Enhancing
the Clubs’ Learning Environment
Interviewed
by: Saleh Abdullah Alkhamysi
We all know that the mission of a toastmasters Club
is “to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in
which every individual member has the opportunity to develop oral communication
and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal
growth.” This is actually a very noble and attractive purpose to strive to
achieve but the question is how do we go about transforming this to actual
results and ultimately make it a tangible reality so that members experience the
return on investment and spread the favorable word of mouth about a brand that
has been associated with being a catalyst of change and a place where leaders
are made.
To share a wider perspective on this essential
aspect of managing our club let us talk invited numerous toastmasters to address
this issue but only the below four came
forward with their contribution namely:
·
Dr. Rajan Philips,
DTM.
·
TM G Kumar
·
ACB/CL Hemanth
Bhaskaran
·
CC/CL M
Ramesh.
Their discussion with let us talk was so
interesting, thought provoking and certainly eye opening and if these ideas are
capitalized and made a reality at the various clubs in the division they will
bring about creativity, variety and above all continuity of members and visits
hailing from all corners of Muscat in search of the fruitful outcomes of
toastmasters as an educational vehicle to achieve the desired personal
development and growth. In this panel discussion these versatile minds and
experienced toastmasters shared the following
perspectives:
Similarly in Muscat we have the added advantage I
would say of having members of different nationalities and cultural background
meeting under the same roof with a common purpose. What a great way to learn
from each other.
At a first and casual glance this diversity may
seem a disadvantage but not really. In fact, variety becomes a real strength.
Toastmasters International provides enough and rich
learning materials with inbuilt system and opportunities for achieving the
declared objective effectively. All that is required is to recognize these
avenues and utilize them well. We should take full advantage of this inbuilt
wealth of resources.
A few of the several areas for achieving these
goals are indicated below to enhance our clubs standards and lead to more
customer satisfaction as they say. Of course the same can be said at the
respective areas and division levels as well.
To address the question how do we create a
supportive environment?
·
Usually, in our clubs there is a mix of very
experienced, moderately experienced and hardly experienced (new) members. The
formal mentoring system if effectively implemented can provide all the help and
support new and less experienced TMs would ever need. In the process the mentor
too get a chance to reinforce the skills and knowledge he has and become a more
successful TM. How this process can be revamped is to be studied and
recommendations given to make it more purposeful.
·
Attending regularly and playing various roles in a
meeting help members to have great learning experience. The quality of meeting
should also be reviewed and standards or bench marks set and raised over a
period of time. Watching experienced TMs
handle their speeches or roles will in itself be a good initial lesson.
·
Evaluation sessions : Supportive , encouraging and
at the same time genuine, objective and
honest evaluations will help to mould a positive and supportive climate for
members to grow in the club so that they look forward to such constructive
feedback. The choice of mature and
balanced evaluators thus becomes very important.
·
Education session by experienced TM in the Club
will go a long way. These should be well prepared and presented and provide
adequate opportunity for members to clarify minor and major points of doubts.
Well established and seasoned TMs who are known for their presentation skills
could be invited to conduct such sessions.
·
Contest time is very important and privileged time
for officers, participants and other members to hone their organization,
judging, leadership and speech making skills by taking up the variety of
opportunities provided during a contest.
·
Joint Club Meetings provide golden opportunities.
By conducting joint meetings of 2 or more clubs on special occasions the members
can get to know of alternate approaches to conducting meetings and other
activities and get new insights. Such gains can be made by individual members by
sparing some time and effort to visit others clubs in their vicinity during
their regular meeting sessions.
·
Visits by Distinguished TM’s, professional
speakers, Educators:
From time to time the Club could arrange such
visits and benefit from the expertise of such visitors. These could include
district level contest winners as well as attendees of District or Annual
International conventions.
I must reiterate that all of the above cited
recommendations and similar activities can be taken up on a bigger scale at the
Area and Division Level. 
TM
G Kumar
On
the other, hand TM G Kumar, VP-E, SBG Toastmasters
club
who works in Saud Bahwan Group of Companies Installment credit department
heading the collection function
is of an opinion that in the club’s quest to bring about a supportive and
positive learning environment mentoring is an important aspect to achieve our
Toastmaster mission. Every club should thrive to create this atmosphere where
each senior member should guide, advise the junior members so that the quality
of the club will go up. It is needless to say that by taking the initiative of
mentoring, the mentors themselves will also learn how to become a
leader.
Undoubtedly mentoring programs will give an all
round growth to each one of us. TM Saleh
having said that the Executive Committees should circulate the member interest
survey among their members to generate feedback about their members’ actual
needs. These needs should be shared with the mentors so that the mentoring
program can be focused and tailored to the particular member needed areas of
improvement and these needs will vary from one member to
another.
TM Hemanth
Bhaskaran
Among
the panel of discussion was ACB/CL Hemanth Bhaskaran, President of the Elite
Toastmasters club who is also a Sales Manager-Modern Trade at Sales
International.
