Clear and compelling theme. Perfect pitch. Connection with the immediate and distant audience. Humor and self-deprecation. Memorable stories. Phrases that uplift.
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This will be a particularly special CAT meeting, as it will be the last regular meeting for our Founding President, Sam Jones DTM – at least for a while. It will also be the last meeting for our favourite Canadian, Chris Haynes CC, who will be taking the long road back across the Pacific too…
Our Summiting Session for this meeting, focused on Body Language and Using the Stage will be led by Spike Gu ACB CL.
- TME Emily Minor CC CL
- Speech Chris Haynes CC
- Speech Wendy Wang ACB ALB
- Speech Daniel Smith DTM
- GE Delphy Chow ACS CL
- IE Carlo Wolff ACB
Our venue is very close to Nanjing West subway station. We’ll send it out to everybody on the email list – or who asks of course! Just email “attend@chinaadvancedtoastmasters.com” or subscribe by emailing “agenda-subscribe@chinaadvancedtoastmasters.com” and we’ll make sure you get it.
CAT’s slogan is Every Member a DTM, and we actively support our members pursuing the highest awards within and beyond Toastmasters. And we use our initiatives like DTM Track, Peer Mentoring, Video Review etc to help make this possible – as we believe that everybody can be a DTM – but the question does arise, “And then what?”
And it’s a challenge. Once you’ve scaled the highest mountain, where do you go to next. Fundamentally, you need to identify another mountain to climb. Within Toastmasters, there are a few obvious suggestions:
- Complete all the Advanced Communication Series manuals
- Complete the new Competent Leadership manual
- Train the next generation of Toastmasters leaders
- Work on a new CC (formerly called a CTM), and make it a fresh challenge
- Focus on one aspect of being a Toastmaster and try to master it
- Apply for the Accredited Speaker Program
- Present all modules from The Better Speaker Series, The Successful Club Series, Success/Leadership and Success/Communication modules to your club
- Teach a class on public speaking or speech writing
- Volunteer to help your district, division and area
There is more on this topic in this article by Cara Seitchek, DTM, in the Toastmasters magazine archives.
Communication and leadership skills are lifelong pursuits. Toastmasters can help you – make sure that you’re working with your team to help you get to where you want to be.
Every club has a different atmosphere. Some clubs are serious and strict while others are fun and informal. Some clubs have a ‘tardiness penalty’ or a ‘late fine’ while others hardly ever even start on time. But, along with key members and access to resources, the culture and climate of a club is one of the pillars that define the meeting experience.
- Where are you now?
- What is it like to attend be involved?
- How does it feel to be part of your meetings?
The concept of culture comes from anthropologists who look at culture as including the symbolism, myths, stories and rituals. Someone like Chris Argyris would phrase organisational culture as something like this:
The formal organisation policies and employee needs, values and personalities that operate in a self-perpetuating system of living complexity.
Typically, organisations continue to evolve and improve on the basis of how well they do three things:
- Continually improve
- Innovate
- Deeply understand stakeholder preferences and needs
Being warm and welcoming doesn’t just make visitors and guests feel ‘good’ but it also gives you the opportunity to understand them better so that you can genuinely meet their needs.
Looking for ‘cool ideas’ that you can introduce – like our own Peer Mentoring System and DTM Track, or Leadership Club’s CL evaluation segment – not only evokes interest, but also enables you to deliver creative improvements that deliver a significantly superior user experience.
When you are always looking for how you can do things better, not only do you tend to enjoy your meetings more by removing the barriers and refining the ways you do things, but you are also building a culture that can help you continue to attract members in the years ahead.
To design your way into the future demands that you suspend your critical thinking for a time. Not forever – but at least for a while. It would be great if you could create a vision for how you would love your club to be and then set in place the symbols, stories and rituals – the attributes – that can support your vision. But if that is a little too removed for you, perhaps you might just start with asking yourself,
How would I love things to be?
To me, leaders do just three things: Create value, Execute strategy and Develop people. As a member of any organisation, you are a leader to the extent that you take personal responsibility for making these three things happen.
The rest is up to you.
The road towards DTM is long and can be confusing. Here is a way to break it down into more simple steps. We can work with you to make sure that you are completing each step along the way… The DTM Track (updated 13 May).
(Thanks to Pudong TMC for the opportunity for your support and feedback on this presentation)
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