Page 34 - April 2020

FIELD NOTES

BurnsMasters Toastmasters: 90 days to Charter Status (Part 3)

Marv Serhan, DTM

When Marv Serhan was asked to serve as the sponsor for a new corporate club in Vancouver, Washington, he elected to apply a project management approach on how that club establishment and charter would take
place. Parts I and II outlined the first series of key tasks in the project plan. Part III will present five additional key steps that helped to keep this project moving forward toward charter status. All projects are team
efforts and this club-charter initiative was certainly that with Patrick Locke, DTM, Bob Hall, EH5, and Greg Hawkins, MS3 coming aboard as co-sponsor and mentors to support this project.

Here is a continuation of the task/deliverable is destined to be the interim president or
listing from Part II of the BurnsMasters new-club president, this approach also tends to reinforce
project plan: that person’s influence, managerial skills
development, and leadership of his/her executive

The Champion selects and forms his team when formed. These principles held true
interim officer team. for BurnsMasters.
• President It’s time for the champion to select his/her
• VP Education team of ‘interim’ officers. BurnsMasters had

• VP Membership 7 highly motivated individuals (including Jeff
• VP Public Relations Bourgeois) step forward to assume the various
• Secretary Toastmaster officer positions. Certainly, without
• Treasurer any previous TM experience, these interim

• Sergeant at Arms officers had many questions regarding their
A champion is often defined as “[A] person specific duties and responsibilities. To avoid the
who voluntarily takes extraordinary interest in intimidation of accepting additional duties on
the adoption, implementation, and success of a top of their day jobs, the lead sponsor’s project

cause, policy, program, project, or product. He plan called for sponsor/mentor-to-officer cross-
or she will typically try to force the idea through functional orientation training. This effort is
entrenched internal resistance to change and not meant to replace formal officer training;
will evangelize it throughout the organization.” officer training will take place in the final phase

Sponsors and Mentors are encouraged to of the project plan. An example of the interim
use the champion as the primary point of officer cross-functional training is noted in the
contact within an organization through which following matrix. (A generic format is provided
all communications must flow. If the champion without contact information.)

34 ONE COMMUNITY