Sign Me Up!

 This is a story of three Toastmasters clubs and how they are doing at meeting preparation...

Club #1 Has roles filled in advance of each meeting.  They do this by taking time at the end of each week's meeting to discuss who will fill the roles for the next week's meeting.  It takes some time, but people both get to choose their roles and all roles are filled in advance.  Sometimes additional planning beyond that "end of meeting" assignment time is needed.  For example, if a member can't attend one week but will there the next week, they need to pick their role further in advance.  However, most club members attend nearly every meeting, so the process works well overall with occasional adjustments needed when other obligations and situations arise.

Club #2 Has roles filled in advance of each meeting.  This club uses rotating role assignments to accomplish this.  For example, I might be a speaker one week, then Toastmaster, then timer, then table topics master.  My friend might be Toastmaster one week, then timer, then table topics master, then speaker.  Everyone can see the advanced listing of the roles they are assigned.  If anyone can't attend a meeting, they notify the scheduler (Vice President Education) who then adjusts the schedule and/or gets volunteers to cover the role left vacant.  It's a bit more work for the scheduler, but it results in roles being filled well in advance with everyone knowing what is expected of them.

Club #3 Counts on individual members to sign up themselves for the roles of their choosing.  This results in about half of the roles being filled at the start of any given meeting.  Despite this club having the largest total membership of all three clubs, it does not have as many members who attend most meetings.  This is also the club where I am responsible for making sure the meeting roles are filled and we have productive meetings.  Comparing this club to the other two clubs, I see a lot of opportunity to try some of what the other two clubs are doing to ensure meeting roles are planned out in advance.

What can I do to get Club #3 to have more roles filled in advance like Club #1 and Club #2?  I don't know that I want to go all the way to what the other two clubs are doing with filling all roles at the end of the previous meeting or fully scheduling all members to roles in advance.  However, I can at least take aspects of what the other two clubs are doing.  Here is what I want to try:

1. I want to take a cue from Club #1 and offer members an opportunity to claim future meeting roles at each meeting.  Club #3 use to pass around a sign-up sheet at each meeting for members who wanted to to sign up for future meetings.  I can renew this process at Club #3.

2. I want to take a cue from Club #2 and assign at least some meeting roles in advance.  For example, it might be useful to assign the Toastmasters and Table Topics roles in advance so that people are encouraged to take on those roles of leadership in meetings while still having their choice of when and how often they give prepared speeches or evaluations.  The sign-up sheet can also be used for members to strike their names out if they cannot fulfill these roles on a date for which they are assigned.

Through trying new sign-up processes and reflecting on how they work, I am confident I can at least improve the state of role sign-ups for Club #3.  My confidence is based partly on seeing how Club #2 went from a situation much like Club #3 is in to the successful role assignment process they are using today.  And if the aspects that worked for Club #1 and Club #2 don't quite work for Club #3, we can always find a different approach to try.

Toastmasters is all about finding your own communication and leadership style that works for you, and the same can go for the club as a whole.  With intentional application of ideas and reflection on the results, we can all become better speakers and leaders and better prepared for our meetings.