Parents without Partners International Convention

– I am neither a parent nor without a partner. 
by Ellen Onieal Little, ACS, ALB District 84 Education Chair, Girl Talk Toastmasters VPE, Social Media/Linked In corporal

Ellen Little, ACS

I was honored to represent Toastmasters International District 84 at the International Convention of Parents without Partners in Orlando on July 10th, 2013.  The requested topic was Volunteering and how to find and retain members.  I certainly know about that!

In my research of the topic, I learned that volunteer organizations across the board have the same challenges with keeping members. In fact, only 1/3 of the members stay after their first year.  Ironically there is no statistic that shows how many stay if they make it through 2 years or more.   There are a plethora of reasons why people stay, typically the top 10 reasons revolve around their satisfaction that they  are receiving what they came to the organization for.

I know why people come to Toastmasters.  It always made sense to me that typical profile of Toastmasters membership is a person who wants a growth opportunity, a way to improve their relationships and professional presentation prowess to get them recognized as a leader, and just a “notch” above.  I have to be honest, when I was asked to speak to Parents without Partners organization, I was a little nervous, fearing that their organization may be a little different.  I had to find the mission statement, that should tell me what I need to round out this presentation.

It was delightful to peruse the International website, which is where I found the mission statement. This well-constructed group of statements just said Family in a very loving community way.  Much like most organizations the benefit of the membership is the Educational component, they call their director the Vice President of Educational and Family programs.  This position in the organization has to follow guidelines that 60% of their programs must be educational or that help with personal and family dynamic growth.   The spirit and the support activities; and the camaraderie which makes up the other 40% of the programming, is designed to create a strong family community; in some cases this is the only family that this audience has.

I suppose you can say that of a lot of organizations.  You get a sense of belonging when you join a group that shares your same passions or struggles; the same expectations or disappointments, right?  With others and through the strength of an organization you can overcome a lot of obstacles in your life.

Let’s bring this all back to the topic that I presented at the conference.  This was the opening of the workshop.  The overview of the statistics, that all volunteer organizations lose 2/3 of their membership every year.  In fact,  if volunteer organizations were companies, we’d be firing our entire talent management team.  Sixty-Eight Percent 68% of the people (the 2/3) of the people, claim the reason why they left was because they didn’t feel like their contribution was valued; not connected to the group.

Ergo, the 64 million dollar question is (holding the mirror in your face while you repeat this next statements)  “Am I meeting the needs of the members of my club?” and “How do I know?”.   Statistically speaking if you are losing members quicker than you can get members; I’m going to venture a guess that there are some “missing need-meeters”.  I’m sure a grammarian will have a field day with this article. 

I wish we had a distribution list that spread to the Lions, Moose, Elks (you know all the Animal clubs), Eagles and all the civic clubs like Rotary or Masons; so we can all hear this message together.  When we meet the needs of our members they stay- to be fair, 68% may stay, potentially.  There will always be people that may get “bored” or distracted with other civic duties and etc. however, there is certainly an opportunity for all the non-profit, support, civic and the like organizations that are providing education, fellowship and personal growth to share in meeting the needs of the volunteers or members who are trying to improve something or just need some social advancement time. (speak to different people, expand their horizons, etc.)

This opportunity was like a sociology experiment.  I took statistics off the internet. I called a few past members of some clubs, I contacted my rotary friends; it was quite the experiment.  I learned so much, and was able to facilitate a great workshop with 50 or so people who just added more value to the content.  I was happy to share the slides with them, and a nice thank you email expressing my gratitude for looking to Toastmasters for great speakers.  I encouraged they do that in every city.

There are plenty of organizations that are looking for speakers.  I was hoping that someone in this audience was a Toastmaster, so that they could give me a written evaluation; ah, c'est la vie.  If you know of any organizations that are coming to Orlando for conventions, and are in need of good speakers, contact our Public Relations officer for District 84.