Improving attendance and participation at TM meetings

I attended Club Officer Training in Sandton on 27 February.

Adolph Kaestner gave a fascinating insight into how to improve attendance and participation at Toastmaster meetings. Here's the gist of it.

Here's something to chew on:

- Club meeting attendance is 50-60% of paid up membership. Why?
- Up to 40% of speech and other agenda assignments are not carried out by assignees and result in programme changes. Why?

Some common reasons members give for leaving the club:

- “I have got all I wanted out of joining TI”.
- “I couldn’t/didn’t get what I wanted from joining TI”. Why?
- “My club doesn’t care about me …” Surely not?

How to retain members – some ideas for keeping them attending:

- Analyse member needs
- Make a plan to fulfil those needs
- Ensure meeting are good quality: well organised, start on time, well conducted, end on time, make you feel wanted/special, exciting, adding value …
- Follow up with members who don’t attend. Are they OK? Do they need help with assignments? Do they need something different at meetings?
- If they say they want to leave, find out the real reason. Then fix the problem – if possible – and get them to stay. Otherwise, fix the problem for the rest of the members.

How to keep members participating:

- Investigate why they don’t participate – and fix!
- Practise recognition and reward.
- Encourage taking leadership and advanced programmes.
- Involve senior members in mentorship, training etc.
- Provide worthwhile training for members.

Growing membership – making guests want to become members:

- Make sure they feel welcome.
- Find out their needs.
- Explain how the TI programmes and club meetings work.
- Help them draw up development plans.
- Make sure the club can keep in touch with them – and they with the club.

If the club is struggling and has problems:

- Do a SWOT analysis and identify/understand the issues.
- Plan and carry out solutions to the issues.
- Get rid of old/problematic paradigms and manage the change (particularly “scurvy elephants/ / disturbing elements”).
- Get help from other clubs and area/division/district:
ß Club coach.
ß Buddy club.
ß Club rescue co-ordinator.
ß Area and division governors, co-ordinators.

Jacques - Vice President Public Relations

Check out the official South African Toastmasters website now.

Impromptu speeches at Rivonia Toastmasters 300th

Rivonia Toastmasters has some characters in it and they're always good for a laugh. Henry Tours is the kind of guy you just look at and you start laughing. Peter Ahmed was the consummate professional. Rod Taylor gave a great take on marriage. Jeff Harvey really came out of his shell with "spanking".

Patricia Lawson Smith was her typical brilliant self ... unfortunately, I missed your take Patrica as I was still trying to get a handle on how to work the ISight camera off my Mac (sorry). And, Nikki - I had to cut someone because I could only load 10 minutes onto www.youtube.com - sorry it had to be you, this time.

The footage is not great (due to the lighting) and you'll have to turn up the sound a bit.

Jacques de Villiers

Rivonia Toastmasters is a District 74 Toastmasters Club in South Africa

Rivonia Toastmasters Celebrates its 300th Meeting

7 February 2008

Dear Rivonia Toastmasters,

Everyone got into the theme of the evening and we were even able to persuade Palesa to take the minutes of the meeting in the newly constructed Meeting minutes book, thanks to Trina.

Many thanks to all the role players of the evening without whom we would not be able to hold such wonderful events

Trina did us proud in her role as Toastmaster for the evening, and the preparation was very evident
Palesa was our minute taker on the night, with assistance from Imke (new joined)
Paul Smith organised a very interesting and entertaining Table Topics session. Thank you Paul. Everyone else remember, what is said at the meeting stays at the meeting...............yes!
Cindy Knutton was roped in to be our timekeeper on the night. It was also very nice to have Cindy back in our midst.
Ruth Pressler was Evaluations Chairman and also gave an evaluation.
Kathy Kay was responsible for the 2nd evaluation.
Many thanks to Steve and Jacques for speaking on the night. It is always a pleasure to hear you two speak.
Jeff was our S@A and with lots of encouragement performed well. It gets easier with practice Jeff
Lauren gave a very well thoughtout and thought provoking Toast of the Evening which included those members no longer with us, irrespective of where they are now.
Peter Ahmad took on the role of Raffle master with 3 lovely prizes to be won, and all proceeds going to the John Wiffen Trust. We made R340.00 on the night.
Wayne and his catering team provided a very tasty curry on the night, however we were in peril of running short of food for no other reason than we had a number people extra that had not been catered for. We can obviously not anticipate those "walk in" visitor, but I would respectfully request that as club members you ensure that your confirmation of attendance is received no later that Tuesday afternoon before the meeting. Your co-operation would be much appreciated.

Talking about visitors, we had some surprise visitors in the guise of former members. Henry Tours was a S@A of note from all the stories that we have heard and what a surprise to have Tracy Frankel with us instead of looking afer her 4 bonny children. Dave Cairns from Centurion (Sainturion) club and Area Govenor, Rod Taylor as well as our District Govenor Ruth Goodbrand were in attendance. It is always a pleasure for us to have visitors at our meetings. We even had two unexpected visitors join us to see how things are done at Toastmasters and we hope to see them again in the future.

At this point I would like to mention the quality of the evaluations given by Ruth and Kathy. We all know how well Steve and Jacques can talk and enthral and audience. This, however, did not stop our evaluators from giving the kind of constructive feedback that would help our speakers to do even better the next time round. Rivonia is known for the strength of its evaluations and as a club we would not be doing our duty to our fellow toastmasters if we were to always say everything is hunky dory. Dave Cairns said as much in his comments during On a Point and requested our approval for him to return and do a speech at the next meeting.

This is no less that a huge compliment, so well done Ruth and Kathy.

During the course of the evening Trina touched on her favourite subject of mentorship. This is part and parcel of the Toastmaster Experience. If anyone would like further information please contact Trina.

The next committee meeting will be at Kathy Kay's residence on Thursday 21 February, and the next club meeting will be on the 7th March. I am enclosing the meeting planner with this mail for you to all plan the roles you *will* voluteer for.

In closing I wish each and everyone of you a brilliant weekend.

Patricia Lawson-Smith

Rivonia Toastmasters is a District 74 Toastmasters Club in South Africa