International President of Toastmasters International Balraj Arunasalam has visited Warsaw in the end of may. He spent two days in Poland meeting Toastmasters from different clubs and sharing his story of leadership.
Balraj joined Toastmasters 28 years ago in his home city of Colombo, Sri Lanka. At first, he was not interested in development of his leadership and speaking skills – it took him 8 years to finish his Competent Toastmaster manual. However, when he became club president, he developed Toastmasters community in Sri Lanka from one club – to hundreds of clubs. As a District Director he lead his district to be number one in the world.
What is his secret of success? He shared it with our new District 108!
- Every club needs to have at least 30 people in the club roster. Taking into consideration that 60% on average attend meetings, clubs need to have at least 18 people to conduct energetic vibrant meetings where everyone has a function.
- Find out what are the needs of your members. Conduct Member Interest Survey regularly with existing members. Reach out to all non-renewing members with questions why they didn’t renew, why they don’t see value anymore, what could we change to make meetings more valuable for them.
- Go beyond “3 speeches – 3 evaluations – 3 table topics” meeting scheme. Model your meeting agendas, adapt it to the needs of your members. Do they want more workshops? Do they want to practice debates? Do they want to learn corporate skills? Your club can provide much bigger value if you satisfy your members’ needs.
Author: Elena Pawęta, District 108 Club Growth Director
