The Answer to all our Club Membership Questions

by Gina Lockhart, DTM

Lakeview Toastmasters - Club Mentor, Sponsor and VPE

Three of us started a brand new toastmaster club a year and a half ago. We had many concerns as we contemplated chartering such as…

• How will we get a minimum of 20 members and keep them?
• How will we get the members to come to each meeting and stay excited about Toastmasters?
• How do we get them to sign up to give speeches?
• How can we have fun while learning?
• Who will want to be an officer?
• How will we become a Presidents Distinguished club every year?
• How do we get visitors to come to our meetings, become members and bring their friends and coworkers?

Naturally between the three of us, we came up with plenty of answers from having open houses, passing out fliers to having guest speakers and bringing food. Yes, food always works well we found out but we get tired of bringing it every week and it can be costly. We found the best solution was a balance between all of these. We came up with monthly themed meetings and we GO ALL OUT!

Here’s how it works: Each officer chooses a month and is in charge of the themed meeting for that month. The officer chooses a theme and they can grab a team of 1-2 more people if desired. The themes can be anything, i.e., Feb – Hearts, Red, Love or Cardio, (we are a healthcare company), you can be creative here. Then they ask for volunteers or use a signup sheet for members to bring food and decorations. This is all voluntary, not mandatory. Then they announce their theme one month in advance, so there is always a themed meeting to look forward to. The Grammarian, speakers and table topic master are then asked to choose a word of the day, speeches and topics that incorporate the theme. At the end of the meeting, we socialize over the food and snacks that were brought, like red velvet cupcakes and punch for our Feb cardio theme. Members and visitors love it, the work is not all on one officer and its easy to do! Each month is a different theme. Members can take a month too if they are motivated or they can be helpers. It even fits the criteria in their CL manual so they credit for it as well. You can have any theme like International month, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving or Cardboard Box Day. Be creative. The theme doesn’t matter, what matters is, it is a meeting that everyone looks forward to attending, its different from the usual meetings and members love bringing guests to them. Plus there is food. Having themed meetings once a month we found are not too often but just often enough. Of course, still have your guest speakers come and prepare your open houses with fliers for the meetings in between the themed meetings. Keep the variety going for your meetings and the members guessing at what will be next. You will notice a greater attendance at weekly meetings, new members joining often, membership retention, DCP points rising, a line of members ready to be an officer for next term and your signup sheets will be filled with speakers weeks in advance! We say whoever coordinates the themed meeting is Toastmaster for that day.

What did I choose for my month? I chose ‘It’s Everyone’s Birthday!’ This themed meeting was complete with party hats, balloons, noise makers, presents for table topics and birthday slides on the screen. To polish off the meeting, we concluded with a Banana Dream Cake, candles and singing for all of our birthdays (it was fun trying to fit everyone’s name in that song). We love having themed meetings and we keep a solid 24 members. What theme will you choose first?