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12 WAYS TO ENCOURAGE MEMBERS TO DO MANUAL SPEECHES
(HOW CLUBS CAN HELP MEMBERS ACHIEVE THEIR CTM & ATM)
 
  1. Remind the VPE of each Club to take a survey of the interests and needs of their Club members. Find out why members joined and what they want out of their Toastmasters experience. According to surveys done by WHQ, most members say that they joined in order to become more effective and confident speakers.
  2. Based on the above survey, encourage the VPE of each Club to convey to the Club members the link between giving manual speeches and reaching their personal goals. The VPE could give a speech about this in the Club and also follow-up with telephone calls to individual members.
  3. Encourage every Club to establish a Mentoring program for the inexperienced members. Assign experienced, knowledgeable, and caring members to mentor new members through their first few speeches. This one-to-one attention will help many new members overcome their jitters and get a good start in speaking.
  4. Reward and recognize members who give manual speeches. Examples are: standing ovations for ice breaker speeches; positive comments given informally to speakers by experienced Toastmasters during a break or at the end of the meeting; hand written notes of compliments passed to the speaker after their speech, etc. People tend to want to repeat the things that get immediate positive feedback.
  5. When a member completes their CTM, ATM, -B, -S, -G, or DTM, encourage every Club to hold a ceremony to honor the achiever.
  6. Print the name of every person who achieves the CTM or any ATM or DTM on the District Newsletter and any electronic news. Also print the name of the Club AND the name of the Club President. People like to be acknowledged and honored. Toastmasters who read this will want to be honored too, and they will be motivated to do what it takes to be recognized.
  7. Sell every Club president on the benefits of using the Distinguished Club Program (DCP).
  8. Same as #6 above, recognize and honor every Club that progresses toward achieving their goals on the DCP. Always include the name of the Club President.
  9. The LGET, or someone appointed by the LGET, write an article directed toward all the members of the District who have not yet achieved their CTM. Post this on the District web site and also include it in the District Newsletter. The article could include these topics:
    • How the Communication & Leadership Program manual is designed to help them reach their goals of becoming more effective, confident speakers.
    • How they can go about completing the C & L manual, one speech at a time.
    • How to pick topics:-
    • How to set a time table to achieve the CTM
    • How to pick a mentor and ask for one-on-one help
    • How to practice and prepare for a manual speech
    • How to get the most out of the evaluations they receive so that they improve with every speech.
  10. Publicize the above article via every medium available: telephone calls or e-mails to Division Governors, Area Governors, Club Presidents, VPEs; a flyer e-mailed or faxed and posted at Area, Division and District functions; District Executive Committee Meetings, TLIs and Club Officer Training meetings, etc.
  11. Ask every Area Governor to talk up manual speeches and completions during Club visits and conversations with Club Presidents.
  12. Make it clear in your communications that non-manual speeches are detrimental to members' progress and Clubs achieving their mission. Some reasons why non-manual speeches should be discouraged are that they: 
    • have no guide or structure given for the speaker; 
    • have no evaluation criteria for the evaluator; 
    • rob the Club program of a manual speech that could have been given during that time slot and thus the advancement of a member toward their CTM or ATM; 
    • usually have no specific objectives on which the audience can focus; 
    • encourage impressionable members to pay less attention to the professionally prepared C & L manual and Advanced C & L manuals when planning and preparing their speeches.

For members who have completed their CTM, we have 15 advanced manuals which can be used for almost every conceivable type of speech. Publicize these manuals. Better yet, have them on display at Club meetings