Page 16 - voices-2023-01
P. 16
FROM THE DESK
vs
Corporate Programs
Dave Bones, DTM - Club Growth Director
Can you relate to one of these two scenarios? However, for a corporate program, this is
First, perhaps you are in a fun community club, not recommended. Instead, what is needed is
but are struggling to increase membership. to develop a partnership with your company's
Alternatively, you might be in a company- Human Resources (HR) department to promote
sponsored, corporate program (club) where your program and recruit new members. If you
you feel overwhelmed with member and guest are working toward chartering a new program,
recruitment duties, on top of your already busy this is fundamental from the beginning. If your
work schedule. company-sponsored Toastmasters program
currently seems more like a community club
If either of these describes your situation, you with you doing all the work, don't worry, it's not
are not alone. I don't claim to have the absolute too late to make this change!
definitive answers to these scenarios. However,
in this article I will share both fundamental Top tips for Corporate and Community Clubs
principles, as well as tips that I personally have Corporate Programs (Clubs)—Priority number
encountered, or learned from others. one is to develop the partnership with HR. Pat
Johnson, DTM, PIP coined the term, corporate
Doing the right thing at the right time “program,” rather than corporate “club,” in her
There is a fundamental issue that is critical book A Handbook for Building and Sustaining
to understand. Strategy for recruiting new Vibrant Toastmasters Programs in Corporations. It
members is completely different for community is part of her alternate vocabulary suggestions
clubs, compared to corporate programs (clubs). called, “Corporate Speak.” The idea is to be
In a community club, it is the right thing able to sell the value of Toastmasters to the
at the right time, for members to invite their corporation, using language they are more
friends, family, and colleagues. A concerted familiar with. Other substitutions would be
effort in this regard has a track record of leadership roles vs. club officers and curriculum
yielding success. vs. manuals, paths, or Pathways.
16 ONE COMMUNITY
