Some clubs begin their meetings with the club president reading out the club mission statement of the Toastmasters organization as the very, very first thing. It goes like this:
The mission of a Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.
An inspiring and a great way to kick things off! It sounds really good, right?
No.
The words above look good written down and I do think capture what Toastmasters is (or should be) about accurately. But try reading the phrase out loud. It doesn’t roll off the tongue and it doesn’t create a lot of excitement. Remember, we’re talking about clubs where this is the very first thing they do. As in, “Please be seated everyone. [Pause] The mission of a Toastmasters club…”
The next problem is that I’ve never seen anyone who has memorized that long block of text. So the opener has to read it off a sheet of paper, making 0 audience connection in the process.
The president’s main job at the very start of the meeting is to call everyone to order and then get the energy going. A simple but excited, “Hey, how y’all doin’?” with good eye contact and a smile is a much better opening than “The mission of a Toastmasters club…”. If you want to get to reading the mission statement, put it off until after the club is warmed up a little. Just get through it quickly so you don’t cool off the audience.
I’m not a fan of reading it all, however, because it’s so dry. It’s appropriate for officer meetings where the Toastmaster geeks popup and it helps frame the conversation, but if I’m going to get up and give a speech about my trip to Arizona and Hawaii I’d rather have a warmed up audience than one that’s vaguely inspired with the TM mission.
If you insist on being all inspiring in your opening, I’d ditch the TM opening and keep it informal and energetic. I think of the opening of the old Fat Albert cartoons, where Bill Cosby says you’ll have a good time and if you’re not careful, you might learn something.
in 7-19-2008 @ 17:38:15
Every sergeant of arms for my club has had the mission statement memorized since I joined 4 years ago. We recite it together at the beginning of every meeting after the pledge. It is a popular feature, so that if the SAA forgets it, members remind him to read it. Perhaps you’d feel differently about it if you did hear it recited by someone who had memorized it.