Manama Toastmasters Club Newsletter— for internal use only
Term 2, Issue 4 . April 2010 Newsletter
17 Ideas on How and Where to Promote Toastmasters On Our Way to Distinguished Status Membership Building Contests From Paltry to Plenty Taking Care of Guests
Erasing All Doubts
Teamwork
Toastmasters International From a humble beginning in 1924 at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, Toastmasters International has grown to become a world leader in helping people become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience. The nonprofit organization now has nearly 250,000 members in more than 12,500 clubs in 106 countries, offering a proven – and enjoyable! – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills. Most Toastmasters meetings are comprised of approximately 20 people who meet weekly for an hour or two. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian. There is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved. Good communicators tend to be good leaders. Some well-known Toastmasters alumni include: • Peter Coors of Coors Brewing Company • Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies
Manama Toastmasters Club Formed in 1964, Manama Toastmasters is the first toastmasters club in all of Arabian Gulf. Since then, for over 46 years, it has been helping people to become better leaders and better communicators wherever they are - in their organizations, schools, universities, businesses, social networks and many other areas. Hundreds of members have gone on to lead, or form, huge organizations in Bahrain and abroad. Many toastmasters clubs in the Gulf too, owe their birth to Manama Toastmasters Club, which is why it is often called 'the mother club' of District 79. District 79 - of Toastmasters International - comprises 275 clubs in the GCC Countries and Jordan and Lebanon.
Manama Toastmasters Club - Club No. 2916 . Est: 01.07.1964
President Message
On the 1st of January 2010 I was elected as a president of Manama Toastmasters Club and on the 4th of January 2010 I completed my 5th year with this great organization; called Toastmasters International. This makes me feel that the year 2010 will be a great year for me, a year which I will not end without sharing what I learned from Toastmasters International movement. I had a terrific opportunity to improve both my speaking skills and my confidence in dealing with different situations. Toastmasters gave me the opportunity to learn how to speak in public and showed me the way to be a great leader. When I started my role as a president of Manama Toastmasters Club, the first thing I did was to focus on building a great family team that understand the real meaning of leadership and the word achievement. From the beginning, we framed our Vision, Mission Statement and our Theme for the term (January-June 2010), which is: «Toastmasters- Quality and Leadership Redefined» Our Vision is to be No.1 club in terms of quality, education and supporting our Area, Division, District and Toastmasters International. Our Mission Statement is to focus on the members’ needs, improve the quality of the club through effective educational programs, to attain a distinguished Club status and brand our Club and the Toastmasters International movement in the right manner that it deserves. We knew that our plans which were on paper will be a reality, and that by understanding what we learned from Toastmasters International (like leadership skills, communication skills, planning, working as a team and achieving with quality) was the key to implement and to achieve our plans. My next dream is to see more leaders from our club which will help the next generation to improve themselves and invite the non-toastmasters to join our big family of Manama Toastmasters Club.
With warm regards, Khalid AlQoud, DTM President Manama Toastmasters Club
17 Ideas on How and Where to Promote Toastmasters 17 Ideas on How and Where to Promote Toastmasters in Your Community
Newspapers. The easiest way to secure media coverage is through press releases to local newspapers. Newspapers are usually more accessible than radio and television stations, and they allow you to communicate more information, such as the club’s contact information. Electronic Media. Public service announcements (PSAs) and videotaped commercials can be aired on radio and cable television stations. Local talk shows might be interested in featuring a Toastmasters officer discussing the importance of communication training in the workplace. Local Government. Contact your city hall for information on how to get your message displayed on the city’s cable television programming. Also try to get your Toastmasters activities listed in the city’s community services calendar, published through the Parks and Recreation Department. Chamber of Commerce. An ad in its newsletter or a presentation by a Toastmaster at one of its meetings will reach influential local business people. IF someone in your district is a chamber member, a group of Toastmasters may want to hold a chamber of commerce social hour. Libraries. Submit extra copies of The Toastmaster magazine to the library’s periodicals department and attach a card with the club’s contact information. Also post fliers and ads on bulletin boards. Corporate Publication. Editors for employee newsletters might be interested in camera-ready ads about your club as “fillers.” If the organization has an internal Toastmasters club, by all means use the newsletter as a vehicle for sharing your Toastmasters activities with other employees. Employee Orientation. Make sure in-house Toastmasters clubs in corporations, hospitals, government agencies or other organizations have their clubs mentioned during new-employee orientation seminars. “Welcome to the Community” packets. These are distributed to all new residents in a city and contain promotional materials from local merchants and organizations. Your ad or flier should be included in this package. Universities and Community Colleges. Like cities, many Universities have internal cable TV and radio stations, as well as publications reaching students, staff and faculty. Arrange to have a Toastmaster give a presentation as a guest lecturer in a speech communication class. Or better yet, try to participate in communication-related campus events – like “Communications Week,” for example – and be prepared to host a booth and offer promotional fliers. If your district already has a University club, make sure it is publicized in campus media, as well as in new-student or freshmen orientations.
