President's Tip of the Week

Club Standards - Your Opportunity for Leadership
(4/21/08)

Toastmasters International (TI) has researched the ingredients that make the difference between a good club and a great club, and they have identified 10 key factors. I am going to share these with you in a series of Tips of the Week, with a particular focus on how every member contributes to Gilbert Toastmasters success.

Standard 6: All members are working toward their Competent Communicator, Competent Leader, or advanced educational awards.

Some clubs have difficulty with this standard as it pertains to communication awards, as their members give speeches that do not relate to manual projects. I'm happy to say that our club has a longstanding history of working on manual projects. Even our longstanding Toastmasters who have completed all the manuals are very diligent about going back through manuals to hone their skills. There is always room for improvement!

The Competent Leader manual, however, is new and potentially intimidating to our more established members. It is important for our Distinguished Club Program progress that we have everyone working in this manual. Even if you have already earned a CL award in the past, you can work in this manual towards another CL. Just as with the communication awards, there is always room for improvement in leadership skills. The new manual will help you hone your skills in areas like time management, facilitation, listening, and other areas that you use every day in the real world. This will be true even for more experienced Toastmasters. We would like to see all of our members working through this manual, so if you do not yet have one, please contact Emi to obtain one.

You can also help toward this goal by filling out the evaluation for people who are working in their CL manual at a meeting. It will only take a few minutes of your time, and it will give you the added benefit of improving your listening and observation skills.