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FROM THE DESK
It’s Kick-Off Time for New Clubs!
by Erik Bergman, DTM, Club Growth Director
Turning the calendar to January means we’re Master.
halfway through our Toastmasters year. January • The second
shapes up as a busy month for kickoff meetings
that lead to chartering new clubs. half is a question-and-answer session.
• Once all questions have been answered, the
What is a kickoff meeting? First of all, it’s
the result of a lot of behind-the-scenes plan- Toastmaster makes the “ask”: “If you had a
ning. In a typical scenario, a Toastmaster has Toastmasters club here, how many of you
identified a company or organization that has would join?”
expressed interest in hosting a club of its own. • If 20 or more people raise their hands, we
That Toastmaster has shared this lead with have enough to charter a club. It’s time to
new club coordinator Rodger set the day and time of the next two meet-
Cook and me, the Club Growth
Director, so the District can ings and sign up volunteers to fill
track the progress of this lead roles for a full agenda.
and help with next steps.
In the month ahead we have
We’ve established a contact kickoffs set for Columbia Square
at the company, and Wells Fargo, both in down-
confirmed interest town Portland; Reed College in
in starting a club and Southeast Portland; and are about
provided marketing
materials that explain to schedule meet-
the benefits and value ings for Catalyst
of Toastmasters. IT Services in
Then our contact Beaverton and
promotes a time and Hewlett-Packard
place where potential members can come see in Vancouver,
how we build our skills. among other
leads we are
As TI says it in the handy manual How to tracking across the District.
Start a Toastmasters Club, “A demonstration If kickoff meetings sound like something
meeting is your opportunity to show prospec- you want to help with, let me know. You can
tive members how a Toastmasters club meeting earn manual speech credit as a speaker or for
is conducted and what the Toastmasters taking another meeting role. We need volun-
program can do for them.” We put together a teers from around the District to demonstrate
dynamic, hour-long session for at least 20 (but what we do. Forming new clubs is a key part
ideally 30 or more) potential new members. of our mission to spread the Toastmasters
The more who attend, the better the odds are program so the most people possible can benefit
of chartering the club quickly and strongly. from the experience we enjoy so much.
Do you want to participate in a kickoff
The agenda goes something like this: meeting? Do you have a lead as to where we
• The first half is a shortened version of a can start a new club? Email me at cgd@d7toast-
masters.org.
regular meeting, usually with a speaker, a
speech evaluator, a timer and a Table Topics
Volume 2 Issue 6 - JANUARY 2016 9
