I was recently asked, "What's the big deal about being Distinguished?"
The big deal is that if you are an officer of a distinguished club, that is tangible proof
that you and your fellow officers are providing your members with an environment in which
they can grow and achieve their personal goals.
If you are distinguished, by definition, you are acclaimed, brilliant, celebrated, dignified, distinct, eminent, famous, grand, illustrious, imposing, marked, notable, prestigious, prominent, renowned, shining, special and stately. On the other hand, if you have not achieved distinguished status, you are, at best average, common, fair, humdrum, medial, mediocre, medium, middle, normal, ordinary, par, respectable, so-so, standard, typical, usual. Who wants to be that?
As of April 30, 2005, 150, almost three quarters of all the clubs in Founders District are within striking distance of being distinguished. Eighty two clubs have already achieved five or more goals and will be distinguished, provided they can meet the Membership criteria.
District Governor, Norm Cook, has just announced that with still two months to go, 45 clubs have already achieved distinguished status. My keen, analytical mind tells me that there are 37 clubs that have achieved the five goals necessary for distinction, but they are still short as to the membership goal.
Remember that unless your club started July 1, 2004 with 15 members or more, you don't even need to have 20 members to be distinguished; all you need is a net gain of five members. Moreover, if you started the year with 17 members, for example, all you need is a net gain of three members-a piece of cake!
There are two ways to meet your membership goals. The most obvious is to go out and recruit new members. But in my view, a far better way is to go after old members. Now is the time to concentrate on going back and picking up members that were current as of March 31st, but have failed to renew their membership. This could be a gold mine for growth. But don't stop there. Pull out your old rosters and look for the names that are no longer on your membership list. Give them a call. You will be surprised at the number of people that drop their membership simply because no one bothered to call them when they stopped coming to meetings.
It IS a big deal to be distinguished; it means your club is a cut above. It means you are doing your job. That makes Toastmasters more rewarding for all of us.