This year as District 25’s “PRO” (Public Relations Officer), one of my goals is to come up with innovative ways to introduce the Toastmasters program to the public. When we joined Toastmasters we agreed to abide by the “Toastmaster’s Promise.” One of its components is “To bring guests to club meetings so they can see the benefits Toastmasters membership offers.” How do you get guests to the meetings? The first and foremost way is to invite them personally. Another way is to reach out to the community to introduce the public to Toastmasters by taking a “different path.”

On Sept 13th, District 25 had a table at the “Texans Helping Texans” job fair held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Gary Chiu, Assistant PRO, took the lead in putting together our participation at the very last minute. To staff our table, we were fortunate to have experienced Toastmasters Brenda Daniels, Jacquelyne Griffin, Gary Chiu and myself. We even appeared in a news story about the event shown on CBS’s Channel 11.

By the time the doors opened, over 500 attendees were lined up outside. Total estimated attendance at the event was over 2,400 and we collected approximately 120 leads. The #1 question asked of us was “Are you hiring?” We explained we were there to let them know how we could help them during the interview process. We all know questions asked during an interview are just like a “Table Topics” session. We further explained how the Toastmasters program could help them to become better leaders and more confident individuals.

We were very pleased at the reception and the results of our efforts, and are now in the process of following up on the leads we collected. Hopefully in the near future you’ll be seeing some new faces at your club meetings as a result of our outreach to the community.

Chuck Mencke
Public Relations Officer

 

 

 

By Jodie Sanders