Never Underestimate the Importance of Coffee with Friends!

Last night was indeed a pleasurable one! I had coffee with two of my favourite people, Past District Governor Gene, his beautiful wife Lil and Taffy, their adorable Yorkie. Gene and Lil lived for many years here in Saskatoon but now live in Lethbridge and were back visiting for a few days. We caught up on news and events and, of course, discussed Toastmasters.

One of the topics we discussed was the importance of Successful Club Meetings (please visit the link to TI's web site for information on Successful Meetings). This conversation rolled around in my head after I got home and thought it would be a good conversation piece for this blog.

I truly believe that one of the best ways to gain new members and retain current members is to have consistently successful club meetings. Does your club always have manual speeches with members meeting the objectives of the project? Do you consistently have quality evaluations? Do you have effective table topics sessions? Do you try to fit in a business meeting in order to learn the importance of parliamentary procedure and how to effectively run and participate in meetings, whether at Toastmasters, work or in your community? Do you take advantage of the educational modules that TI has available for our use? Does your club follow the Distinguished Club Program (which is simply a measuring tool to determine whether your club is meeting the communication and leadership goals of your members)? If you aren't following the DCP, perhaps you could arrange with your Area Governor to attend and present the Distinguished Club module from TI. Have it as a club event! When you work together as a team you can accomplish amazing things.

I also feel it's important to make your meetings fun! We all know that we learn best in a positive, helpful, fun environment. Does your club have fun meetings? If not, perhaps you may want to sit down as a club and determine why not. The TI module entitled Moments of Truth may assist in this.

By having successful club meetings, I know that each of you will Impact Our World in the coming year.

And remember, have coffee with friends - whether or not they are Toastmasters! There's nothing more satisfying that sitting outside your favourite coffee house on a lovely summer evening. I know how much I enjoyed getting out and having coffee with Gene and Lil ...

Gotta run ... the coffee's brewed!

Joan