The Business Matters Club, based at Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, is a unique club. It is a themed club that focuses all of its meetings on the business world, relevant to anyone who has to work for a living. The meetings conclude with an extra half-hour informal discussion about business topics… how to handle various situations at work. The members come from a wide range of businesses and occupations, so there is often fascinating insight and advice.
“BizMat” is a basic club (i.e., not an advanced club) that currently meets once a month on Saturday mornings. The plan is to boost membership enough to sustain two meetings a month. Currently, the membership is made up mostly of veteran Toastmasters who love the concept, enjoy the meetings, but have limited available time since they belong to at least one other club.
The club has struggled to find new members, continuing to rely heavily on the veterans. Just a few remained when it was decided to make a last-ditch effort to save the club. Club President Mike Anderson said, “We debated whether to even collect dues in September. Then veteran Toastmaster Steve Hinsley came up with an idea. He’s owner of his own company, and a professional presenter. He offered to conduct a couple of seminars that we could label as special events and see if we can use that to draw in new prospects.”
At the club’s August meeting, Steve presented a seminar called “Leadership in the Workplace.” It was heavily marketed, including newspaper ads donated by a member, and emails to local business organizations. The turnout wasn’t overwhelming – half a dozen guests, plus about 10 other Toastmasters who came out to support the effort. But it may have been enough. One of the visiting Toastmasters liked the concept so much that she has convinced her employer’s management to make the club part of their employee training program, with at least seven of them expected to join the club.
Will there be a happy ending to this story? Too soon to tell. The club will hold the second and final special meeting on September 6 (Kirkwood College, Cedar Hall, Room 3008, at 9 a.m.). Steve Hinsley will present, “Selling Performance: The True Art of Effective Communication.” Mike added, “We’ll just have to see how many dues checks we collect that day, both from existing and new members. But I do know that this special effort has put some new energy into the club’s members, and rarely do energized Toastmasters fail.”