How To Choose A Toastmasters Club
Asking the question, “which club should I join” is like asking the question, “who should I marry?”
Some people go for looks, some go for wealth, some go for the bonding and as so did Elvis sang, “Fools rush in”. There is no right or wrong answer. It depends on what you want and it is a matter of your choice. You choose what you want but what you have initially chosen may not necessarily be what you will settle for. In most cases, new members joined the toastmasters club to which their friends brought them to.
- Are you looking for a club with good ambience like a hotel ballroom served with buffet dinner?
- Are you looking for a club that is near your home so you could get home quickly after your club chapter meeting or have a shower at home before going to your club chapter meeting?
- Are you looking for a club that is near your workplace so you could finish as much work as you can then just hop over to your club chapter meeting straight from work?
- Are you looking for a club where you can find like minded friends, your BFF (best friend forever) or possibly your potential life partner?
- Are you looking for a club where you can find professionals that will enlarge your professional networking?
Some of the common criteria that you may be looking at in choosing a toastmasters club could be the following:
Table of Contents
Ambience
Let me answer these questions by first relating my experience with someone whom I introduced to my toastmasters club. After he had joined my toastmasters club for almost a year, I questioned him for his lack of enthusiasm and participation and he told me, “I joined your toastmasters club just to please you. The very first time I stepped into your club, I find that there is no ambience.”
Community Clubs
Let me first fill you in that my toastmasters club holds its chapter meeting in a community club like most toastmasters club do in Singapore. Any toastmasters club would consider itself fortunate if only any community club in Singapore would let the club use the community club facilities on a regular basis. I have known of many toastmasters clubs finding it a great challenge looking for a place to hold their regular meetings. After using the community club facilities for a period of time, they were asked to leave the community club.
Tertiary Institutions & Club Houses
Of course there are toastmasters clubs in Singapore that hold their meetings permanently in hotel ballrooms, varsity premises and club houses. You would be able to hold your meeting on varsity premises like Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and other polytechnics if you are a student in one of these institutions and your toastmasters club is registered as an entity of these tertiary institutions.
Yes, we have a NUS Toastmasters Club and a SMU Toastmasters Club. Both NTU and SIM have two or even more toastmasters clubs. The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club used to be called Ngee Ann Toastmasters Club once upon a time.
NUSS Toastmasters Club holds their meeting in NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House but you have to be a NUSS Guild House member in order to join them. NTU Alumni Toastmasters Club holds their meeting in NTU Centre for Continuing Education at One-North Campus but you have to be a university graduate in order to join them.
Hotel
The biggest toastmasters club in Singapore is the Toastmasters Club of Singapore. It has more than 90 members and holds its weekly meeting in Sheraton Towers Hotel. It will cost a guest S$20 just to visit its chapter meeting because they serve hotel buffet dinner at each chapter meeting. The annual club membership fee is S$480 and an extra one-time joining fee of S$50 if you are a new member. Just for comparison, the annual membership fee of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club is S$180. Other toastmasters clubs’ annual membership fee is around the same as our membership fee too.
You Get What You Pay For
So you see, we do have toastmasters clubs that hold their meetings in posh venues but there are criteria to be met in order to be a member. Moreover, there are always overhead costs to be covered and that will be budgeted into your membership fee. So do you qualify to join these clubs? Are you willing to pay the price to help them foot the bill instead of complaining about a lack of ambience like the person who so to say, “did me a favour” by joining my toastmasters club?
Just for your information, Toastmasters Club of Singapore has a waiting list for many people who wants to join them because they already have more than 90 members. If you are a Singaporean, you would understand that rental fee is high in Singapore. Land is a very scarce resource in Singapore. If you are someone with great resources and connections, you can choose to be a blessing to your toastmasters club and help to provide them with a regular meeting place that is free of charge and probably with good ambience too, like your personal office or a restaurant that belongs to you.
Convenience and Camaraderie
The Distance Factor
The convenience of having your club’s chapter meeting held near either your workplace or home is definitely an attractive idea. It certainly would be very stressful for me to travel from the extreme west of Singapore where I am living and was also working at, to the extreme east of Singapore just to attend a meeting. The time taken to travel could easily be an extra two hours especially if you are not driving.
Even though it is only 1.4 km from my residence to my meeting venue of my current club, The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club, I have always wished that I have joined another club that is even nearer which is 150 metres away from my residence. Nevertheless, I have not left my first and current club just to join this club that is only 150 metres away. Nevertheless, I have visited this club regularly from time to time, assisting them during their chapter meetings.
Commitment and Camaraderie
So why don’t I just simply change my club. Well, there is something called commitment and camaraderie. Some people would choose to be cold and business-like, no hard feelings. Yes, there is no right and wrong here. Nevertheless, whether in friendship or professional relationships, how others treat you will just be like how you treat them. It is also a reflection of ourselves, our values. I can either choose to leave or choose to stay and contribute. Most of the members of my club have stayed because they have chosen to stay and keep the club alive and going. Are you a giver or a taker? Our core members’ only agenda in staying in the club is to give to the club.
