For many clubs, it’s a dream. For another group of clubs, it’s a goal. For Albuquerque’s Midday Madness, it’s a habit.
First chartered in 1986, Midday Madness (Club 6220) has pushed itself into the top 1 percent of Toastmasters clubs. In mid-February, more than four months ahead of the Toastmasters year concluding, Midday Madness has already met the threshold for a distinguished club, and it will be the 19th consecutive year hitting that mark.
“It’s a special club,” said Jonathan Gardner, who joined in 2016. “It has got a culture of camaraderie and a culture of excellence. It is shown by how the members work with each other.”
Just like Toastmasters had for years worked on manuals requiring 10 projects for awards, clubs work on 10 goals to be a distinguished club:
- Getting people comfortable: Two Competent Communicator awards for Goal 1, Two Competent Communicator awards for Goal 2.
- Advancing communicators beyond the basics: An Advanced Communicator award for Goal 3, another Advanced Communicator award for Goal 4.
- Making leaders: A leadership award for Goal 5, and another leadership award for Goal 6.
- Club building: Four new members for Goal 7, and another four new members for Goal 8.
- Handling administrative duties: Training club officers twice a year for Goal 9, submitted dues and officer rosters for Goal 10.
- Yes, There’s also an 11th goal: 20 members, or a net gain of five from the prior year.
As of February, Midday Madness had already reached the minimum five goals to receive distinguished status, but the 23 members aren’t done yet. Member Keri Sutter said sometimes a goal comes in just under the deadline, like one year where two new members joined in the final three days of June.
“There have been plenty of times we’ve been nine out of 10,” said Sutter, a member of Midday Madness since 2000 and a former holder of every club office but VP-Membership. “We try for 10 out of 10. There are years we miss one for whatever reason. It’s either sweating the new members or the advanced awards.”
Sutter knew of Midday Madness before she ever filled out the application form. She previously met with Marketing Masters, but Midday Madness was part of her oversight as an area governor. There was nothing wrong with the other three clubs in her area, but Midday Madness clearly had a way of doing things that was better.
Here are a few reasons Midday Madness makes success a habit:
The Toastmaster controls the meeting before and after the gavel is pounded: “Midday Madness routinely runs a very tight meeting,” Sutter said, “ in that nobody walks in unprepared even if they’re not prepared. We rarely auction off roles at the beginning of the meeting. They’re usually taken care of ahead of time. We’ve never had a situation where the speaker walked in and said, ‘Oh, I’m the speaker?’
We communicate outside of the club meetings — email and phone calls, mostly, although there is a lot of text messaging. There are some people you text, some you email, some you call. The Toastmaster of the week is supposed to contact all of the people scheduled for a role, ask if they are coming, and if not, who is taking their place.”A club succeeds with good meetings: “If you do not have good meetings,” Sutter said, “you are not going to have a good club. I’ve seen clubs nosedive because of bad schedules, and I’ve seen the same clubs rebound with a good one. Have good meetings with people who are committed, even if one person is doing four roles.”
Having good meetings doesn’t just happen the day of the meeting: “Keeping the club strong requires an enormous amount of time, particularly if you’re a club officer,” Sutter said. “Like any organization, if it’s going to stay strong, you have to put in lots of energy. The more energy people put in the stronger the organization becomes. The leadership has to keep putting the energy in on a consistent basis, many times a week if not daily. There are times where it is difficult to retain that amount of energy.”
Member support starts immediately: When people want to join, Sutter said, two things happen immediately. Their dues are collected, and their mentor is assigned. The faster motivated people get their materials and the people to help them, the faster they progress in Toastmasters.
Member support doesn’t end: Gardner won District 23’s international speech contest last year, earning the right to represent the district at the World Championship of Public Speaking. He said he didn’t get there without the unselfishness of Midday Madness members, including eight who came to support him at the district contest in Amarillo.
“There is a valuing and a concern for the individual members of Midday Madness that extends beyond the four walls of the club,” Gardner said. “Midday Madness has been so gracious, especially with the international contest speech. They let me give that speech over and over and over, and they gave me feedback each time they saw it. They gave me stage time. That’s notable, when you consider that for the international semi-finals I was not representing Midday Madness. I was representing Valencia Voices. I was still a Midday Madness member, and they were willing to let me take speaking slot after speaking slot to go over the presentations. They listened to the speech, they gave feedback on the presentation. They were willing to change the club process to help me be successful as a contestant.
“In terms of support, they did a viewing party for the semifinals. This is somebody who’s a member of their club, but I was not representing them officially. I wasn’t under their club banner, and they’re still putting together a viewing party. There was a lot of support, a lot of encouragement, a lot of feedback. They are definitely to be commended for their commitment throughout the whole process.”
The club is also there in bad times, Gardner said. He recalled a time when a member lost a family member unexpectedly and there was no funeral. Club members put together an event to serve as a funeral in support of the member.
