As an officer you are there to provide leadership for your club. Although individual officers have specific areas of concern, all officers are, as a group, responsible for having a vision, setting goals, providing leadership to the club. All officers are members of the Executive committee and which should meet regularly, outside of meetings, to make plans and review progress.
Being a club officer is part of the Toastmasters Leadership Track. As an officer you will learn about leadership by doing. Being a club officer, being trained and participating in preparing a Club Success Plan are 3 of the 4 requirements for the CL (Competent Leader) Award.
Have Vision
Recognize needs. To use an analogy having vision isn't about noticing that the 'i' needs dotting, it's about noticing the sentence doesn't have a subject or noticing that a paragraph is missing. Which you are looking for is a matter of level. Too close a viewpoint and we can't see the forest for the trees, too long a viewpoint and we can't see the path through the trees.
Set Goals
Goals need to be smart, that's: Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic and Time-bound.
A good goal needs to be both Achievable and Profitable. Something too easy has no benefit (it isn't profitable). Something to challenging may be impossible or disheartening. A happy balance is best.
Make Plans
Having made goals it is then necessary to figure out how to reach them. Each necessary step should be worked out. Resources located. Time needed and time available should be noted.
Appoint someone to get Credit.
Unless someone is given the job of watching in particular no one will bother to point out that the car is going over the cliff. That isn't to say someone should be chosen to take the blame, rather I'd say someone should be selected who will get the credit for success. That gives the person the impetus to pay attention so they can get the award, but without fear of failure.
President: Responsible for leading the club and club officers.
Vice-President Education: Responsible for overseeing the educational meeting and program.
Vice-President Membership: Responsible for getting new members and retaining current members.
Vice-President Public Relations: Responsible for advertising.
Secretary: Responsible for keeping minutes of meeting and the documents of the club and handling official correspondence.
Treasurer: Responsible for the money of the club; accounting for present assets and preparing a budget for anticipated future expenses.
Sergeant at Arms: Responsible for preparing the meeting space, greeting the guests.
Immediate Past President: Responsible for preparing and supporting incoming officers and chairing the Nominating Committee.
I have abbreviated and commented on the club officer duties for training purposes. The original versions are here.
Each officer should read and know the 'Duties of all club officers', their own duties in detail, and have an idea of the duties of the other officers.
Duties of all club officersToastmaster International has established a list of 10 Goals that measure the quality of a Toastmasters Club. By reaching these achievable goals a club can win recognition in the form of being declared Distinguished Club, Select Distinguished Club or even President's Distinguished Club.
| The 10 goals of the DCP |
|---|
| Educational Goals |
| Two (2) CTMs |
| Two (2) more CTMs |
| One ATM (bronze, silver or gold) |
| One more ATM (bronze, silver or gold) |
| One CL, AL or DTM |
| One more CL, AL or DTM |
| Membership Building Goals |
| Four (4) New members |
| Four (4) more New members |
| Officer Quality and Submission Goals |
| Four or more officers trained in each training period |
| Submit semi-annual membership report on time and one club officer list on time |
Because a club needs a certain number of members to have a productive meeting and to remain healthy there is a membership requirement in order be declared a select club. To be fair to small clubs that are growing there are two ways to meet this requirement.
| 20 members or more |
| net growth of 5 new members or more |
The three degrees of recognition that can be earned are:
| Achieve 9 or more goals | President's Distinguished Club |
| Achieve 7 or more goals | Select Distinguished Club |
| Achieve 5 or more goals | Distinguished Club |
Each of these goals is reachable by any club, but further, missing these goals is a symptom that that the club could have a problem. Just as high blood pressure warns a person to watch for heart disease, failure to reach the goals of the DCP can serve as warning that a club may be getting sick.
| Missed Goal | May be a symptom of this condition |
|---|---|
| Few or no CTMs | This indicates that members are not giving speeches or are not staying members long enough to complete the basic manual. Vibrant new members are being lost. Club officers need to take actions to track progress, motivate members and support them in giving speeches from the basic manual. A mentor program may help. If already in place it may be improved by proper advice to mentors. |
| Few or no ATMs | This indicates that experienced members are not remaining members or are not remaining active. |
| No CLs | The CL is easy: Officers who have earned a CTM need to be trained, participate in the Club Success Plan (see below) and present 2 successful club modules.
