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All club officers have completed Round 2 of Club Officer training at the end of February. During the training, it was mentioned numerous times about how to attract new members and retain current members. It was also discussed what your club’s unique selling proposition is.

These past three months, I have been assisting low-member District 6 Clubs in getting Meetup accounts. While setting up meetup accounts for clubs, I noticed that some clubs were able to define and sell their unique selling proposition, but not all clubs could do that. I ask you, your club officer team and club members to review your club website and social media to make sure that your club is promoting your unique selling proposition.  Does your website and social media tell me why I should join your club? What is unique about your club? Is it clear when and where your club meets? Is it clear how to contact a club member?

April 1^st starts Beat the Clock Membership Drive and it would be great to be able to attract many new members during this time for our clubs. Making sure that your club has clear messaging, meeting information, and contact information will help bring in guests. Remember to share on your social media, District 6 social media, and Toastmasters International when your club is having a meeting. Share your meeting theme, speakers, or topics for the day. Entice to want to attend your meeting.

If you would like to discuss how to improve your club’s website or social media, please reach out to me.

It’s time to host your open houses. This is the time of year to get your open houses and grow your club membership. We have just paid on March dues and we want to get our membership strong going into the spring and summer. So, April and May are the perfect time to host an open house.

Some tips for hosting a successful Open House and getting guests to return and become members:

1) invite people personally, it’s good to write people in groups too because it’s easier to join a new event as a team or with a friend.

2) try using promotional options like Meet Up and Facebook to post invitations to people who might be interested in your clubs, topics and atmosphere.. ask our PR director if you need some help promoting your open house. Our PR team makes flyers and can help you connect to the right social media network for promotions

3) have your membership information prepared? You can print out application forms and also have a digital farm ready to send out to all the people who join online or who prefer an email application. Also, you can include information about when your club meets the frequency of your club meetings and the time of day that you meet so they can share with other people they want to bring back to the club and save to their calendar. Lastly for paperwork, include the membership due information and an easy way to pay to sign up right away. So when you host your open house you can get people to apply and join right there. If they don’t join during the meeting, invite them to the next meeting and also send them the information they need to apply.

4) have a buddy sit with the member if they didn’t come with someone so they have someone to ask questions to during the call and they don’t feel alone during the meeting. If your meeting is online, have a chat buddy reach out and welcome them offering to answer questions forcing the call.

5) always welcome every guest and ask them about themselves and if you have time for a brief intro from each guest before the meeting starts. Also, at the end of the meeting, don’t overlook circling back to those guests and asking them how they thought the meeting went and their experience. It’s very important for them to feel like they can connect to and be a member of this club if you want them to join.

6) lastly, don’t forget to follow up. Get all the emails of your guests and then send them a thank you for participating and an invitation to come to the next club. Call whether or not they have submitted their membership application. A welcome packet. A digital version is fantastic and check in on them. If they don’t come to the next meeting they want to feel like they are wanted and welcomed at the call then they will return.

We live in a day and age where we are bombarded by advertisements for products or services claiming to be the silver bullet for success in business, weight loss, and romance. You name it. The list goes on and on. Some products may provide genuine value. That will be for you to decide.

When it comes to Leadership, there are many things that can help you along the way, but only one thing that will truly determine how successful you will be in your leadership journey. It will be the one thing that will determine how high and how far you will be able to go. The one thing that will be the greatest indicator of your success as a leader will be your ability to lean in and learn. 

Studies after studies have shown that the most world-renowned leaders and communicators are the ones who never stop learning or growing. 

Imagine fresh hot bread from the oven, glistening with melted butter or smothered with your favorite jam. You can almost taste it before it even reaches your lips, and then, when you finally sink your teeth into that delicious treat, you find that it is nourishing, and your body responds in grateful appreciation. 

Like that fresh hot bread, a leader who has an insatiable hunger to learn and grow is inspiring and nourishing to those around them. They are an encouragement to continue on one’s learning journey as they model that there is always more to learn and never-ending opportunities to grow. They impart knowledge that will help those around them grow to the next level of their learning journey as they endeavor to step onto their own personal path of their potential.

