If You're Wondering Why Your Club Membership is Low...

Just a week ago, I visited a Toastmasters club somewhere in the north-east of Singapore. The last time I visited the club (two years ago), it gave me a cold reception. No welcome, no handshakes, no cheery greetings by at least someone from the club. And the worst part was that I was invited as their Language Evaluator. How disturbing.

Fast forward two years later, I was invited back to their meeting. Remembering full well the cool reception I received, I cringed at the thought at sitting through another cold session. But I braced myself - hey, it was Christmas time and the best time to re-assess their warmth. Perhaps I was mistaken the last time. Perhaps I came at a time when everyone was miraculously depressed at the same time. Perhaps I was too shy to approach anyone at the meeting back then. Perhaps...oh, never mind!

So I cheerfully went about buying sparkling juice and a nice card for the meeting. Fortunately, Cold Storage still stocked on bottles of them (it was a few days nearing Christmas) and I grabbed 2 bottles for the Christmas cheers at the meeting. And to add oomph to my contribution, I rushed over to Popular to get a nice-looking paper bag to hold the sparkling juice. And a cute little Christmas card.

Unfortunately, I had to wait 30 minutes in the queuing line!

I arrived at the meeting just as it started...the Sergeant-at-Arms (SAA) was at the lectern leading the introductions session. No one even bothered to take so much a peek at me struggling with the heavy bottles of juice. The SAA merely gave me a leery eye and continued with the introductions without acknowledging my presence. I meekly tip-toed in and plonked down on a chair. The Introductions continued with the rest of the participants stating their name, their home clubs and their hopes for Christmas. No laughter detected.

It was further chilled with the SAA's authoritative and unsmiling attitude. Goodness! This is a meeting, not a courtroom hearing!

"Yes, thank you. Next person please introduce yourself."

Thankfully, the Toastmaster-of-the-Evening (TME) who took over after the Introductions was rather humorous and saved the day with her jokes and enthusiastic poise. She went on to introduce the different speakers and evaluators plus the appointment holders.

As the meeting grated on - the speakers gave rather boring speeches - and I sat there in stony silence trying to enjoy myself, it all came to a grateful end. The last speaker finished his complicated speech on some metaphysical concepts...and the whole lot of us relaxed our burrowed eyebrows trying to understand his presentation.

Refreshments followed suit. I tried moving around to get to know the club members but the strange thing was that they seemed so absorbed in their own conversations. No one took the initiative to approach me - their exalted guest! - and start a conversation.

I almost felt as if I was some sort of invisible wallpaper. Or some sort of meeting filler to make the session look packed.

But the biggest irk of the evening was when the club officer requested everyone to pick up their Christmas presents after the meeting. I was hoping for a festive cheer - the reason for the 2 bottles of sparkling juice. Hey, not only was there no cheer or yam seng or anything like that, the 2 bottles were simply casually handed over to another club member for personal consumption.

"Hey, we didn't have time to drink it. Take it. You can drink it at home."

And with that, the club officer nonchalantly handed over the bottles to the club member.

I was flabbergasted!

It made my queuing up at Cold Storage and Popular almost seem like a waste of time!

No wonder their meetings were such cold affairs and their membership keeps dropping. Clearly, the lack of gratitude for members'/guests' contributions was the main culprit.

As I slowly began my journey back home, I thought:

"Visit them again?"

No way!

The Best Club Award Goes to...

Why are some Toastmasters Clubs so good yet others are simply
downright boring?

I have a gripe with clubs that invite me to their meetings and then
abandoning me at the meetings later on. Sometimes, I just feel like
strangling the Club VPE (that's Vice-President Education) and the
Club President!

In fact, I've been to so many Toastmasters clubs that I feel obliged
to come up with a list of Toastmasters clubs that I personally feel
deserve the "Best Club Award".

As for clubs that didn't manage to make it to the coveted list, ah well,
I'll just have to pass them the "Can Be Improved Club Award".

Don't be frightened though...this is a signal to start improving yourselves!

To appear un-biased, I decided to leave out my home club (Nee Soon East
Toastmasters) because in my opinion, it it simply THE best club to be!

Criteria:

1. Amount of personal attention shown to guests
2. Quality of meetings
3. Professionalism of the Club (includes how the club deals with emergencies)
4. Refreshments
5. The "WOW!" factor

Best Clubs in Singapore:

1. SingHealth Toastmasters Club
(truly excellent at making guests feel welcomed!)

2. Team Young NTUC Toastmasters Club
(fabulous treatment to guests)

3. Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club
(quality speeches every single time)

4. Braddell Heights II Toastmasters Club
(great personal attention given to guests)

5. Cheng San Toastmasters Club
(quality speeches and creativity)

6. Fuchun Toastmasters Club
(professional club officers)

7. NUSS Toastmasters Club
(professional; very good quality of refreshments)

8. NUS Toastmasters Club
(great atmosphere; dynamic speeches!)

9. AIA Changi Toastmasters Club
(meetings are always grand affairs!)

10. Hong Kah North Toastmasters Club
(excellent food!)

Worst Clubs:

Come to think about it, I think I'd better not defame them. Who knows,
they might be employing the best lawyers to sue me...or Toastmasters
for that matter!

Final verdict:

Visit all the clubs in the Best Clubs category - you will NOT regret it!

Great News!

Where to party? What's that?, you might wonder. Not to fret though. If you thought that Where to Party was some blog featuring the best party places in Singapore, you're sorely mistaken! This blog was set up to feature some of the best Toastmasters Clubs that you can visit. Because their meetings are loads of fun and I bet you will enjoy their meetings!

Have fun and stay on reading!