Promoting Toastmasters

[Bing Wu]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if I can tap the forum for some ideas on how to promote a Toastmasters club. I'm a member of a small club in central Ottawa that's struggling membership-wise. We have only about 10 members at the moment and would love to have 20.

I think one of the great benefits of our club is the relatively young age of its members - a lot of us are under 30, which I think is a great catalyst for bringing in more young people, who are more plentiful here in the central part of the city.

With our club having difficulty get a large enough membership that we can actually fill all the meeting roles, I've decided to take on the role of VP membership.

My question is, what are the most effective ways to bring new guests in? Postings on billboards? Online classifieds ads? Pulling people in from work?

I know we also need to do a better of converting guests into members. To that end, we need to be more welcoming to guests and bringing them into the fold by building into the meeting explanations of what we're doing and what TM is all about.

I feel our meetings, which usually last 1.5-2 hours, are a little too long, and I would prefer to cut down to 1-1.5 hours max. Even I dread going to a meeting sometimes.

I've even thought about offering free trial memberships - allowing a guest to take on meeting roles and even do their first icebreaker speech, before having to commit to join.

Or, an official post-meeting drink/snack at the nearby bar to promote socialization (we're in a busy bar/restaurant district)...

I know our club isn't alone in having membership issues, but I feel like this is the time to grab hold of opportunities to grow the membership and make the meetings more fun for guests and members alike.

Any ideas are welcome. At some point, I will be reporting back on my experiences :-)

[seeker5]

Hi Alex,

I've been involved with several clubs so maybe some of what I've faced and seen may help you.

Originally Posted by Alex Wu

My question is, what are the most effective ways to bring new guests in? Postings on billboards? Online classifieds ads? Pulling people in from work?

Word of mouth seems to work better then most things. When your club members speak of how it benefits and bring someone in, that is great. I've had one club that grew primarily because of that. Even though we did TV interviews, spoke on the radio, had our picture and names in the newspaper, most of our membership growth was basically being friends of people already in the club.

In the other club where we grew membership a good bit too, we didn't have that. That was because we were in a bigger city and there were 10-12 clubs in the city. Thus people would visit the clubs that fit their schedule the best. However, we did get a stream of visitors from other people's recommendations. There however, we had other clubs competing for the same members, so it was up to us to have great meetings to get the guests to choose us instead of other clubs (or no clubs)

I know we also need to do a better of converting guests into members. To that end, we need to be more welcoming to guests and bringing them into the fold by building into the meeting explanations of what we're doing and what TM is all about.

Yeah, you could do that. Frankly, what I found most helpful is to frankly have a great meeting to start with. When guest come visit your club, no matter how beneficial toastmasters may be on "paper", what they experience when they come ot the meeting is what will make up their mind. Are your meetings fun? Do the members enjoy the meetings, is your president cheerful while up at the podium? Do the guest feel welcomed (that's one big way you can help)? Do they feel that you can help them? Do they feel like they would enjoy being there?

What are the qualities of the speeches? Are the members actually rehearching their speeches before delivering them at the meetings? Are those people with different roles organized and carrying out their roles well?

Furthermore, how do members feel about the meetings? Do they feel they get the most out? The way you guys hold your meetings when you only have 3 members in attendance determines how you hold your meetings if you have guests. Even if you only have 3 members in attendance with no guests, you guys need to make sure you have the most beneficial, most useful, and most fun meetings as if there was a lot of people there with guests. Because then it's natural to keep on acting that way when guests show up.

Finally, how welcome do you make the guests feel? Do you ask the guest what they hope to get out of toastmasters, what their goals may be? Do each of your members go and shake the guest's hand and meet them and introduce themselves? That's important in my view, because going to a "public speaking" club can be intimidating and it's so much easier when people warmly welcome you personally.

I feel our meetings, which usually last 1.5-2 hours, are a little too long, and I would prefer to cut down to 1-1.5 hours max. Even I dread going to a meeting sometimes.

Well, if you dread coming to meetings sometimes, then something definitely needs to be done about the meeting structure, times, etc. It may not be cutting the times (although that could be part of it), but making meetings more fun, cutting out the waste of time, increasing the atmosphere, etc.