The kind of relationship and camaraderie you find in the club will depend very much on the kind of people who are in your club, just like the colleagues you have at your workplace – the good, the bad and the ugly. It is in participating and contributing that you get to know others as the kind of people they are. Some can be friends, some are very business-like but committed and efficient while many come and go like vapour. Which category do you belong to?
Comfort and Familiarity
Most people are unaware of what a toastmasters club is. They may be introduced to it by someone, saw a banner, read about it on a website. Most people join toastmasters because they want to improve on their public speaking. So the first toastmasters club they join is the club they read about. They are unaware of other existing toastmasters club. Some will join the club the soonest they can while some will visit a few more times and ponder about whether to join or not to join. So the first club you got in touch with is not necessarily a club that is near your workplace or near your home.
After having been in the club for a while, you would have developed a sense of belonging and continue in it. I happen to be a member who is living nearby but the rest of my club members are not necessarily living as near as I am. Currently, we have a member who is living in the extreme east. Likewise, your workplace is not necessarily near your home and neither did you choose your boyfriend or girlfriend based on where he or she is staying. Distance is not the first consideration when you apply for your job or with whom you fall in love. It is just a bonus.
Prominent Club Versus Ordinary Club
What do I mean by prominent clubs or maybe some people called it famous clubs? Clubs that have won awards. Clubs with members who are prominent toastmasters who have won many speech contests. Particularly, clubs that have many good speakers. Especially clubs that you would be proud to be associated with.
So how would it be like if you have joined a club where most speakers are either bad speakers or beginners who are learning to give public speeches. Perhaps you are thinking that you should join a club where most speakers who are great speakers and have won multiple awards for various speech contests. After all, is it not true that you join a toastmasters club in order to learn public speaking and you need to learn from good speakers? Let me put that into perspective.
Feeling Like The Worst Among The Best
Let us say that you are a beginner who is hoping to improve your public speaking skills and you have yet to overcome your fear of public speaking. If most of the members in your club are very good speakers, you will be extremely intimidated. You will feel like a fool and will think to yourself, what are these great speakers thinking to themselves when you were speaking. Each time you stand up to speak, you feel like you are the anti-climax of your chapter meeting.
You have not even overcome your fear of public speaking and yet you are standing on the platform of master speakers, listening to you making your nervous speech. This is going to amplify your fear of public speaking exponentially. You are better off making your speeches to your colleagues at your workplace where you are just as bad as each other, or perhaps you might just be the best among the worst.
Learning And Growing Together With Others
When I first joined the SpeechCraft Workshop organised by The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club, I was informed that I have to give my speech during each of the workshop session. I thought to myself, “This is the toastmasters, the experts in public speaking.” It seemed very intimidating that I was required to give my speech before these expert speakers.
During the first session, I found that some of the participants were quite ordinary speakers and even the club members too. Nevertheless, two of the workshop participants had very good command of the English language.
One even used to be a deejay and was teaching Communication in a polytechnic. She too became a member of the club and subsequently won several awards in various speech contests for the club. Nevertheless, having other people whom I found not to be too intimidating put me at ease. If I were not that good at my public speaking skills, I am not alone in it. I am not the odd one out. I am just as ordinary as anyone else. Likewise, if you have ordinary people who are just as much an “amateur” in their public speaking skill as you are, you can relax and know that you are all here just to learn from one another.
Learning From Good Speakers
Well, how about having good speakers to inspire you and learn from during each chapter meeting? I would say that it is a privilege to have such good speakers in your club and there are quite a good number of toastmasters who are very good speakers. These toastmasters have been around for a very long time and they have held prominent appointments as district officers regularly. It is inspiring to listen to them speak. It is beneficial to hear them speak. It is educational to sit in their training. However, not many clubs have these outstanding speakers as their members. Should you then just run to one of these clubs where one of these outstanding speakers is a member of? No, you don’t have to.
Like I have mentioned earlier, as a toastmaster, you are free to visit any other toastmasters club. You can even visit the same club as often as you want to. You can even present your prepared speech project at their club provided they have an available slot for you. So if you are greatly inspired by this particular toastmaster who speaks very well. You may visit his club regularly just to listen to him speak. In fact, you can make a list of toastmasters clubs where your favourite speakers belong to and visit them, just so that you can listen to their speeches.
So it is unnecessary for you to join a club filled with excellent speakers. If there is really such a club full of excellent speakers, the schedule of their meeting might not match your schedule. The meeting venue might be too far from your residence or your workplace. Their membership fee might be too high for you. Perhaps you do not qualify to join their club because it is an exclusive club meant for certain people like university graduates, country club members, undergraduates, company employees, etc.
Grow And Prosper Where You Are Planted
Finally, do you want to feel proud belonging to a club where all the good speakers are and a club that wins many awards? Is there a point in basking in other people’s glory? Would you rather the club basks in your glory? Wouldn’t it be better that your club and your club members feel proud that you are the one who brought glory and honour to the club by your achievements and contributions? Do you want to be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? It is a common mindset I see particularly in Singapore.
