VP MEMBERSHIP

ERIC THOMPSON

When I arrived at the District 2 Spring Conference I was not sure what to expect.  As I registered for the Conference I noticed an agenda, which outlined the events for the day.  Thumbing through the agenda, I came across 2 educational sessions, which were purely devoted to membership ideas and decided these were the first two sessions I would attend.  

The first session was titled, "From Guest to Success".  As the session began, the speakers emphasized how important it is to greet every guest properly as they enter the room. Here are some of the main points they discussed:

1)     Make the guest feel like a friend.

2)     Make sure the guest is seated next to a member who can answer questions.

3)     If the guest is a friend of one of the members, have the Sergeant-at-Arms seat the guest next to another member in the Club.  This will give the guest two people to turn to for help. 

Surprisingly, the bulk of this educational session focused on mentoring.  So why focus on mentoring? 

§        Mentors can ease the anxieties of new Club members.  They are especially important in explaining the roles in the Club.

§        Mentors are especially important for first time evaluators who have not had the speaking experience yet.

§        Assigning experienced members to mentoring roles helps retain advanced members.  Although advanced members may have achieved most of their speaking goals, they can have a positive experience by helping a new member progress. 

The second educational session I attended was called "A Piñata Full of Membership Ideas".  This session featured Mary Jo Manzanares, a previous Governor of District 32.  Mary Jo began by splitting everyone in the session into small groups.  She then distributed a mock scenario to each group to work on.  There were a total of four scenarios; each focusing on a different challenge a Club might encounter.  For example, my group's task was to come up with a solution for a Club that was lacking in leadership.  This exercise proved to be useful and generated a lot of discussion.  Although I found the assignment to be engaging, I thought the most useful part of the session was the handout Mary Jo gave at the end of the session.  This handout is a compilation of membership building ideas submitted by various members.  There are over 100 suggestions for membership building, and I plan to apply some of these during my tenure as VP Membership.

In between the educational sessions was the evaluation contest.  The evaluation contest began with a target speaker who was very funny and entertaining.  But the most interesting part for me was watching the evaluations themselves.  A number of the evaluators actually had an opener to their evaluation.  Sort of like a catchy introduction you would use when doing a speech.    This was something I had not seen before and I found it to be most interesting.  The lady who won the evaluation contest really stuck with the "sandwich approach" for her evaluation (see HOW TO SUCCEED IN A TOASTMASTERS’ EVALUATION CONTEST by Steve Thompson, ATM, in the Feb. 2001 Notable Northgater newsletter).

Altogether, I found the conference to be very beneficial and I would encourage everyone to attend.

---

 

Profile of a Whirlwind

By MADELEINE KOLB

Ashley Kantor is a real whirlwind.  A member of Notable Northgaters for just over a year, she has given five speeches, thus earning the coveted Half-CTM Award.  Her speeches have focused largely on the twin passions in her life—travel and serving others.

Ashley’s passion for service shows in her choice of work, both paid and unpaid.  Currently, she assists her father, an osteopath, in his office.  She also works in a home for people with Down syndrome, cooking, cleaning or visiting with the residents, among other volunteer jobs.  Ashley’s goal is to work in either the non-profit sector or in sales, and she is looking for the right job.

Ashley’s passion for travel has led her to Israel, China, Australia, Mexico, Thailand, and twice to Europe.  It has also led to several lively and entertaining speeches about adventures abroad.  Currently, Ashley and her fiancé are planning perhaps the most memorable trip of all.  After their wedding in August, they will travel to tropical Tahiti to relax in the sun. 

If you look fast, you may see Ashley one day whirling around Green Lake on roller-blades, her dog at her side, or at the beach or camping.  With her energy and enthusiasm and spirited speeches, Ashley has both contributed to and benefited from Notable Northgaters.  As she says, “I have learned how to give a pretty good speech, have become better at evaluating speeches, and met some cool people.”

---

 

Welcome Back!

By DEBORAH FERBER

 

For those of you who have joined since Chaz Simmons took a leave-of-absence last summer, let me introduce a fellow traveler on the road.  Chaz did a lot of moving when he was kid because his father was in the military, but considers Winchester, Virginia his hometown.  Some of you may remember how Chaz was looking forward to a family reunion there last summer.  And it was terrific, says Chaz.  Unfortunately, Chaz also lost his mother shortly thereafter, and lost interest in preparing or giving speeches for a while.

 As the assistant branch manager at Time-Life Library, Chaz supervises 250 people.  Schedule conflicts were another reason he had to leave Toastmasters, but he finally said enough is enough and made time available for polishing his speaking skills.  He considered other Clubs because they were more convenient, but decided to come back to this Club because he remembered “how much fun it was to be with this group of people.” (Yea!)  Chaz originally joined Toastmasters because he was training to be a certified professional personal coach (he’s now certified). Ultimately, that is what Chaz would still like to do for a living, and he feels that public speaking is an important part of that job.

Chaz also came back because he feels “it is important to finish what you begin.”  He has only two more speeches to give in order to achieve his CTM.  We look forward to hearing those speeches, Chaz, and to sharing in your success.  We’re glad you came back.

---

 

The End of the Road!

