President's Tip of the Week

Club Standards - Your Opportunity for Leadership
(5/19/08)

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 9: Everyone is working to help the Club become a Distinguished Club.

In general, if all members are working on both communication and leadership goals, then this standard is being met. Working in both manuals is encouraged during our New Member Orientation and I am following that up at meetings with reminders to the functionaries about the CL manual. I feel confident that our club will continue to meet the DCP goals as it has in the past.

More specifically, however, we want everyone to become familiar with the Distinguished Club Program (DCP) and its value to the club. I have written a previous tip about the DCP, and I would encourage you to re-read that tip at the bottom of this web page: http://www.gilberttm.com/tips318.htm

Our club has currently met 10 out of 10 DCP goals for the year ending 6/30/08. Now is a perfect time for members to determine what their goals for the next year will be.

If you have at least 5 speeches done toward a communication award, then you could let Emi know that you will commit to achieving that award by 6/30/09.
The CL manual is a bit more difficult for us to guess the time required to complete. If, however, you will commit to completing a CL by 6/30/09, the club officers will work with you to make sure you have the opportunities necessary to do so successfully.
Goal gurus will tell you that the difference between a dream and a goal is that a goal is written in specific terms with a date attached. I encourage you to write down your Toastmasters goals for the upcoming year and share those with your club officers.