Secrets to Success

President’s Distinguished Clubs Share Their Strategies for Engaging Members and Celebrating Achievements

Have you ever wondered if a Presidents Distinguished club does anything different to engage their members to achieve the consistent success that they seem to achieve? I wondered if they had some different approaches that might make a difference for other clubs that were struggling to build or keep their membership. My DTM project team and I thought that we should check it out.

We contacted all of the 2023 to 2024 Presidents Distinguished clubs and invited them to share their strategies for engaging motivating, retaining and recognizing their members as part of a DTM project.

Two key questions were posed to each club:

  • What practices do you use that have proven effective in engaging new members and motivating and retaining existing members?
  • What strategies do you use to consistently recognize and celebrate member contributions and achievements?

We discovered that there were no secrets! Instead, to quote one of the respondents “To become and to stay a Presidents’ Distinguished club you needed to follow the “Toastmasters Best Practices” in everything you do!

Here are some of the Engagement strategies that stood out:

  • Completing the “Moments of Truth” every year and following up on the recommendations.
  • Delivering a new member hands-on orientation program where new members are taught how to log into the club website and TI website, choose their Pathways and perform basic meeting roles;
  • Building a comprehensive mentoring program where each member is assigned a mentor tailored to meet their needs;
  • Keeping meetings upbeat and ensuring that new and existing members were participating in the meetings;
  • Using individual name tags; (a simple practice)!
  • Having fast-paced, theme-based meetings with caring and constructive evaluations and consistent communications;

Here are some of the key Recognition Strategies:

  • Several clubs held a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual celebration meeting segment that focused on three main areas: goals related to Pathways & public speaking, achievements outside the club, & club-wide goals (including DCP point goals, level completion & Triple crown goals)
  • Several clubs use newsletters & social media including the club website to recognize member and club achievements;
  • Some use slide shows & certificates to recognize member-level achievements during meetings;
  • Many recognized completion of icebreaker speeches or a level completion immediately after using award ribbons; Finally
  • Almost all of these clubs found ways to recognize their members throughout the year as a common practice resulting in increased member engagement!

In summary, President Distinguished clubs may not do many things differently than other clubs but they are just more consistent in engaging their members and celebrating members and club successes whenever the opportunity presents itself. 

It is a significant accomplishment to achieve Presidents Distinguished status. Those clubs that maintain it from year to year are truly special! Is your club one of them? Check out the list HERE.

Brian Fegan, DTM
Club Extension Committee Co-Chair

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