By RAY ROMAN, CTM

Club President

This Toastmasters year ends on June 30th!  Thanks to all of our officers, who helped make this year super: Sheila Dixon, ATM, for providing wise counsel as Immediate Past President; Fred Coutts, CTM, for devoted educational and program planning (and re-planning!) as VP Education; Eric Thompson, for genially working by phone, email, handshake and smile to retain and increase our crew as VP Membership; Gabriela Remow, ATM for unparalleled achievement as VP Public Relations; Madeleine Kolb, for great record keeping as Secretary; Mike Suver for ably collecting and managing our funds as Treasurer; and Gina Coluccio and Lisa Smith for excellent hosting and meeting setup as dual Sergeants at Arms. And thanks to all members for pitching in to help the officers when needed and for putting in the extra effort each week to make every meeting a showcase. Well done, team!

And the Road Ahead

The Toastmasters year 2001-2002 presents new challenges. The new executive team, guided by Fred and aided by a cadre of capable assistants, will shortly set its course for continuing and extending our success. Let us all pull together and help them have a successful journey! See you next year!

---

The Secretary’s Corner – Club Business

MADELEINE KOLB

 

Executive Committee 6/13/2001

These officers were present: President Ray Roman, CTM; VP Education Fred Coutts, CTM; VP Membership Eric Thompson; VP PR Gabriela Remow, ATM-B; Secretary Madeleine Kolb; Treasurer Michael Suver; and Immediate Past President Sheila Dixon, ATM.  Also present were several of the incoming officers and assistants for next year (Deborah Ferber, Karl Zimonyi, ATM-B, Carol Johnson, and Julie Wicklund).  The minutes for the May business meeting were approved.  Next year’s Club Success Plan was briefly discussed.  Questions on program planning and banking were discussed.  There was a discussion about how the Club handles Conference subsidies for individual members.  The meeting was adjourned.

---

 

Congratulations, Notable Northgaters!

GABRIELA REMOW, ATM-B

 

You’ve done a great job this year, all of you.  As a result of your efforts, our Club has achieved President’s Distinguished Club status for the first time in its history.  As a point of comparison, last year out of about 112 Clubs in our District, only five achieved President’s Distinguished status.  We are now truly among the elite – the top 5%.

We have earned this status by accomplishing a number of objectives.  Our members have earned two CTM (Competent Toastmaster) awards, two ATM (Advanced Toastmaster) awards, and two CL (Competent Leader) awards.  We have had 15 new or returning members join the Club this year, reaching a record high membership of 33.  Our officers attended training, and got paperwork turned in on time.  As a result, our Club has reached heights never attained before by us.

We have a lot to be proud of this year, but in my opinion our biggest improvement as a Club has come in the role of the table topics master.  At this time a year ago, we were having great trouble in that area, leading to much handwringing, drastic proposals and dire predictions.  Let’s take a moment to reconsider the role of table topics master.

Table Topics Master – Key to a Successful Meeting

The table topics master (TTM) plays a crucial role, and can make the difference between a successful meeting and a mediocre one.  The most important duty of the TTM is to ensure that every member without an assigned speaking role and each guest has the opportunity to answer a question.  The TTM plays a crucial part in keeping the meeting on schedule.  And of course, another responsibility is to explain the timing, lights, and encourage use of the word of the day.

In past years, table topics masters made the following egregious errors: (1) having too few questions prepared (I made this mistake myself the first time I was table topics master); (2) failing to put questions to everyone without a speaking role; (3) asking questions of people who have speaking roles, when there is not enough time for those extra questions; and even (4) preparing questions for particular individuals, even though those individuals may already have a role or may be absent.

But let’s leave the past behind, and look now to our current successful situation.  Through extra effort and education, we have solved the problems that were threatening the well-being of our Club.  We have worked hard to establish the following guidelines for TTMs.

·          Prepare plenty of questions – 20 to 25 are not too many.

·          During the early part of the meeting, prepare a list of everyone present who does not have a speaking role, and be sure to ask everyone on this list a question.

·          Have an additional list of those with speaking roles, in order of priority.  If time permits more questions, those with small speaking roles should have priority for questions – e.g., the tallymaster, timer, and opener.  Speech evaluators are busy preparing their evaluations during table topics, and should be the last to be selected for table topics.  Also, whoever is presiding always has an important and fairly large speaking role at every meeting, even if not assigned any other role.)

·          Coordinate with the Toastmaster of the meeting regarding when to end the table topics session, with the proviso that it cannot end before everyone without a speaking role has been asked a question.

As an additional safeguard, during this year our officers have become increasingly proactive in helping TTMs during the course of the meeting.  Our President Ray Roman, CTM, Fred Coutts, CTM, and even I have occasionally kept lists of those without speaking roles to ensure that the TTM asks questions of them all.  Sometimes the flurry of notes being passed reminds me of junior high school days. . .

In summary, the role of the table topics master is critical to a meeting’s success.  Whether everyone without a role gets the chance to speak and whether the meeting ends on time can depend on the TTM.  So, congratulations to all of you on the great progress we’ve made as a Club in the TTM role.  Let’s keep up the good work, and build on our success!   

 

 

 

Club Success Plan

Notable Northgaters #6949

July 1, 2000 - June 30, 2001

Updated 6/13/2001