response to Cara's suggestion to limit new members and guests....

[Jim Chamberlin]

Dear Cap 1 Officers,

 

I agree with Cara.  Unfortunately we seem to be doing a lot of what I call churning -- lots of new members but many leave within 6 to 12 months.  We're wide but not deep at all.  It's difficult for any of our members to earn their CC's, much less any advanced awards.  I'm not sure this is the best we can hope for, or whether slowing down the incoming would allow for more grounded growth for the club.  I see evidence on both sides. 

 

The other thing that hangs over our club is how long we'll be able to use the facilities and hospitality of ABA.  If we're staring down the barrel of a very disruptive move for our club in the next 6 months, that's another reason to cool our recruitment efforts, until we know where we'll be.

 

Two other minor points.  We seem to completely ignore the Competent Leader Manual.  Clubs that take the CL seriously usually have someone dedicated to keeping track of it.  And to give members more of a chance to speak, we might devote one of our 3 meetings in May as a Speakathon, dedicated to speeches only.  This might make the difference as so whether we get the necessary points for the DCP (Distinguished Club Program) to continue as Presidents Distinguished.  Whatever we do, I hope that we'll keep the DCP in mind, and make enlightened decisions to maximize our club performance. 

 

http://www.district36.org/dcp/dcp2012/clubs/876.HTM    that's the link to view our current status with the DCP.  We're holding at 5 of possible 10, which means we're already reached minimum level of respectability, but it might be an impossible stretch to get to the 9 or 10 level that would mean President's Select.

 

Jim

(not an officer, but been there, done that, and still very supportive as frequent assistant to the SAA.)

From: "RCJA...@aol.com" <RCJA...@aol.com>
To: rbar...@nationalcorp.com; mfols...@gmail.com; a.o.jo...@gmail.com; chamberl...@yahoo.com
Cc: RCJA...@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 10:39 PM
Subject: New Toastmasters members

We have a number of new Toastmasters members:

 

Michael McClain

michael...@yahoo.com

 

 

Laura Gentile

llge...@yahoo.com

 

Judith Krueger

JDK...@ne.com (I had trouble reading her writing - I don't know if this is correct.  I will call her)

 

Gillian Shurland

She didn't provide an e-mail address - I will call her.

 

David Trejo

dtr...@newsignature.com

 

I think we should start limiting the guests, and think about cutting off adding new members for a while - we have about 40 members - we need to discuss this soon - as noted above, we picked up 5 new members today, and several at the last meeting.  Can we have a meeting after the next TM meeting to discuss this situation.

 

I will revise the list of members that I sent out a few weeks ago.

 

Cara

[RCJA...@aol.com]

Jim - Do you have any suggestions for member retention?