Moneynomist Club Growth Workshop: Corporate Club Charter & Management Buy-In

The following article is expanded from points based on my slide notes for my 40-minute workshop, “Corporate Club Charter & Management Buy-In”, conducted on behalf of Club Growth Department of Toastmasters District 80.  Special thanks to Kathy Toh for arranging this.

I am the President of AIA Toastmasters Club.  I am also the current Division G Director.  I joined Toastmasters in July 2018.  In my first year, I was Toastmaster of the Year at Club level.  In my second year, I was Vice-President of Education of AIA Toastmasters, and Area A2 Director.  I was Toastmaster of the Year.  This will be my 3^rd year. 

My job normally involves talking, negotiating, closing.  Today, we are going to have an overview of the concept of networks, and how we go about cultivating them, specific to the purpose of chartering a club, positioning the programme, and guiding the club to continued success. 

Everything we do must have a foundation.  For me, that foundation is AIA Toastmasters Club.  AIA Toastmasters was chartered on the 25^th June 2004.  In every single year, we have hit 10 DCP, and achieved Presidents Distinguished Club status.  That is setting the standards, which is a culture of continued excellence.  AIA Toastmasters is the template we apply to every corporate club we charter, to ensure that we have strong clubs that benefit the company, and the District.  There is no point in chartering a dozen clubs, and they all die within two years, or are chronically weak, draining resources. 

At the beginning of this term, just like almost every club in Singapore, we lost members.  We went down to 32.  We just had our recruitment workshop.  We had 300 attendees.  We followed up with 30.  We not have 48 members, and will be above 50 by January.  In six months, we will have another recruitment workshop, and we are looking at the possibility of pushing membership beyond 80.  This is not luck.  This is a process. 

What we have here is the current Executive Committee.  However, this is not the entire team.  We have mentors for the Executive Committee, we have a creative director team, and we have someone in charge of assigning, and following up, with the mentors and proteges.  It is important that we give all the DTMs and seniors in the club a role, so that institutional knowledge is maintained and passed on, and they feel that they are still part of the club.  From my time as Area Director for A2, I have come to understand that there is a fundamental difference in how we position a corporate club, as opposed to a community centre club, because there is another layer of key performance indicators.  We go about the corporate club charter process in a systematic manner, and we need to have the underlying programmes in place to support these clubs to ensure that they succeed.  We hold, in our hands, the credibility of Toastmasters. 

Corporate club chartering is a deliberate strategy that we implement at Division G, which can be cascaded down to the other Divisions and clubs in the District.  That is because we feel that this is the natural growth of the programme.  There are hundreds of companies in Singapore.  Our penetration is not even 1%.  This is that blue ocean of marketing that we have barely scratched. 

We need a good base of string clubs to strengthen the overall District, because we have too many weak clubs, and a base membership that cannot see much beyond being better speakers, or so people say.  That means, we are always one crisis from losing a significant portion of clubs and members.  That is not tenable.  We must always see the larger picture, and make people feel that they are part of something greater. 

Corporate clubs have challenges that non-corporate clubs do not have.  This is something we must always be cognisant of.  This is important so that management understand we are serious about addressing the contentions before they arise, and dealing with them. 

The first is that there is always the threat of downsizing, and job losses.  This is especially so in industries such as finance.  For example, I helped a corporate club recruit 30 new members.  Two months later, the corporation lost US$4 billion, and the entire team was downsized.  Overnight, we had no club. 

Companies have special interests, such as developing their sales team.  When the programme is not seen to give tangible results within months, companies close those clubs.  That is what happened to two clubs in Division A.  The lesson here is actually on what we promise when we charter a club.  There is an inherent scepticism of the programme by management not familiar with Toastmasters.  This is something that every District officer needs to address when there is new management.  In AIA Toastmasters, we make it a point to report to the C-suite whenever there is a change, to introduce ourselves, and explain what we do.  People do not value things that are free.  This is what happens at many corporate clubs where membership is paid for, by the company,  Attendance is taken for granted, and when it drops, the company decides it is a waste of investment, and the club is closed. 

Companies that deal with external customers are the obvious candidates for chartering a Toastmasters clubs.  However, all businesses have internal and external customers.  These demands mean we adjust the meetings accordingly.  Companies where the executives need to speak to external agencies such as the press, or present to statutory boards, or have heavy media engagement, need a Toastmasters programme. 

First, we gauge interest, not by talking about Toastmasters, but highlighting needs.  There is a need effective communication, there is a need for visible leadership, there is a need to control or massage the message, there is a need to command the audience and acquire an air of gravitas and credibility.  All that is learned behaviour, which we can find in a credible Toastmasters programme. 

Second, we must consider the company’s position in the market, whether it has uncertain revenue, and whether the management emphasises learning.  This influences how we shape the message to the company and the team.  The programme must be seen as a competitive advantage, and not merely a forum for public speaking.  This is important for the company as well as the employees.  People want to be employable, just as companies want to develop better human resource. 

Finally, we must ascertain how high up the hierarchy we can go, to get that management support.  A company with management buy in will have time and resources allocated to the programme, which will ensure it success. 

Depending on their need, or identified need, we present to the management according to the strategic objectives of the company.  In the main, we focus on executive training, and explain how the various elements of a Toastmasters meeting is key for developing these skills of communicating, understanding, and thinking.  Depending on the department, we look at whether the programme is sales oriented, leadership oriented, or a mix of both.  This means understanding the role of rhetoric in communication, the average attention span, and how we implement skills.  We focus, for example, on objection handling for sales teams, or seminar address for executive.  This is about tailoring the programme.  Toastmasters is not meant to be conducted in a vacuum.  There is no point to having meetings for the sake of it, with a few people chasing projects and tiles, with no value to the wider company.  That would mean the club eventually dies. 

Once we have gathered the leads, and begun the negotiations to charter the club, we also offer them a training team to conduct workshops.  Division G and AIA Toastmasters, has a team of workshop trainers that covers everything from building networks, to the psychology of sales, to objection handling.  This is to give company management a glimpse of the potential of the programme.  This is how we have managed to sign up entire training departments. 

Covid-19 has been good to the District.  We have lost a third of membership, and dozens of clubs.  This is not a bad thing.  We need problems for us to have opportunities.  We have shed members, but we are left with a leaner, more committed base to work on.  In Division G, we have shut down clubs, and I have pushed for more to be shut.  However, the number of clubs is growing, because we have used this as an opportunity to go back to the same companies and community centres, and recharter newer, better clubs, training new leaders, and implementing our values.  Too many clubs have become closed groups that aggrandise the few.  It is easier to charter a new club than fix a dying club with a cancerous culture.  By getting rid of toxic characters, we are weeding, and allowing flowers to grow. 

It is the philosophy of the Division to charter clubs in a systematic manner, and it means we may take time to put in place a foundation that satisfies the Division Council.  There is a process of negotiation, programme placement, and developing the Executive Committee candidates.  The idea being that once the foundations are solid, these clubs will become anchors for their Area.  Clubs chartered this term is based on work begun last term, and clubs chartered next term is from seeds planted this term.  The Division functions on an overarching plan that spans multiple terms.  I do not advocate merely gathering 20 people, and putting out a new club.  We are planting forests, not seeding a small field.