President Training

On December 14, 2013 I had the honor of delivering a Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) session to teach attendees about how to be a club president in Toastmasters. Perhaps my notes of that workshop will be beneficial to others.

I decided to have the attendees themselves do most of the talking. I like to make sessions interactive and engaging. Also, I’m lazy.

I brought a big bowl of candy and three types of special cards.

One set of cards had silly alternative job titles for the role of club president. I urged people to use one of the cards or devise one of their own choosing when introducing themselves in the session. For example, instead of saying they were the club president, they might say they were the:

• Club Babysitter
• Club Superhero
• CEO, Chief Energy Officer
• Cat Herder
• Glorified Gopher
• Dictator for Life
• Prime Minister
• Commander in Chief
• Chief Scapegoat

The two other types of cards, color coded, were mixed together and dealt out around the room so everyone had at least one. Most of the cards had advice for the club president—some good advice, some bad advice. Everyone in turn was asked to read off their card and give their thoughts on if they agreed or disagreed and why. Those points were:

• The club should formally vote in every new member. (Yes: it’s required in Article II, Section 2 of the Toastmasters International Club Constitution. It also makes it much easier, legally, to vote out problematic members. Only 1 in 100 or 1 in 1,000 members may be a problem, but that makes it worthwhile to go through the voting process. There are ways to remove a member even if you didn’t vote them in, but it’s much harder. Call Toastmasters International if you have such a situation.)
• The president and VPE should try to attend the business meeting at the semiannual District Conference.(Yes: each club has two votes in District business meetings. The President and VPE carry those votes. The business meetings are held at the District Conferences, held twice a year. These are very important meetings controlling major decisions like budgets. They often struggle to meet quorum. Please try to go. If you can’t go, make sure to assign your proxy vote to someone from your club who can go.)
• The president should assign roles to every officer. (Wrong: goals are important, but the officers should work together on this. Each officer should come up with their own goals, listening to the advice of others and based on what they think they can accomplish.)
• The president should yell out important announcements at random times in the meeting.(Silly and wrong, of course. The president should make announcements at the appropriate time in the meeting for club business. This is typically at the end of the meeting, but some clubs give their announcements at the beginning.)
• No officer can serve two consecutive terms in the same position.(Not quite correct; the club president cannot serve two years in a row as president, although the president can skip a term and then serve again. No other officer positions have this restriction.)
• The president should recognize members who accomplish things in the club, especially if she has seen them more than once.(Disregarding the joke, yes, it is important to give public recognition to members that do something special. It helps encourage others to excel!)
• The president should be a model Toastmaster.(Yes. The president should lead by example and do anything she wants the club members to do. Give speeches, attain educational awards, compete, visit other clubs and so on.)
• The president should be first to make motions and vote in business meetings.(Incorrect: the president cannot make motions, and may only vote in case of a tie.)
• The president should make the officers meet monthly.(This is strongly recommended, yes. One of the president’s official duties is to organize officer meetings. Most clubs hold them just before or after a regular meeting, resulting in minimal inconvenience.)
• The president should bang the gavel once to adjourn, twice to call meeting to order, thrice to get audience to stand for pledge.(Some organizations have such convoluted rules, but in Toastmasters we follow Robert’s Rules of Order for using the gavel. Simply use one tap to open or close the meeting.)
• The president doesn’t need to worry about the DCP; that’s the VPE’s job.(The VPE often feels most of the DCP pressure, since the majority of goals are related to education, but every officer should be keenly aware of DCP progress and helping the club. The president has overall responsibility.)
• Every meeting should start with pledge and prayer.(This is a highly contentious issue, but the crux is that pledge and prayer are most definitely, absolutely optional and are not necessarily recommended.)
• The sergeant at arms should open the meeting, and turn control over to the President, who then calls up the Toastmaster of the Day.(Wrong, wrong, wrong! This is a very common misconception, one that many clubs all around the world do incorrectly. Even some TLI trainers have taught this incorrectly. Of course your club can choose to purposefully do things differently, Toastmasters International is pretty clear-cut on this.)
• The most effective tool the president has to motivate officers is blackmail.(Another one tossed in just for laughs. Of course not—but this is a great time to lead a group discussion on people’s thoughts on how to keep the entire officer board energized.)
• The president should recognize guests at the beginning of the meeting.(This is good advice. At some point in the meeting you should definitely show them the club notices them and they are welcome. If you do it at the beginning, you can make sure everyone knows their names. It’s also good to call on them at the end of the meeting and ask for their feedback.)

The last type of cards were roleplay cards, with little notes for myself. In most of these, I acted out a very quick scenario and gave a group discussion based on it.

• Don’t give feedback using “but” or “except.” For example, “your speech was awesome, except for the part where it completely sucked.” The “but” negates all the good things you said. Find a way to reword it in a more positive light. “This speech is a substantial improvement from your last one, and with a few changes it will be even stronger!” The presenter could act out bad and good examples, or have a participant do one or both.
• What do you do when an officer isn’t pulling their weight? The presenter could demonstrate a bad method. “Bob, you’ve done absolutely nothing since you came into office three weeks ago. Time to shape up or ship out!” Then follow this with a group discussion on what to do when an officer isn’t following through on their obligations.
• How do you act when someone shows up late? The wrong way is to call them out on it. “Well, look who decided to show up!” It can be fun to act out a heavily exaggerated version of the wrong way, how to make people feel uncomfortable. Presidents should remember, it’s better for someone to arrive late than not at all.
• It’s important to give praise… but not all praise has the effect you want. Demonstrate inappropriate praise or backhanded compliments, versus actually recognizing people for their efforts and accomplishments in the club.
• “Sorry that our TMOTD didn’t bring agendas, and the projector isn’t working, and Sally didn’t show up so we didn’t have enough speakers. This was going to be a really awesome meeting!” One of the first lessons most members learn in Toastmasters is not to apologize for their speech. The same lesson applies to meetings. Just do the best you can with what you have, but don’t point fingers or make apologies (a bad habit of mine, incidentally. Do as I say, not as I do!)

Did I forget anything? Comment below!