How to retain new members in Toastmasters clubs?
Today I answered a question on LinkedIn, on how to retain members in a club with 70 members and large new member turnover. My response is applicable to all Toastmaster clubs and is posted here for your convenience.
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To improve your situation, assign a mentor to each new member. As President of a smaller club and having filled various officer roles in the past, I have experienced the same universal problem.
The way to improve the situation is usually to ask more experienced members to guide new members through all the technicians roles and the first 3 speeches. The challenge is that seasoned members become worn out from always mentoring new members.
Also, mentorship is not all that it takes to keep members.
Mentoring increases retention, but members also leave for other reasons such as finding that the challenges of public speaking are just too much for them, the TM program consumes too much time or have higher priorities. You can't solve these personal decisions through mentoring.
Mentoring new members helps to retain members and eliminates some of the reasons people leave Toastmasters, such as:
1. Not understanding the meeting roles
2. Not feeling welcome in the club meeting
3. Not knowing where to turn for answers and guidance
Try to get a mentoring committee together so that the full load does not fall on your VPE. Also, try to find creative ways to mentor. We used a teleconference every week for new members and covered a different topic on each call. This allowed 3 seasoned TM's to lay the groundwork for mentoring the 10 new members.
We also often overlook the benefits that the Mentor gets out of the relationship. As a mentor you learn how to provide information in small doses so that your mentee can absorb your wealth of TM knowledge at a moderated pace. This trains mentors to be effective mentors as business leaders and mentors as well. You can also look for mentors outside your club. Perhaps your district officers can assist with conference calls, or a nearby club has members willing to assist?
In summary, Mentoring will increase retention, but is not the silver bullet. Even so, I recommend that you work to institute a mentor program.
***
To improve your situation, assign a mentor to each new member. As President of a smaller club and having filled various officer roles in the past, I have experienced the same universal problem.
The way to improve the situation is usually to ask more experienced members to guide new members through all the technicians roles and the first 3 speeches. The challenge is that seasoned members become worn out from always mentoring new members.
Also, mentorship is not all that it takes to keep members.
Mentoring increases retention, but members also leave for other reasons such as finding that the challenges of public speaking are just too much for them, the TM program consumes too much time or have higher priorities. You can't solve these personal decisions through mentoring.
Mentoring new members helps to retain members and eliminates some of the reasons people leave Toastmasters, such as:
1. Not understanding the meeting roles
2. Not feeling welcome in the club meeting
3. Not knowing where to turn for answers and guidance
Try to get a mentoring committee together so that the full load does not fall on your VPE. Also, try to find creative ways to mentor. We used a teleconference every week for new members and covered a different topic on each call. This allowed 3 seasoned TM's to lay the groundwork for mentoring the 10 new members.
We also often overlook the benefits that the Mentor gets out of the relationship. As a mentor you learn how to provide information in small doses so that your mentee can absorb your wealth of TM knowledge at a moderated pace. This trains mentors to be effective mentors as business leaders and mentors as well. You can also look for mentors outside your club. Perhaps your district officers can assist with conference calls, or a nearby club has members willing to assist?
In summary, Mentoring will increase retention, but is not the silver bullet. Even so, I recommend that you work to institute a mentor program.
Labels: Toastmasters
posted by Wayne Botha @ 7:15 PM
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