High Schools. Organize or judge speech contests for seniors, or give seminars on career planning. Even if students don’t join your club, this is an opportunity for media exposure and gives parents, staff and teachers a good impression of our organization. Community Events. Participate in local fairs, parades, sports tournaments and holiday celebrations. Wear your Toastmasters pin, display your club banner and ribbons and offer handouts at a booth. Again, the community services or recreation departments in your city will have a list of these events. Proclamations by Politicians (local, state or federal) honoring a specific event or anniversary. You can also ask them to proclaim an official Toastmasters Week (day or month) or Youth Leadership Week, etc. Billboards. Just as television and radio stations are required to regularly air free public service announcements, billboards also must frequently exhibit messages by nonprofit organizations as a public service. Your only cost involved would be for printing the message, which can be done surprisingly inexpensively. Contact a public affairs representative in your area for more information. Offer Speechcraft and Youth Leadership Programs. This is a great way of showing the public what Toastmasters is all about. Create Club or District Business Cards indicating your meeting time and place, and distribute them to friends and colleagues along with a personal comment on how Toastmasters training has benefited you. Use TI Bumper Stickers and Mugs. Wear TI shirts, and display your Toastmaster trophies in a prominent place in your home and office. Wear Your Toastmasters Pin! It’s a good conversation starter.
Taking Care of Guests Tips on making sure your guest comes back.
People join Toastmasters in order to achieve a specific goal or purpose. They might want to improve their public speaking skills so that they’re more comfortable speaking in front of an audience. Others, such as business professionals, might want to develop their leadership skills to better manage and motivate their staff. They will stay in Toastmasters unless they feel that the people they deal with are indifferent to their needs. Keep people in Toastmasters by actively helping them achieve their goals.
The best place to start is at the beginning. Look at how you treat guests in your club. If you make sure that guests are treated well, they’ll return as members. Here are some tips on how to help turn visitors into members: Set up a comfortable environment for your guests. The meeting room should be clearly marked and easy to find. If you’ve changed locations since your last meeting, make sure guests can find you. Keep your club Web site up-to-date and accurate, with any location changes posted clearly. Take good care of your banner so that it always looks its best, and display it proudly. Keep the meeting room neat and clean, with agendas, manuals and other materials well organized. Welcome guests to your club meeting. Greet him or her with a smile. Have the sergeant at arms introduce herself as soon as a guest walks in. Provide the guest with a name tag and a guestbook to sign. Introduce the guest to other members and provide a buddy for him to sit with during the meeting. This helps guests feel accepted and encourages them to explore the Toastmasters program. Run a professional and organized meeting. Start your meeting on time; by doing so, you will reward guests for being there at the start. Waiting for late members creates the impression that lateness is rewarded. Keep things moving. Your guest came to your club to learn communication and leadership skills, so make sure it’s clear how Toastmasters training can help. Then, be sure to end on time. Your guest will appreciate it. Ask your guests for feedback. Once the meeting is over, make sure visitors are interested in coming back. Find out what aspects of the meeting each guest liked or disliked, and if there were any complaints, address them. Thank your guests for coming to the meeting and invite them to join. Let them know that they are welcome in your club. You can give them a package of materials to take home with them. Be sure to include pamphlets such as “Your Membership Provides” (Item 354) and “Find Your Voice” (Item 99), as well as a membership application and a club officer contact sheet. These guidelines will help your club to create a great first impression. By making a good first impression, you’ll ensure that guests will soon become members in your club. For more ideas, check out Moments of Truth, where you’ll find creative and innovative tools to perk up any club meeting.
