With April Braswell, DTM – 2026-2027 Club Growth Director
Membership Matters is a regular feature coming to you from the 2026-2027 Club Growth Team.
New Toastmasters and new members are the lifeblood of every club.
This week’s post is about The Smedley Award Membership Building Campaign.
For the next few weeks, we will share a different strategy or two to give you ideas for how your club might conduct their Summer Membership Building campaign. Even if the particular strategy doesn’t fit your club, take the idea and extrapolate to generate your own campaign. And when your idea generates visitors who become members, send an email to CGD@FoundersDistrict.org. We would love to spotlight your club’s success and share your ideas to inspire other members.
The Smedley Award Membership campaign season has officially started! It’s August and September is just around the corner. Residents all around Southern California are seeing “Back-to-School” in stores and in public spaces. Take advantage of that being in the forefront of their minds, and make this for adults.
Host a “Back-to-School/Fall Prep” Open House. When you see the phrase “Open House,” that is a Toastmasters term. An Open House can be a special themed-meeting that you plan and promote 6-weeks out. We recommend an advance time of 4-8 weeks for those special events to give you all enough time to plan it, potentially arrange for a special speaker, and have plenty of time to promote your event to your community neighbors. No Open House is complete without making and printing fliers and walking around to your meeting’s neighborhood and inviting them.
See this article from the Toastmasters Magazine for an extensive discussion and more descriptions on ways and to whom to promote and invite to your clubs’ open house.
Toastmasters Magazine on Open Houses
Inviting Do’s and Don’ts:
Don’t:
When you visit your meeting’s neighbors, don’t say, “You need Toastmasters.”
Do:
Instead say, “We’re a group of professionals who meet after work around the corner to improve and practice our communication and leadership skills. We’re having a free mini-workshop in two weeks on “Back-to-School Workforce Skills for Autumn.” It’ll be great. I invite you to join us.”
The key words to notice and endeavor to use are “group of professionals,” “free workshop,” and “I invite you.” Say “I invite you” as you simply hand them the invitation. Your flier isn’t just a flier now. It is a personal invitation.
August marks the end of summer, a time when people shift back into a structured, growth-oriented mindset.
- The Strategy: Run an Open House meeting themed entirely around professional reset or career advancements.
- August Action: Position the event as a way to “Sharpen Your Skills for Autumn.” Have your strongest speaker present a topic like interview preparation, mastering workplace presentations, or overcoming social anxiety in a new project group environment.
Pro tip: You might ask your Area Director or Division Director to be the guest speaker. When you plan to have a contender for the World Champion of Public Speaking be your featured speaker, that’s a different kind of special event. We’ll cover those later in the year. Come watch Founder’s District’s own Daniel Midson-Short at the competition at Convention this month! - Physical Bulletin Boards: There are still some physical ones around. Look around at your local coffeeshop near where your meeting space is. Bring your own pushpins from the local drug store. Chat up the staff. Go when it’s not a super busy time and ask permission to post your flier. They will appreciate you asking. And this gives you the opportunity to share the benefits you’ve experienced in being a Toastmaster. Buy a coffee there while you’re at it.
This is a neighbor with whom you’d do well to develop a little of a strategic relationship. Stop off here at least once or twice a month, before or after a meeting, certainly. Grab a coffee. Say hi. “Just stopping by before our Toastmasters Meeting. You’re our favorite cup of Joe!” And they will start to remember you all as those nice friendly Toastmasters people. They may be able to recommend you to another patron or direct a staffmate who works a different shift than your meeting time to visit your club. - Are Open Houses Effective? “But April, we’ve done open houses before and they didn’t work.” If you’re thinking that, I hear you. Typically when a club hosts an open house and they get a low turn out, it’s because a few of the key elements to hosting an effective open house were omitted. You do need advance time of 4+ weeks. 3 would be the absolute minimum. And you do need to promote and repeatedly using at least 2 methods (personal handing flier invitations to building neighbors and posting in a FB locals group.) to generate visitors.
For more ideas and 2 club case studies on inviting visitors to your club, check out:
Membership Magnetism
Got visitors, now what? Read and practice this Toastmasters Tool to convert visitors to members!
Closing the Sale (PDF and PPT)
Toastmasters Branded Meeting Flier