The Past District Governor’s committee meeting was this morning. While a lot of things were discussed, the key observation we all had keeps coming back to something I wrote about in March 2007, “motivation times ability equals achievement” (see my District Governor column under “Resources” on this web site). There are certain leaders in Toastmasters who have been fully trained and know their job (ability), yet they lack the motivation to achieve. And that can happen for any number of good reasons, like priorities (such as family). But a key leadership trait is recognizing situations like this, and taking steps to ensure it doesn’t affect the mission.
The District Executive Committee meeting in the afternoon was good too. Several areas are very close to being distinguished already. But at the same time, we know some Area Governors have had other priorities, and the District Governor is not afraid to discuss that with them. Coincidental to the above theme, our club coach chair gave a pretty good educational session talking about why we’re all in Toastmasters, “what’s in it for me”, and what we can do to give back to something we all love.
I think club success can be summarized into three major steps:
- Get guests into the meeting (PR, invitations, web site, etc.).
- Show them a good meeting, so they can see the value of the program. Every meeting should be demo quality.
- Ask them to join!