Coaching's not a job, it's a privilege
- Lee Corso
One of the most rewarding roles I have had in Toastmasters is as a Club Coach. A club coach is someone who is an experienced Toastmaster with Club Executive experience who is brought in to help a struggling club get back on track.
To qualify to get a Club Coach, a club must have 8 or fewer members and the President must request a coach. Some clubs do not want a coach and continue to struggle on their own and many of them recover on their own. Having a Club Coach is not a guarantee that the club will recover and become strong again, but it helps.
Clubs struggle for many reasons. Sometimes it is because of ineffective Club Executive in the past (or present), sometimes it is a matter of location, timing, what day of the week they meet, or other logistical issues. I’ve heard of one club that fell from 40+ members to just 6 in a matter of a couple of years because many members had been transferred out of that location to another building several kilometers away and they just couldn’t make it to the lunch-time club anymore.
There are also clubs whose membership fell off because of the 2020-22 global pandemic. People didn’t want to go to a virtual Toastmasters meeting, perhaps thinking that it wouldn’t work. Sadly, they were wrong but left the organization before finding that out.
Regardless of why the club is struggling, there are certain things that a Club Coach can do to help the club recover. I’m going to go over some of them here, but you can be sure that I’m not going to cover everything that can be done. A lot depends on why the club is struggling in the first place.
The first thing you need to do when assigned as a Club Coach is to check the club’s status. You can find that on Toastmasters.org (Toastmasters International website) under Leadership Central > Distinguished Performance Reports. That will give you a sense of where the club needs help. Enter the club’s name or number in the search box in the upper lefthand corner and click on Submit. The club’s Distinguished Club Program (DCP) status will show up.
There are three main areas grouped in the program. A club will be given a target membership number to be met by June 30. That is in the top centre of the page. Then six goals are related to the education program. The final four goals are related to the administrative side of running a club.
Take a look at where the particular club is struggling. It may well be struggling in all areas but often it’s just one or two areas where you can focus their attention to make the biggest impact.
Often, the first thing a struggling club needs is more members. Without sufficient members, it is difficult to meet education-related goals. To help a club bring in more members, you should first meet with the club executive (at least the President and the three Vice Presidents) to discuss the situation. Some of the things you need to figure out are why members leave and why the others stay.
Some people come to Toastmasters with a specific goal, like a wedding speech or a special presentation at work. Once they feel that they have met that goal, they leave. Others, such as those I mentioned above, leave because that meeting has become inconvenient to them, maybe because of a job change or maybe something in their personal life has changed. In all those cases, it’s important to make sure that they are aware of everything Toastmasters can give them, find out whether or not we can entice them to return, and what can we give them during the meetings to keep them happy.
As for those who stay, we need to find out if the club atmosphere aligns with their needs (if possible). For example, some clubs are very formal and use almost a “classroom” style whereas others are more casual and fun-loving. Both club cultures can give people what they want from Toastmasters. They just need to find the one that makes them feel comfortable. I’m not for a second suggesting that a club needs to change from formal to casual or vice versa. Just be aware of which one this club has and reach out to people looking for that atmosphere.
When the global pandemic hit, Toastmasters International ordered all clubs to stop meeting in person and meet virtually. One advantage of that is that many clubs now have members from across the globe. This is a double-edged sword. Having members from around the world expands members’ horizons incredibly but it can also present problems if members are not aware of cultural differences. This may be another reason why members leave – they feel disrespected.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. First, you and the club need to attract more guests. How? There are several “tried-and-true” methods here. Having an Open House is often the first step. An Open House is a special meeting where the club puts on their best show – the best speakers, the best evaluators, and the most entertaining Table Topics session. Once you have decided on who is going to do what, create a great flyer (using something like Canva), then advertise, advertise, advertise. Post it on Facebook (hopefully, the club has a Facebook page already. If not, create one). Post it on the club’s Facebook page, the District’s, and maybe even Toastmasters International Facebook page. Post it on the club’s web page, on LinkedIn, and any and all social media that the club uses. Ask the members to share it among their Toastmasters friends. If they are members of other clubs, ask them to share it with those members. The aim is to get as many guests out to the meeting as possible.
One key is to devise a way to get the contact information for all those guests. There are several ways to do that. Four popular ones for online, in decreasing order of effectiveness, are: require guests to register through zoom, require guests to register through Eventbrite, ask guests to sign an online guest book, perhaps in a Google Form, and finally, simply ask them to post their email address and/or phone number in the Chat, perhaps directed to the Vice President Membership as a private message. It is much easier for a club that meets in person – to have a guest book passed around to have people write in their contact information.
After the Open House, have the Vice President Membership follow up with each and every guest and invite them to come back to the club and join the club. As they say in sales, “ask for the sale or you won’t get it”.
After an Open House, or even instead of one, keep posting about your club on social media. The Vice President Public Relations is instrumental here but he/she cannot do it alone. All members can help by posting about the club online as well. You want to keep the club’s name at the forefront of people’s minds.
Okay, so now you have attracted guests and followed up with them. Your membership roster is growing. Now what?
The Open House is a very powerful tool to attract guests. BUT, if the club meetings are not well run, they won’t stick around. Toastmasters International has a wonderful program called Moments of Truth. I encourage any club but most especially a struggling club, to run a Moments of Truth periodically. The program takes a couple of hours so it may take two meetings to finish it, but it will really uncover any weaknesses in the club meetings. There are 6 areas of focus:
- First impressions
- Membership orientation
- Fellowship, Variety, and Communication
- Program Planning and Meeting Organization
- Membership Strength
- Achievement Recognition
To KEEP your members, you need to create a supportive, positive, and, dare I say it, fun, learning experience. The Vice President Education can help the Vice President Membership contact each and every member new and old, and find out WHY they joined the club. At first, many will give you a “Toastmasters” answer, like “I joined to become a better speaker” or “I wanted to get over my stage fright”. But keep digging. Maybe ask them why they stay. Those who stay are getting something out of it, it has a certain value to them, and it is helping them work toward their personal goals. Find out, if you can, what are those goals and how can the club help them achieve them.
I’ve heard ex-members say that they left because they felt that they didn’t belong, that there was no one to help them. If the club doesn’t have a mentor program, and many struggling clubs do not, try to get it started. Assign experienced members to help the new members get started on their Pathways program.
Use your club’s agenda software (EasySpeak or FreeToastHost are the usual ones used) to track members' activity. You can track their attendance, when was the last time they took on a specific meeting role, when was the last time they spoke, and the VPE can track their Pathways progress. All of that information is crucial to finding out who is engaged and who is becoming at risk of leaving the club. Use it!
Of course, no Club Coach can do any of this alone. Without the cooperation of the Club Executive, you’ll be “shouting into the wind”. Make sure that you develop a real team culture with them, and get their buy-in to whatever you suggest to help the club. Remember, it is THEIR club. You are the Coach, their teacher, and just like with any coach or teacher, if the student is not willing to work on the necessary skills, they will not succeed. Remember, having a Club Coach is not a guarantee that the club will recover and become strong again, but it helps.
Karen MacNeil, DTM
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