Brief Observations on Club Growth

The following are some thoughts on club growth.  This is based solely on a years’ worth of club visiting, and speaking to members of clubs all over Singapore, both club officials and otherwise, and my preliminary observations as Area Director for A2.

Toastmasters clubs in Singapore generally fall under three categories: school, community centre and corporate.  There is not much to be said of school clubs, since they have their limitations based around the needs of academic performance.  As such, for members, they are a means to network, and grow personally.  Unless it is an alumni club, which functions more like an inclusive corporate club, the students leave after they graduate.  Thus, turnover is naturally high, and there is little scope for long-term strategic planning.

One of the problems I have noticed is this tendency to charter clubs with little concern over their long-term sustainability.  The focus of the incumbent is upon growth to achieve immediate milestones.  The problem then falls upon the successor to address the inherent weakness of such clubs.  I would propose that we adopt some sort of tracking for new clubs, with an emphasis on rewarding clubs that surpass the three-year mark.  We are not in a position to implement the finance industry’s guidelines on persistency, since the district officers change every year.  This naturally limits accountability.

Community Clubs

Community clubs are inclusive clubs, with a catchment that is geographically focused on the immediate neighbourhood.  As such, clubs tend to be diverse in make-up, vibrancy and sustainability.  The problem we have here is that clubs in proximity are cannibalising each other’s membership.  This helps no one.

For example, it is relatively common for people to help their friends by joining multiple clubs to fulfill the charter member numbers.  This creates zombie clubs, and is unsustainable.  The real fear is that people will become jaded and leave Toastmasters altogether.  There is far too much focus on recruitment, and not enough on retention.

What we need is for an area or division to work together to come up with a coherent marketing and branding strategy.  We need to raise awareness and credibility of Toastmasters clubs.  The idea is to raise membership relative to the population by one percentage point.  Toastmasters must be seen as prestigious, a form of corporate training that equips people for career mobility.  Currently, we only talk about it.  If we are able to integrate this into the community club programmes for skills retraining, this opens up an avenue to get funding for these clubs through work skills programmes.

Corporate Clubs

Corporate clubs have distinct challenges from community clubs.  In summary, they are at the mercy of management, and the market.  Too many vibrant clubs die when the executives of the company see no worth in the programme.  We must do more to address this, by speaking to the management itself, on behalf of the club, and get a buy in.

For example, AIA Toastmasters has management support to the extent that the CEO is himself a member, along with many members of the executive team.  This is because the successive Executive Committees of the club made presentations to them on the need to communicate effectively to advance corporate goals.  A such, management see Toastmasters as an integral part of internal training and allocate budget and support accordingly.  We need to explore how to replicate this in other clubs.

Management & Leadership Training

Whilst the tag line is “Where leaders are made”, there is actually no meaningful leadership or management training.  This is such a shame considering the number of people we have in the membership who are actually qualified and capable in this area.

I would propose that we show more initiative in programmes other than mere speeches.  We can consider panel discussions, which are already part of the level 5 project for Pathway.  For example, last term, I had two discussions to test out the format.

The first was about the ethics of judging contests, and how we can make it better.  I had past winners, chief judges, and relevant people on the panel, and tested the reaction of the crowd.  This was just after the contest season.

I had a second panel, of a more general nature, with the subject about having a vision for the club.  Based on the feedback, I realise that we have not been successful in translating what Toastmasters is about into actual measurable success in a member’s real-world application.  We need to look deeper into this and consider how we can be better.

Blue Ocean Club Growth

Toastmasters, as a programme, is ideal for one specific category of people: those who want to speak publicly for the express purpose of gaining recognition in work.  There is one category of organisations that are full of these people, and with the catchment and budget to sustain clubs: Volunteer Welfare Organisations.

People do not join Toastmasters simply because they want to speak well in public.  They want to be good speakers for specific personal agendas.  It can be as base as wanting to speak to someone they have a romantic interest in.  It can be as mundane as wanting to get ahead in their career.  People in VWOs want to impress enough people to run for public office.  This is the catchment of parliamentary hopefuls.

I have some ideas on which organisations we could speak to, and who to approach within these organisations.  I served on the board of one such organisation for 14 years, up to Vice-President.  Serving on the board grants people access to ministers and ministerial staff.  For them, public speaking is a need.  They have debate clubs, but they do not have clubs that teach actual rhetoric.

Conclusion

My belief is that we succeed together.  We must foster a culture of growth and idea sharing.  I am setting that example here, and opening myself to legitimate criticism so that these ideas can be refined.