I've even thought about offering free trial memberships - allowing a guest to take on meeting roles and even do their first icebreaker speech, before having to commit to join.

I don't suggest that. Toastmasters is cheap, even for young people. You need people committed before they do any kind of work or face any kind of fears. Why? Because people get committed to toastmasters by seeing the kind of results they want. They will have some fears, but if they are committed by being a member, that helps them go over the fear. If you ask them to have a role, or give an icebreaker, then they'll experience their fears firsthand without being committed. In my view, that will lessen their willingness to join your club because they'll have tasted that fear upfront. They need to commit first before you get them to face their fears.

Or, an official post-meeting drink/snack at the nearby bar to promote socialization (we're in a busy bar/restaurant district)...

Yes, that's great! It doesn't have to be official, but it's great when some of the members get together at a place. It build camaderie and helps have fun among members.

I know our club isn't alone in having membership issues, but I feel like this is the time to grab hold of opportunities to grow the membership and make the meetings more fun for guests and members alike.

Yup, membership issues is something just about most clubs face

Any ideas are welcome. At some point, I will be reporting back on my experiences :-)

Cool, look forward to how it works.

I do wish Toastmasters.org had a forum for officers to discuss stuff like this.

[Brutha]

In our last meeting there was a guest who heard about toastmaster from someone you well know: Steve Pavlina

Does your club have a website? Does that website show up in Google when someone types the name of your city and the word toastmasters?

[ben328]

I'm not sure why your meetings last between an hour and half to two hours. You guys should really try to pack everything in in about an hour. When you have guest I'm sure that's one of the things you they are thinking about when deciding to become a member or not. Also, think about if you group is very welcoming. I've heard stories from newer members of my group about how clubs they have been to before don't promote a friendly environment. Think about posting ads in a local business journal, I believe we had some success this way. Encourage other members to bring people from work to sit in on a meeting. Post flyers at near by coffee shops. When you have visitors do you have someone who will follow up with guest. Try to build relationships with clubs that are near you, maybe you can get ideas from them. If I can think of anything else I'll post.

ben

[John Tedder]

I just joined Toastmasters. I gave my ice breaker speech last night. Reading what Steve Pavlina had to say about his Toastmasters adventures in Las Vegas was the biggest motivater for me to join. Also, several months ago, I saw a picture of a friend of mine in the newspaper being named president of the club I recently joined. I have known him since 2005 and he never mentioned that he belonged to Toastmasters. I joined Thorobred Toastmasters in Saratoga Springs, NY.

You could put a sign on the bulletin board at the local library. That's easy and free. Find someone creative in your club and ask them to design it. You could also try local colleges. You could put signs up on bulletin boards at the colleges. You might find some students that are dreading giving a presentation for one of their classes and want to get some help. You could let the professors at the colleges know about your club. They might have direct knowledge of some students who would benefit from Toastmasters. They might even be willing to mention your club in their class. You could also post something on the colleges websites.

My group meets every other Monday at 7:00 PM. The meetings last at least 2 hours. I think 1 hour meetings would be too short.

I just wrote a post about my fear of public speaking.

The people in my club are very friendly and made me feel welcome at the first meeting. I am looking forward to becoming a better speaker.

Good luck.

[Bing Wu]

Thanks all for the replies here. My club recently (past 2 months) experienced a massive expansion of membership and guests. We're now up to 16 members, and get 2-4 guests every meeting. There are only a few of us who are experienced (i.e. finished/close to a CC), and the big challenge is keeping the meetings interesting enough to retain our new members.

We now do 3 speech slots every meeting, and we're considering adding a monthly speech night, where we do 6 speeches, and no table topics. This gets people moving thru their manuals faster.

We're not quite sure why the expansion happened, except that a couple of our members have been very good at bringing in colleagues, friends, and posting flyers all over the community and in local newspapers. Being in downtown Ottawa in a good location, and meeting after work also helps.

[Brutha]

My club recently (past 2 months) experienced a massive expansion of membership and guests.

Congratulations.

We're not quite sure why the expansion happened,

Some people in this forum might suggest that it's has something to do with intentions

[magi13]

the best way to advertise is through performance of meeting results. ^^, make that the theme of your club. I hope this helps. :3.