Research beforehand shows that in order to be a member of this Advanced club you had to have completed the Competent Communication and Competent Leader manuals or Level 1 in a path. This club shows on the dashboard they have 15 members and need a few more to be distinguished. Their start time is 7:30. They meet once a month on the first Wed of the month. All the members are members of other clubs, some as high as six clubs. They have 5 past district officers as members and 1 current one. Their theme that night was Casey At the Bat. The humorist(jokemaster) told one liners relating to baseball.
Before I get into too much, I do want to state up front that we were greeted very well and felt very welcomed. They asked us questions before the meeting to get to know us. They had some good evaluators that listened and gave valuable feedback.
Now on to the meeting...
The Sgt at arms has the duty of opening the meeting but he was late, so they just waited. At 7:47 someone said they should go ahead and have someone else open the meeting. So someone (not sure their title) said, “Open the Meeting”. And that was that. The meeting began and the President began talking. (the sgt at arms ended up arriving at 7:56)
There were 16 present at the meeting that day. 12 members and 4 guests.
The president began by introducing the guests. Then came Inspiration/pledge time. Afterwards the timer explained her role and then the president opened the business meeting.
Now this is the part that we have seen happen time and time again with other clubs in my division. Long drawn out business meetings at the beginning of a meeting so it holds the visitors hostage. The business meeting lasted almost 10 minutes, which they mentioned that this was one of the shortest ones they had ever had. This club meets 1.5 hrs so I guess they have time to have a business meeting. My club has only an hour to meet so every minute is intentional. My club moved our business meeting to the end of the meeting long ago so visitors could leave if they so desired. However, regarding officer reports and big discussions our officers meet once a month after the regular club meeting. After the officer meeting, the secretary puts the notes from the meeting on our club website so all members can see what transpired. We have found through trial and error that most members do not even want to sit through a business meeting. There was a club that Steve and I was a member of that had their business meeting at the beginning and most of them were fairly long. One meeting in particular I remember had 4 guests that day. The business meeting lasted about an hour. I was even ready to claw my eyes out. People just wanted to argue back and forth and nothing was resolved. Those 4 guests never came back. 2 people that stopped going to the club told me personally it was because of the business meetings and Steve and I even stopped going mainly because the long business meeting extended the meeting time to over 2 hours and we just couldn’t stay out that late and get to work the next day. (We are old people, we need our sleep. ).
Enough about the business meeting. That’s just my opinion and each club has a right to do it however they want to. During the general evaluation part, the toastmaster kept reiterating that they are an advanced club so they have different roles that other clubs don’t have. Well, I didn’t see any discernable difference between their club and my club. They have a “tipster” we call it “toastmaster tip”. They have a “humorist” we call it “joke of the day” . Our speakers and evaluators are on par with the ones I heard at their club that night.
My husband says I need to give more bread with this critique of the meeting. He says it has too much meat. If I were using the "sandwich" method in my evaluation. I would give some good things they do(bread), some things to work on( meat)and then some good things(bread). Well, maybe I just expect more from an advanced club. With all the years of experience these members have, membership in so many clubs and many members with past experience as a district officer, I guess I just assumed this club would "wow" me. And that certainly didn't happen. I was very disappointed that it didn't. Maybe I shouldn't have expected it and my disappointment turned into this meat filled critique. Maybe I need look at that.
They do have a quiz master, who asks questions at the end to make sure people were listening. However, someone forgot to assign that role that night. The president said she wrote down a couple of questions so she asked them. Funny thing is, Steve and I were the only ones who could answer her questions. Guess they do need a quiz master that can help them listen to each other better.
If this is a representation of an advanced club, then I am very proud of my home club for doing everything an advanced club is doing. Maybe being in an advanced club and a member of so many other clubs a person get complacent. I really don’t see how it is really more advanced than my club. But then, maybe my club is an exception to the norm. Who knows.
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