Club Leadership Training Session

Achieving Success

As Club Officers

Case Study

A responsibility

and a privilege

It is an opportunity to learn and practice

communication, organization, and leadership skills

as well as to support fellow members, educate new

leaders, and contribute to the success of the club

as a whole.

Making the club enjoyable

All club business

All administrative issues

Ensuring the club achieves DCP recognition

The Executive Committee

Every member is responsible for

Conduct Productive Committee Meetings

General

1

Leaders can take three steps to ensure a productive meeting.

1. State the purpose of the meeting. A purpose statement simply and

briefly specifies what the meeting is to achieve.

2. Inform participants about the meeting. Notice should include:

Date, time, and place of the meeting. Any information that

participants should bring (e.g. report of activities)

What is expected of each participant at the meeting (e.g. reports,

ideas) Meeting length

3. Develop an agenda. An agenda lists in order the subjects that will be

covered in the meeting and the time schedule in relation to each.

Agendas allow the meeting leader to keep discussions focused and to

achieve results in the time available.

General

Scenario:

A club officer is underperforming, frequently

absent, or otherwise unable to fulfill his

duties, leaving you, the president, with more

to do.

Club President

2

Possible solutions:

Meet with the club officer immediately and ask

what you can do to help. Engage, encourage,

and energize him to develop and use the skills

required for the job.

Examine your own leadership approach.

Ask yourself if you are contributing to the

club officer’s problems.

Club President

Scenario:

John has been a member for four months

and would like to be the Sergeant at Arms.

John has a fear of speaking to others one-

on-one, in a small social setting. John has

asked you for assistance.

Roles: (1) John (2) President (3) Observer

Club President

3

Club President

Scenario:

A club member is belligerent, controlling,

or otherwise causing trouble at club

meetings.

4

Possible solutions:

Contact the member immediately and listen to his/her

point of view. (Often, this is enough to solve the

problem.)

Give the club member a task that focuses her energies.

Explain the importance of orderly, positive club

meetings to the entire group, so he/she does not feel

singled out.

If the club member needs to be removed, see Club

Constitution, Article II: Membership, Section 7 and

Protocol 3.0 Club Procedure to Discipline a Member.

(Discipline/Expel/Suspend/Decline to Renew Membership)

Club President

Scenario:

It’s difficult to find the time to create a

good, workable club schedule (meeting

program) that keeps all members happy

and moving forward in the Toastmasters

education program.

Vice President Education

5

As much as possible, do preparation work. Create

schedules one or two months in advance, and post them on

the club’s website where everyone can see them.

Devise a system of automatic meeting role rotation, from

simplest to most demanding; for example, each new

member begins by presenting the thought of the day, then

moves to Ah-Counter, then grammarian, then timer, and so

on, until the new member fills a speaker role and eventually

becomes Toastmaster of a meeting.

Vice President Education

Scenario:

Members are not always willing to commit

to meeting roles.

Vice President Education

6

Ensure members know that serving in club roles gives them

credit toward the Competent Leader award. Encourage

members to bring Competent Leadership to every

meeting and find evaluators for each meeting role.

CLUB LEADERSHIP HANDBOOK

email discussion several days before the meeting to confirm

each member assigned to a meeting role is able to fulfill his or

her duties.

Vice President Education

Develop membership goals for a club and a

plan to accomplish the goals.

To increase the club’s membership by five

before year-end.

Discuss the goals and strategies developed

by the teams with the entire group.

Vice President Membership

7

Scenario:

Scenario: Your club is experiencing rapid

turnover in membership;

Members sign up, stay for a few weeks,

then move on.

Vice President Membership

8

Possible solutions:

Encourage members to keep meetings lively, to start and

end on time, to keep a positive atmosphere, and to mix it

up from time to time with a special event, such as a

costume party or guest speaker.

Contact lapsed club members and invite them to a

special event.

Nominate a “Snackmaster” to bring food to each

meeting.

Always recognize member achievements— even the

small ones.

Keep new guests coming in to replace lapsed members.

Vice President Membership

Scenario:

You don’t have enough time in your

schedule to promote the club as much as

you’d like.

Vice President Public Relations

9

Possible solutions:

Try for those options that deliver the best results for the

least investment in time and resources.

Networking is always a good approach; tell everyone in

your social circles.

Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Meetup, and other social media

sites to contact prospective members.

Delegate tasks to other club members and encourage

them to help.

Vice President Public Relations

Scenario:

The previous club secretary did not keep the

club files in order.

Club Secretary

10

Possible solutions:

Track down any necessary documents, including the club

charter, constitution and bylaws, minutes, resolutions,

and relevant correspondence.

If necessary, use club funds to purchase a portable file

caddy or other small container to organize your files.

