Toast Talk

Our final session of the day moved on the last roles and club performance.   Have you heard about Scooping the Group?  Carl Cottingham introduced us to this concept from Toastmasters International.  It’s 48 questions for each member of your club.   The questions are designed to give the club officers instant feedback on the club that they can use to keep the club on the right track and make any needed corrections.  See the questionaire on the TI Website.

Paul Fogel brought a great sense of humor to his description of the Vice President of Education job.  He emphasized scheduling your members and ensuring that they are placed into roles that are appropriate for them to take on.  Awards aren’t just limited to the standard best table topics, speaker, and evaluator of the day.  Ask someone who was their what Paul’s award of the day was!  All new members should have mentors and make sure that as VPE when you assign them, make sure to pick a mentor who matches the personality and goals of the new member.

Our last presenter of the day was Jennifer Anderson.  Focusing on the job of the club president, she offered a list of key items for the president.

1.  Be selfish and identify club goals and ensure that you share the goals of the club
2.  Create opportunities for members to get involved
3. Identify “Spot” leadership opportunities and encourage those members to step up into the leadership of the club
4. Gather ideas and Enthusiasm
5. Care- Be genuine with people and speakers. Especially when people give ice breakers
6. Deal with Conflict
7. Don’t lead, build a community

The day was finished off with nominations for district offices.  The following nominations were made:

District Governor

• Rose Wellman

Lt Governor of Education and Training

• Sharon Kuroda

LT Governor of Marketing

• John Rumler
• Phyllis Harmon
• Scott Alexander

Thanks for all who attended the Winter Toastmasters Leadership Institute.  It was a great morning for everyone and afternoon for the area and division governors.

It was a great day and we look forward to seeing you at the next D7 Event.

Membership and growth was the focus on the middle section.   Ryan Avery started us off with why we need to P Three Times Daily.   After the laughter died down, he filled us in.  It’s critical that we Prioritize, Publicize, and Practice our goals every day.  Make sure to use Smart Goals for your club. He shared with us Portland Toastmasters’ club goals for 2012. See them publicized on their website.

Cleon Cox, master of recruiting members, focused on the Vice President of Membership position.  He’s learned that on average, it takes seven guests to generate one new member.   Make sure your meetings are lively, educational, and fun.  When guests arrive, they need to see a group that they want to be a part o f.

David Jamison (Also the Conference Sponsorship Chair, contact him with possible ideas) reminded us of why public relations  so effective with reminders of the Tylenol recal in 1982.  Effective Public Relations is Timeless.  It creates the positive image for the organization.  Create the image for your club by taking advantage of the branding updates  for your webdesign as well as the new functionality of the new Free Toast Host 2.0.  He challenged everyone to ensure that their club website was personalized and updated regularly.

We finished off the middle section with a group discussion of membership building ideas.  Check out the special blog post containing them.

Let us know what your favorite membership and public relation idea was from this mornings session.

TLI Winter 2012 got off to a great start right at 8am thanks to LT Governor of Education and Training Rose Wellman pushing everyone into the room and into their seats.

After opening and welcome, Cathey Armillas, spoke on the relationships between club officers. She found the I in TEAM and then let us know that Team stands for Together EveryonAchieves More. One important key theme for officers is to Know, Understand, and Apply.  Know what others officers are doing.  Understand what you are doing, and Apply what you have learned here.

Bruce Rottink followed Cathey on the stage and focused on the sergeant at arms(SAA) position.  He brought forward a number of great recommendations including organizing all your supplies every six months, ensuring that the SAA is the first in line to gret and register guests.  He also suggested a monthly inventory and methods for ensuring that the items that were being brought to your meeting with being used regularly.  He even wowed the leaders in attendance with talk about the second law of thermodynamics. He finished by reminding us of how important it was for the SAA to be the liaison with the meeting room coordinator.

Adele O’Neal, Regional Advisor of Marketing, covered Secretary and Treasurer positions.  After reminding everyone what a typewriter was, she covered the secretary and recommended that all clubs evaluate what documents they keep and for how long.  She pointed out that the Secretary should always keep the Charter and club bylaws (Cleon Cox mentioned that these were available from TI if your need replacement copies).  The Treasurer is responsible for club funds and ensuring the board properly approves all use of them.  Keep a record of all expenditures and bring a report to the board every month.

Our final first session speaker was Allan Edinger.  He started off by asking all of us to imaging being in prison and recognizing the potential of the toastmasters program for people in that environment.  He also had two stories of inmates one who is already released and continuing with Toastmasters and the other who is only 14 days away from their release.  Both stories were inspiring and show the power that happens when people focus on personal development. The prison clubs receive support from the raffles that happen at many D7 events via the Prison Trust Fund.

Use the comments to let us know what your favorite ideas and key points were in the morning session.

