On Wednesday, June 27, 2012, Top Notch Toastmasters (TNT) held a big “end of the Toastmaster year” celebration. The club had much to celebrate and to be very proud of achieving thanks to the hard work of the club’s members and executive team. Jody Helton, DTM, and fellow TNT Toastmaster, as well as the owner of Julie’s Fresh Kitchen, prepared a delicious TexMex buffet for the members and guests to enjoy. Jody’s cooks did not disappoint us. All of the dishes were perfectly prepared. Our distinguished incoming District 25 Governor, Bonne Stroman, was in attendance to celebrate the club’s success.

Bonne Stroman, Chuck and Terry Mencke

What was TNT celebrating? First, the club celebrated ending the year Presidents Distinguished. Second, the club was celebrating the success of our two club coaches, Karen Hagar and Rose Timmons, in helping the club end the year on a high note. Finally I presented the results of my High Performance Leadership (HPL) project to the club which completed the requirements for my Distinguished Toastmaster.

TNT made incredible strides this past year. The club ended 2010-2011 Toastmaster year with a base of 13.

Last fall, it was pretty bleak at our Wednesday night meetings. We had 5-6 active members attending regularly. The “core” members vowed to fight and not let the club fold. Even if we had light meeting attendance, we continued to have quality meetings and conducted the meetings as if we had 20 members in attendance, often taking on multiple opportunities in the meeting. We only had three officers besides me – Julie Cosgrove, Anna Woods and Ross McDaniel. Each took on double officer roles, and at times, triple roles. My HPL project was to help rebuild the club back to “Charter Strength” by the end of the 2011-2012 Toastmaster year. As president of the club, I had assured the District leadership that the club would not die on my watch. Slowly but surely, guests started visiting our club meetings. By the end of April we were back to “Charter Strength” adding a whopping 17 members! Not only that, but our club produced the D25 Outstanding Secretary, the new District News Editor, an Area Governor and two DTM’s, with a third knocking on the door. Our club was also had two finalists represented in the District level spring contests.

Vp of PRAnna Woods, Club Coaches Karen Hagar & Rose Timmons

How did we do it? Each guest was treated like royalty, given a welcome packet, and our secretary followed up with a personal, hand written thank you note in the mail. We used social media and leveraged the “reach” of Meetup (http://www.meetup.com). Most of our 17 new members came from our site on Meetup. There are “tips and tricks” to help make Meetup a viable tool in your club’s membership building strategy. I don’t have enough room here to go over all of them, but please feel free to contact me at chuckmencke@d25toastmasters.org if you’d like more information.

As the outgoing president of Top Notch Toastmasters, Club #825, I am “proud as a peacock” about the dedicated work of all the members, my club’s coaches, and my incredible executive team. Thank you TNT for all your hard work this past year! You ROCK!

 

By Julie Cosgrove