Vice President of Membership
Club Officers should encourage self-development by fostering a positive environment within the club for all members.
-Helping officers clearly understand their roles
-Orienting club members to better understand what to expect from officers
-Aiding members when evaluating current leaders and candidates for office
-Facilitating communicating when expectations differ among club officers and
members
Outside the Club Meeting:
-Conduct ongoing membership building programs and efforts
-Promote the goal of one new member per month
-Promote achieving twenty members by year’s end or sooner, if it has less than
twenty members, (or at least a net gain of five new members by the end of the
year)
-Promote club and Toastmasters International membership building programs and
conduct a minimum of two formal membership building activities for the year
-Follow-up and keep tract of guest, new members and members who have not
been attending the meetings
-Bring membership applications to the meetings, (possibly in guest packets)
-Assist the Vice President of Public Relations with maintaining the club website
-Ensure the club’s meeting location and the time is listed correctly on the club’s
website and by World Headquarters
-Attend club executive meetings
-Attend and vote at Area Council Meetings
-Arrange for a replacement if you are unable to attend any club meeting
-Prepare your successor for your office, which includes attending officer training,
and encouraging the other officers to attend officer training, two times a year
At the Club Meetings:
-GREET THE GUEST and have the guest complete a guest information card,
(item # 231), or sign the guest book and have them include contact information
-Report on current membership, promote membership campaigns and welcome
new members! You can even use the Promotion Welcome Ribbon, (item #
393W), for this.
-Work with the President and the Vice President of Education to ensure that each
new member is formally inducted at the first meeting after having been voted in
to the club.
-Help guest wanting to join fill out the application form for membership.
-Speak with fellow members to determine that their needs are being met.
Leadership Opportunity:
Serving as an Officer gives you the opportunity to develop and enhance your leadership skills while serving the club and helping it become a Distinguished Club.
-Set realistic and obtainable goals
-Plan how to accomplish these goals
-Delegate tasks as needed
-Monitor progress towards those goals
-Coach team members when necessary
Motivation:
There may be times when you may need to motivate team members to put forth an effort to obtain the goals set.
The five steps of Motivation:
1) Understand what motivates each person by learning about their-
-Personal aspirations
-Professional objectives
-Toastmasters goals
2) Focus on the benefits to the individual, (how participation will be of value to
him or her)
3) Make expectations clear, (set milestones for achieving goals and share it with
the team members)
4) Recognize their work
-Point out participation
-Thank them when a team members accomplishes a task
5) Be a leader
-Recognize individual’s success
-Be enthusiastic about the work to be done
-Support the team members in all tasks
Delegate Authority, as needed, to team members, so they can accomplish the task.
The five steps to Delegate:
1) Decide what to delegate
-Prioritize your tasks
-Identify what can be delegated
2) Decide who will do the task
-Select a team member who is available, willing and capable of
completing the task
3) Assign responsibility
-Allow the person to decide if they can handle the task
-Clearly explain what needs to be done
4) Grant authority
-Provide the necessary tools and resources
-Confer the authority needed to make the required decisions
5) Establish accountability
-Define reporting requirements
-Set a timetable with milestones
Barriers to Delegation
-Lack of confidence in others ability to do the job
-Fear of losing control of the team or project
-Selfishness-not wanting to share credit
-Insecurity-feeling bad about asking others to do things for you
-Reluctance-fear another might do a better job and upsurge your leadership
Coaching:
Sometimes a member of the team demonstrates a need for guidance. This can be accomplished by coaching. This can also improving your leadership skills, can help you building new skills while helping the team at the same time.
Four Steps to Successful Coaching:
1) Identify and define goals, (identify the issue and the goals sought)
2) Define strategies to reach these goals. (Explain the behavior necessary to
produce the desired goals)
3) Establish a timetable and milestones to measure progress. (Setting dates
keeps progress and momentum moving forward.)
4) Follow up. Stay in contact to ensure the team remains on course.
Setting Membership Goals:
You, as Vice President of Membership, lead the way to building membership, hopefully to at least the charter strength of twenty. Twenty is the ideal number of members to conduct the Toastmasters educational program, even if not all of the members were able to attend. Certainly try to get up to this number by June 30th.
Achieving Membership Goals
Smedley Award-five new members join between August and September
Talk Up Toastmasters-five new members join between February and March
Beat the Clock-five new members join between May and June.
Annual membership programs recognize individual members who sponsor five, ten, fifteen or more new members during a year, and this can achieve special recognition from Toastmasters International.
There are also District membership drives. Scott Meyer has sent a letter about those. Read this letter to get this information, and pass it on to your club members, so they can have even more incentives to achieve their awards.
Give Modules, especially from the Successful Club Series.
