Orlando Toastmasters Learning Institute July Experiments a Success!

by Mary Carol Holbert, ACS

If you were one of the 402 people who attended the July 16 th TLI in Winter Park, Florida, you probably participated in at least one ‘grand experiment'! For the first time, TLI conducted an Advanced Officer Training class, and offered four ‘Lunch and Learn' sessions for those attending the institute.

For years, our members who have held the same office for multiple terms questioned why they should continue to attend officer training, when they had already been trained multiple times for their office. While there is always value in networking with our fellow Toastmasters officers, our Lt. Governor of Education and Training and an advanced committee of six DTMs sought to develop an interactive session that would be interesting, relevant, and useful for our veteran club officers.

What emerged was a two-hour program that touched upon the essential points for each office, but concentrated on the following five distinct areas:

• Communication among officers in a club
• Communication with members of a club
• Maximizing the club contest
• Conflict resolution, and
• Membership growth

In order to qualify for the session, a club officer was required to have held the office for two terms, and to have attended at least two training sessions. There were 65 attendees at the session, and given the interactive nature of the program, the participants enjoyed lively discussion about the challenges and opportunities before them. The feedback from this experiment was extremely positive, with everyone commenting indicating they would come back.

Pass the word! Hopefully in the future more advanced officers will want to attend as well.

The second experiment you may have participated in was one of the newly instituted ‘Lunch and Learn' sessions. Rather than simply take your box lunch and scramble to find an open seat or a patch of grass, four venues were created to encourage interaction, networking, and discussion.

In the past, one of the concerns expressed by many officer trainees was that there really wasn't much opportunity to discuss the challenges, issues, or opportunities with their fellow officers. Their point was well taken, for the simple reason that most of the training sessions were so packed with information that there was rarely any time left over within the sessions themselves to exchange thoughts and ideas.

‘Lunch and Learn' was created to provide a time and space for those discussions to take place. Over the lunch period, one room was set out for club Presidents and VPEs; a second room for VPMs and VPPRs; a third for Secretaries and Treasurers; and a fourth for Sergeants-at-Arms.

A facilitator was provided for each room to spur discussion, suggest topics, and prevent fistfights! The lunch periods flew by as participants exchanged experiences, ideas, tips, and frequent offers to help one another.

Once again, the feedback for the Lunch and Learn sessions was enthusiastically positive. Of all the events at the TLI, Lunch and Learn got the best feedback, with participants unanimously asking for a repeat.

All in all, TLI's July experiments were a great success. Come check them out this coming January, because based on popular demand, they'll both be back!