There is more to the club than paying your dues, attending
club meetings and participating in the program of the day. I am talking about why you should consider being a club officer.
I am confident that if more people could see it my way,
there would be clamouring for every role come election time in the clubs. I believe that in order for us to continue benefiting from the fun public
speaking atmosphere - prepared speeches, feedback, table topics - then clubs have to exist and meet regularly. This in turn implies new members have to be recruited, dues have to be collected and submitted, meeting
places booked and arranged and cleared, meeting agenda scheduled and participants signed up etc. If there is no one to assume the burden
of these functions, the clubs will cease to exist.
Besides the above there are numerous advantages to taking up an officer role.
- Being in the executive committee and attending the club officer training gives
you the best exposure to the Toastmasters world.
- You get to meet and befriend so many members from the other clubs.
- Despite occasional frustrations, or perhaps because of them, you learn who you really are as a (successful) leader. It is great opportunity to discover and develop one's leadership skills.
- Nothing beats fitting-in and working in a team you haven't
chosen. One that mixes people with numerous differing temperaments.
- You learn to lead by inspiring. Unlike the corporate world where
you can crack the whip to get workers in line, in Toastmasters you can only cajole
and motivate.
- It strengthens the team work in the club. You'll learnt to accept support from fellow officers and give yours. You learn the
need to network by reaching out to fellow officers in other clubs.
- It is a great opportunity to mentor others and watch them grow
as leaders. It has helped members become better team mentors at work because learning
to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of others in the club can be cut-and-pasted to the workplace.
- Serving diligently as a club officer exposes knowledge, skills and talents you might
never know you had or that others would never have known you have. This in many occasions has led to new and better or extra jobs for members.
- In new clubs without experienced members someone has to take
leadership albeit while ill equipped. This is transferable to many life
situations where we are pushed by circumstances to take on roles we thought
were beyond our scope.
- It is a lot of fun.
- It is your opportunity to help keep the club going and healthy, productive
and fun. Most of the clubs that die start dying by lacking officers.
- When you participate in the officer training, as a trainee or the trainer, you learn
something new every time.
- It is a good chance to give back.
- You get more attached to the club. your sense of ownership multiplies.
- You have a chance to contribute, influence and place your thumb print in the decisions and traditions of club.
- You get to know more of and about your members.
- Some clubs require current officer to identify and mentor a
successor. This is transferable to corporate where workers are very reluctant
to prepare, by mentoring a successor, for the day they will leave their
position in a firm.
Don’t wait
until that time that you feel you are ready for the officer role. It will not
happen. Get into it now. However, these benefits only happen if as an officer you actually do or attempt the tasks of the role. Some
roles appear mundane until you try to do them correctly. If you agree to the role
don't use it just to check off your ALB goals or like someone told me once that he
wants to join so that he can add “member of toastmasters” in his CV. Do the work it entails.
Moreover, even if you are not the
officer, offer to help the person that is, as an alternate or as a member of a
committee. You'll have a better view of what's going on, and an even better
position to hold that role in a future.
Also, it
pays to redo the role in future. Most executives only get to know and appreciate how
much time and effort they should have put into a role towards the end of their term. In such case it is advisable to redo the task again.