We grew up with that mentality since our school days. Many people want to apply to the top schools and proudly wear that school uniform. They would parade themselves proudly in their school uniform of that popular school at school events, in their community and on Orchard Road. They would try very hard to be accepted into the school through the backdoor when their initial application to the school was rejected.
Having succeeded in getting in through the backdoor, they struggled to keep pace with the instructions during classes and failed to meet the high expectations. So what would be the point of telling other people that you were from that top junior college when you failed to gain admission into the university?
Develop Your Own Potential And Subtance
This reminds me of the many peers I knew who studied Social Work in the university who were small, short and petite little ladies. I asked one of them, “Wouldn’t it be a challenge for you to gain the confidence of the people to whom you are reaching out to if they thought of you as a little girl?” She confidently replied me, “Well, they shall know the moment I open my mouth.” I did not question any further.
So what is the point of wearing that school badge, that school uniform if you do not have that result slips filled with A’s to show others? It is not which toastmasters club that you belong to and how many awards your club has achieved? Being a toastmaster is: when you open your mouth, others shall know that you are a toastmaster.
Big Club Versus Small Club
Should I join a club with many people or a club with a small number of people? Like any organisation, a big club has much resources and so it can afford more and better things. Nevertheless, each has its own challenges. In a big club, you have more opportunity to network and meet more people. However, if you are serious about moving ahead in your toastmaster journey, you have less opportunity. What you do as a toastmaster is essentially two things: presenting your prepared speech projects and taking up leadership roles as club officers and district officers.
The minimum number of members in a toastmasters club is 8. In each club chapter meeting, you have a minimum of 3 prepared speech slots. Depending on how the club manages its chapter meeting, you can have up to 6 or 8 prepared speech slots. Some clubs managed their number of speech projects by breaking their meeting into smaller groups. Some big clubs tend to have more chapter meetings in each month in order to give their members the opportunity to present their speech projects.
In Singapore, it is a norm for each club to conduct only one chapter meeting per month. Bigger clubs will have more than one chapter meeting per month. Some of these bigger clubs will designate the extra meeting to be a meeting that only has prepared speeches and no other items.
The biggest toastmasters club in Singapore has 3 to 4 meetings per month. You would have to consider are you ready to attend that many meetings if you want to join a big club. You would probably tell yourself, I can just attend those meetings which I will be presenting my prepared speech projects but is that going to help you in your toastmaster journey? What is the point of paying a high membership fee to join a large and prestigious toastmasters club when you do not attend most of its meetings? You might as well be a visitor.
Learning Through Participation
Growing in your public speaking is three-fold: listening, speaking and evaluating. You need to listen to many good speeches and different speaking styles by different good speakers in order to be a good speaker. Presenting a speech yourself is putting into practice what you have learned and consciously getting rid yourself of the negative traits that you possess. Learning to evaluate other people’s speeches is also a very important aspect of improving your public speaking skills. Anyone who has taught anyone a skill or on a subject will know that to teach, you need to know a subject very well. When you evaluate another person’s speech, you need to know what are his/her mistakes and shortcomings. You need to know what are his/her potentials. You need to be able to tell him/her how to improve further. Having evaluated other people’s speeches have enabled me to become a much better speaker than I ever was.
Small Clubs Offer More Opportunities
In contrast, a small club will give you the opportunity to present your prepared speech projects regularly, as often as one project per meeting (every month). Some very enthusiastic toastmasters have managed to move ahead very quickly by doing just that. Likewise, in a small club, you will easily have the opportunity to be a club officer.
There are 7 positions in a club executive committee namely:
- President
- Vice President Education
- Vice President Membership
- Vice President Pubic Relations
- Treasurer
- Secretary
- Sergeant-At-Arms
As you can see, if your club size is around 10 to 12 members, most likely you will be asked to be a club officer. Those members who are not in the executive committee are usually members who have just joined the club. Being a club officer is the first step you need to take before you can become a district officer, usually an area governor. So if all you want is to hide in a big club, attend meeting once in a while, and try not to get noticed, you are not growing as a toastmaster. You might as well be just a visitor. I believe that toastmasters who are members of a big club, they too are members of another smaller club where they are more actively involved.
Active Participation
Yes, that brings me to the point that you can join more than one toastmasters club. However, that will depend on how much time you can afford to be involved with more than one club. Personally, I am a member of only one toastmasters club. Once in a blue moon, I have thought of joining one more club. Nevertheless, the demand on my time and schedule will affect my personal life.
Instead of joining one other club or more as a member, you have the freedom to visit any toastmasters club as you wish. Just inform a member of that club of your intention to visit their club and they will be pleased to have you join them unless you are someone who have an extremely bad reputation. Every club wish to have more people participate in their chapter meeting. Toastmasters from other clubs will be able to contribute by holding appointments such as speech evaluators or language evaluators. Non-toastmaster visitors are potential prospects who will join their club. Every toastmasters will bring with them their experience and expertise to enrich the meetings. An exciting meeting is a meeting with many visitors who are keen to participate.