The Phoenix Club- Rising from the Ashes
By Dwight Dopilka ATM-B/CL and Scott Mills CTM, High Fliers Club #4847
The year is 1994 and LAX Toastmasters Club #4847 has reached its membership zenith with 30 members. The club was thriving and exciting. Then the momentum and excitement started to decline. This decline continued for 5 years. We knew we were headed on a slippery slide to extinction.
Flash forward to the year 2000. The club was in serious critical condition. Three core members, Scott Mills, David Trujillo and I struggled to get the 8 minimum paid members to keep the club off of probation. No one was achieving any educational or leadership goals and meeting attendance was non-existent.
We had two options; one was to throw in the towel and terminate the club, and the second was to focus on effectively building a new club from scratch using our existing charter and with the help of the few dedicated core members. Scott, Dave and I met with our Area C-1 Governor, David Dickey, ATM-B/CL, and Division C Governor, Maria-Isabel Soto, ATM-B/CL, to talk about the resources available to support our endeavor. After the discussion, it was decided that we did not want the club to die!
First step was to change our club name to “High Fliers” and moved our meeting location to the conference room overlooking the Los Angeles International (LAX). We had been meeting in a small conference room we called “The Dungeon” and realized the new location would provide a comfortable and professional atmosphere for our club meetings.
We decided to have a series of Open Houses focussing on obtaining new members for our “new” club. We initially set a lofty goal of 25 new members in addition to our current membership base of 6. But what could we do at these open houses to get guests to become club members. I was reading my Toastmasters magazine and noticed an article on public relations and it mentioned the new video titled, “Everybody’s Talking About Toastmasters”. This was exactly what we needed! In addition to having the video, it was decided that a guest speaker would speak to the guests on the benefits and rewards of Toastmasters. Who could we get to speak at our open house? Dave Dickey suggested our District One Lieutenant Governor of Marketing, Ann Hastings, ATM-S to be the guest speaker and she would give a speech aptly titled: “Seize the Moment.”
Next, we developed a special flier to advertise the Open Houses. We discovered to our delight that we could have it posted on the Boeing Satellite Services Intranet home page under a “Hot Topics” button. These fliers were also posted in the lobbies of several company buildings.
Scott and I assembled an Open House New Member package containing the background and benefits of Toastmasters. We strategically placed a partly completed membership application right on the top of the handout. This would facilitate the sale and ‘closing of the deal” with our guests. Each guest was greeted and handed a member package as they came into the conference room.
We used the following meeting agenda for each of the open houses so that each meeting would take about 50 minutes. It was simple and very effective.
1. Introduction, Agenda Review, Acknowledgement of Special Speakers, and Leadership
2. Introduction of “Everybody’s Talking About Toastmasters” video
3. Play video
4. Introduction of Special Guest Speaker
5. Special Guest Speaker
6. Member Testimony of membership benefits and rewards
7. Question and Answer session
8. New Member signups (close the sale)
Since January 10, 2001, we held 5 Open Houses and signed up 27 new members! Our new member signup rate was nearly 87%! We were jazzed and excited! We now knew what we needed to do to recruit new members. We thought to ourselves, why didn’t we do something like this years ago! We had exceeded our new member goals and had a “new” exciting club. Scott, Dave and I agreed that an Open House focussed on new member growth would need to be performed at least 4 times every year.
Recently, we had started dialog with our Human Resources, Employee Development staff giving them a background of Toastmasters and how our club could contribute to the communication and leadership skills of our fellow employees. The warm reception we received opened up vast possibilities for membership growth and a vehicle for public relations for our club. With the support from our company, we could be looking at a club of 40-50 members in the future.
As you read from our story, no matter if your club is below charter strength or you have a single digit club, conduct a series of Open Houses like the ones we have successfully held and watch as your club is reborn right in front of your eyes. High Fliers, #4847, is now on a strong foundation and flying high over Los Angeles!