Page 43 - May 2020

BurnsMasters Toastmasters: 90 days to Charter Status (Part 4)

Marv Serhan, DTM

When Marv Serhan was asked to serve as the sponsor for a new corporate club in Vancouver, Washington, he elected to apply a project management approach on how that club establishment and charter would
take place. Parts I, II, and III outlined the first series of key tasks in the project plan. Part IV will present the final key steps that helped to keep this project moving forward toward charter status. All projects are team
efforts and this club-charter initiative was certainly that with Patrick Locke, DTM, Bob Hall, EH5, and Greg Hawkins, MS3 coming aboard as co-sponsor and mentors to support this project implementation plan.

supporting the club, the club president lead sponsor should arrange a courtesy visit
should notify TMI of that result. A simple with the local decision maker to discuss club
message to newclubs@toastmasters.org sustainability. Some discussion topics might
listing the sponsors and mentors will include but are not limited to:

suffice. • Potential challenges that a new club might
• Schedule the final 2-hour officer training face,
session: When convenient, work with the • Professional development considerations
club president to arrange this final training. • Training and education opportunities

• Voices! article: This article was the last • Support with Pathways implementation
item on the project plan and is designed • Speech contest involvement/support
to share the relevant information that may • Mentoring/protégé program
be useful to others planning to sponsor/ implementation

charter a new club within D7. • Distinguished Club Program significance:
• Lead Sponsor courtesy call: The lead the key performance indicators (KPIs) that
sponsor should meet with the local document progress.
decision maker at least one more time to • Ongoing support from the Sponsor/Mentor

discuss club sustainability considerations team as required
as outlined below. • Emphasis that ongoing support will be
available through District, Division, and
Lead Sponsor schedules a courtesy call with Area leadership.

the company decision maker to discuss club • Et al
sustainability. Essentially, it makes good sense to assure
Note that the club’s charter status does the decision maker that the Toastmaster
not guarantee continued success. As such, the community will be here to support this new

VOICES! | MAY 2020 43