Building a club

Wisdom from Lance Miller, Accredited Speaker, WCPS winner, and successful club builder

Coach’s Corner

Wisdom from Lance Miller!

Everyone on the team wants the club to win and aspire to be a top 10 club. How big would you like your club to be? If you have 8 members…to 9 members? What number of members would you think a successful club has? Don’t run a Hospice Toastmasters club!

Address the choices of the clubs, don’t force a choice on the club.

Clubs don’t fail on their own, they’re allowed to fail.

Motivation: They want to have a successful club. It’s easier to be successful in TM than in Life. 1^st step is being successful in TM. Why are you in, what are your goals, how can you apply this outside of TM? TM is an incubator– A Safe place to fail. When we have prospects coming to the meeting, we Find a reason for that person to succeed.

3 reasons to fail:

1. Nobody owns the club. This is My club. This is Your club. Waiting for someone to step up doesn’t apply here. We start solving the problems of the club and owning the success of the club. Take ownership of your life, your work, your club. Success in the club is directly related to our ability to lead and organize. There is no “higher authority” than the members. If you’re always the dumbest person in the room and it’s not your problem, nothing improves. You can’t all be dumb! Take control of your club.
2. Nobody does the program. You build up your skills and open your mind. We’d like everyone to get a level/year. If everyone earns a level/year, it’s learning a new skill, a new approach, a new way of thinking, practicing it, and then applying it both in TM and outside of TM. How successful would the members be? How successful would the club become? There would be much less No fall-off because there are more opportunities to grow. Speaking, Evaluations (feedback), Meeting Management, Leadership.
3. They don’t promote the club. Talk and invite. Test and measure promotions. Most people that join are invited.

You have to have something people would like to join. Good content, good management, good environment. This is OUR club, this is an extension of us. TM club, a healthy one, has 40-60 members.

Q & A:

Complacency kills a club. In club competitions…best speaker/eval/TT. Bad attitude about the change. Individual calls to the members, “Why do you Like coming to the club?” Have fun, people, then speech improvements are the most common answers.

Policies for club: Must maintain a fun and friendly environment. If things cease to be fun and friendly, the issue is handled immediately.

Purpose in TM can fail when members leave. LIFE IS PURPOSE! Members lose their purpose. Why did you start, why did you stay? Receiving and Giving. Build competency in yourself, then build it in other members. They want to join a dynamic club.

How do you work with someone who won’t take advantage of mentorship? What if they’re not willing to do the work? “I’m willing to help you by recommending a mentorship, but if you don’t work with the mentor, that ruins my reputation and so people are less likely to accept recommendations from me for people to coach. They don’t want to take on a new protégé that won’t show up, won’t do the work, and wastes valuable time. Prospective mentors will shy away from people I recommend because I cannot guarantee they are worthy of mentoring.

Inviting people: Cold calling is safer, and Not at All effective. Making it fun. Event (wine and cheese party with an invite), Easter egg invites, Bar night. Speech-a-thon and invite guests. 3 hour meeting with 6 speeches-Weekly! Double meetings toward end of year to finish projects. Inviting guests to watch.

Ghost interviewer. Answer the questions. It is a fun TT!

Those who really don’t want any responsibilities end up as VPM, and VPPR. (Bad idea!) How can this position in the club get you to where you want to be? Go from there. Step up to your responsibilities to YOUR club.