An educational event hosted by one of our own
On June 11, 2022, one of the founders of Shin-Osaka Leaders, Hideo, hosted an educational event targeted at club officers of other Toastmaters clubs struggling with dwindling membership.
Many Toastmasters clubs have been struggling with declining membership due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors over the last couple of years. Hideo, who has served as a club officer in many different capacities at three clubs including as the club President of Nishinomiya TGIF Toastmasters Club, has always wanted to share his knowledge and tips for managing a club. Actually, he hosted similar events by himself last year.
This time, however, he went one step further and invited five other club officers from three other clubs to share their wisdom. Those who joined him were Hide of Nara Toastmasters Club, Marily and Kama-yan of Senri Toastmasters Club, and Wota and Kita-chan of Tottori Toastmasters Clubs. Especially useful must be the wisdom of the first two clubs, Nara and Senri, because they were struggling a couple of years ago with dwindling membership. Their membership was as low as around 15 while a healthy number is 20 or above. The member morale was down and it looked hopeless. They analyzed the situation, worked out plans and executed them. Now they came back strong. Nara and Senri now have 21 and 20 members, respectively and their members enjoy every meeting.
Tottori, on the other hand, has kept its membership at around 30 for years. And there were reasons behind it. Similarly, Shin-Osaka Leaders recruited over 20 members amid the COVID-19 pandemic. These two cases prove that with decent club management and solid membership-building strategies, any Toastmasters club can flourish even during this hard time.
The presenters shared their experiences in detail and attendees had breakout sessions to further develop their own ideas to incorporate in the coming program year. Hopefully, this event served its purpose of helping struggling club officers to rebuild their clubs.
For your information, this event was prepared as part of Hideo's Pathways project, "Lead Your Team." "Pathways" is the name of Toastmasters' educational program with eleven (11) different Paths, all of which have some unique projects according to the purpose and focus of them. Hideo, who is also a member of Serni Toastmasters Club, delivered a speech about his experience leading the team of presenters at this event at the 167th meeting of Senri Toastmasters Club. This is one example of opportunities provided by Toastmasters to hone our leadership skills through our program. If you are interested in Pathways, pay us a visit.