Championship Clubs

Lance Miller, 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking, was a featured trainer at the District 55 district officer training on June 1st, 2008. While he didn’t talk about clubs at that training, he did give out outlines of his prior club building session at the conference on index cards. Here are the highlights covered on the card:

Building a Championship Club

  • First step - DECIDE! TO BUILD A GREAT CLUB!
  • Read and follow the Toastmaster Officer Manuals!
  • Attend District Officer Training.
  • “Improvement” is the Hallmark of Toastmasters.
  • Hold a high standard so there is always room for members to improve.
  • It’s not a meeting, it’s an EVENT!

The Three Elements of a Championship Club

  1. Abundant Communication.
  2. High Positive Energy.
  3. Colonel Sander’s Secret Recipe: “Do the ordinary - But do it extraordinarily well…”

Abundant Communication

  • The amount of communication to run a Toastmasters Club is usually grossly underestimated. As President, I spent 4-6 hours/week outside of the club communicating with officers and members.
  • Ensure that everyone speaks at every meeting.
  • Watch the body language of the members and make sure they are bright and shiny when leaving. If they are not, get with them and find out what is happening.
  • Call members when they don’t show up and tell them they were missed and encourage them to return.
  • Executive Council communicates through monthly Executive Meetings.
  • Talk to each member and get their agreement to complete one speaking or leadership level each year.
  • Document in writing what is successful so you do not loose it.

High Positive Energy

  • Maintain a Friendly Fun Environment
  • Clubs must be a safe place to fail.
  • Control through encouragement & service, not force or pressure.
  • Run meetings on schedule keeping the energy high & laughing a lot.
  • Handle planning, problems and upsets outside of the meetings.

Colonel Sander’s Secret Recipe: “Do the ordinary - But do it extraordinarily well…”

  • Have a professional attitude and venue.
  • Have a meeting venue with room to grow.
  • Have a “Dress Code”
  • Meetings planned out & speakers scheduled well in advance.
  • Room is ready to go 10 minutes before time to start.
  • Welcome guests and get them to speak.
  • Start on time, run on time, end on time.
  • Meeting runs on a set agenda.
  • All speeches are manual speeches and are evaluated.
  • Have excellent speech evaluation for speakers.
  • Encourage and reward speaking outside of the club.
  • Hold extra meetings if more members need to speak.

©2006 Lance Miller - Used with permission

If you’d like Lance’s full program, visit his website at www.LanceMillerSpeaks.com

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