Page 43 - September 2019

COACHES CORNER
Club Coaches Make
a Difference
Jim Robison, DTM - Club Coach Coordinator
One Monday evening in 2004, as usual, I went to
the Rose & Raindrop Restaurant and Bar, where
Portland Toastmasters met at the time, to attend
our regular meeting. I sat in the room, and no
one else showed up. That was the low point for
the oldest club in Oregon. We had dropped to
about 4 active members. We decided, that maybe
it would be a good idea to accept the help of a Club attention on officer training and holding dynamic
Coach. Harvey Schowe was appointed and began
attending our meetings on a regular basis. He
didn’t provide a “magic solution” but his thoughts
and insights gave our small group enough new
energy and focus to build our membership and
conduct meetings that kept members and guests
returning. Within a couple years, we had a strong
club with trained officers and vibrant meetings.
Having a Club Coach is a lot like having any
other kind of coach work with you. The coach
can help you keep your attention focused on
what needs to be done, and can provide you with
insights and suggestions that can help your club,
officers, and club members be more successful.
The coach can also be alert for trainings or
resources from Toastmasters that you might
otherwise miss. The role of a Club Coach is
NOT to take over and run a club, or recruit new
members and build the club. Instead they help
the club officers be more successful in their roles.
What specifically the coach does depends on the
particular needs of the club.
When a club indicates interest in having a
Club Coach, we connect you with a potential
Club Coach. The club makes the final decision
before an appointment is made.
Portland Toastmasters needed to focus
and effective meetings so that guests became
members. It worked, and our club, a few years
later, had 40 members and produced the 2012
World Champion of Public Speaking, Ryan Avery.
If your club has 12 or fewer members, request a
club coach or two (a club can have up to 2 coaches)
be assigned by contacting your Area Director
or Club Growth Director Eldred Brown (cgd@
d7toastmasters.org).
If you are an experienced Toastmaster, who
would like to serve as a Club Coach, click here
for more information. You can join a Facebook
group for Coaches by clicking here. If you are
ready to jump in and make a difference, contact
me at jim@jimrobison.org
VOICES! | SEPTEMBER 2019 43