Time flies, a quarter of term of 2010/2011 has passed by. I believe every club officer has been working very hard in the past three months to recruit new members and to retain the membership of existing members. No worries, Dr Ralph C. Smedley said, “Even the best Toastmasters Club, with the Educational Committee functioning at high efficiency, will lose some members.” I hope that my sharing below will be helpful in recruiting new members.

There are many methods of marketing Toastmasters. Dedicated club officers, the Membership Building Contest within your club would be a practical marketing effort. All the members of the club should work together in the contest and truly embrace the value of teamwork. Toastmasters International website offers us lots of free resources to promote our club. Here are some links:

http://www.toastmasters.org/Success101

http://www.toastmasters.org/vbp/

http://www.toastmasters.org/membershipcontests

Social networking plays an imperative role in our daily lives as most of us are addicted to Facebook or Twitter. Creating a Facebook page or group for your club is just a few clicks of the mouse. It’s a form of free advertisement and a good way to connect with members. Friendship Toastmasters Club has tried this and it received overwhelming response from members and non-members.

You can also try to post the venue and time of your club meeting to some websites such as www.timeoutkl.com to attract more guests to attend your meeting.

How about creating an event and gathering post on forum.lowyat.net, a site which has thousands of visitors per day.

Having a blog for your club is also a good method of publicity for your club, but you must have a group of dedicated members to maintain it. For instance, Friendship Toastmasters Club has been active in their posting since last year. This provides opportunity for people who are enthusiastic about Toastmasters to find out more about Toastmasters’ happening!

Dr Ralph C Smedley said, “The deepest joy of belonging comes as one learns to coorperate, contribute and help…” Let us share the benefits that we gained from Toastmasters with everyone out there!

Chor Chee Hoe - Assistant Area Governor Marketing