(These are ten to fifteen minute talks that can be use as educational talks in a regular meeting, and are required for Advanced Communicator-Silver and Advanced Leader-Bronze).
1) Finding New Membership for Your Club
2) The Toastmasters Educational Program
3) Closing the Sale
4) Setting the Stage for Success: Meeting Roles and Responsibilities
5) Mentoring
6) Keeping the Commitment (for clubs needing to remind their members about
why they joined in the first place)
7) Moments of Truth (for clubs that are starting to struggle or worst)
8) The Better Speaker Series, (that can be used as educational speeches on giving
speeches, such as organizing your speech, opening your speech, closing your
speech, and many more, but these can only be applied to the Advanced
Communicator-Silver. These are also helpful with Speechcraft educational
speeches.)
Make a Bar Chart
Create a bar chart that keeps tract of the number of new members each member brings
in, and keep it updated.
Have this finish on a specific date, and whoever has gotten the most new members
wins, (a possible prize).
Running the Marathon
Use small photos or drawing to depict each member of your club, and put a name on it
Use a large poster, and set up the figures as if at a starting line
Determine the distance of the race, (such as 5K, for getting 5 new members in this
year)
Make a mark, divided into five units, with each unit representing 1 new member
Move the members figure as they get a new member to join
The first member to get five new members wins the race (and possible reward)
Work with the VPE on the Club Mentoring Program
Club Members Get Mentoring Experience
Some clubs have the VPE delegate the club mentoring program to the VPM. A member who has completed at least 3 speeches can become a mentor to a new member. In addition, an existing member can receive mentoring from a more advanced member. CL credit is provided.
Maintain Member Satisfaction
Do not forget your current members. Make sure your club is meeting their needs, or they may leave. Assign them a role to fill at the meetings and make sure that they always bring their Competent Leader manual and the Communication Manuals or their Advanced Communication Manuals with them to the meetings, so that can always have them ready to be filled out when needed. By always having your members working towards their goals, your club will be working towards meeting their goals to becoming a Distinguished Club.
Find out what your members enjoy about Toastmasters and what they are dissatisfied with. You could possible use the Membership Survey, (item # 403), or New Member Profile, (item # 1162F), to do this. Periodically distribute the Club Climate Questionnaire, (item # 251C), to the members, to provide insight into the member’s thoughts and feelings about your club. You can also use these results to identify ways to improve your club meetings.
Handling a Guest
All Officers should GREET EVERY GUEST, especially the Vice President of Membership. This can include all members, and you should make the guest feel welcome and comfortable. You should try to include the guest in the meeting. If they feel welcomed into the group, they are more likely to join. Ask them to sign the guest book and leave their contact information. Give them a guest packet. (It should include an application, and some information about Toastmasters, possibly including a Toastmasters magazine.) Ask them their name near the beginning of the meeting, and have a seasoned member sit next to them and explain what is going on during the meeting and answer any other questions they may have. Ask then if they might like to participate in a Table Topics’ question, but do not force them if they don’t want to. At the end of the meeting, ask them how they found out about your club, what they thought of the meeting, what they enjoyed about the meeting and if they think Toastmasters could help them. Invite them to come back and to join your club, (but don’t force them). You can help them fill out a membership application, though.
DO NOT FORGET TO FOLLOW-UP! Send them a THANK YOU note, phone call or email. Thank them for coming to your meeting, and invite them to the next meeting. Invite them to join your club, but don’t try to force them to join. Remind them why they came in the first place, and how Toastmasters could possibly help them. Make sure that they have the information needed to come to the next meeting, (location, time and date when the next regular meeting take place, if they are unable to make the next meeting, when the regular meetings are held).
Methods for increasing Membership:
1) Word of Mouth, (have a brief introduction ready whenever anyone ask about
Toastmasters, invite people to your meeting and encourage your member to
invite people to your meetings)
2) Flyers, (should include contact information, time, date and place of meetings,
and any special information about the club, such as only members of a
company are eligible for membership in this club)
3) Open Houses, (must include all the information on the flyer and advertise,
especially to your core group that you want to attract to it)
4) Advertising (in local newspapers, stores, libraries, local bulletin boards or any
other place that you think might attract new members for your club)
5) Speechcraft, (a mini speaking course that should be extensively advertised
ahead of time and include most if not all your members helping to run it)
6) Giving visitors guest packets (that include information about Toastmasters and
information about your club, and should include the most recent membership
application and an old Toastmasters magazine, and possibly a letter from the
Vice President of Membership thanking them for coming, reminding them
what they liked about the meeting, inviting them to another meeting and
inviting them to join your club.)
7) Give certain Modules
8) Get a website, (if you don’t already have one) and keep it up to date. This can
include anything special about your club and can include member profiles,
Toastmasters stories, etc.