A true leader is self-aware of his or her strengths, weaknesses, and growth opportunities. While confidence is good, they never cross the line into arrogance.  Arrogance says I know it all and refuses to learn. The day we think we have arrived will be the day we have the biggest lesson to learn of all. 

Self-aware leaders are humble enough to know that they haven’t arrived in any area of their lives. They intentionally lean in and cultivate their strengths and passions as they endeavor to operate in those areas as much as possible.  They recognize their knowledge deficits and lean in and learn. They see gleaning from those who have gone before them – done a given role or had similar leadership responsibilities – as a true gift. They recognize their areas of weakness or struggle and endeavor to identify others who are strong in those areas and utilize them with gratitude because they know it will be a win for the team.

A leader who is not self-aware in these areas will significantly limit themselves and their growth potential. He or she will be like the Emperor with No Clothes. Those around the emperor knew that he had no clothes on. Sadly, the emperor did not. The same is true for a leader who does not recognize or is unwilling to acknowledge his or her knowledge gaps or learning opportunities. Like the Emperor with No Clothes, it will be a painful experience for those around them.

Imagine moldy stale bread – all green and fuzzy. While it might be able to offer some penicillin or other antibiotic value,

I guarantee you it will not taste good or provide much nourishment to those who partake.

Some individuals fear acknowledging knowledge gaps. They have somehow come to believe that they are bad things, and yet they are not. They are only bad when we fail to recognize and acknowledge them. 

When we recognize our knowledge gaps and we lean in and learn, there will be those around us who will be happy to help us grow on the path of our potential. What was once seen as a deficit could very well become our silver bullet in our leadership journey.

I encourage you to lean in and grow in a fresh new way. You will be amazed at how bright the future will become for you as the sky will be the limit for you as you endeavor to step on the path of your potential.

The BEST IS YET AHEAD!!

Committed to Your Success,

We live in an era of emails and electronic newsletters. Newsletters are everywhere, published in various forms, by businesses of all kinds. More so now than ever before. Looks like even some Toastmasters clubs have joined the fray and are putting out newsletters of their own.

According to Toastmasters International, “Good newsletters can inspire and motivate members, create energy between meetings, and keep your club connected.”

Are you wondering if a club newsletter is right for YOUR club?

I have some answers for you!

A club newsletter, at its core, is news about the club. As a Toastmasters club, your club meets periodically, your members make educational progress and reach milestones, you will acquire new members, and some of your members may even score notable achievements outside the club. There are all kinds of news, on a regular basis, about your club. The question arises: How do you leverage all this vivacity of your club in maintaining continual engagement from your members and guests alike? You know that is what it takes for a club to thrive.

A club newsletter is a really potent tool that you can wield in recognizing members and attracting new members.

You can share the club newsletter with your club members and guests at a minimum. You can also post your club newsletter on your club website. Members can share the club newsletter electronically with friends and coworkers or even leave the newsletter in common workplace locations such as breakrooms and cafeterias.

A club newsletter does not have to be overly fancy. Toastmasters International has templates to help you put together a newsletter. The template can be found at: https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/newsletter-template.

If you have any questions about a club newsletter or promoting your club, please reach out to me.

Do you like visiting other Toastmaster Clubs to see new people or a new version of a Toastmasters meeting?

We need you and all Toastmasters to help us out. We have a number of clubs that are trying to get back to distinguished status and they could use your visits and help getting to the place where they need to be to gain more members.

If you like visiting other Toastmasters clubs, you could drop in once to a meeting and help the club out with training a role or just participating as a guest. Let us know how the club meeting went and what they could use for support.

-Would the club like to have a coach assigned to their club?
-Are they looking for support or promotion of an open house?
-Would they like another club growth event such as hosting a speechcraft?
-Do they want a pathways education presentation session or a guest speaker on this topic or another?
-Do they want help with moments that matter or completing a club success plan?

