"Perspectives" - Toastmasters Tip of the Week

(courtesy Gary Jones, President, Grand River Toastmasters)

This week's Tip is.....

Building and Maintaining a Strong Club.

It has been said that it takes 6 to 8 months to get a new club up and running and 6 to 8 meetings to kill a vibrant club. Why is this?

A Toastmaster's meeting must always be a safe space to experience. This means that each participant is experiencing a role or activity that is not overwhelming or too far out of their comfort zone,

We have seen some members distance themselves from meetings and sometimes drop out due to the expectations fellow members place on them.

For instance we once had a member who joined as they wanted to build up their confidence level. They were comfortable doing timer, invocation and such roles. When performing these roles everyone who witnesses the results were blown away by how well they conducted themselves.

The group response was to encourage the person to start doing speeches and other roles as soon as possible. What they didn't know was that the person's Mentor was actively working to maintain the person in the club. They were dealing with the Fight or Flight response the person was struggling with.

This new member actually left the club as it was easier to quit than to stand upon to the group pressure to move ahead.

Let's always allow room for appropriate involvement. Let us leave the filling of roles to the VP of Education so that the dynamics of member growth can be a safe and pleasurable experience for one and all.