President's Tip of the Week

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The Gilbert Toastmasters Mentor Program
(3/26/08)

The mentor program is designed to make sure that you get the biggest bang for your buck with Toastmasters. Mentors help both beginning and advanced Toastmasters achieve their educational goals.

Mentoring can be either formal or informal. Informally, every member of Gilbert Toastmasters is available to mentor you. If you have a question, please feel free to ask any officer or experienced member of the club. In addition, we're starting Post Toasties this week. It's a once a month social get together after the meeting. Come and get to know everyone a little better. It's a great opportunity for fun as well as informal mentoring.

A more formal mentor should be assigned to you when you join the club. Your mentor should answer questions about how to perform the functionary roles and how to do your first evaluation as well as helping you put together your first three or four speeches. A mentor is more of a friendly guide than a teacher. He or she will show you the ropes and answer questions about them, but you will still be the one who has to climb them.

Who Can Be a Mentor?

Everyone who has 5 or 6 speeches under their belt at Gilbert Toastmasters should be able to mentor a new member. Mentoring a new member only has a few requirements:

Answer any questions your mentee has. If you don't know, an officer or your own mentor is always available to help you.

Contact your mentee during the week before he or she is assigned a function, a speech, or an evaluation. Make sure that they know what is expected. Remind them to bring their CL manual to the meeting. Meet with them for a few minutes before the meeting for any last minute questions. Sit with them if they would like the support.

Encourage your mentee after the meeting. Tell them what you saw that they did well, and give them a challenge for the next time they are assigned that function.