Shari Francis was a club coach to WCR of Palm Beaches Toastmasters Club. Here is the breakdown.

1. Our mission is to
prevent isolation,
present ideas and
provide inspiration
to club coaches
throughout the
world.
July 3, 2010
Volume 1, No. 17 October 23 - 24, 2010
Flexibility is Key
Merriam Webster's Dic- meeting. When a speaker practice, the ability to
tionary defines flexibility fails to attend, others may be flexible will benefit
as being characterized by a question their commitment us in our personal
ready capability to adapt to to the Toastmaster pro- and professional
new, different or changing gram. lives. Isn't this why
requirements. When faced Rather than viewing last- we joined Toastmas-
with a club that had many minute changes with a nega- ters in the first place?
last-minute changes, Shari tive attitude, let's reframe
Frances taught them flexi- the disappointment of a
bility. speaker no-show from disap-
Preparation before the pointment to joy. This new-
meeting can minimize last- found attitude will help us
minute changes. How- learn to adapt to a different
ever, life may still get in or changing environment.
the way of Toastmas- Members will take advantage
ters. When the Toast- of a no-show to try a new
master of the Day is late, meeting role or to give an
it may disrupt the entire extra speech. With a little
Inside this issue:
WCR of Palm Beaches Toastmasters Club #1216688 in District 47
Assessment 2 The WCR of Palm Beaches
contingent of WCR
Toastmasters Club was
founded only two years members. However,
Planning & Imple- 2 membership soon
mentation
ago in October 2008.
dwindled. The club
This club has its roots in
the leadership of the local began reaching out into
Shari . . .a prob- 3
Women’s Council of Realtors the community to re-
lem solver with
(WCR). They saw the con- cruit new members,
integrity and pro-
fessionalism
including students from
nection of Toastmasters
and other chapters of the local colleges and
Lessons Learned 4 WCR. To charter the club, universities.
they invited members
Results 4 from local Toastmasters
clubs and provided capital
to start the club.
Initially there was a large

2. Page 2
Assessment
As club coach, my goal They needed an agenda at meetings, However,
was to perform an as- and a strong treasurer the officers weren't
sessment of club. I vis- to help process new meeting regularly and
ited and watched them. members. the President was quite
Almost immediately, I On the other hand, the difficult to reach.
discovered that the club club had several strong Fortunately, through
needed instruction in points: they wanted to persistence and enthusi-
the fundamentals of a present manual asm, I was able to estab-
Toastmasters meeting. speeches, they had ex- lish rapport with the
The club's membership cited leaders and several club's officers, and con-
needed to understand potential members. duct a meeting where I
the basics and impor- The next step was to could provide valuable
tance of the various schedule a meeting with feedback.
What is the meeting roles. They the club's officers. I
problem? weren't excited about wanted to ask them
the role of grammarian. where they needed help,
The club also suffered to share my assessment
from busy and dis- and to give them feed-
tracted members who back. This task proved
were not focusing on quite difficult. The
the club or their own President had a great
development needs. presence and demeanor
“the club
needed
Planning and Implementation
instruction in
the The plan addressed the club’s meeting style. Club Program. I even
fundamental deficiencies noted in the
assessment. I worked
brought little gifts every
once in a while to excite
s of a with the club's officers the members and visitors
Toastmasters and their Division Gov- of the club.
ernor to implement Most importantly, I helped
meeting. “ training. At most of the
meetings, the Division
them understand the im-
portance of having a solid
Governor or myself, treasurer that can get a
would provide informa- handle on the finances by
tion on a different accounting for funds, mak-
Toastmaster meeting ing deposits, and register-
role or process. For ex- ing new members in a
ample, the protocol of timely manner.
entering and leaving the
speaking area, proper
timing requirements, I consulted with them on
etc. Also, I helped create issues that arose regarding
a few agendas to see dates and times or how to
which would fit the work their Distinguished