We want your insights as an experienced Toastmaster. We would love to visit every single District 6 Toastmaster club, but we need you because there are so many District 6 clubs. Visit a club and share your insights with us.

Become a Club Ambassadors today by sharing your insights and experience.
here https://d6tm.org/form-club-ambassador-visit-report/ Learn more here: https://d6tm.org/club-ambassador-program/

How are you doing on your goals? Now is the time to check in on your personal Toastmaster goals, Club goals and professional goals. Are you on track? Are there actions that you can take to get on track? Perhaps you need to adjust your goals, or maybe even create your goals.

The Toastmaster year ends June 30th. Now is the time to look at how you have been doing and adjust to have a successful end of the year. District 6 is here to support you and your club! Reach out to your Area or Division Director if you need help. You can also reach out to me and I will help you find the resources that you need to reach your goals and succeed.

Contest season is here! If your club hasn’t had a contest, I highly recommend that you have one. The club is where the competition starts and with the International Speech Contest, it goes all the way to the top of Toastmasters International with the final competitions in August. It is possible that you or one of your club members could compete at that level. You will never know unless you try! The clubs can choose their contestants in any way that they see fit. If your club doesn’t have a formal contest, you can still be selected to compete at the Area contest and maybe move up from there.

We are looking forward to our District Contest and Conference on April 26th and 27th.
We will have our District Table Topics Contest on Friday, April 26th and the International Speech Contest on the evening of April 27th. We will also have a keynote presentation by Toastmaster International 1st Vice President Aletta Rochat, DTM; C&L award presentation, Educational sessions, and Toastmaster Got Talent. Registration is open. Sign up to join us.

Now is the time to think about serving as a Club or District officer. Many of you are already serving in a role at the club or District level. Are you learning and growing in your position? What is possible for you next year? Have you served as a Club President? Consider applying to be an Area Director. Look at your club members, who is ready to serve in a club office? You can mentor them. Toastmasters provides experience in leadership that can be applied to your job and community. I hope that you will jump in!

Remember that the District 6 website is a great resource for you and your clubs. We keep it updated with many District events. Check it out at D6tm.org.

In Toastmasters, our tagline is where leaders are made.
The question is – Are you becoming the leader you are capable of being?

While there is a plethora of opportunities within Toastmasters to become an effective leader, the making of a leader is a process. A process is not something that happens overnight. It is a journey that we choose to go on. It is a journey of choosing to be intentional about always learning and growing so that we can become the best version of ourselves. The day we think we have arrived or know it all will be the day that we have the greatest lesson to learn of all. The fact is even the most world-renowned leaders and communicators – whoever you may think that is – can still be a better leader and communicator.

In the book, The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni, the author talks about three character traits that will set you apart as an ideal team player. I believe that as these traits are cultivated in our lives, they will set us apart in the absolute best way possible. What are these traits?

Number 1: Humility

C.S. Lewis defines true humility “as not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” When we think of ourselves less, we are able to think of the greater good. We think from a place of empathy and ask ourselves, “What is in the best interest of those that we are serving?” Sadly, this mindset is, at times, in stark contrast to the narrative we often hear promoted that encourages people to look out for number 1 – themselves – with no regard for others, and yet, a truly effective leader and team player will think about others and how the group or team can be more effective in the pursuit of the goals they are seeking to achieve.

Humble people are willing to own their failures or flaws, apologize for their mistakes, and accept other people’s apologies. They recognize that none of us our perfect and are willing to own their missteps and/or part in relational disconnects. Arrogant people, on the other hand, are quick to point the finger and blame everyone else. Humble people own what is theirs to own. In the process, they seek to understand how they can learn and grow through challenging times so that they can be a more effective communicator and leader. This type of mindset promotes a win-win for relationships and team success.

Humble people can also sincerely appreciate the strengths, skills, talents, and abilities of others. They recognize that they can’t do it all nor are they an expert on every subject. They recognize that collectively a team can be more effective and deliver better results when each person is allowed to shine in their areas of strength. In relationships and in teams, a humble person sees how they can complete the other person rather than compete with them so that the best possible results can be achieved and relationships can function at the healthiest and most optimal levels.

