By Long-standing Member – Nhien Chau

Rochester Chamber Toastmasters was chartered on February 1, 1992.  Located in Rochester, Minnesota, there are several other Toastmaster clubs in the area. Our club has remained quite strong throughout the pandemic, especially compared to other clubs in this area. We’ve learned the keys to a successful club are growing membership, getting the word out through social media, and fostering a dynamic, interesting club where members support each other.

The key to a growing and thriving club is to find and maintain dedicated members.  If we can invigorate a member’s passion to inspire and motivate others beyond attending Toastmasters for just themselves, then we know we have found a dedicated member.  But how can we spark the dormant fire within each member? 

Like most prestigious institutions, having a group of core members as the foundation of the club is important. These core members serve as role models, as officers, as mentors, and most importantly, as the critical pillars that hold everyone together through their leadership and commitment to the club.  Within our club we have a founding member (who helped start the club more than 30 years ago!) and several members who have been with the club for over a decade.  Their loyalty and commitment to the club serves as an inspirational totem for newer members to follow.  People will follow those who are willing to commit more for others than just to themselves. 

Social media promotion is another important factor that leads to strong recruitment.  With a strong social media presence, we enable people to discover us and easily reach out for a visit – whether they desire to be in person or virtual.  Being a hybrid club (we meet weekly in person and on Zoom), we provide maximum flexibility to members’ accessibility to Toastmasters.  We are the only club in Rochester that has an active YouTube channel (yes, we have recorded speeches of our members and, with their permission, published them to the public!), as well as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts.  When a potential member is searching for a new club, it is obvious that he/she would want to join an active club with updated information readily available online. 

Finally, the dynamic environment of the club meeting is also very important.  We encourage everybody in the team to foster the culture of our club. We always welcome guests, introduce them, and ask for their feedback as the meeting is ending. We treat each member with care like they are a part of our Toastmaster family. Over time, we learn about each other’s preferences (such as my love for the stinky durian fruit), joke about our ages (we have young members and senior members), laugh about the take-charge attitude (aka, bossiness) of our current Club President. To enhance their program, we encourage newer members to serve as officers to increase their sense of belonging and enhance their leadership skills. 

Each and every member in the club plays an important role to foster the energy and the fun environment at the meeting.  People don’t come to just learn how to improve themselves; they come to enjoy the fun and good times with friends.  With strong core members, social media, and positively influencing one another, you’ll spark the fire within your dedicated members and build a lasting Toastmasters club.      

By New Member – Ganga Gopalkrishnan

The ingredients in the secret sauce that make the Rochester Chamber Toastmasters club “click” and make it a vibrant club are compassion, commitment, collaboration and creativity. The binding force for these “4 Cs” in the sauce is diversity.

Compassion toward one another and compassion toward bettering themselves and club members in speaking and leadership skills is evident in each and every member. There is this charm of getting constructive feedback from members who are not even designated to be your evaluator, showing the sincerity of each member for the betterment of one another.

All the members are committed towards improving themselves and improving all club members. This commitment shines through each week through preparation and high attendance by members for weekly club meetings or occasional special events.

If you attend a meeting of Chamber Toastmasters, collaboration is evident. Everyone rolls up their sleeves and gets things done. There is no chaos but respectful collaboration. An example of this is the hybrid model (in person and Zoom) for hosting the weekly meetings. Not even a beat is missed for virtual members, and all (new members, guests and seasoned members) feel comfortable and included in the meetings.

Creativity comes through with meetings that have a theme, speeches and impromptu sessions. It was fun to watch a member fulfilling the timer role from his kitchen, using utensils as props to get the colors across.

Now the binding force: this club is rich in diversity – diversity of experience (various industries, non-profits, small business), diversity of cultural background (people from other continents and walks of life), diversity in phases of life (students, parents, experienced professionals, and retirees) and diversity in interests (technology, humanities, sports). Thus, the speeches are rich in content and creativity. Each member gains tons of valuable knowledge and experience with a few hours of preparation and one hour of attendance. Time well spent.