officers trained at each of the July and the February training sessions.