TOASTMASTERS SHINE AT ELECTION TIME!
Take advantage of election time to promote Toastmasters and your club!
TOASTMASTERS SHINE AT ELECTION TIME!
Here we are in the throws of not one, but two elections in BC this Fall!! Did you know that Toastmasters can play a huge role in assisting candidates and election forums?? Here’s how:
- TIMERS – Who knows better about timing speakers – especially speakers that love to talk on and on, or who are not practiced in keeping their comments to a specified time? Toastmasters are on call in my area to attend all the various candidate’s debates with timing lights. We usually come as a two-person team and trade off timing, working the lights and tracking the times on a form. In exchange, you get a front row seat, and mention of your local club. My experience is that most attendees are extremely grateful to timers keeping the meeting on track and on time! Awareness of Toastmasters is heightened too! Along with timing, candidate forum organizers often come to Toastmasters looking for moderators. Check out what’s happening in your local area and make the presence of Toastmasters known!
- COACHING – a very good Toastmaster friend of mine, Phyllis Nielsen, DTM is also a Certified Speech Coach. She reached out to every candidate in our local election offering her services to help anyone needing a boost to their speechwriting or speaking skills quickly. I thought this was a fabulous idea and leads me into my next point…
- HOLD A SOAPBOX DERBY – not the kind with wheels, though! For many years, Arbutus Toastmasters held events open to the public, giving politicians and anyone with an opinion (no shortage of those!) an opportunity to come to our club and have 3 minutes on the soapbox, ala Hyde Parke. We actually made a real soapbox – a 4’x4’x 6” upturned platform. Our events usually offered a condensed mini-Toastmasters meeting, then turned the floor over to as many speakers as we could for the rest of the evening. We had timing lights of course, and house rules and etiquette, and lots of membership applications on hand! One year we even had the local newspaper and TV Station cover the event. Capitalize on election season and hold a unique “open house”!
Getting involved in the community is always a good way to increase awareness of your club and election time is a perfect time to do that!