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It may be surprising, but it
is true. January can be one of the most crucial
months of the year for your Toastmasters Club.
First, there are the District
36 Toastmaster Leadership Institute (TLI) training
sessions that begin on January 9. Don't miss them!
There is no more reliable indicator of a club's
likely success than whether it has trained
officers. This season's TLIs will include at least
two sessions vital to your club's success in
meeting its membership goals:
(1) Vice President -
Membership training sessions where your club's VPM
will learn how to take stock of where your club is
regarding membership levels, and learn valuable,
tried and true tips, ideas and strategies for
building club membership.
(2) Club Coach, Club Mentor,
and Club Sponsor training sessions. These sessions,
jam packed with good ideas and suggestions -- come
with a twist: they'll not only teach you how to
serve in one of those roles, but also how your club
can make the most of having a Club Coach, Mentor or
Sponsor.
All sessions are open to any
Toastmaster, not just club officers. So if you are
thinking about taking your Toastmasters membership
to the next level, please join us at one of these
sessions. As a Coach, Mentor, or Sponsor, or as a
member of a club that is working with a Coach,
Mentor or Sponsor, you will find much of value at
these sessions.
Successfully serving as a
Club Coach, Mentor, or Sponsor is one of the
requirements, of course, for achieving the Advanced
Leader - Silver educational award. But this year,
there are lots of reasons to step up and fill one
of those roles even if you have already achieved
that award. The troubled economy - and the
downsizing, budget cutting, and general belt
tightening that came with it - has taken its toll
of club membership levels. Yet this is the precise
time people need Toastmasters most! We have a
number of clubs that want and need coaches and that
would profit by having them greatly. The
environment for starting new clubs has rarely been
better for Toastmasters. Each new club needs
Sponsors and strong Mentors to help them launch
successfully.
January is the month to get
critical training that will allow you to step up
and extend a helping hand to those clubs that are
sailing up wind in these troubled times. I urge you
to do it. You don't have to be a current club
officer and it doesn't matter if you already have a
dozen DTMs. Your friends in Toastmasters need you
and we'll equip you with training that will ensure
you - and they - succeed.
Secondly, January is a
critical planning month. On February 1, the "Talk
Up Toastmasters" membership building campaign
begins. It runs through the month of March. Every
club should take an active and vigorous part in
that campaign. January is the month to plan your
club's effort so you are able to use every single
day of the campaign period to reach out to and
bring in new club members. Like most things in
life, for a Toastmasters club membership campaign,
planning is vital. Define your goals; Set a plan of
action to achieve those goals; Put your teams in
place; and hit the ground running on February 1.
We'll talk about how to do all that and more at the
upcoming Vice President - Membership TLI sessions.
Now is the time to get the conversation started in
your clubs about how to make your "Talk Up
Toastmasters" campaign the biggest, best and most
successful in your club's history. With some
focused effort, every club can reach that level of
success! People are hungry for ways to strengthen
themselves professionally in these difficult times,
and to pick up or polish skills they need as they,
like all of us, are being asked to do more at work,
with less.
It's easy to sit back in
January and catch your breath from the busy holiday
schedules we've all just been through.
Toastmasters, however, have a lot of important work
to do in January. How well we do it, could well
define when or whether we meet some of our most
important club goals.
If your club has already
started putting its "Talk Up Toastmasters"
membership building campaign plan together - and
remember, if it's not on paper, you don't have a
plan - bring it to one of the TLI VPM sessions.
I'll be happy to talk with you individually about
it, and, if you're willing to share some of your
ideas, we'll talk about them as a group, as
well.
See you at TLI! (And at the
Spring Conference in May when you stand up and are
recognized for your club's membership building
success!)
Here are some very useful
resources:
District
36 Toastmasters Leadership
Institute –
all of the classes and events through
February
"Membership Building
Contests" -- a Toastmasters flyer highlighting the
Smedley Award, Talk Up Toastmasters, Beat the
Clock, and the Individual Member Contest.
Download
the T.I. Flyer
"Ask them to Join" -- never
be without a Toastmasters
membership application!
"Ralph C. Smedley " -- a
Wikipedia article about the fascinating
founder of Toastmasters
Download Barry's January
article as a PDF file January: The
Crucial Month for Toastmasters
Clubs
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