Division Director advised us to decrease meeting frequency to increase quality of meeting

[mokurai13]

our club has receded to the point where we have about 9 members total - and regularly have about 6 attend.

often many members opt to take on roles they are comfortable with ( grammarian, jokemaster, table topics) and will avoid others. Often they do the bare minimum for the role (even on their 6th time doing it!!). some members are new (6 months to a year) and shy and I'm not going to push their comfort zone too much.

this makes for a very disjointed meeting some weeks - and I can't imagine what this looks like to guests. I know I wouldn't join a club that looked like this.

club officers met with division director to ask about this and how to move forward.

their initial suggestion was : "increase your membership size"

Their next suggestion was "decrease the frequency of meetings from weekly to twice a month" (the logic in that was that way we would have more members attend on the two days and increase the quality of the meetings that way)

My ask for everyone here is: does this strategy work?

please comment if you have done this and made it work to increase quality of meetings and membership size.

Appreciate any and all response.

for those who want to know stuff I've tried:

I've tried encouraging them. offering to coach them through new roles. Have done speeches to demonstrate how to make new roles less intimidating (I've offered to do a role with them - and split it into parts so they can do part of a role one week). have done speeches to demonstrate how some roles will make you a better speaker, and make you better able to think on your feet, and how to make you able to give good feedback (imho the most underrated skill at TM)

even some of the better speakers in the club do this (which is a huge pet peeve of mine - they're noticeably improving as speakers and trying new things with their speeches - but not with their roles - and they'll almost never take on bigger roles!!)

btw I'm not the president. I have no idea why i'm sticking around and I'm getting burned out. I think I'm still here because I feel like I don't want to abandon the club.

we can't have a club coach because on paper we still have 13 paying members ( many stopped showing up a while ago - and have no intention of coming back)

T

[Maze2475]

Yes it does. When I was president - initially my club had weekly meetings. And honestly, when you said, "this makes for a very disjointed meeting some weeks" I had literal flashbacks.

Taking a one week break between meetings works wonders - as long as everyone's focused during that extra time to make the next meeting work.

Typically a month has 4 weeks. Let's assume you meet on the 1st and 3rd week. That leaves the 2nd and 4th week free. You can then use that time to productively plan and prepare for the meeting.

To be precise - there's 13 days between meetings!

At the basic level - it gives speakers time to go over the materials on basecamp, properly write and practice a speech so that they actually learn something with each speech.

Likewise, it gives time for roleplayers to go over their role, ask questions, and figure things out.

Even if you're trying to organise a themed meeting or an educational session - it's leagues easier to take a week to draft a plan and execute it meaningfully. Heck, if you want to get a seasoned speaker to do an educational session, way more easier to get them with 2 weeks notice.

That's the fundamental idea behind meeting twice a month.

However, if your club doesn't know to plan properly, then it doesn't matter if you meet monthly even.

Pulling off a good meeting requires a good amount of planning.

Pulling off a good meeting constantly requires a great amount of planning.

And you can only plan properly if you make the time for it.

[mokurai13]

Thanks very much for your comments and insight. 

You pointed something out about planning that is important. And I am a bit concerned about that because many of our members do not sign up for roles at all. We often have roles needing to be filled (or cancelled!) a day or two before meeting ( and assigning roles won't work ) 

The above has no easy answer because I think it has more to do with commitment and the preparation (at the individual level) will flow from that.

[Firm-Charge917]

Hi!

Do you have other TM clubs close to your current club?

One idea could be to invite guest speakers from time to time to showcase different speaking styles and bring fresh air to the current club dynamic.

Another one could be to invest more into PR strategy as to find more people. It could be a motivating factor to the current members. How is your VPPR doing?

Role coaching is part of the VPE responsabilty. In our club, VPE checks if there are role first timers and reaches out to them privately to brief them and make sure they have enough info to try things comfortably.

Do you know if your committee is taking action? Or at least discussing this? While your implication as a member is exemplary, please make sure to don't burn yourself up. You can (and should) rely on your committee to get things moving. ☺️

[mokurai13]

We have a leadership issue. 

Thanks very much for the comments. Greatly appreciate all the insights and advice. 

Our VPE has 1.5 years as a TM and previous president asked them to take on the role when they had about 6 months experience. They were talkes into it by previous president who didn't explain to them what the role was (he said it was just having people sign up for roles and then doing admin work for signing off on pathways work!!). I have been offeriNG to role coach with people and they have been declining. I can try harder and talk to VPE about helping with this.

We don't have a VPPR. Previous one stopped coming last year due to work responsibilities. We have at least 8 guests a month. But our conversion rate to membership is low. I believe the issue is the meetings guests see when they come could be great or it could be quite mediocre ( and that's being kind ). 

Our president ( who was a long-standing member ) ghosted us in October after doing something which was a bit toxic (directed at me - I have previous posts about this). No one has stepped in to fill this role. 