Humility is without question one of the most important traits of healthy relationships and successful teams.

Number 2: Hungry

When individuals are truly hungry, excellence is their signature. Mediocre or simply meeting expectations is not an option. They are self-motivated to work hard and take initiative as they strive to go above and beyond what is expected. They seek to do their personal best to help the team go to the next level. They do not make excuses for why requested tasks are not completed in the time frame requested. While it is true that life happens even in the best of situations, they try to overcome completion challenges. If they legitimately cannot complete requested tasks in the time frame requested, they clearly communicate with the requestor the challenge and if appropriate with those impacted.

Hungry people realize they have not arrived. They are correctable and teachable. They intentionally seek out learning and mentoring opportunities. They hunger to glean from those who are more knowledgeable than they are in a given area so that they can continually bring the best version of themselves to each and every situation they encounter. They recognize that the key to making a difference is about valuing people and adding value to them.

Number 3: (Emotionally) Smart

A key part of being emotionally intelligent or smart is being self-aware. Do you recognize your strengths, weaknesses, and growth opportunities? While having a healthy self-esteem is important, it is equally important to understand where your weaknesses and growth opportunities are. It will communicate that you are human, and just like everyone else on the planet, you are a person in process which will give you credibility. With that said, in leadership roles, do all that you can to operate in your strength and passion zones. Where you are not strong or passionate, find people who are and let them run the ball. While it is good to, where appropriate, shore up your weaknesses, there are times when for efficiency and the overall productivity of the team, it is better for you to delegate. You will be seen as a much more effective leader.

Being emotionally smart means asking good questions, listening well, and knowing how to respond effectively. When you do this, it will demonstrate that as an individual, a leader, and a team player, you seek to understand. It will also clearly communicate to those that we interact with that YOU SEE THEM, YOU HEAR THEM, and YOU VALUE THEM, which has been shown to be the most powerful message we can communicate with our words and our deeds.

I encourage you to cultivate the character traits of humility, hunger and (emotional) intelligence, and you will become the best version of YOU. You will become the leader that you are capable of being which will set you apart in the absolute best way possible in every arena of your life.

I Believe in YOU and in YOUR Potential!

Remember that TOGETHER – The BEST is Yet Ahead!

Committed to YOUR Success,

Colleen Marie

Colleen Marie Kelly, DTM
2023-2024 District 6 Director

Hello District 6,

Happy December! As we near the end of 2023 thoughts of New Year resolutions come to mind. I get excited to think about new goals and envision future success. I hope you do, as well.

This year I was very excited to complete my DTM, the Distinguished Toastmasters achievement.    I want to encourage all of you to reach for this Toastmasters goal. It’s a very educational and rewarding process. Please don’t be intimated. Yes. it takes time, but you can accomplish it in small steps. Each step is highly rewarding.

Here are the current DTM, Distinguished Toastmasters requirements, from the Toastmasters International website:

The Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award represents the highest educational achievement in Toastmasters.

To earn the DTM, you are required to:

1. Complete two learning paths,
2. Serve as a club officer for two six–month terms or one annual term, participate in the preparation of a Club Success Plan, and participate in a District-sponsored Club Officer Training,
3. Serve a complete one-year term as a District leader,
4. Serve successfully as a club mentor or coach,
5. Serve successfully as a club sponsor or conduct a Speechcraft or Youth Leadership program,
6. Complete the DTM project. (Members are required to create and implement a project of their own design, in which they demonstrate the skills and expertise they have gained.) Members can receive access to the DTM project on Base Camp once they have completed one path and Levels 1, 2, and 3 in a second, unique path. To receive this project, email educationprogram@toastmasters.org.

Please refer to the Distinguished Toastmaster Award Application for a complete list of requirements.

Thank you all for your efforts and contributions in 2023. I hope this has inspired you to think about your personal goals and new ideas for the year ahead. Here’s to a new year. May you have a successful and wonderful 2024!