On Our Way to Distinguished Status In the last 10 years, Spectrum Speakers, an open corporate club at Alcon Laboratories in Irvine, California, has achieved Distinguished status twice and Select Distinguished status three times. This year’s goal? President’s Distinguished! The club officers know it’s going to take a lot of hard work and effort, which is why they got started planning in June at their final 2008-2009 club officer meeting. Club treasurer and Division F Governor of Founder's District Ryan Durkin says, “We discussed our upcoming DCP goals, and will finalize them with our incoming officers. We want to ensure that the incoming officers, who were not present, may also participate and learn. It’s important to have them involved because it helps the buy-in process.” Spectrum Speakers focuses on the transition between outgoing and incoming club officers, to ensure that all officers are prepared and trained for their duties in the club. At their executive meeting, Spectrum Speakers’ outgoing officers looked at their members from a strategic standpoint, focusing on which members were realistically in a position to achieve an award within the next six months and within the next year. After discussing their strategy, they approach the individuals they identified to find out whether they would be willing to commit to achieving an award in a set amount of time. Durkin says he finds it best to ask for the member’s help, letting them know how important their participation is to the club, as well as emphasizing the benefit to the member. A member is going to be more likely to help if she can see how helping the club also helps her. Other steps Spectrum Speakers takes in order to reach their DCP goals include: Encouraging every member to speak at least once a month by holding speak-a-thons and extra meetings, thus ensuring that there are plenty of opportunities for all members to speak. By doing so, a member’s goal can be to speak once a month, instead of achieving a CC, making the goal much more achievable and less intimidating. Breaking down the DCP goals into Process goals. Instead of focusing on getting eight new members by the end of the year, Spectrum Speakers focuses on the activities they have that make guests want to join. For example, when a guest attends a meeting, they are welcomed and seated with a member so that they can ask questions easily. At the end of the meeting, the Toastmaster asks the guest for feedback and thanks them for attending. Holding an open house potluck and inviting other employees of Alcon Laboratories to come and find out what Toastmasters is all about. Emphasizing the CL program each meeting by reminding each member to bring their CL manual, so that they can get credit for any meeting role they fulfill. Posting the Progress Wall Charts at each meeting so that members can see how they’re doing and be recognized for the hard work they’ve put in. Stressing the importance of club officer training for all incoming club officers and providing the necessary information to get it completed in a timely manner. As you can see, Spectrum Speakers begins planning out their DCP goals at the very beginning of the year, so that they have more goals achieved earlier. This enables them to focus on other club goals later on in the year. Imagine if your club had more time to devote to the club Web site and newsletter, or to press releases for the fall speech contest winners! These tips can help you get there.
Erasing All Doubts Corporate club measures its worth, By Beth MacNeil Stinson, DTM
The questions hung in the air. During a club-officer meeting, our president asked, “Why don't more people attend our meetings?” , The vice president education asked, “Why don't members finish their CCs?” Figuring out the answers to those two questions was vital to keeping our young corporate club alive. The members of Blackboard Bbuzz are employees of Blackboard Inc., an education software company headquartered in Washington, D.C. As a corporate club, we have many things going for us, including support from top company leadership. Our president and CEO gave an Ice Breaker during one meeting and was evaluated by a club member. The Human Resources department helps recruit members in its new-employee orientation program. Our meetings take place in a state-of-theart conference room, and we have a generous budget that covers lunch for most meetings. So why didn’t people attend meetings and finish 10 speeches? The answers, we discovered, had to do with our failure to demonstrate -- using measurable results -- the value we bring to our organization. Just like they would expect from any other business proposal, our employees expected an onsite Toastmasters club to make a solid business case–with data-driven evidence–that participation in Toastmasters is worthwhile. What follows is the story of how Blackboard Bbuzz demonstrated the value we’ve been bringing to our company through innovative programs and workshops that are open to all employees. Such activities allow the club to achieve its goals, while employees reach their goals: becoming better communicators. Our entire company benefits as a result. About Our Club Our company creates enterprise-level software applications for education. Many of our employees are engineers, programmers, system administrators, technical support agents and project managers. They are highly motivated, highly technical, and data driven. Without seeing the tangible advantages of regular club meeting participation, the members were not convinced it was worth their time and effort to attend regularly or give more than two or three speeches. They just did not see the direct relevance of Toastmasters skills to their daily job responsibilities. Facing these challenges, our club officers needed to present evidence that we added value to the company. Our club president then took the step of meeting with various department heads and asking how we could help their employees become better communicators. He brought their feedback and ideas back to our club officers, and we held a brainstorming session. As a result, the club identified two main areas where we could serve our company: helping people make better presentations and helping them network.
