Quarterly Club Challenge

We’d like to share a creative solution the On the Road Again Toastmasters club developed to aid in filling meeting roles, focus on the value provided by each of those roles uniquely, and provide achievement and visibility of that achievement to the member’s manager. On the Road Again is a corporate club based out of C.H. Robinson in Eden Prairie, MN. We generally have been 15-20 members.

Our goal in creating the solution that we will cover today includes each of those goals:

1. ensure we have all meeting roles filled prior to the meeting,
2. make clear the benefits of each role to our members,
3. reward the work done through executing those roles by providing a physical award the member can see and by including the member’s manager in that success.

Our club decided on one award per meeting role, plus an outstanding contributor for members who serve in a variety of meeting roles in more than half the meetings in the quarter.

We also added a Club Champion award for service to the club outside of meeting roles, and an Inviter award for the person who brings the most visitors to the meetings.

Qualifications may depend on how many times your club meets in a quarter. Our club meets twice a month, so we decided that the Outstanding Contributor award went to anyone who had a different meeting role in 4 of the 6 meetings that quarter. The Fearless Speaker award goes to the person who gave the most speeches in the quarter. The rest of the awards go to members who serve in that meeting role for 3 of the 6 meetings that quarter.

Example: one member, Andrew, was focused on leadership and communication skills, including organization, critical thinking, accepting feedback, and formal presentation skills for this quarter. He signed up and served as Speaker more frequently than any other member and received the Fearless Speaker award. The VPE sent a congratulatory note to both Andrew and his manager. The President then sends a list of all award winners to the corporate club sponsor.

The creation of this award program made it easier for our club mentors and coaches to show the members what soft skills they are building when they serve in club meeting roles. Club members have an easier time aligning their career goals with their Toastmasters work and to also communicate to their managers what skills they are building. It’s also easier for the VPE to talk through the skills each member is achieving and provide direction as skills are gained.

The VPE sends an email to each of the member’s managers, copying in the member to offer congratulations and thanks for their success.