Modules are prepared by Toastmasters International and include a canned speech, overhead transparencies and visual aids. They take 10 to fifteen minutes to present and cover
many of the basic bedrock skills a club needs.
If CLs are not being achieved then club officers are not involved in the club, not active enough to present simple modules...or aren't aware of this award. |
| <4 or <8 new members | Why does International specify the number 4 for new members? Why not 3 or 5 instead?
Because the target goal for club membership is 20 members and estimated retention is 80%.
If a club has 80% retention then it has 20% loss; 20% of 20 members is 4.
Therefore, 4 new members is the estimated number of new members needed to offset attrition and maintain a healthy club membership base.
There is a certain number of members necessary to have effective meetings. Without effective, fun, educational meetings it is hard to get members to join. Thus membership is important to retaining membership and important to preserving clubs. |
| Officer Training | Failure to have officers trained is symptomatic that officers are not involved enough. (Or district has failed to provide sufficient training, in which case officers need to bug District to improve its act.) |
| Paperwork not submitted on time | I am suspicious that Toastmasters International specified this because it is what they need (want) to receive. But failure to submit paperwork on time indicates either a lack of involvement by officers or lack of proper planning. Occasionally corporate clubs do suffer from external influences of company bureaucracy - however here proper planning is required to anticipate this and start even earlier. |
It is possible for any club to attain any level of Distinguished in any year. But it requires a Plan! Here is an outline for you to fill in with your plan to become a President's Distinguished Club:
| # | Activity | Goal | Strategy | Resources | Assignment | Time table Start Complete | Actual Completion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CTMs (Competent Toastmasters) | 2 | Determine which members are in a position to achieve CTM status during the year. Encourage them to set a goal to finish by the end of the reporting period. Encourage all members to give manual speeches. Track the progress of members and make a point of recognizing achievement. | Member achievement record (1328), member progress chart (227,227B) | Vice President Education to Track | ||
| 2 | Additional CTMS | 2 or more | same as above | same as above | same as above | ||
| Similarly for each goal. | |||||||
These are what I consider to be particularly useful, web-based, resources:
District 53 Web page: The district has a large, informative and beautiful web site at http://www.district53toastmasters.org/ This site is kept current with notices, schedules, the directory and educational material. If you need to contact a district officer, find a schedule, or just keep up to date with what is happening in the district- this is the place to browse.
District53 YAHOO group: This is a mailing list. Members of the list can post a message to the list and it will go to all the members. (This is sometimes mistakenly called a listserv, mistakenly because listserv is the name of a particular program for implementing this function). If you have a question you can post it to the list and receive answers from all over the district and, in fact, all over the world! (There's nothing that limits membership to District53 members and you can get the International perspective from interested toastmasters in places like Austria.) Join up and you can see what other toastmasters are concerned about, watch the discussions (or participate!) and get announcements members of the district think are important.
--To join: Send an email, from the email account you want to receive messages, to: d53toastmasters-subscribe@yahoogroups.com for more information before joining visit http://www.district53toastmasters.org/d53group.html on the District53 web site.
Note: when you send a message to the mailing list people receive a message from the list, the message does not have your email address on it, the return address is that of the mailing list's server. This retains the privacy of your email address. The procedure for leaving the email list is as simple as for joining, you just send a message to a different address.
Toastmasters International: http://www.toastmasters.org/ Not only does the International site have the on-line supply catalog where you can see and order all those toastmasters supplies that make meetings fun and productive, but there is also a wealth of information on the site. International is just finishing an extensive update to the computers, software AND the web site. New features are being added. When the updates are completed you will be able to track the status of your club in near real-time.
District Officers: All the district officers are listed in the Directory on the District53 web site. The district officers are there to support the Clubs and members, not the other way around. District officers will be pleased to answer questions in their area of responsibility or help you locate the person who can help you.
Your Area Governor: That's me, the author. I've written this to attempt to help club officers with their new duties.
If you have any questions about officer training, or any other aspect of Toastmasters, then Please Ask Me! I love to feel needed.