He revealed that most of the clubs in Oman are after the DCP points and
completion of CC manuals, very few clubs give importance to Education sessions.
He feels that Education sessions should be more frequent so that the trainer
& the club members will gain from it. Let me share the experience at my
club.
The Elite Toastmasters club mostly invites senior
members from other clubs to conduct such sessions, so that we can inject new
ideas and promote fresh faces in the club. This in turn will also enhance
inter-clubs cooperation and coordination and create a platform for sharing
knowledge.
On the other hand, mentors are an integral part of
the club. Every member needs to have a mentor & it should be tracked on a
regular basis. He also thinks that clubs should invite guest lecturers who are
not Toastmasters. He stressed on the importance of following-up on the
suggestions given by the General Evaluators on the changes which needs to be
done.
With reinforcing hand gesture and an optimistic
attitude he is positive that these initiatives could bring in drastic changes in
the club.
TM M.
Ramesh
CC/CL
M. Ramesh who is working at General Engineering Services as a Sales Manager. He
is currently the VP of education at NTI Advanced Toastmasters Club
reveals
that with a diverse structure of the Toastmasters members and difference in
learning style as well as the limited financial resources “How can we bring
about a supportive and positive learning environment to transform the mission of
a TM Club to a tangible reality and live up to the expectations of our members?”
is a crucial concern and must be brain stormed at the club level with all the
members. This will enable the executive committees to utilize all the creative
ideas to enrich the club environment. VP education Ramesh touched our question
from three different aspects as highlighted
below:
·
The diversity in learning styles, age group, and
background of the members.
·
The limited financial resources available for the
clubs.
·
synergizing and bringing about a tangible reality
that meets stakeholder expectations.
Ramesh said he can vouch with certainty that “unity
in diversity” can be strength in itself. TM members hailing from different
nations, different academic and professional credentials as well as age group of
21 plus to 60 plus, and a common mission – as defined in the Toastmaster’s
mission statement, I opine, work as one team due to the “inner purpose of the
members, which is the guiding force”. When we sit across in a regular meeting,
Excom or for a contest planning, such explicit differences have never surfaced
or hindered achieving the common goal.
Similarly, financial resources, available with the
clubs, in my opinion are stretched, but when the need arises, members are
willing to contribute to the extent they realise that there is a value in that.
Expectations of the members are also so refined and to the point, that members
are willing to let go off the niceties when in search of learning new
experiences and skills.
Coming to the main issue of how to synergise them
and make the TM mission into a reality, my recommendations are as
under:
·
Commitment by all members, office bearers – Most of
the TM programs are designed in such a way, that it caters for the exigencies
and still offers ample space for growth and learning. Participation is the key
to success of any event, program and learning
process.
·
Knowledge sharing – Regular meetings held between
club officers of the same area, division apart from the club Excoms, would
enable sharing of resources, mutual strengths and ideas.
·
Partnering – Two or more clubs partnering on
special occasions, maybe some meetings, special speeches (advance manual
speeches) in each other clubs, giving exposure to their members in taking up
roles in other club meetings, will not only go a long way in achieving the
purpose of TM, but will make the mission statement a tangible
reality.
·
Role of Area and Divisional office bearers – Roles
of office bearers in clubs, area and divisional level is the key to unlocking
the potential of TM clubs and members. If they work in unison and provide the
correct leadership, they can identify talent, show case and foster more talent
providing opportunity for mutual learning and developing leadership and
communication opportunities which every member is looking forward to as a
TM.
·
Define, Measure, analyze and Act (DMAA) – At the
time of joining, as well as every term, when the member revives their
membership, pays their dues, efforts must be taken by VP Ed, VP membership to
Define, measure and Analyze their wants and needs for the next six months and
act to create opportunities for the individuals to meet those needs, and also
review achievement vis-a-vis expectations.
·
Finally we need to stay focused. TM Saleh you would
agree with me that it is the attitude of the members which counts. Irrespective
of the number of years someone has been a member of TM, if it can be reinforced
at every point, that the main purpose of being a TM is self and mutual learning,
the difference in age, gender, academic and professional diversity can be
overcome. when in TM, if everyone stays focused on self development, individual
improvement (measured with respect to own past performance) as an yard stick,
and team work as the process, it will not be an issue to provide supportive and
positive learning environment that will transform the mission of a TM Club to a
tangible reality and live up to the expectations of our
members.
We thank these leaders for the tremendous efforts
and service they are rendering to their clubs and the toastmasters community at
large. With these encouraging ideas and enriching views we hope that the
executive committee officers at the clubs, Areas and division will see to it
that their members reap the benefits of such creative touches. In the days to
come we will touch base with other leaders and open discussion in many other
topics of concerned to you. Stay tuned your personal development and growth is
our goal and serving you gives us the utmost joy.
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