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Club Coaching Success Featured in Weekly Newsletter!
By Betty Chavira, Club Coaching Chair

Congratulations to Mary Mirable, DTM (Club Coach); Joyce Feustel, DTM (Excelsior President, FY2010) and Excelsior Toastmasters for a successful coaching relationship from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 that resulted in Excelsior Club No. 3247 gaining 5 new members (net growth from a baseline of 12 members on July 1, 2009) and achieving Distinguished Club Status!

This successful coaching relationship was the result of a serious, diligent, sometimes challenging partnership between the coach, officers, and the club. Their success story is featured in the publication Club Coach Weekly, produced by District 8’s John Murphy and Patricia Hill. Please access the full article at: http://www.dist8tm.org/clubcoach.html

An innovative synergistic partnership was forged between the coach Mary Mirable and the Club President Joyce Feustel. Joyce forged a High Performance Leadership Project (HPL) around working with a coach to bring the club out of coach-eligible status to become a Distinguished Club. As a successful coach, Mary gained Advanced Leader Silver credit.

Excerpts from this success story are included below, from the 5th edition of the Club Coach Weekly, dated July 31 – August 1, 2010. The article was contributed by Joyce Feustel.

"At its July 2009 meeting the club’s membership voted to request that the District Governor assign the club a club coach. Two individuals had already been identified as possible club coaches. Both of them attended that club meeting as well as the club officer meeting that was held immediately afterwards. The District Governor appointed them as club coaches a few days later." (Originally, 2 coaches were assigned. Win Suseno, a co-coach could not complete his coaching year due to business commitments. bjc)

"At the club officers meeting in July, the club officers, assisted by the club coaches, had a wide ranging discussion of what was going well at the club and where improvements could be made…The leadership determined that the club must showcase itself in the best possible manner at each meeting, keeping in mind that the club has just 12 times a year to offer its product to potential members."

"Club coach Mary Mirabile suggested having club business cards printed. She also helped with the design and content of the cards. Both coaches worked with the club’s leadership to develop a club motto: "Excelsior Invites You to Excel." This motto overflowing

was featured on business cards and used in invitations to special membership-building open house meetings. Two of those meetings were held over the course of the year. Club members also distributed the business cards at a demonstration meeting club members conducted after the January Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) with 17 guests at that meeting. Providing free food was a big draw. This TLI was held in the suburb where Excelsior meets and served Toastmasters throughout the Denver metro area."

"At that same TLI several club members conducted a session that was dubbed "Speech Boot Camp." There were four presenters: two from Excelsior and two from another advanced club in the Denver metro area. Each presenter spoke about how to research, write and deliver a particular type of speech. The types represented were informative, entertaining, inspirational, and persuasive."

"Excelsior became a Distinguished club, because the membership rose from 12 to 17 members by the end of the Toastmaster 2009-2010 year, and the club achieved five of the ten Distinguished Club Program goals…Promoting the club name and the advanced club concept in every possible way added momentum to the club’s growth...For the most part, the new members who joined Excelsior had heard about the club through personal contact with a current club member. Some of these individuals had been interested in the club but their schedule had not permitted them to join in the past. Others had not heard of an advanced club until a member approached them at their club meeting or at an area or division contest or other district activity and suggested they see if Excelsior might be a good fit for them...Most of the membership recruitment efforts were done by the club president and by club coach Mary Mirabile." *

The success of this coaching experience can be attributed to persistence, flexibility in trying various ways to make Toastmasters aware of the existence of this advanced club, and evaluating the club’s unique strengths and focusing on those strengths to attract new members. Patience was certainly required as the membership building process was slow.

Congratulations again to Mary Mirable, Joyce Feustel, and Excelsior for a successful venture!

 

* Please see the entire article in Club Coach Weekly for more information.
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