Editor’s Note
The tree is a universal symbol of strength and growth. From a tiny seed, the tree will grow, adapt to changing conditions, and benefit those who use it wisely. A series of events, beyond anyone’s control, cut down the tree that was the Achievers of District 74 (Southern Africa). Michael Fawcett, club coach, arrived to find a club in crisis. The club had not met in two months and only two discouraged remained. If the club were to recover, Mike would have to replant the seed and devise a strategy to nurture the club. He formed a team comprised of the remaining members and Toastmasters from neighboring clubs. Together, they advertised the club and conducted high quality meetings. This two-part approach worked, but the club’s growth was slow. Then, a potentially devastating storm arose when the club was asked to leave their meeting location. The club quickly adapted by finding a new meeting location, a location much more suitable for the growth of the club. The club won the Select Distinguished Club Award and is still growing today. This story is a treat for club coaches growing a club from nothing into something worthwhile. This edition also contains rules for treating guests, an agenda for an executive committee meeting and an example of a business meeting.
Yes, We Did
Yes we did it, we did it! Bragging, singing ones praise? I think not, the club achieved the Select Distinguished Club Award, no mean feat for a club that was almost down and out on its feet. My personal goal in Toastmasters was to become a Distinguished Toastmaster, and when a coaching opportunity arose I jumped in with both feet, little realizing what was in store for me. The club by name was Achievers, a corporate club of Achievers Awards Group. It chartered in 2005 with 23 members, through no fault of the club, membership dropped to seven in one foul swoop.
What did we, as a club have in our favour?
- Positive aspects for the club.
- A beautiful venue – wooden panelled boardroom fitted out with all modern equipment to hold a meeting.
- Free tea/coffee and biscuits.
- Secure free car parking.
Negative aspects for the club.
- Location – poor public transport in the middle of an industrial area
- As I thought at the time, the starting time of the club meetings, just at close of business was too early (this negative thinking on my part was proved to be wrong).
Immediate and Long-Term Plan for the Club
My first job as I saw it was to rebuild the interest, confidence and enthusiasm of the remaining members. I would do this by building an external support team of experienced Toastmasters. Simply put, I would invite Toastmasters from other clubs in the area to attend and help. A fully-staffed Toastmaster meeting is fun and exciting and would raise the enthusiasm of the remaining members. These Toastmasters, if willing and able, could also help with the action plan. A two-part action plan was drawn up. The first item, new members were needed badly! To get those members, an advertising campaign was put in place within the firm and surrounding industrial area. Secondly, we needed to start meeting again so a date was set for our first re-awakening club meeting – a grand reopening, if you will.
The Grand Reopening
The resumption of regular meetings was a big step forward. The club did not meet for the past two months. Even before this grand reopening could take place, enthusiasm was draining fast, as one by one of the remaining five members resigned. For some time, no, a long time, my mind was saying what have I taken on?
The first new agenda of the new Achievers Toastmasters Club was sent out to all club members, one week later the club meeting was held – two members, my wife, a Toast- master and myself, not one guest or visitor honoured us with their presence. Although only two members made any effort to attend, of the two one was very eager to save the club, the other in her words “I am hitting my head against a brick wall”. She proved to be a valuable asset to the club and gave her full support until she attained her Competent Communicator Award (CC10).
We had a very good and light-hearted meeting. Because there were so few in attendance, we had to improvise. Excluding myself and my wife there were only two club members to fill a two hour agenda, 20 minutes for speech projects, six minutes in all for evaluations, four minutes in all for Table Topics excluding the time given in presenting Training Projects, Club Protocol and procedures etc., 45 minutes, one hour at a stretch and the meeting would have been over. Not wishing to change the length of the club meeting from two hours to one hour, bearing in mind the future club growth, I had each member and myself prepare to present three or four Table Topic sessions, where each of us took it in turn to be the Table Topic Chair, after one complete round, the procedure was repeated until a fair amount of time was used up. Our Table Topic speeches ultimately led the way in developing the club’s personality and proving that the club was resilient, flexible and would be successful.
Further Meetings, Further Progress
We continued the two-part plan of staging quality (grand meetings, if you will) and advertising the club. As to the advertising campaign, the member whose attitude of knocking ones head against the wall took it on herself to put adverts in all the local community papers, send letters to all the firms in the business area, plus actual visits to these firms to explain what Toastmasters was all about. Also we were competing against three other Toastmasters clubs in the area. The club still uses local papers, word of mouth and the Toastmasters Magazine with club information inside, which are left in doctor and dentist offices, hair salons, etc.
A discussion was held into the matter of transforming guests into members, especially, how to treat them when they walked through our doors. For myself, if there is one single most important commodity that is the potential new member. We drew up a set of rules to welcome guests and transform them into members (see below). We consulted How to Rebuild a Toastmasters Club manual (page 10). We noted all that was suggested and more. The program of promoting the club was to carry on in earnest, to make the club more attractive I invited all the other clubs in the area to help and give support by dangling a carrot in front of their noses (so to speak). I offered leadership and communication slots on the agenda. The “Cry” come and work through your manuals quicker and bring a guest worked. The response to this was fantastic.
Member’s Rules for Guests
- The first rule of the club would be that no guest would be left alone for one minute from the moment a guest came into the venue until the guest left at the end of the meeting. Guests would receive a thank you email for visiting the club and that the next meeting’s agenda would be sent to them.
