Incubating The Club

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a Medical professor and the founder of Center for Mindfulness in Medicine once remarked “You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” A wave represents the cyclical rise and ebb of water and human tendencies. If there is a rise, a fall is expected and vice versa.

In Toastmasters a similar cycle of wave movement can be found in the operations and success of a club which sees phases of insurmountable rise and then a phase of plateauing fortunes followed by decline. Technically, in Toastmasters a struggling club is classified as a club with less than 12 members. A club that has less than 8 members faces extinction and is classified as a club that has not renewed. 

A club with less than 8 members or with 12 members is assigned a Club Coach who identifies the areas of difficulty and areas of opportunity that can help the club to recover. However there is always a concern that persists in the mind of the District with respect to the operational health of clubs that are struggling with poor attendance, a drop in membership or inability to organize club meetings on a weekly/ fortnightly basis or clubs that would have seen a few active toastmasters leaving the club on account of professional/ personal obligations.The origin of Club Incubation Center

In the year 2014, under the leadership of DTM Gauri Seshadri and DTM Pawas Chandra District-92 (immediately after formation) conceived an idea of Club Incubation Center that would address the difficulties clubs in the district might face and revitalize the club.. The idea that germinated a decade ago is still growing strong and helping the district to resolve the minor struggles of the clubs.

According to DTM Vanitha Rangarajan former District 92 Club Growth Director and District 121 Director (2021-22), the Club Incubation Center was a part of the Leadership Development programme that was looking to empower members of the district on their leadership journey. The CIC programme was incorporated primarily focusing on clubs with 13-20 members. Subsequently it was also introduced in a few clubs with more than 20 members but were struggling with quality of club meetings or regularity in organizing club meetings. CIC was a request based club retention program to help increase membership or enhance club quality and experience. 

CIC volunteers were instrumental in helping the clubs organize Open House meetings or facilitate Rendezvous meetings involving two or more clubs.

The CIC programme has been particularly instrumental in shaping the leadership attributes of several District officers. One of such beneficiaries of the CIC volunteering programme was DTM Krishna Prashanth, former Club Growth Director District-92 (2021-22). DTM Krishna Prashanth was one of the CIC volunteers for Travel Orators, a corporate club. 

This was one of his first out of the club roles that he had volunteered for. Along with fellow TM Ramya Tanuja, they devised strategies to help the club add members and also at the same time encourage members of the club to participate in various district initiatives.  According to DTM Krishna Prashanth, “This was my first hands-on experience of seeing a struggling club and how to devise strategies to help it grow. The CIC initiative helped me in coming years as a leader to focus on how to help ailing clubs.” 

Over the past 10 years the CIC program has been active in District 92 for over a decade, with approximately 70% of clubs experiencing enhanced performance in both membership and DCP. Similar initiatives have also been launched in Districts 80 and 121.This year- The Club Growth Director D-92 has appointed a  spirited seasoned Toastmaster- DTM Bhamathi Pai as the Club Retention Chair. DTM Bhamathi has served the district in various leadership roles including Division D director in the year 2020-21 and part of the Coronation 2024 team. As a club officer she has guided several clubs like Capgemini TM, PSN TM and Hoodi TM club. She loves to don the role of various events chair and ensure that any logistical challenge is resolved at the earliest.

In a free wheeling conversation DTM Bhamathi gave us an insight into the objectives of the CIC programme for this year.

First things first kindly describe the CIC programme in brief and what does it seek to serve?

Club Incubation Center is a District 92 initiative that is aimed at helping clubs with 13-20 members. These clubs are not eligible for Club coaches but without timely help, they might discontinue. The duration for the CIC volunteering programme is  3 months. These 3 months are key for a volunteer to inculcate Persuasive communication and initiate Change Management. 

What are the qualifications or qualities a CIC volunteer should ideally have?

There is no formal criteria for a CIC volunteer. But a passion for Toastmasters and zeal to serve and give back to the Toastmasters community would be key. The primary qualities a CIC volunteer should have is a sense of commitment, persistence and being proactive.

How would you Rank the following attributes for a CIC volunteer to focus upon: commitment, experience, problem solving, team building, resourcefulness. 

In my personal opinion I would rate Commitment on the top of the order followed by Problem solving- that is a key attribute in resolving deadlocks. Team Building and resourcefulness are important attributes as well followed by experience.

1.Commitment 

2.Problem solving

3.Team building

4.Resourcefulness

5.Experience 

How does having a CIC volunteer benefit the club, the District and the CIC volunteer?

CIC volunteers can bring new energy and fresh perspective to the club. Can motivate the members and share best practices. 

Helping all clubs achieve excellence is 1 of the objectives of the District mission. CIC volunteers help this by supporting struggling clubs and ensuring their retention.

CIC volunteers become eligible for the CGD award of Super CIC if they can help the club become Distinguished. The learnings gained during a CIC term on how to revive a struggling club are far more valuable though..

What are the challenges a CIC volunteer may face and how does the CGD team and CIC chair plan to resolve the issue?

CIC volunteers may face resistance from club executive committee members. The CGD team is talking to the club President before CIC assignment to ensure this does not happen. The Club Retention team has also done a training and the material shared covers some scenarios 

What are the additional training the district plans to initiate/ provide for CIC Volunteers during the year?

-The Club Retention team has already done training and the material shared covers some scenarios that CIC volunteers might face. 

-We will also create a WhatsApp group for all CIC volunteers so that it will be a channel for seeking help. Success stories,  lessons learnt can also be shared.

-Also plan on having a monthly touch base with CIC volunteers, Club excom and AD to check and review progress and address concerns if any.

Once a CIC volunteer successfully completes their term, what is the next step the CIC volunteer should seek to do?

They can share their experiences, learnings on what worked well and what did not. These learnings will help the DOs to understand a club's pain points and think of strategies to address these.

The Club Incubation Center was a novel intent that sought to identify prospective threats and resolve weakness at the earliest to ensure that the district, its leaders and members can come to the aid of the club and ensure that the minor difficulties of operating a club do not lead to an end to the pursuit of excelling in the journey of leadership, mentoring and communication.