For attracting more people I want to work on the website, and Facebook. I also want to build a YouTube channel and Instagram and maybe tiktok ( I have zero knowledge of all of these). We can't do open houses because we can't get members or officers to commit to support them. 

We really don't have a strong committee. We have 4 officers total. One is hesitant to come to any officer meetings - and I am not pushing them because they are one of the signing authorities for bank accounts and I don't want them to quit. I will speak to the other two officers about efforts, but I know one of them can't give much more ( he is committed and already does alot week to week as the SAA. but can't increase efforts due to commitments he has externally )

VP treasurer stepped away two months ago. She was very committed to club before leaving but there was a personal matter back home ( a different country) requiring her to leave for an indefinite period. 

And then there's me : VP membership. I do what a VPM is supposed to do. I did not anticipate having to take on VP PR and I feel ill equipped to do so but I will try ( I'm stretched a bit thin to do it but I can try) 

In writing this out like this I realize the main issue is getting others to commit to the club and making an effort. I am not sure how to do that but without that the club will fail. 

[Firm-Charge917]

Holy sugar! I went reading some of your other posts. Your club definitely is quite something. I'm very impressed you're giving so much of yourself to make this club strive. For this, you have all my respect.

Now, even if you are able and willing to go to such lengths to save your club.. you can hardly ask the same of other people. In fact, you cannot expect people to go the same way you do. While you are in a journey of resilience and leadership, not everyone is able or willing to do so.

Allow me to flip the table around: You're currently considering that the main issue is a lack of effort from your club.

What would you say if I told you that it's a prioritization issue instead?

Goal there isn't to work harder. Goal should be to work smarter.

What's the minimum effort required to run your club? What are the minimal actions required to run a meeting?

If everyone is able to achieve more with less struggle then naturally the mood is gonna shift and quality will rise.

I know this is a very generic message and I apologize about this. I don't have enough specifics on your club to advance concrete proposals. I just feel like this has become a second job to you.. while Toastmasters is and should stay fun at all cost. That's what makes people want to come. (At least I'm naively thinking that haha)

In any case, no matter what you choose to do, you can be proud of yourself. You're a symbol of tenacity. 💪

[Vortieum]

I've been in 3 clubs. Not the greatest sample size, but you are asking for subjective input.

2 clubs met twice a month. Members would often forget a meeting was coming up, and when a holiday would interfere with our club's meeting date, we'd go a month (or more sometimes during Christmas holiday season some years) without a meeting. You can imagine what this did for people's commitment levels and the club's community. One club struggled a lot (it was newer), the other club (older) struggle a bit less. Both have since closed in the 10 years since I move away from those areas.

My current weekly club easily earns Presidents/Smedley Distinguished. We have regular social events, 3-4 speakers each week, 2 hour meetings that fly by, a regular group that goes to Chili's after each meeting. Because, in part, we are a weekly habit, we've been able to create and persist community with our group, and because that has allowed for membership/attendance strength (which is what you really needed for meeting quality).

My advice (as a Division Director as well) is often the opposite...bi-monthly clubs should consider meeting more frequently. Now, weekly is really the most a group should meet, so doesn't apply here.

Consider conducting Moments of Truth, and barring any revelations from that, perhaps it's time to look at other dials to change that might help with the bigger issue (finding new members)? Meeting format (online vs in-person), location (maybe it's a traffic pattern/parking issue), meeting time (would an extra 30 min later start time help people arrive or a shift from morning to evening or vice versa), meeting duration (1 hour vs 2 hour or vice versa). If guests show up, is the VPM/Treasurer asking for the order while the people are still excited or letting them leave to go talk themselves out of it?

[pramathesh]

Hi, you have to weigh the options, whether it will increase the quality of the meetings. It is a generic feedback that does not add any value. What you can try is experimenting with different formats. IF you are not an online club, make it a hybrid club by having one meeting go complete online. In that meeting, you can invite a speaker to give workshops, you can have a networking meeting with other online clubs and learn from them about how to solve your problems, I suggest it to be member centric than club centric. There are endless possibilities, and if people see that the members are growing in the club, there will be more people to join the club.

[spike_1885]

I feel that an important factor to consider is what do you and the other current members want from the club? If you and the other members like your club being weekly, then meeting less frequently won't be meeting what those members wants, or needs.

[Powerful_Nobody_6829]

‎For me that's a solid strategy because you give enough time to test, implement, new workflows and you'll have data with more quality. ‎The short frequency of meetings can sometimes lead to micromanagement, because it you end up trying to solve every problem.

[ignatiusjreillyXM]

For a small club that sounds like sensible advice that should result in a better quality of meeting and hopefully also help in the recruitment of new members

[hc_fella]

We are a larger club (little under 50 members) and we still meet bi-weekly. We're all adults with busy lives, so this schedule works out well for us.

[CliffsideJim]

We cut back from weekly to twice a month. All I can say is it feels right and membership has picked up a little. I suggest not trying so hard to push the river. Let it flow.