Spinnaker Speakers is the local Portsmouth branch of Toastmasters International. Toastmasters presents a great opportunity for personal development, character growth, public speaking and leadership skill development.
I joined a year ago having been a member of a similar organisation called JCI some years back and immediately began supporting the executive officer team and getting to work on building the club a great website to attract guests. To grow the club we need members, those members need to be supported in their development and then incentivised to become ‘club builders’ and join the committee team. We’re now getting a steady stream of new enquires and guests from the website, some of whom who are now converting to fully paid up members.
Public speaking is a powerful skill to develop. If you want to lead, it is essential. In supporting the growth and development of the club and the members I am growing in multiple areas at once. My public speaking, leadership, team building, confidence, creativity, pro-activity, goal setting, decision making and much more improve in step together.
I am enjoying the process of developing a vision for the club with the executive team and designing and implementing strategies to achieve the vision. The other active officer members must have noticed and appreciate my efforts as they have suggested I am best placed to be President of the club for the next year (July).
I have put together an induction program to orient new members and provide a strong foundation to support their development and am also putting together a leadership program to motivate and support members to take the next step and join the exec team and take on the responsibility for building the club itself. Judging by the response to the new website, we will comfortably double the member numbers to 30 or more this year.
We need a system to convert guests to members, a short monthly newsletter, regular inspiring stories to motivate members to take on responsibilities and a program to support and encourage members in their public speaking practice and skill development. As a team we are now working on all these areas. Exciting times.