New Member Involvement

 In any organization, I believe it is important to engage new members.  These could be volunteers at a charity organization, employees in the workplace, or members of a collaborative group like Toastmasters.  How do we engage new members?

In the case of two of my Toastmasters clubs, I believe a key is to encourage their passion and participation.  One new member of a club just gave their first speech and did an excellent job!  Their speech evaluator did a great job pointing this out while also offering the new member suggestions of how they could grow through their involvement in Toastmasters.  I think (and hope!) that this will encourage this new member to be active in the Toastmasters program and keep giving presentations for our group!

Another new member in a club showed interest in a side project the club is deciding to take on.  I was thrilled to see their interest in this even before becoming an "official" member and want to encourage them to participate in the side project in whatever way they like.  I also want to offer this new member encouragement to participate in our regular meetings, which they have been doing - even serving as timer in their first meeting as an "official" member.

As I think about ways to engage these new members, I also want to think about how to engage existing members, which sounds like an excellent blog post for next time!  In the meantime, how can you welcome, encourage, and engage new members of your group or organization?

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