Finding and Managing Club Facilities

One of the greatest challenges in setting up a new club is selecting a place to meet. Sometimes you have to find a new location for an existing club for several reasons.

Managing Facilities

Technically, the sergeant at arms is in charge of managing facilities, but that usually refers to simple logistical duties for existing meeting spaces.

For some clubs, especially corporate and college clubs, room reservations may need to be renewed one or more times a year. Even if the sergeant at arms does not have access to directly do this, she should make sure to follow up with the proper club member at scheduled points to ensure it has been done. These times should be scheduled on a calendar/reminder system the sergeant at arms can trust.

For some clubs, especially restaurant clubs but occasionally in other situations, it is important to check the reservation for every meeting. After the club has run for a year or two you should know how trustworthy the meeting location is. Some never need you to check up on them. Many do. Even if months go by and the room is always ready for the club’s meeting, you may suddenly find out one day that there was an error in the reservation, a new restaurant manager didn’t know about the standing reservation, a “more important” group took over the room for the week, the location remodeled and there is no such room any longer, they assumed you just didn’t need it that week… these sound crazy, but they do happen. Unless you are absolutely certain of the location’s reliability, always check on the location several days before each meeting to ensure it is still reserved (and remind them of the reservation); near enough to be aware of any changes, but far enough in advance to make changes if necessary.

Make sure to be clear about the reservation start and end time, and if that allows for time to set up, come in early, or hang about after the meeting. Classroom and office room times are generally pretty strict; for a restaurant or other less formal environment, make sure to clarify with the location the different between your meeting time and how much time you need before and after. Logically, a restaurant would understand that if someone has reserved a room from 7-8 that scheduling another party from 6-7 would be highly foolish (as people come in early, hang around afterwards and so on), but some may actually do that. Be clear about what time the reservation is for.

On arrival, the sergeant at arms should make sure the room is in order. Some things to check (for those that apply to your club):

• Lights on
• Temperature set comfortably
• Room music/speakers turned off or down
• Projection/visual equipment set up
• Wifi tested and working (may need to ask location to bounce the router, or find out new password)
• Furniture arranged (tables and chairs)
• Lectern and gavel
• Timing signal set up and tested
• Ah bell
• Club banner
• Ballot/feedback slips distributed
• Agendas distributed (the TMOTD may do this)
• New member kits/Toastmasters magazines/guestbook ready for guests

Tables

How should you arrange the tables? Some clubs believe in a head table, where some people face the rest of the club. I am in opposition to this. This is a layout of distance and authority; the judge facing the courtroom, the manager facing the interviewee, the teacher maintaining order in a classroom. This is not a layout to encourage community, interaction, socialization, fun or togetherness.

Whenever possible, seat everyone facing the “stage” area where the speakers will be. Depending on the room layout, this isn’t always possible. Do what you can.

Consider trying a new meeting room layout, or even changing things up once a month or so. No tables? Semicircle? Speakers talk while seated? Echelon format? Horseshoe layout for tables? Gather in a circle?

Finding Facilities

When it comes to finding a new meeting space, that could be anyone’s job—best yet, several people should be on the task. I am unaware of any official guidance on who does this, but an argument could be made that since the SAA manages the meeting area, they should also locate one.

In a closed club environment, your choices are largely predetermined: one of the classrooms on campus, one of the meeting rooms in the office and so on. In these situations it is often important to make the reservations far ahead of time and extend the reservation as far as you can on the organization’s system. If you get visitors from outside the organization, bear in mind they may have difficulties finding the building, finding the room, finding parking and getting through security. Just be aware of that when selecting a room and communicating the meeting space to your audience.

In an open community club, matters are more complicated. You could go anywhere, which means you start out with nowhere. Some potential types of locations to consider:

• Restaurants
• University Classrooms
• Companies willing to let a community group use some underutilized space
• Libraries
• Churches
• YMCAs
• Anywhere one of your members has an inside connection—but what if that person leaves the club? Will you still have the space?

Many clubs would prefer a space with no costs attached whatsoever. Few clubs have that option. Many open community clubs either pay a small fee/donation for use of a room, or meet at a restaurant and order food.

Some criteria to consider when evaluating a meeting space:

• Capacity: how many people can sit, facing the speaker? (Restaurants tend to exaggerate this number. The maximum number of people that can be squeezed in like sardines in a can for an uncomfortable dining situation is completely different than the number of people that can participate in a Toastmasters meeting, all facing one side of the room and standing up and moving around.)
• Room rent fees. You should be able to find a space with no or nominal fees. $10 a meeting can work. $100 a meeting? Probably not.
• Minimum orders. Some restaurants will require that every attendee order $20 worth of food. Some will be more relaxed, saying “the group should order $40 worth of food total” or “at least five people should dine.” If they say “no minimums” then press a little bit more. You don’t want to meet there for a month with four people dining each meeting and then discover they feel at least eight should eat each week to be reasonable.
• Reliability. How likely is the restaurant to bump your meeting? Some restaurants recognize the value of a group meeting there every week of the year. Others will cancel your reservation for a week if a slightly larger group wants it for that one night. You don’t want to meet at a location when you constantly have to tell your members changing meeting schedules.
• Noise. Does your group get a separate room? How closed off is it from the rest of the building? How noisy does it tend to be around there? If at a restaurant that plays music, can they make sure the music or TV audio is shut off in your room? (Many restaurants have one control for the entire restaurant, and are unwilling to turn it off for everyone for the duration of your meeting.)
• Wi-fi. Does the location provide Internet access? How difficult to use, how reliable is it? Will it terminate your access if you try to load a YouTube streaming video? Make sure you actually test it. Many locations claim to provide free wi-fi, but in practice you will be unable to connect or unable to access anything at a reasonable speed once connected.
• Visual equipment. Does the location have a projector, TV or computer monitor where presentations can be shown? How hard is it to use? Will it work with your laptop, or can you bring a flash drive, or do you have full Internet access and can load it online? It’s best if you can test this. There are often glitches with technology, and when it does go wrong often there is nobody to fix it for you. Also consider bringing backup equipment or accessories to the meeting. I once tested a meeting space just a week before a big presentation. Worked perfectly. The night of the meeting I showed up–and discovered the cable I had used to connect my computer to the screen had vanished. If I had brought a spare cable instead of trusting them to keep it set up as tested, I would have been able to show my presentation.
• Audio. This isn’t a concern for most clubs, but if you are going to play videos or sound effects of some sort, make sure the space has speakers, or that you bring some.
• Furniture. Are tables and chairs provided? Will they always be in the room for you? Will they be set up the way you want, or will you have to show up early, rearrange them for the meeting, then put them all back afterwards?
• Location of door. You may have a little choice on what you use as a speaking area. Sometimes not. Where is the door—or where are the doors—in relation to that? It’s bad to have a location where the speaker has to talk right by the door where members running late dash through, interrupting speeches.
• Parking. Is there free sufficient parking available and easy to find a short walk from the meeting space?

Not all locations are available for all days and times. Typically it’s best to settle on a day and time, or a few good options, and then find locations compatible with that.

Just as with meeting time, no location will make everyone happy. Find an arrangement that works for most people and go with it—you can’t please everyone, but hopefully there are other clubs for the remainder to join.

If you are a specialty club with a niche appeal, make an effort to meet somewhat centrally relative to the bulk of Toastmasters in your area. If you are an ordinary community club, don’t worry about it too much; you’ll typically attract people in that area or who are only available at that time. People with different schedules or in different parts of town will go to clubs there. That said, meeting very near another Toastmasters club at the same day and time is a bit tacky; best to have some differences so that as many people as possible can enjoy Toastmasters.