Sunday, April 24, 2022
Is it fair and helpful to belong to two clubs? And a speech contestant in two clubs?
Dual memberships can benefit members. It is important if you are the second dual club not to criticize the 'rival' club, or the member for still being a member of the other club, or to blame them for just joining you to enter a contest. Any member who joins your club should be invited to every meeting. If they cannot attend, follow up with phone calls so they still feel part of the club.
If you act like their constant friend, they will want to see you. If you act like you have forgotten them, they may forget you. You have a member. It is easier to keep a member than find a new one.
I have heard somebody complain that a member just joined their club to enter a contest and then left.
1 Repeating speeches is one way to improve and finalists have often given their speeches at many clubs. This person didn't just come to practice his speech without paying at your club. This member paid you. I have seen two contestants who gave dreadful speeches at a club but after doing the same speech again at other clubs were completely transformed into winners at the next level and beyond.
2) Many good clubs either train their contestants, or hold a public feedback session before the contest. Did you do this? If so, everybody benefitted.
If not, you still benefitted if you asked your members to watch their member competing, got them interested in contests, and encouraged them to consider entering, or judging, or just watching contests and learning.
3) The same or other clubs might hold a debriefing session where the contestant who goes on to compete again gets feedback. So every time a contestant competes, they are improving from feedback, and other members improve by observing.
4) You can use your member's win in publicity. If you coached your contestant, they can write on Facebook how your help enabled them to win.
Did you invite them to rehearse the speech at your club the week or month before? Maybe your feedback helped.
Even if you said nothing, the practice of being on time will have helped.
The club where they were a winner can place news of 'our member's win' on Facebook, fliers, websites and elsewhere.
(People in the other club can also say that their member won, because their member has come to meetings and given feedback about what it is like at different levels of contests, and tricky things such as keeping to time, being audible.)
Did you invite the winner back to speak after the win to speak at the club about their success?
If not, or they were too busy, you can still analyze what your current, or past member, did to win a contest.
5) If you congratulate your winner privately and publicly and make a huge fuss of them, they might want to stay in your club. I was a member of two clubs and often won the second time. Maybe it was because I learned from my mistakes the first time.
Labels: criticise, feedback, forget you, keep a member, keep to time, rehearsal, repeat speeches, rival club, win a contest, winner's contest photos
