What’s In It For You? The Benefits of Being a Club Officer

Joining your club’s leadership team doesn’t have to mean a lifetime commitment to Toastmasters. Many people take on roles with no previous experience and are amazed at how their skills and confidence skyrocket.

“I encourage members to see club leadership as a way to develop skills that go beyond Toastmasters, not just doing it because ‘someone has to do it,’” says Joel Palachuvattil, DTM, of Baltimore, Maryland.

“I also share my experience. I, too, said no at first [to being a club officer]. I didn’t want to commit the time, and I didn’t have any interest. I had excuses. But my club members had rebuttals. I ended up as VPE [Vice President Education] three months after joining only because I ran out of excuses before they ran out of rebuttals,” he says, laughing.

Cindy Cannon, DTM, of Atlanta, Georgia, says she fell in love with Toastmasters when she became a club leader. She credits her first Toastmasters leadership position with helping her find her voice, and she eventually rose from Club President to District Governor and Region Advisor. Yet her leadership trajectory was completely unexpected. “The best thing that happened to me was I missed a meeting. Elections were held that day, and I was elected President of my club having been a member for only three months!”

Former Club President and past Area Director Rosemary Hallberg, of Raleigh, North Carolina, says she is glad she initially took on the role of President despite her initial reluctance. “This past year, I was put in charge of our communications team at work. Having been Club President helped me understand what not to do,” she says. “I was able to get everyone involved, keep everyone motivated. I saw how I was as a leader.”

The ripple effects of her club experience go far beyond Toastmasters and beyond what she could have originally imagined. “The benefits are priceless. [The experience] helped me in my career as a recruiter, as a leader. It made me a paid speaker and a paid coach, and it gave me opportunities I never would have had. I have my own business, and now I give back and give other Toastmasters what I have learned. Most of all, it gave me a community, a family.”