Develop, maintain, and document a simple, effective

filing system, and pass it on to your successor.

Club Secretary

Scenario: A member submits his membership-renewal

dues to the club on time. The member has a

receipt proving that he paid membership-

renewal dues to the club. However, as

treasurer, you submit membership-renewal

dues to World Headquarters late; as a

result, the member is disqualified from a

speech contest.

Club Treasurer

11

Possible solutions:

Unfortunately, there is no solution to this

problem, except to avoid it before it happens. As

the treasurer, you are responsible for paying all

membership-renewal dues on time. If you do not,

other club members may have to suffer the

consequences.

Club Treasurer

Scenario:

You experience difficulty motivating

members to pay membership-renewal dues

early.

Club Treasurer

12

Possible solutions:

Make the club’s due date a few weeks earlier

than the organization’s due date. Explain the

consequences—such as no speech contests

and no education awards—to delinquent

members.

Seek help from VPM, find out the reason for not

renewing, persuade member to continue

receiving benefit of Toastmasters program.

Club Treasurer

Scenario:

It’s difficult to find the time to arrive early

and set up the meeting space when time is

limited.

Sergeants at Arms

13

Possible solutions:

Ask for volunteers to assist you when your work

or life schedule gets busy; tap into the

enthusiasm of new members to help with the

role.

Sergeants at Arms

Scenario:

If a club has a large number of members

and has difficulty accommodating

all those who want to speak at meetings

General

14

Possible solutions:

the club may occasionally conduct a special

meeting devoted solely to manual speeches.

These meetings are often called “speakathons,”

“speech marathons,” or “speakouts.”

The only reason such meetings may be held is to help

individual members improve speaking skills, and they

may be organized only by a club.

Members are limited to one speech at any meeting

For credit toward any education award.

General

Distinguished Club Program goals

General

15

31 www.district80.org

10 Goals to Achieve in 2013-2014

Activity Goal - by 31st May 2014 Club’s Plan Actual / Date completed

1 CC - Competent Communicator

2

The most likely candidates are:

2 Additional CCs 2 or more

Other candidates to achieve CC during the term include:

3 ACs (AC Bronze, AC Silver, AC Gold)

1

Most likely candidates are :

4 Additional ACs 1 or more

Most likely candidates are:

5 CL, AL Bronze, AL Silver or DTM

1

Most likely candidates are :

6 Additional CL, AL Bronze, AL Silver or DTM

1 or more Most likely candidates are:

7 New members 4 (Speechcraft, other mode of promotion) 8 Additional new members 4 or more

9 Club officer training Min 4 officers trained each of two

training periods 1st COT - 2nd COT -

10 Semiannual Membership Dues and Club Officer Lists

Semiannual membership dues dates are 1st Oct 13 and

01 Apr 14 Club officer list due date is 30 Jun 13

Submit min 8 members by 30/9/13 Submit min 8 members by 31/3/14 Submitted

Achieve 5 of 10 goals - Distinguished Club Achieve 7 of 10 goals - Select Distinguished Club

Achieve 9 of 10 goals - President’s Distinguished Club

DISTINGUISHED CLUB PROGRAM 1st July 2013 – 30th June 2014

Club: Club No:

CLUB SUCCESS PLAN

CLUB SUCCESS PLAN

32

www.district80.org

Other Goals for the Club in 2012/2013

Activity Club’s Plan Actual / Date completed

1. H&E Contests Club Contests

2 Int’l & TT Contests Club Contests

3 Educational Programs

e.g. Contests Champion Speeches, Club Meetings; Special Talks etc. International Speech Contests Finalist Competent Leadership Talk Table Topics Workshop

4

Workshops E.g. Memory Workshop – Successfully completed (20+ members attended) CL 6 and CL 10 for Jerry, Body Language Workshop. Org Chair, Jacinta respectively

5

Year End Outing One-Day Tour on 1st Dec 12… HPL for Joel

6

Club Anniversary HPL project Organising Chair for Jason

Date Activities Venue 29 Jun 2013 1st COT Temasek Poly

Area A4 Humorous & Evaluation Speech Contests

Division A Humorous & Evaluation Speech Contests 3 Aug 2013 District Workshop on Conduct Quality Speech Contest Whampoa CC

31 Aug 2013 District Workshop on Judges Training Whampoa CC

16 Nov 2013 District 80 Semi-Annual Convention Chui Huay Lim

2nd COT

Area A4 International Speech and Table Topics Contests

Division A International Speech and Table Topics Contests 10-11 May 2014 District 80 Annual Convention Bangkok, Thailand

IMPORTANT DIVISION / DISTRICT DATES:

CLUB ACTIVITIES 1st July 2013 – 30th June 2014

Club: Club No: