Musings on Leadership

The quality of your club meetings will drive your membership levels. I firmly believe this. Think about it logically. People seek out Toastmasters because they have a goal to achieve or they've identified something about themselves they'd like to change. They're at your meeting to see if you can help them achieve their goal. If you show them an enjoyable meeting that starts on time, stays on time (and track), and ends on time, with helpful evaluations - they'll join. Put yourself in their shoes. You want to become more confident professionally so you attend a meeting. When you get there, no one greets you because the members are running around trying to fill roles at the last minute. When it starts, it doesn't seem like they have an agenda or know what's coming next. No one even acknowledges your presence. How confident would you be that these people, and this organization, will be able to help you achieve your goals? Remember, guests don't join Toastmasters

 That sounds like a bold claim, doesn't it? Eight new members - guaranteed - every single year? Sound too good to be true? It's not! Before we talk about membership, let's talk about your car. Let's say your car has a 15-gallon tank (that's 56.8 liters for our friends outside the US) and it gets 20 miles to the gallon (or 8.5 kilometers to the liter). How far can you go on one tank of gas? 15 gallons x 20 miles per gallon = 300 miles (or, 56.8 liters x 8.5 kilometers per liter = 482.8 kilometers) Another way you can look at it - if you just drove 300 miles and it took 15 gallons to fill up your tank, then you know you averaged 20 miles per gallon. 300 miles / 15 gallons = 20 miles per gallon (482.8 kilometers / 56.8 liters = 8.5 kilometers per liter) It's the same concept when it comes to guaranteeing 8 new members every year. You need three numbers from last year: The number of times your club met. The number of guests you had at your meetings. The number of ne

 During my campaign for International Director, I am frequently asked about my views on the challenges facing Toastmasters. I thought I might take a break from my leadership posts to talk about my views on the future of the organization and the challenges facing us. Retention In my opinion, the biggest challenge facing Toastmasters isn't COVID - it's member retention. It's only natural that a club will lose a certain number of members every year. People move, they experience life changes, their priorities change, etc. The number most commonly mentioned in Toastmasters is that we lose 40% of our membership every. single. year! If you run a business, and you lose 40% of your customers each and every year, you won't be in business for long. People in sales know this adage but, the least expensive customer to get is one that's already purchased from you. While we may not spend actual money to get guests to attend our meetings (although some may), we spend time contactin