Club Officer Training

Each year Area Governors conduct the District sponsored Club Officer Training (COT) twice:

first round May-August and
second round December-February.

Club Officer Training Standards

Four hours is the minimum time it takes to effectively conduct club ofﬁcer training.
Each club ofﬁcer should be required to attend the session for that particular ofﬁce.
Club ofﬁcer training must use the club leadership training materials provided by Toastmasters International and available online at www.toastmasters.org. (click through: Officer Resources -> District Officer Resources -> District Training -> Club Officer Training)
Toastmasters International also has other materials you can use for training: The Successful Club Series, The Better Speaker Series, The Leadership Excellence Series.
You could also have sessions on: The High Performance Leadership Program (262), Speech Contest Judges Training Program (1190), Conduct Quality Contests (218E), Clubs’ progress in the Distinguished Club Program, Resolving conﬂict.
Remember that Area Governors can delegate this to experienced Toastmasters - it is a District Sponsored COT.

For Details please read more in the TMI document: Training Club Officers (No. 217)

And remember in all your trainings: provide and have FUN!

First Round Club Officer Training

This first round is dedicated training new officers for their roles - to introduce them to their responsibilities. Nevertheless a lot of officers repeat or stay quite some while in the executive board. Make training for them worthwhile as well in getting them to present an educational session.

Use the TMI materials as official presentation. It has been a good solution in providing this information interactively rather than as lecture. This material is available online at www.toastmasters.org. (click through: Officer Resources -> District Officer Resources -> District Training -> Club Officer Training)

Club Officer Training variant

Rob Cockburn, DTM as experienced Toastmaster created a module for successful officer training. He developed this module to save time and energy:
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This is not a TM brainwash or mindless theoretical explanation, it is a very real approach to why and then what to do. Nor is it pushing "American / German/ Someone else's / methods. It gets the clubs to set their own goals and then decide how to achieve them.

It's big advantages are: there is a maximum one power point slide, it gets people thinking about: what they are there for (why bother having a club executive?), what do you really what to do, and how to accomplish it.
The executive then sees

what they should do to have a great club
that the DCP is not the reason for their existence but a valuable measuring tool to see if they are achieving their goals

Be sure that the presenters takes some time of preparation beforehand, reading the Trainer notes and thinking about what one actually does to have a successful club.

Rob has always got great feed back on this method and even better, great successes from the clubs.
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Ellen Hermens, DTM (Lieutenant-Governor E&T 2008/09): "I consider Rob´s approach as an excellent example. I always conducted very interactive officer trainings as the attendees remember better what they learned by experience than by lecture."

Files for Download:

	COT-TRAINER-Notes.doc	91 K
	COT-attendee-notes.doc	101 K
	Club-Schedule-of-Events.doc	22 K
	DCP_Overhead.doc	51 K

Second Round of Club Officer Training

For the second round of COT you have usually officers who got to know their responsibilities and might have encountered some obstacles or learned what is most effective. Please provide enough time to discuss their experiences. All officers have now worked for half a year in their role and might see some things differently.

The officer trainings should have a duration of 4 hours and should include:

Review (exchanging/discussing experiences - make it a project from the advanced manual "Discussion Facilitator")
DCP status - where is the club in the Distinguished Club Program and the Club Success Plan (50% or further? If not - what can they do to achieve it?)
Calendar of important dates - Dues are due March 31st, Proxies for hte convention (send to DG), Club Contests, Area Conference, Division Conference, District Conference in Düsseldorf at 22.-24. May 2009 (District Council Meeting for Presidents and VP Eds), club officer vote in May
Successors - now is the time to nominate your successors
Educational session - in a topic which is useful for the Club officers (delegate that to experienced officers to have them attend and share their valuable experience.)

Some resources for educational sessions

You can access various training resources online at www.toastmasters.org. (click through: Officer Resources -> District Officer Resources -> District Training -> Club Officer Training)

We recommend taking a look especially at the modules which all come with Script, Slide Text, Handouts and Slides:

Attracting New Members to Your Club. Teaches club officers how to build membership in their clubs.
Charting a Course for Club Success. Explains the Distinguished Club Program and motivates club officers to achieve goals using the Club Success Plan.
Motivating Achievement. Familiarizes participants with the opportunities for growth available through the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership tracks and membership programs.

And remember in all your trainings: provide and have FUN!