- The second rule is not to swamp the guest straight off with what Toastmasters is all about, but to first enquire where they learnt about the club, then introduce yourself, your own interests, hobbies, work, where you live etc., then get buddy relationship, and then explain the benefits of being a Toastmaster, the community roles Toastmasters engage in, i.e. Youth Leadership and Speech Craft Programs.
- The third rule, make sure each guest is given an Agenda, and explain the agenda to the guest, and have answers to any questions the guest should ask, here I refer to one question that in my experience not many members can answer either than, oh, you must speak to the Treasurer or VP-M, that is how much it costs to join, not only total cost, but how much to Toastmasters International, how much to club and how to Area. These three if carried out well seem to do the trick on converting a guest into a Toastmaster.
The next meeting’s agenda was full with speakers and all the other roles filled. This support from other Toastmasters lifted the spirits of the Achievers two members, even the one who thought we were knocking our heads against a brick wall. This support from other clubs did bring positive results, two experienced Toastmasters joined the club, one taking on the role of Club Mentor and President of the Club. The term Club Mentor is typically applied to a Toastmaster who helps a newly chartered club through the first six to twelve months. In this case, the club called this person mentor because she offered her vast knowledge of Toastmasters in helping myself and the growth of the club as if filling the role of Club Mentor, and over the two years the name mentor became a recognized role this member was fulfilling.
With further meetings, guests began to arrive, slowly at first with a small measure of success in recruiting new members, it was not the starting time putting guests off, it was more the location, even with a full agenda to show what Toastmasters was about, plus the open, friendly light-hearted meetings, this was in most cases not enough to encourage new members to join Achievers.
Then lo and behold the hand of fate befell us, the Achievers Firm in a very diplomatic way asked us to look for a new venue. This was the making of the new Achievers. The new venue was a library hall in the middle of a residential area, every meeting was a success with maximum number of speakers and leadership roles being filled, speeches evaluated and manuals signed off.
My wife and I joined the club, and from then onwards; a new venue, an agenda that was full and interesting, guests were beginning to join more readily, in turn, the members were bringing friends to the meetings and slowly we began to grow and grow. During these early days we did have a club member represent the club in the Humorous Competition. That was a positive experience for the member and for the club, to be repeated again in the other competitions!
Over the next 14 months we on average, had one new member join the club at each meeting, with a record of three new members at one meeting, we were initially aiming in the Distinguished Club Program to become a Distinguished Club, thanks to the enthusiasm of the members we attained Select Distinguished Club with eight out of 10 goals. Our membership stands at 19 with one guest to confirm becoming a member at our next club meeting. With two members only during all this time resigning through various unforeseen circumstances.
If there was one area of continued weakness, it was that we did not have a full committee to help and grow. Initially, it was the experienced Toastmasters that filled these roles, the newer members were unsure of committee protocol, but over time some took the challenge. The problem that arose in the early days was scaring the new members to the point of possible resigning from the club, to overcome this a softly, softly approach was taken, I am a strong believer in the art of observation, observation on what each committee member played in making a club meeting a success, as all these roles initially fell upon myself as VP-E, and Sgt-At-Arms, my wife as Secretary and VP-M, and the Toastmaster (Club Mentor)!!! As President and Treasurer. Then after a while each member was encouraged to understudy in a role of a committee member, but all things do not run true and straight, the clubs first two members were of the Jewish Faith, and were not able to attend Club Officers Training Program which are held on a Saturday due to their faith, to overcome this, the President who is a qualified TI Official, obtained permission from TI Headquarters to give one on one tuition to these members at her home, with parliamentary procedure presentations given at the club meetings, members gradually took on their committee roles while mentored by experienced Toastmasters. When the time comes for a new committee to take over the club it will be on a sure footing.
Lessons Learned
It has been a long two years. It’s been a growing experience for myself. The rewards are many and include: looking forward each month to a new lively fun meeting and seeing the new and experienced members steadily working through the Toastmasters Program. My personal reward! Attaining the credit towards Distinguished Toastmaster.
Looking back on lessons learned. If I was to do this again as a club coach, I would not have jumped in with my own singular enthusiasm, but would have, where possible, formed a full rescue team, but the ideal ways are not always available at times and one has to go against tried and tested ways to suit the situation at the time. Also the venue, looking back on hindsight we should have moved in the beginning to a new venue more
closer to residential areas to expose the club to the neighborhoods, which proved the case when we actually did that. One last item, and in the beginning there was time on the agenda for it, more education presentations could have been given.
By Mike Fawcett, DTM
Letter of Praise
I have come to know Mike and his wife, Mavis, well over the past few years and have come to appreciate their positivity, abundance of energy and willingness to give, and give, and give to Toastmasters. Mike’s willingness to go the extra mile- no matter what, his unflagging ability to motivate and encourage others, and his belief that there is always a solution to a problem… coupled with Mavis’s patience, support and generosity of spirit made them the perfect team to assist the Achievers, and to work with us to bring us back to greater strength, greater effectiveness, and greater achievement.
Though I was not a member of the Achievers when Mike took on the role of club coach, I joined soon after and feel I am in a good position to recognize the superb effort put in by Mike in taking Achievers from two active members at our lowest point, to a club that ended the 2010/11 year with 13 members and achieved Select Distinguished Club… Perhaps even more importantly, with Mike’s support, the club has continued to grow and looks set to reach charter strength in the very near future (current membership of 18), and is well placed to achieve again on the DCP. It has been both a privilege and a pleasure working with Mike Fawcett as club coach of the Achievers! Thank you, for all you have done for us, Mike- we could not have done it without your support!
By Lois Strachan, DTM