Presentations Most company employees make presentations internally to other departments and externally to our clients. We use PowerPoint and often use teleconferencing or Web conferencing tools. Being passive participants in many of these presentations gave us Toastmasters a chance to observe presenters' strengths and weaknesses and devise a way to help improve presentation skills across the company. Our club created a program that offered a private review, with oral and written feedback, to any employee scheduled to make a presentation. We offered this service through the managers of each department; managers could recommend that their employees schedule a review with our club to gain valuable feedback. By participating as reviewers, club members also benefited, practicing critical thinking skills and evaluation techniques. We registered great results. All employees who participated said their presentation skills improved. As an added bonus, a club member who was a reviewer successfully competed in the Area Evaluation Contest. These successes directly affect the way our company is now regarded by our clients and in our community. They improve our collective ability to share critical technical information while also giving positive feedback. Managers have noticed the improvements and even noted it in employees' annual performance reviews. By having a place to practice where supportive feedback is provided and a company goal is shared, employees can improve their presentation skills and be formally acknowledged for their efforts. This formal review and acknowledgement gave our club the first data it needed to make a business case for our importance. Networking Every year our company hosts client conferences around the world, culminating in our annual conference that includes workshops, networking and a chance for clients to meet the people who build the software they use every day. Many clients report that the biggest reason they attend is for the networking opportunities. However, when client evaluations were processed for past events, the networking skills of some employees were rated low. Networking opportunities were being lost during the most important client event of the year – one that was a major investment for our business. To address this issue, our club designed a program in conjunction with the Human Resources department. We produced a two-hour interactive workshop on networking skills. A team of Toastmasters led the discussion and fun interactive exercises for the 80 employees who attended. We helped employees improve their networking skills by demonstrating how to creatively introduce themselves, how to write and deliver a dynamic "elevator speech" and how to efficiently "work" a room to meet with as many people as possible. The internal feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Employees were able to put their new skills to work almost immediately at the next conference, which was held soon after the networking program. Client feedback now rates employees’ networking the highest in years. This second piece of data helped to make our business case. Conclusion Our efforts have paid off. Armed with the data collected from these two successful programs, we’ve been able to convince members to attend more meetings and complete more speeches. In 2007-2008 – only our second year – Blackboard Bbuzz earned Distinguished Club status. We had another strong year in 2008-2009, reaching Select Distinguished status, producing an excellent educational program and drawing a robust membership.
From Paltry to Plenty How One Club Grew to President’s Distinguished Status By Roxanne Ruzic, ACS/ALB A couple of years ago, our Toastmasters club was in trouble. The Vapor Trails Toastmasters in San Diego, California, was a friendly group, with enjoyable meetings and a handful of active, long-standing members. But we attracted few guests and fewer new members. During summer vacations and flu season, we might have had four people at a meeting. We weren’t sure we were going to survive. But then, in the 2007-2008 Toastmasters year, we became a President’s Distinguished Club for the first time in anyone’s memory. We had guests at every meeting and new members joining on a regular basis. This past year, we were a President’s Distinguished Club once again. It seems the club has created true, lasting change. How did we do it? How did we – after years of trying – finally make the transition from wanting new members to attracting and retaining them? Ironically, we stumbled onto success largely as a side effect of beginning to work the Toastmasters education and leadership programs more actively. Here is the story of our progress, and the six steps we discovered along the way that have helped us grow. Step 1: Get the Entire Club to Work Together Our club members were eager for new faces, but they were also a little cynical. After all, we’d tried a number of membership-building activities over the years to no avail. Then in July 2007, I began working from the newly revised advanced manual Facilitating Discussion, thinking the projects would help me in my business. As our new club Vice President Public Relations, I decided to make those presentations – where I was to guide a club discussion – more relevant to our group by focusing on something this audience cared about: how to attract new members. For Project One, we brainstormed ideas. For Project Two, we focused on three of our suggestions in depth. Through these discussions, we formed a novel idea: We would contact the human resources departments of local businesses and let them know that we were nearby so that they could inform their employees about Toastmasters and encourage attendance at our club. Suddenly, the whole club was involved and excited, because this was our plan. We decided to form a public relations committee to put our idea into action. Step 2: Give Visitors a Reason to Come Today For the last project in the Facilitating Discussion manual, we decided to host an “All About Toastmasters” Open House. It would look like a regular Toastmasters meeting and would include a speech on techniques for public speaking as well as a speech on a non-Toastmasters-related topic. We would monitor time limits vigilantly, choose the Toastmaster and General Evaluator carefully, and do a practice run two weeks in advance so we’d look competent on the big day.
