Page 14 - Voices-2021-10

THOUGHTS FROM THE DIRECTOR’S STAND

It’s All About Club Quality!

Eldred Brown, DTM
Director 7 Director

Working through the dashboard reports and always encourages

seeing how member retention continues to challenging Table
be a huge global challenge in our COVID Topics questions. Whether
world prompted me to think about what keeps they’re silly or serious,

people active in their clubs and more likely to the meeting themes are
stay through the storm. The thought that kept always engaging.
returning to my mind, both while alone and All three clubs
in conversations with other District leaders, is participate in the
that member retention consistently boils down Distinguished

to club quality. High-quality clubs tend to keep Club Program.
their members more successfully and suffer less In doing so,
attrition. What, then, makes a club a high-quality we ensure that

club? Let me share with you from my personal every speech
experience what characterizes a high-quality fulfills a project
club by talking about why I keep renewing my requirement in
membership in my home clubs. Pathways. We also
I am a member of three clubs: Babble-On challenge each other

Toastmasters, Marylhurst Toastmasters, and to prepare and
Feedbackers Toastmasters Club. Each has been complete Pathways
a President’s Distinguished Club for the past projects.

several years. Each maintains a high-quality When a
program that keeps me engaged. Our meetings member
are fun and always based on a theme, with the completes a Pathways level or Path, we celebrate
exception of the Feedbackers Club, whose only the achievement. And we always remember how
theme every month is evaluations. Sometimes fun it is to get ribbons for our banners showing

our themes border on the silly, while other we earned President’s Distinguished awards.
meeting themes can be quite serious. Any way the Another trait common to all three clubs
Toastmaster of the Week likes to do it, the theme that keeps me on their membership rolls

14 ONE COMMUNITY