What is a mentor?

A club mentor is a key part of the successful creation of a new Toastmasters club.  Club mentors are assigned by the Club Extension Committee based on inquiries or applications from members progressing towards the Distinguished Toastmaster accreditation.  The club mentor should be an experienced Toastmaster who possesses leadership skills, a passion for Toastmasters, and a strong sense of dedication to helping a new club develop the tools to become a strong club that will ensure its success for years to come.  Each new club may have up to two mentors.

Why be a Club Mentor?

As a club mentor, not only will you share your passion for Toastmasters with new members, but you will also enhance your own skills through the process, such as:

• Enhance your leadership skills by inspiring others, sharing your knowledge, and creating new leaders
• Translate values and strategies into productive actions
• Develop skills and strategies as an effective leader
• Invest in the future of Toastmasters
• To share the benefits of the Toastmasters pathways program with others.
• Obtain fresh perspectives
• Enhance your teamwork skills through a new learning experience.
• Earn credit toward the Distinguished Toastmasters accreditation

Club Mentor Duties and Responsibilities

The mentor advises, teaches, and guides a newly chartered club, to implement the Toastmasters program during the first six months to one year of the new club’s existence.  As a mentor and advisor to a newly formed club, your responsibility is not to run the club but to let it know its options and guide it toward excellence.  

As a new club mentor, you are responsible for:

• Build a personal rapport with the club, share your experience, attend meetings regularly, and support the club by accepting meeting roles and conducting educational sessions.
• Ensure the club is strong and functional. Lead members to helpful resources. Share lessons from your own experiences.
• Provide Pathways program orientation(s) as needed. Help the new club understand how the Pathways program can help to facilitate their skill development. Guide new members to learning resources on how to access, enroll in and use Pathways. Monitor pathways sign-up
• Familiarize the club with the TI website.Encourage club executive members to use it as a resource for understanding their roles, performing administrative tasks in club central relating to club membership and club management and the base camp manager role.
• Help the club personalize their club website. Encourage members to use it to help market the club’s special features manage their roles on the agenda and communicate with members.
• Conduct educationals from The Successful Club Series and Better Speaker SeriesPrograms to Help members develop their skills and a better understanding of the benefits of Toastmasters. Emphasize the importance of recognizing members who work toward their goals. 
• Strongly encourage club officers to attend district-sponsored training. Follow-up to see if they have attended training and advise them of other training opportunities. Review the “Club Officer Tools section” in Leadership Central on the TI website with the club executive team.
• Help the club executive to plan for club elections and support the transition to the new executive.
• Liaise with the Area Director to keep them informed of your involvement with the club.
• Help club members build positive habits. Emphasize the need for members to attend regularly, come prepared to meetings, give Pathways speeches, how to conduct evaluations and to project a positive, enthusiastic attitude.
• Acquaint the club executive and members with key Toastmasters International and district events such as Speech Contests, conferences, and other learning opportunities.
• Create a quality club. A club’s standards for service must reflect the quality and reliability of the Toastmasters program. Ensure all members know the Toastmaster values and apply these quality standards to all meetings.
• Foster a culture of membership-building within the club. Provide support for organizing an Open House
• Keep your Club Extension Chair informed of your progress and immediately inform the chair of any chartering issue (complete progress reports)
• Get Credit for being a club mentor. Ask the club’s president to send an email to Toastmasters International’s New Club Unit indicating that you have successfully completed your club mentor role.