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)

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.