President's Tip of the Week

President's Tip of the Week

Club Standards - Your Opportunity for Leadership (Series)
>    Standard 1: Meetings are showcase events (4/3/08)
>    Standard 2: Club officers are effective (4/10/08)
>    Standard 3: Membership recruitment is ongoing (4/15/08)
>    Standards 4 and 5: Member inductions & Mentoring (4/21/08)
>    Standard 6: Members are working toward CC, CL, etc. (4/28/08)
>    Standard 7: All members are trained in effective evaluation (5/5/08)
>    Standard 8: Members are recognized for their accomplishments (5/12/08)
Gilbert Toastmasters Mentor Program (3/26/08)
The Distinguished Club Program (3/18/08)
The Ah Counter (3/10/08)
Evaluating Someone with More Experience (3/3/08)
How to Use the Competent Leader Manual (2/20/08) Click here for CL Tracking Sheet
Turn Your Real-Life Speaking Engagements into Credit Toward Your Toastmaster Award (2/14/08)
Playing it by the Book (2/7/08)
How to Make a Great Speech Even Greater - Write a Fabulous Introduction (1/31/08)
Four Things a Speaker Needs to Do Before the Sergeant-at-Arms Pounds the Gavel (1/17/08)
On the Spot Speakers (1/14/08)

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.

Please contact Emi if you are interested in serving as a mentor. She can be reached at emibauer@cox.net