Step 3: Be Wise About How You Publicize Club members started volunteering ideas about ways to publicize the Open House. Drawing on everyone’s suggestions, we advertised in numerous ways: We contacted the HR departments at local businesses, posted fliers around town, told our friends and colleagues, and listed the information on our club Web site. We were also able to get an article published in the local community newspaper about our club and the upcoming event. The day of the Open House arrived. The meeting began on time, all the extra chairs were filled and the event was an unmitigated success. As it turned out, every single visitor said they came because they saw the article in the local newspaper. Not one was in attendance as a result of our outreach efforts to area businesses. Surprised by this, we polled our existing members on how they originally discovered the club: Every member except one said it was because of a very small ad we had run in the back of the community paper. We realized that newspaper exposure was critical. And that an article about the club was even bigger and better than a tiny ad. In addition, we needed to host a simple event, like an Open House, on a regular basis to give visitors a reason to check us out. We had found our club’s keys to attracting guests. But could we get any of them to join? Step 4: Challenge Yourselves Our club has always had positive members and fun meetings, but in general we didn’t push ourselves. Because we were a smaller group, we typically aimed for one speech a meeting. But to make sure guests got a good sense of Toastmasters, we presented two speeches for our Open House. Afterward, we asked ourselves, Why didn’t we do this all the time? We began scheduling two speeches each meeting. This led members to participate more – even the shyer ones -- and to make quicker progress toward their educational goals. Now guests who visited were able to see beginning and advanced speakers at the same meeting and realize ours was a club for them, whatever their current level. We were making progress. Step 5: Have the Forms Ready In the past when guests had visited our meetings, we subsequently sent them a one-page letter explaining the benefits of the club and inviting them to join. But after the Open House, we decided to also include a membership application already filled out with our club’s information and fees. This way, the potential member knew exactly what he or she needed to do and exactly how much it would cost to get started. Suddenly, we had guests returning for a second or third visit with completed application forms—and checkbooks. First-time guests began to perceive our club as somewhere where you visited once or twice, understood the benefits, and became a member. At long last, we were steadily increasing our roster. Still, we wondered, would the new members stay? Step 6: Make Sure You Mentor When I mentored a new club member as part of my work in the new Competent Leadership manual, I realized just how important it is for new Toastmasters to have mentors. In preparation for the Open House, our club president established a formal mentoring program, and it has stuck. Every new member picks a mentor immediately upon joining the club, and all veteran members are called upon to serve as mentors at one point or another. We are now attracting new members and keeping them. They are active and thriving. “Yes,” you might say, “I see how experimenting with these steps can help my club too. But haven’t leaders at the district level and at Toastmasters International headquarters been recommending these same guidelines for years?” In hindsight, you’re absolutely right. I guess sometimes you just have to figure things out for yourself.
