7/5/20
“Evaluations are the hallmark of Toastmasters,” as my husband likes to say. (He is full of pithy sayings like that). Evaluations are what sets Toastmasters apart from being just a speaking organization like the national speakers association or even Kentucky Storytelling Association which Steve and I are members of. We are an educational organization to help speakers get better, not just give them opportunities to speak.
St. Augustine's evaluators today knocked it out of the park. They focused on the mechanics instead of content. They talked about things the speaker might want to consider and then challenged them on future speeches. The speakers also wow’ed me. Bernadette's speech about not making assumptions about a person was very relevant today as well as Lesia’s speech about prayer/meditation.
St. Augustine had a dubious beginning. They chartered in 2018 with 21 members. However, by 2019 their numbers had dwindled to 11. I am just speculating but it seems as though the originators may have started the club with members from other clubs just to get to the requisite 20 members so they could start a club. Then what many times happens, those members leave. Of course, I may be wrong but I have seen it occur more than once with other clubs. To me, this does not set these clubs up for success for the future. St. Augustine currently has 12 members. However, handicapped their beginning, it has not stopped them from jumping in with determination and with the help of club coach, Bernadette, to increase their membership. They did end the year with seven Pathways awards which shows members are working the education program. That is a great indication of their commitment.
The members were very welcoming when we logged on and we all had a great conversation together. There was a lot of laughter and smiles. This club definitely has a makings of a great club and I am sure Bernadette is helping get them on the right track to increase membership.
I love that they started and ended on time. They had the agenda nailed down with all roles filled before the meeting. There were seven members in attendance. Which is pretty average. I have observed that most clubs have half their membership attend meetings.
Since the main issue with St. Augustine is membership, I want to share a few things I have learned from traveling to different online clubs. These are things I never would have thought was important until I saw it from the eyes of a visitor. I notice a lot of Toastmasters are becoming dual members of clubs around the world. So this advice is for St. Augustine as well as my club to help Toastmasters visitors feel at home in our online clubs. So much at home, that they may consider joining our clubs.
- Are we including the guests in the meeting? Whether by participating in roles or in table topics. St. Augustine had seven members in attendance so they doubled up and tripled up on roles, instead of asking Toastmaster visitors (Steve and me) to help. Table Topics is a great way to get visitors involved in the meeting. I mean visiting Toastmasters, not non-Toastmasters (not sure how they would feel). St. Augustine asked for volunteers for table topics responses (which I am not a favor of anyway-rant in another blog). Members who had other roles answered. Finally Steve raised his hand and the Table Topics Master seemed surprised, almost stunned. Do they not ask visitors Table Topics questions or do they not usually get visitors? I don’t know but I would have liked to answer a Table Topics question too. It would have made me “feel” more like I was a part of the meeting.
- Are we inviting guests to join the club during the meeting? (OK, this is not necessarily about St. Augustine-just something I realized in visiting all these clubs.) A couple of clubs said they would love for us to be members of their clubs during the meeting. None of them told us how to join the club or who to talk to. And only a handful of clubs sent an email after the meeting thanking us for visiting. No clubs sent us a visitor packet or asked us to join their club. A few sent upcoming agendas. My husband still gets sent emails from Clearwater Sunday Speakers in Florida letting him know they have roles open/speakers needed and he has gone back there to speak on occasion. (Kudos to you, Sunday Speakers!) The more a person visits, the more he connects with the members and are more likely to join. In my opinion, of course.
- Does our website draw people to our club? Before I visit a club, I like to do research. I look at their number of members, their education awards, but most important their website. Some clubs make me think “they look fun! I’d like to be a part of that!” Some clubs make me not want to even visit. St Augustine needs to think about its website. It’s very bare, almost useless. No club pictures, nothing about their club, nothing about what Toastmasters is or why I should join their club. There are no pictures of members or group shots. I did not expect such a friendly group from viewing its website. It almost made me not want to even visit their club. So to all clubs, my advice is to look at how you can make your website inviting to visitors. Research other clubs and their websites if you aren’t sure what to do. (I have to admit my club's webmaster does a great job with our club website.) St. Augustine has a lot to crow about. Put it out there for all to see. Make everyone that looks at your website take a double take and think, now that’s a club I want to join!
Again this is a great club. I really enjoyed it, but the club does need to increase in membership so, these might be some ways that can help them do that. Good luck St. Augustine. You have a lot of great speakers, your meeting flowed well, and you were very friendly to us, guests. Keep up the good work. I wish you all the best.
I will end with Bernadette’s quote from her speech.
“Make the most of yourself….for that is all there is of you.”
--- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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