This article is written for the Toastmasters International Club President, Vice-President, and Toastmaster of The Day.
The core of every member’s Toastmasters International Club experience is the club meeting. The Toastmasters International club meeting serves as the vehicle through which members become better speakers, listeners, thinkers, and leaders. It is where the learnings and growth take root. However, a Toastmasters International Club meeting is also the cause of frustration for many Toastmasters International Club Presidents, Vice-Presidents of Education, and Toastmasters Of the Day. Trust me, as the 2021/2022 President of Toastmasters International Bryanston Breakfast Club, I know this frustration all too well. The great news is that my club has overcome this challenge. I want to share with you how we do it.
Over the past 10 months as Toastmasters International Bryanston Breakfast Club President, ensuring a successful Toastmasters International Club meeting has been one of my many frustrations. What made this frustration particularly unique is that it is a challenge prominently faced by Toastmasters International Clubs with low membership attendance at club meetings. According to an article from Toastmasters International, it takes a minimum of 20 members to successfully run a club meeting. Since the pandemic affected the Toastmasters International Bryanston Breakfast Club, our membership has dropped to 11 members and we have been averaging 5 members per meeting. That is a quarter of the minimum required members to run a successful meeting. So how is it that each week a club of 11 members, with an average of 5 members per meeting manages to run a successful meeting at each club event?
The secret is "Club and Member Engagement".
Tip #1 - Identify & Allocated Key Meeting Roles
This is by far the keystone that will always ensure an effective club meeting. From my corporate leadership experience, I have learnt that an effective meeting always brings a thoughtfully selected group of people together for a specific purpose, and delivers a tangible result. The logic is a follows:
When you have limited member resources to work with, the first question to ask is what are the most fundamental roles that need to be filled?
In the context of Toastmaster International Club meetings, fundamental roles are roles that only club members can fill. For Toastmasters International Bryanston Breakfast Club the fundamental roles were the Seargent at Arms/Zoom Master, Toastmaster of the Day, Timer and Table Topics Master. These are all roles that members need to adequately prepare for for optimal delivery. With these roles alone we can run a successful and effective clubmeeting. It requires a-lot of creativity though, but it always delivers fun and value to the attendees.
Tip #2 - Engage Guests Immediately
I would like you to think back to when you were a child. How did it feel like watching other children playing whilst you sat on the side lines? Think about the last event you went to? How did it feel being unable to enjoy the event? That feeling is a reality and it can exist in Toastmasters International Club meetings.
An effective meeting is one in which all participants remain engaged. People were not born to sit in Toastmasters International Club Meetings nor do they wake just to passively sit through another Toastmasters International Club Meeting. They want to engage in the meeting. It is our responsibility as Club President, Vice-President of Education and Toastmaster of the day to make this a reality. Ultimately this engagement feeds into the success of the meeting and the value that members and guest gain from the meeting.
One of the best strategies that my club uses to always ensure all meeting roles are filled is to allocate non-fundamental meeting roles to guests. These are roles such as Ah Counter, Grammarian, General Evaluator, Table Topics Speech Evaluator (In the absence of prepared speakers for the meeting) & Co-Timer.The logic is a follows:
Guests come to experience a Toastmasters International club meetings and the value that they can gain from it. When we are low on member resources, we use this innate guest drive to our advantage. The best way for anyone to experience the value of Toastmasters International is through participation. Get the guests to participate whenever and wherever you can.
Think of it like outsourcing for services. Be Inclusive. Engage guests immediately.
Tip #3 - Be Versatile
Let's be realistic. Regardless of which Toastmasters International Club you attend or belong, one thing is for sure. There will come a time when you have low member attendance at meeting, guests who are unwilling to participate or have no guests at all. What do you do then?
This situation calls for versatility. They are many times when my club members had to take on the challenge of a dual club meeting role. It has paid off 100% of the time. Through this constant trial and error experience my club and I have learnt that most meeting roles can be done in conjunction such as the ah counter and grammarian, general evaluator and speech evaluator, zoom master and timer. Is this ideal?
No, there are certainly drawbacks to this approach such as the amount of attention the role player can give to each role. One role will in some way be favoured over the other. However, the little value that the role player brings in that role adds value to the meeting experience. Dual roles also help the role player push the boundaries of their attention span which comes in very handy when they must give speech evaluations.
The bottom line here, encourage members to take on dual roles.
Tip #4 - Reward
In any given context, rewards keep people happy, loyal to the cause and eager to help out in future. The same truth applies to the Toastmasters International Club Meeting space. Prior to the end of each meeting, we take some time out to appreciate each and every member in the meeting for the role that they have played and the success they have made of it. The meeting was only possible because we came together as individuals, played our role together and made it a success together. That is something worth rewarding. The logic is as follows:
Public recognition always goes along way because it highlights that you see and understand the value that person, whether guest or member, brings into the space. When you are able to see peoples value and acknowledge them for it, they are more likely to come back and do it again. That is how you create a winning streak. Rewarding the people who help make meeting a success so that they will come back and make the next meeting a success too.
Tip #5 - Finish strong
No war battle has ever ended without a cry of victory. Why should the meeting end without one? A victory cry symbolises triumph over a challenging situation and encourages enthusiasm for the next.
One of the keys to running a series of successful is ending on an enthusiastic note that encourages the audience to come back. It leaves them with a lingering feeling of anticipation for the next meeting. When they come back, guess what? You have a larger pool of role players to choose from. CHING-CHING-CHING-CHING!
To do this, highlight some exciting elements to look forward to in the next meeting, or give them an idea of some speech titles, educational, games, table topics, themes that you plan to bring into the next meeting. For us, it always the breakfast conversations and the evaluations that people look forward to during our follow up meeting. We use that to our advantage. What does your club do really well that you can use to your advantage?
In Conclusion
It is possible to run an effective and successful Toastmasters International Club meeting with an average of 5 members in attendance. It requires creativity and the willingness to engage members and guests in the meeting. As the meeting organiser or host, it is up to you to Identify & Allocate Key Meeting Roles, Engage Visitors Immediately, Be Versatile, Reward participation, and Finish Strong. That is our winning formula for successful meetings.
What strategies do you use?
I would love to hear what strategies you use to run successful meetings even with low member attendance. Share it with me in the comments below or pop me an email on president@bryanstontm.org.za.
Until then, happy meetings...
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