Page 25 - March 2020
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SUCCESSFUL CLUB
Is Your Club Considering
Throwing in the Towel?
Leanna Lindquist, DTM
Before you do, take a moment to read how my to maintaining that trend. It is now part of the
club turned itself around. Club #6869 has been club’s DNA.
around since 1988. It’s had at least two different How are we able to continue this success for
names prior to becoming Tell Me a Story. In multiple years? Excellence. The dictionary says,
January 2017, the club was in deep trouble. Our “excellence is the quality of being outstanding
usual attendance was down to 3-4 members. or extremely good.” Every week we work to hold
We all had to fill multiple roles at each meeting. excellent meetings.
When a visitor wandered in, the look on their What constitutes an excellent meeting? Roles
face told us they wouldn’t be back. filled in advance. All speeches are from manuals
We knew we had two options; throw in the or Pathways. We evaluate all speakers and all
towel or rebrand, rename, and start fresh. aspects of the meetings. Like our members, our
February 2017 Tell Me a Story was born. In meetings are a work in progress.
a few short months we took a club on the verge Guests are crucial to the club’s well being
of collapse to Select Distinguished by: —guests that convert to members. We welcome
• Changing the name to Tell Me a Story them and provide a name tent and guest packet.
• Refocusing as a storytelling club Visitor forms are handed out and collected for
• Planning good meetings with all the follow up before the next meeting. Guests are
elements introduced, invited to participate in Table Topics,
• Inviting members from other clubs to fill and asked to give their impressions at the end of
roles the meeting. When guests visit our club we want
• Bringing in speakers from other clubs them to have an excellent experience.
• Creating flyers for each meeting advertising A key ingredient to a successful club is well-
our speakers which were trained club officers. We place a high value on
• Posted on Facebook officer’s training. Officers owe it to themselves and
• Emailed to other clubs the members to understand their roles and carry
• Supporting our new members them out. Our members have the opportunity
Historically, the club had been Presidents to participate in speech contests. Once a year we
Distinguished three times, no years were go out after a meeting for food and libations. We
consecutive. We achieved Select Distinguished enjoy one another’s company and the comradery
in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, we were Presidents we share every week. A successful club is work.
Distinguished. This year we are well on our way In my opinion it’s worth the effort,
VOICES! | MARCH 2020 25
