What makes a great club?

To start I believe a great club is a friendly club where guests are made to feel comfortable from the minute they walk in the door.  Guest should always be paired off with an experienced member to insure they do not feel left out in order to insure that friendly feeling.

Bill Hodges, DTM PDG

It's my opinion that well organized high energy meetings with guests are the first mark of a great club.  There may be different definitions of a "great" club.  Mine is: A "great" club has more members and helps more members achieve their goals.

Dave

A great club is a club where everyone on the program fills their responsibilities to the very best of their abilities.  Yes, Toastmasters is a place for us to improve our skills, so we make some allowances and don't expect perfection.  But we can learn by watching others fill the role, and when our turn comes, we can show our own stuff.

John Fleming

When members and guests see positive, friendly but also helpful and focused evaluation, positive reinforcement and hints and tips.  Evaluations should always be targeted at the speakers experience and provide a bridge to the next level.  Also the Club culture should include each person in attendance providing at least a short evaluation of the speech.  Evaluators should perhaps focus some effort on personal goals of speaker as well as speech objectives.  Evaluations which end up with: "you did a terrific job, keep on speaking" are also a good thing! the evaluator should also be prepared to discuss the speech afterward and offer private comments that would also be useful to the speaker.  The core of the "successful" Toastmaster experience is in the quality of evaluations.

Great clubs -- GREAT EVALUATIONS.

Dennis Chada, ATM

In my opinion a great club is not only one where guests are made to feel special but the members also feel special.  Great clubs form a camaraderie among the members.  There is healthy competition and honest, sincere and positive evaluations.  An old adage to remember is: "Treat your guests as members and your members as guests." Both are critical to the success of the club.

Joe Bosso, ATM-S

I think a great club is one where every member knows he or she has the absolute freedom to try something and fail miserably without being judged or made to feel stupid.  It is a perfect, supportive laboratory for experimentation and learning.

Kathie Clark, ATM-B

I feel the mentor program helps to set up a great club.  New members will only be as good as they are trained.  As good as the materials form Toastmasters are, there is no substitute for a club that has an active "hands-on" approach for new members.  Give a new member the right start, and you will have a Toastmaster for life.

Michael Steineck, ATM

100% Officers trained.  A plan for the club, that is known by the club.  Each member has attainable goals that require the individual to move outside his/her comfort zone.  Attendance of at least 70% of all members at each meeting.  And that each meeting strive to be fun and educational.

Michael Steineck, ATM

To me the importance is the warm fuzzy feeling I have when with my Toastmaster family, the feeling of belonging to a caring group.  Every Club has a special 'feel', a personality of it's own.  When this personality matches mine it's like putting on an old pair of shoes....everything fits.

Judith

A great club is a club where the members can step out of their comfort zone and know they will get the support of the club.  Members need to know they can try new things to expand their skills.  This also includes leaning to express controversial ideas that every one in the club may not agree with.

Rick Clement, AbleTM-S