Fellow Sun Life Speakers Corner Toastmasters! (and of course Guests/Visitors/Future Members)

As I embark on my second go-around as Club President, I am reminded of the theme I chose for the first year of doing this… “Attaining Attendance”. As club members know, I have repeated two words several times at meetings and in emails. Those two words are my theme for this term… “Get Involved”.

You may think to yourself, “But I am. I attend occasionally.” Is that good enough? Are you getting your money’s worth out of it? Is your company getting their money’s worth since they may have paid for your membership? Does your supervisor know how many meetings you attend? Getting involved is more than just attending the occasional meeting. You can’t get out of Toastmasters what you don’t put into it. Or let’s reverse that – you get out of Toastmasters what you put into it.

When you signed the application form and paid your dues for the first time, did you read the ‘Toastmasters Promise'? It has several points to it and I’d like to highlight three of them here:

1. “To attend club meetings regularly.” We all know everyone is busy, but as I also say several times, “It’s only an hour.”
2. “To prepare for and fulfill meeting assignments.” Coming to meetings and only doing roles is not fulfilling your Toastmaster potential. There’s more to the club than just taking on the Timer role, or the Grammarian role, or doing a Table Topics speech. Preparing, rehearsing and delivering formal speeches based on the objective or purpose statement are also important for a thriving club. Guests who visit and only see a partial club meeting may lose interest and not come back. We need the members to do speeches, to have at least one a week scheduled. Those who haven’t started yet, now’s the time!
3. “To serve my club as an officer when called upon to do so.” For several years now, we have been putting out the request for new people to join the Executive Committee. Kally has stepped up to be the VP-Membership – thank you! Seasoned members remain on the committee because they feel they have to… since nobody else is coming forward. We’re there to guide you, to support you, to lead you. We have Executive meetings once a month (if that) to organize the club’s events and make decisions. Attending Club Officer Training twice a year will help you learn even more, and it helps the club with it’s DCP points.

In the hopes that this has motivated you to “get involved”, let’s see it come to fruition. I’ll see you at the meetings. Here’s to continued success in your Toastmasters journey.

Bruce Laing (NOW Agnes Liu from July'20)

Club President, Sun Life Speakers Corner

July'19-June-20

Effective July 1st, 2017 the Club's home is One York Street, Toronto, ON M5J 0B6

Club 6598 / Area 23 / Division C / District 60

We do not have meetings on a Tuesday following a Holiday Monday.