From Guest to Member

Starting a Toastmasters Club is easy but keeping it with the spirit and the enthusiasm is very difficult and a real challenge. Toastmasters Clubs gain importance from the variety of the meetings and the cornucopia of members who tend to put in their efforts and energy to gain from the club. It is important that when a guest visits a club, they are taken through a proper path to get acquainted with other club members as well as made to convert into a regular club member in a way that has very smooth transitions.

As a new club, we faced this and here is the text of the mail that was sent over to the officers to make certain that each guest is treated properly and made into a club member...

What should we do when some guest converts into a club member?

This might be a simple protocol we might need to follow when someone joins our club - so that we do not miss out on any important tasks a new member should undergo....

1. VP-Membership:
- Fill the appln. form for the member.
- Include the sponsor member name - it will be beneficial to the individual member later.

2. Treasurer (Make Money !!!):
- Calculate the money the new member needs to pay.
- Pay the fees in TMI website.
- Update Club Roster at Twiki/Website.

3. VP - Membership:
-Add name to mailing list alias.
- Send welcome mail to the member cc-ing alias.

4. VP-Education:
- setup a mentor for the member.
- fix a date for the ice-breaker speech, preferably in the 2nd/3rd week after joining.
- provide a copy of the icebreaker speech.
- as the new member to do some roles assisting GE in the first 3-4 meetings. No major roles till then.

5. Secretary:
- Get details of email, phone number, birthday, anniversary, etc. from the new member.

6. President/Seargent-At-Arms:
- Introduces the new member to the club in the next meeting.

Hope this helps us in getting the new members on track with our club proceedings and we, ourselves have specific responsibilities by which we don't forget / do multiple times a specific task.