Pepping up the club ....

When starting a Toastmasters Club, there is a lot of enthusiasm. But on the run, people tend to move off because of personal reasons, professional overload and more often people really find it challenging. Only few of the members strive to overcome the challenge. Especially with a new club, there is none who is experienced and like what companies complain about, attrition starts to take the hold.

Moreover, like any startup, a new club also needs to define what it expects out of its members. For many giving 10 speeches would mean getting a CTM/CC. But apart from the 10 speeches, there is a lot of meaning to a CTM certification. Similarly, when someone comes and says that they have got a Ph.D., it implies a lot - a mind for striving to get a solution to the problem, ways to reserach, ways to propse a problem, means to identify the latest technologies for the problem, ability to write and present their research topic, patience, etc.

In a new club, even after a few successful meetings, there are lot of misunderstandings in picture and some take giving speeches/evaluations to be for the namesake. I have seen members not coming back when they were suggested to repeat the speech and this had been evaluated based on the speech objectives suggested by TMI. This clearly shows an incapable mind to take a feedback.

Even after 40 meetings, as VP-Ed., I faced quite similar problems in my club. Being a corporate club, had its own unique pros and cons. I wanted to express the same and hence penned the following ....

It has been 40 weeks of interaction among us in terms of a platform called "Toastmasters". I think it is time that we revisit the thought why we meet every week for about 90 minutes and find out where we have improved and where we need improvement. The audience of this mail includes everyone on the alias and so I'm also the target of the subject!!!

(Toastmasters should not apologize!!! ... but I apologize for this long mail flooding your inboxes ...)


Let us follow the Sandwich approach of feedback on the club (one great lesson from Toastmasters)....

There has been a significant increase in the variety of the topics selected - both for the speeches and the topics sessions. Some Toastmasters bring in humour wherever and whenever necessary and correlate the topic of the day to the Toastmasters event - this brings in more enthusiasm and liveliness for the meetings. The choice of questions in the topics sessions have improved a lot. This enables us to think on our feet and our urge to fit in the word of the day in our impromptu talk gives more work to our brains.

Protocols are an important feature in the TM meetings. The handshake protocol as well as addressing a person with their appropriate roles (during that meeting) and calling them appropriately (as Mr., Madam, etc.) have given the importance to the need for a formal mode of addressing during the meetings. All these protocols show how well we adhere to a formal meeting - great job and we have to keep up this work!!!

Having a small break before giving out the evaluations is a small step. But speakers and evaluators utilising that short break to understand the speech better and its correspondence to the speech objectives is a great task that needs appreciation. Giving an evaluation that is too critical / giving a plain vanilla evaluation is not good for the speaker as well as the evaluator and the club as a whole. Rather than providing such an evaluation, if ALL the evaluators discuss with the speaker before giving an evaluation and also provide an evaluation that is in line with the objectives of the speech, it will be a great bonus for everyone in the meeting to know how the speech corresponded with the objectives of the project. PLEASE never say that everything is perfect. As an evaluator if you can give any suggestion to the speaker by making the good speech into a better one, you are doing justice to your role.

Coming to the speeches, many of us lack the preparation and the enthusiasm to give a speech. Many speakers have given wonderful speeches earlier but have faltered in their later speeches. There may be many reasons for providing not such a wonderful speech, but with proper preparation and rehearsal, any speech can be delivered with more zeal and enthusiasm during the meetings. This will make the meetings as well as the club a very lively place to be in.

Next is the important feature of keeping our club going - members and their attendance. Many members turn in only to give their speeches and disappear before they are ready for their next speech. This is strictly not a welcome feature. We are in a club to help each other grow and Toastmasters is not about giving speeches alone - but a potpourri of various other skills like Leadership, Time Management, Evaluations, etc. Also, with a club roster strength of 25, only the regular faces of 15 or so turn for the meetings. Remember TM is not like other communication/leadership programs - you improve only if you participate and provide enthusiasm during the meetings. Each speaker - whether he/she gives a prepared speech/impromptu talk, it is the responsibility of everyone of our members to be present during that time, analyse the speaker and the speech and provide constructive feedback. This is how we can improve individually and as a club.

Taking up roles is also another area where we lack enthusiasm. Please DO NOT consider taking roles as a burden. This is a chance to improve yourself in that role. You can learn swimming only if you are in water - similarly you can benchmark yourself only if you take a role. Try to take big roles - like TM of the day, Topics master of the day, General Evaluator - these give you more opportunity to talk before an audience as well as give you a platform to put across your thoughts and ideas to the audience.

A skill that TM meetings teach us is Time Management. Hardly have we seen meetings start and end on time, especially recently. We need to improve on this and make certain that we do not miss out on an important skill that TM adds to our skills portfolio. If there is a feeling about changing the timings during the meeting, please contact the VP-ed so that it can be accommodated, if applicable.

Finally to conclude, at 40, we are young as a club, but we have the great potential to be a great club in the near future. To make it to that level, we need to raise the bar - give interesting and lively speeches, provide better constructive evaluations, bring in more enthusiasm in the meetings, take different and challenging roles but have variety and the formalness of the meetings. I'm certain that we can make this club achieve great success if WE, as a team, do our club and every other member justice to their being a Toastmaster.