COVER STORY One key factor of an Area, Division or a District reaching Distinguished status is the net club growth and hence, the CET’s job is quite crucial to their success. The end to end process of a prospect turning into a successfully chartered club involves various steps. We conduct orientation programmes with top leadership, open houses, demo meetings, non-charter meetings and finally, paperwork! The process greatly differs from prospect to prospect – a corporate, a college, a community, a Tier-2 city, or in some cases, a potential Gavel’s club. None of this is possible without a great team and I’m really thankful to mine – Arpit, Indu, Lajja, Piyali, and Sudip have all done an excellent job and together, we have experienced and learned a lot.
Were there any tweaks made to the club charter strategy laid out by the CGD office? At the start of our term, we identified a gap which led to new clubs soon become struggling clubs. This was primarily because the members didn’t understand the value proposition of Toastmasters and saw no reason to continue past six months. In EFH, we decided to slow down the process of opening clubs to ensure that they didn’t collapse right after the charter. We conduct non-charter meetings right after the demo meeting where members of the prospective club take up roles and we help by providing mentoring and feedback. We begin the charter process after conducting 4-8 such meetings. This is a good way to see if the club is chartering for the sake of their corporate appraisal cycle or if members have a genuine intent to learn and improve themselves. I’d like to thank Leo for understanding that every region has its own struggle which has to be dealt with in a certain way. He always believed our instincts and gave us complete decision-making autonomy. The Division Trio was really helpful as well. Their insight and experience really helped us to deal with sticky situations. In actual practice, how much are Area Directors involved in the chartering process? What kind of support does the CET provide? The CET and Division Directors control all the initial stages of communication – the time when we’re not certain whether a lead will convert into a club. It’s only after we start seeing positive signs that the aligned AD comes into the picture. Post that, we give enough time to the club and the AD to get to know each other. Only then we proceed with the chartering process. However, when it comes to areas like Nagpur and Visakhapatnam which have only one or two ADs, the involvement of the AD is from Day 1.
DISTRICT 98 CLUB GROWTH DIRECTOR 2017-2018, DTM LEO PAULOSE What has been the reaction of TI and other District Trios to this growth? What is the key positive and negative feedback you received? The feedback has been very supportive and positive. The senior leadership of Toastmasters has personally acknowledged the stellar growth and retention that our District has been showcasing. Additionally, due credit was also given for our “planned exit strategy” for clubs that have lost the spark beyond revival. This resonates well with the mission of the movement.
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