This morning at Toastmasters Leadership Institute we brainstormed ideas for increasing club members.  Led by Eric Winger, everyone jumped in with their suggestions.  Here’s what we came up with:

• “Poker Card Contest” Every time a member brought a guest they got a card.  If the guest joined, they received three cards.  At the end of the contest whoever had the best poker hand won a prize.
• Practical meetings.  Special meetings focused on practical and topical information.
• Job interviews
• Conquering Fear
• Reaching out to community college speech classes
• Once a month, hold a social open house, end the meeting 15 minutes early to allow socialization.  Guests felt more comfortable coming to a social meeting
• Focusing on guests personal and work goals and training needs.
• Be a community resource.  Reach out to the business development community in your area and let them know about your activities and what you can offer their members
• Power of networking: Take the message out in public places.  EG at Green Drinks open mike night.
• Call in to radio shows and announce meetings and events
• Make sure the information listed at Toastmasters International is accurate.  Verify in the find a club link
• Promote as career development, work with Human Resources departments at  local employers.  Way to improve English skills
• Ensure that you are Friendly, Fun, and Helpful to visitors
• Host a BBQ for members to feel more connected with each other.
• Invite guests based on a theme of the week.  Someone from your church, someone from your social group, someone from your office, etc
• Generate interest by having youth clubs. Parents will want to learn more.

Please use the comments sections to add your ideas about great ways to bring in guests and increase memberships for your club.

• Take the new “Where Leaders are Made” to the public.
• Visit career fairs.  Collect business cards at the events and invite to speech craft events.

Congratulations to the following Clubs that submitted and paid 80% of their Club Dues before September 24th. You may collect your D7 dollars ($50) at TLI or at any D7 monthly Networking event.

For more information on how to collect and redeem your award please check out the Marketing FAQ.

Div Area Club# Club Name
E 61 31 Portland Club
F 74 87 AAA Towsters Toastmasters Club
I 12 98 Modoc Toastmasters Club
G 82 353 Vancouver Toastmasters Club
B 35 364 Yawn Patrol Club
B 35 566 Cascade Toastmasters Club
C 44 588 Newberg Toastmasters Club
A 21 927 Rogue Communicators Club
A 22 1215 Chetco Chatterers Club
E 61 1235 Blue Ox Club
H 95 1360 New Horizons Toastmasters Club
F 71 1492 Sunrise Toastmasters Club
H 92 1597 WRIP City Club
H 91 1832 FIG Masters Club
H 92 2039 Daylighters Club
F 73 2265 Essayons Club
C 43 2397 Bootstrappers Club
A 24 2931 University Toastmasters Club
E 61 2979 Jantzen Club
G 82 3091 Professionally Speaking
E 64 3346 Mentors Of Focus Club
G 83 3657 Early Words Club
C 41 3714 High Noon Club
B 34 3880 Yaquina Toastmasters
H 94 4428 Wallmasters International Club
E 62 4999 Tabor Toastmasters Club
I 12 5273 Warner Mountain Club
C 43 5347 EPIC Toastmasters Club
D 53 5352 American Red Cross Oregon Trail Chapter Club
I 11 5442 Highnooners Club
E 63 5588 Marylhurst Toastmasters
I 10 5775 Prime Time Club
A 24 5840 Southern Oregon Speechmasters
C 44 6014 Will-Sher Club
H 91 6129 West Beaverton Club
G 83 6421 Columbian Club
E 62 6869 SE Sunrise
C 44 6996 Evergreen International Club
H 93 7499 Tualatin Valley Toastmasters Club
C 44 8405 EZ Club
H 94 8427 Noontime Nomads Club
B 31 8553 Gateway Toastmasters
G 81 8761 Battle Ground Club
F 74 9474 At The River’s Edge Club
D 54 9521 Columbia Center Club
G 81 9527 Clark County Club
H 91 9579 Silicon Forest Club
B 35 595492 Downtown Public Speakers Club
F 75 608093 Babble-On Toastmasters Club
H 92 628731 Bridge Toastmasters Club
F 76 638088 Tram Talkers Toastmasters Club
C 44 643741 Correctional Conversationalists Club
C 42 693625 Liberty Toastmasters
C 42 693720 Capital Toastmasters Club
F 73 702971 The University Club
I 12 856839 Smooth Talkers Club
H 91 866853 Walker Talkers Toastmasters Club
E 61 875188 Portland Progressives
E 64 879690 I.R. Speaking Toastmasters Club
D 54 959680 Banfield Barkers
E 64 977380 Molalla Toastmasters
B 31 1278233 Symantec Toastmasters
F 71 1421628 Suite Talkers Toastmasters
H 92 1451910 Liberty Talkers
B 32 1505225 Control Freaks Toastmasters
E 62 1588493 Milwaukie Talkies
F 76 1763128 Eco Voices Toastmasters
E 63 1877656 Toastmasters For Speaking Professionals

Congratulations to the following clubs for achieving their DCP goals 1-3-5 before Oct 31st. Each winner receives a $25 Toastmasters store gift certificate from District 7.

Div Area Club # Club Name
A 24 6253 Jefferson State Toastmasters
C 42 693720 Capital Toastmasters Club
C 43 469 Silvertongues
C 43 2397 Bootstrappers Club
C 43 1448802 Keizer Communicators
G 82 3091 Professionally Speaking
H 94 4428 Wallmasters International Club

See the D7 site for other Educational awards that your club can win.