“ If you build it, he will come” is a line from the 1989 Kevin Costner movie "Field of Dreams." That means if you create something that everyone needs/wants, then they will come to you rather than you having to go find them. With all due respect to Kevin Costner, this doesn’t work as well with open houses. Although I believe Toastmasters would be beneficial in everyone’s life, just the fact that you have an open house does not guarantee that people will come. I believe open houses need to be promoted by fliers, social media, and, of course, the best way is word of mouth.
Most open houses that my club has are promoted very heavily. However, I remember a certain open house where we really fell flat on our face. We had a member who was also a professor at a local college and he wanted to start a Toastmasters club there. He was certain that all the professors would find the same value in Toastmasters that he had. He begged the club to come do a demonstration meeting at the college. He said he would promote it.
The day of the event was drawing closer and he kept assuring me this meeting would be well attended. He said we didn’t have to do a thing. Just show up and present the concept of Toastmasters to the group. He was full of excitement. The day came for the meeting and not one person from this college showed up. I asked how he had promoted it. He said he told a couple of professors about it and they seemed eager to come. He hung no signs. He did no follow-up. That demo meeting was a bust and to me the main reason was lack of promotion.
In this era of online clubs, I have now travelled around and attended four online open houses. One had no guests except me and Steve, two had a few guests and one club had a whopping 13 guests. In talking with members of some of the clubs, I found the difference was promotion.
One club has only two members and really did need the open house. I asked how she promoted it. She said she mentioned it to a couple of people. Did you put it on social media? Her answer, “Not really, I don’t think people are really on Facebook anymore.” Steve and I were the only visitors at that open house.
The club that had 13 guests is what really impressed me. Steve and I were the only two guests who were already Toastmasters. The majority of the others were invited by someone in the club. Most of them had never been to a Toastmasters meeting before and were eager to learn what Toastmasters has to offer.
So I guess my next question is what is the follow-up after the visitors come? But I will save that for another blog.
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