3. Page 3
Joyce encour ages gr owt h
“Shari . . .a problem solver with integrity and professionalism.” Teach and Test
Flexibility
To Whom it May Concern, Note: Flexibility refers to
adaptation to last-minute
changes, not meeting vari-
As the immediate past Division D Governor of Toastmasters International, it ety.
gives me a great pleasure to acknowledge Shari Francis for her dedication and
fine work as WCR Palm Beaches Noon club coach. Preparation
Teach members about the
Our Toastmaster year runs from July 1-June 30. When Shari began coaching TMOD calling tree located
in the back of the Compe-
WCR Toastmasters in December 2009, the club was struggling to stay afloat with
tent Communicator Manual.
10 members. I compliment Shari on the way she dove in head first to help get
Test members by asking
this club back on its feet. Her initial assessment of what needed to be done the VPE to only share
prompted her to develop a thorough call to action plan to meet the club’s needs meeting responsibilities
and get them on track. Shari 's perseverance and weekly communication with with the TMOD. The
club members and officers proved very successful. On June 30, 2010 the club members must learn about
had 21 members and achieved the status of Distinguished Club. their upcoming assignment
from an active calling tree.
Shari is someone you would want on your team. She has proven that when given
a challenge she will go the extra mile to get the job done right. Shari is very pro- Speeches
fessional, organized and follows through. I would highly recommend Shari to Teach members about the
any company that is looking for a problem solver with integrity and professional- prepared speeches found
ism. She is someone you can count on to do a great job. in the Better Speaker, Suc-
cessful Club and Leadership
Excellence modules.
Test members by occasion-
Kind regards, ally asking a member to
spontaneously present one
of these speeches.
Karen Novek, DTM Meeting Roles
Immediate Past Division D Governor Teach members to have a
supply of documents to
help them serve in any
meeting role. For exam-
ple, have several words of
the day ready for a last-
minute grammarian.
Test members by having a
meeting where the meet-
ing roles are announced
when the members walk in
the door.
Leadership
Teach members how to
preside over a meeting.
Test members by asking
the President to arrive late
or leave early depending
on when the business
meeting occurs.

4. OUR MISSION IS TO
PREVENT ISOLATION,
Lessons Learned
PRESENT IDEAS AND
PROVIDE The hardest thing for me meet with the Presi- into a training session,
INSPIRATION TO CLUB was penetrating the ranks of dent face-to-face and inviting all the club's
COACHES the officers and to gain an insisted that he set up members, guests from
understanding of their per- an officer meeting im- other clubs and areas.
THROUGHOUT THE
sonalities. I needed to deter- mediately. This session would
WORLD. mine what each officer’s mo- have demonstrated the
tivations were and how best I would also have re- proper protocols and
to provide feedback. quested that we turn probably been a time
john.murphy@dist8tm.org If I could go back in time, I one of the meetings of enlightenment for
phill063@bellsouth.net
would have tried harder to both the officers and
the other members.
However, I definitely
We’re on the web! feel the club is much
www.dist8tm.org/ stronger today be-
clubcoach.html
cause they understand
and present informa-
tion in a more organ-
ized manner. Their
Club Coach Weekly is a officers are strong
combined effort of Dr. leaders and will con-
John Murphy, DTM, tinue to guide the club
and Patricia Hill, DTM. toward better times.
John is the 2010-2011
Club Coach Chair for
District 8 and is re-
sponsible for the Club
Coach stories and let-
ters of praise.
Patricia is a Past Dis-
trict Governor from
District 58. She is re-
sponsible for graphic
Results
design, editing and lay-
The club ultimately became a distinguished club. Membership had grown and
out. Please contact
active member involvement increased. Although their transient membership
them with any ques-
base still makes well-attended meetings diffi-
tions, comments or
cult, they have come a long way and have
possible content.
learned the best trick to a great meeting -
flexibility.
The club's members demonstrated initiative by
using Facebook and Twitter as tools to recruit
new members as well as promote club activi-
ties. At the end of the Toastmaster year, the
members selected officer roles that better
suited their skill sets.