Membership Building Contests Membership Building Contests
As the end of the program year approaches, clubs and districts are finalizing their goals for achieving Distinguished status or better. For some members, this may mean presenting the last speech needed to be awarded their CC . For others, this may mean fulfilling a specific meeting role for their CL. For most, it means recruiting new members to fulfill the membership requirement of the Distinguished Club Program. That majority is asking, “What is the best way to grow a club’s membership in the short period of time that is left in this program year?” The answer: conduct a membership building contest! For the past two years, Deborah Fischer Stout and the other members of the Wichita Downtown club in Wichita, Kansas, have been participating in Toastmasters’ membership building contests. Since 2008, the club has recruited 20 new members. As the club president, Deborah believes the contests play a vital role in the growth and maintenance of her club’s membership. Deborah’s main reason for supporting this method of recruitment is its twofold outcome: “It allows for people to easily complete a CL project and for the club to grow.” Before her club began participating in all the contests, members would wonder if the club membership goals would be met. Now there is no confusion, because, “We know we will always be over 20 members, or we will always have added more than five new members in a year.” David Johnson, the VP Membership of Twin City Toastmasters in St. Joseph, Michigan, says his club also conducts membership building contests: “We usually participate in two of the three contests” conducted each year. David credits almost half of his club’s new members to these contests. The club is currently down to 13 members, but David is sure his club’s participation in the upcoming Beat the Clock contest will increase membership and meet the club’s goal. It’s so easy to invite someone to your Toastmasters meeting - and a contest makes the inviting fun! When a guest sits in on one of your meetings, you can use the following simple suggestions from fellow Toastmasters to draw in potential new members: Karen Seeman, a DTM with Valley Toastmasters in Haworth, New Jersey, understands that once potential members visit her club, she has to be able to show them the benefits of membership or they will not decide to join. Karen says, “The meetings are the best advertisement. If the meeting is filled with fun, enthusiasm and energy, it has the prospects clamoring to be members. No pitch is necessary.” Karen says, “the (Welcome to Toastmasters!) DVD of the demo meeting is an incredible marketing tool for both corporate and community clubs.” For corporate clubs, Seeman positions a few volunteers/officers outside a well-trafficked area a day or so before the meeting, such as a cafeteria, and these volunteers play the DVD of the demo meeting on a laptop and collect prospects’ e-mail addresses and phone numbers on a signup sheet. They also hand out the fliers Find Your Voice (Item 99) and All About Toastmasters (Item 124). She says, “After a prospect fills out the signup sheet, an invitation is sent requesting their attendance at the next meeting, which includes a link to the Welcome to Toastmasters DVD of the demo meeting. That way the prospect knows what to expect when they come to a meeting.”
Teamwork A key to success: When you hear the word, “teamwork,” what comes to mind? Do you see a positive image of everyone collaborating and working together? Or maybe you remember a not-so-positive experience when a team project fell on your shoulders because you were the only one who cared if it succeeded? Whatever the case may be, teamwork can be beneficial to all involved, especially if every “team player” respects the other players’ roles. Whether you are the project owner, contributor, collaborator or assistant – as a player, you’re an integral part of the puzzle.
American industrialist, Henry Ford, said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Whether constructing the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal or the Golden Gate Bridge, history proves the importance of working together. Now, whether it’s running a presidential campaign, keeping a business afloat, or building and maintaining a thriving Toastmasters club – teamwork is still the key component for success. Benefits of Teamwork You’ll find many benefits to joining a team. Your team might create a thriving home, community or professional environment. Or they might build a flourishing Toastmasters group. These advantages include: Families can take pleasure in a harmonious environment by working together to complete daunting tasks such as housework and chores. Community fundraisers or programs flourish when they capitalize on everyone’s individual strengths, knowledge, personal contacts and individual contributions. Professional teams thrive by collaborating on assignments, contributing ideas and using the “divide and conquer” strategy to finish large projects. In Toastmasters, new club officers enjoy a smooth transition into office when they can work with their predecessors as a team to ensure all duties are covered, questions are answered and best practices are maintained. In so many ways, a team mentality will enhance your personal and professional life, as well as make your goals and projects more fulfilling and successful. Most importantly, team members enjoy: • • • • •
Making the most of individual strengths Producing diverse ideas Reaping the benefits of collaborative decision-making Encouraging involvement Improving workload distribution
Sometimes a little extra effort is required to enjoy all these benefits. Is your team experiencing issues with conflict? There are a few ways that personalities might clash in a team, but experienced leaders know how to correct such situations and steer a new course for success. You can Turn Team Conflict into Team Harmony