by Carolina Little
Today, I visited the Audubon Engineering Toastmasters Club. As their club mentor, I felt very guilty for not attending a meeting for two months now (It may have been even longer than this). As with everything, my initial zeal for this responsibility began to wane as time went by and my own daily schedule became more hectic. Besides, I felt the last time I visited them, they had become a well-oiled machine, running efficiently and effectively.
However, when the last invitation came via email, I decided it was time to make time to attend another one of their meetings to see how they had progressed over the holidays and the New Year. When I walked in, I realized like most clubs, theirs too had succumbed to low attendance. It happens to the best of clubs. All clubs start fast and furious, with an impressive audience. Then months later, the infatuation begins to die down like with most things we have seen before: new exercise regimes, new projects, new relationships, and new philosophies. However, most clubs (like ours) see members rotating in and out at each meeting and have at least 12 members in attendance. This is typical of the national clubs and that is encouraging. Why is it encouraging? It is encouraging because people are still making time to work on themselves and help others around them do the same thing too. A meeting with zero attendance is the meeting we never want to see.
It is also encouraging because as I attended this last meeting, I noticed that the Audubon Toastmasters, while smaller in attendance, were bigger in message. They remain a strong and influential group. Their participation was enthusiastic and reflected the theme the Toastmaster had set; ENTHUSIASM. While I was there I learned a lot of new tools that the Mudslingers can incorporate into our own meetings, in addition to learning self-improvement materials that the Toastmaster shared with the group regarding enthusiasm in the workplace.
First, I learned interactive works! The Toastmaster started off with a very interactive “tug-of-war” demonstration designed to show that Motivation won over Encouragement every time. I will explain that message later one day. Then, the Toastmaster incorporated a Power Point presentation to help transition the meeting a long. It was in this presentation that she shared tidbits of knowledge and statistics to prove her theme. She also engaged the audience to read excerpts out loud, a creative way to have someone practice speaking in public. However, all my learning did not come just from the Toastmaster, but from other role takers as well. I saw an effective way for the Table Topics Master to get people to step up to the task by speaking in front of a crowd: She (another she) starting counting down from 5 until someone volunteered to speak OR she chose someone from the group. It was fun seeing people randomly picked to do impromptu speaking.
However, the thing I learned (again) was how much I gain from attending another club’s meeting. It is a different experience every time you listen, speak, or participate in front of a different audience, even if the audience is changed by only one new face. What you learn from other clubs depends on your ever-evolving skills as an evaluator and team member in Toastmasters. Besides being given a free lunch and a fresh experience, I was also given the opportunity today to meet other oilfield professionals. In one lunch break, I was able to network, learn, and fellowship. Not a bad way to spend a lunch break.
My message: Get out and visit other Toastmasters Clubs AND invite new faces to ours.
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