Good morning my dear fellow Toastmasters and distinguished guests! Do you know what historical event will be held here next Saturday? (The officer election.)
Yes! You are so smart!
Will you come and join this big event? (Yes)
Great! I will be here waiting for you!
"Now let me introduce myself, I'm the president of this club, my name is Caroline." When I spoke out this sentence, I felt so proud and touched. As you know, 3 weeks later, I will officially transfer this job to another one in our club, the "president" title is somewhat precious for me now. :p
Time flies, I've been working for our club for around half a year. I still clearly remembered my election day. On that day, I said, there are 2 reasons that drive me to this stage: the first one is "love", the second one is "our core value". Now after 5 months, I would like to sincerely say "Thank you" to that brave girl standing on this stage. I never regret for this decision. It brings me so many brilliant experiences including something that I never thought about.
Being an officer is a great choice, it's not only good for yourself but also for the society. It is a 100% win-win choice.
First, let's talk about the personal benefits.
First, being an officer, you will get more stage time.
You stand on the stage and say something to the audience from your position's perspective. For example, as president, I will say something at the beginning and ending of each regular meeting. For our SAA Amber, she introduces our lovely guests at each meeting. Our VPE Cathy, she officially give awards to our members when they reaches some educational milestones. And she says something to encourage him or her to move on...
These things are not very difficult, while they can effectively build nice connections with people. The connection creates energy. The energy will go into your body and arouse your inner power. Then gradually you will find a more powerful and confident yourself.
For myself, after being an officer for 5 months, I conducted a training session in my company. Around 60 colleagues joined the session. It was very successful. One of my colleague said, she was deeply touched by my presentation and she even saw tears in another colleague's eyes. I would say, nearly all of the presentation skills come from our Toastmasters club, especially from the officer experience.
Second, being an officer gives you the opportunity to think as a leader. We know that sitting in different position makes us think differently. Taking our working environment as an example, when there is a new position in your team, a very good opportunity, why your manager gives it to your colleague but not you? Or why your manager directly gives it to you but not your colleague?
Being an officer you will have the opportunity to organize activities in our club. And you could call other members to help you for the preparation. You are the leader of this preparation group. You learn by doing and gradually you will know the reason behind your leader's behavior. Because at that time, you are already a leader! This will help you during your whole life. Think as a leader, more positive, greater collaboration.
Last but not least, the officer titles are cool - President, Vice President, 财务官，秘书长，事务官。Not sure if you have been called like these before. For me, I never been called "President" before. But now after 5 months, I already got used to this title. Consider our life is just like a book, the Toastmasters officer experience are the colorful pages in it. Very interesting and memorable.
OK, these are the personal benefits. Then how about the social benefits?
As I said before, I always believe that everyone is changing the world. More or less, change it better or worse. In our Toastmasters club, we say RISE - Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence. We encourage people, we help each other. We learn and grow happily together. How about extending these to more people outside our club? As a Toastmasters officer, you got the opportunity to help maintaining a positive and supportive learning environment in our club, you will help organizing interesting activities. These activities attract people to join and after that, they will bring something back to their normal life. And they can impact people around them. This is just like Ripple Effect. By this way, we change the world little by little, change it better and better. Is it cool? I think it is VERY cool.
Someone said, being an officer without any payment. Are you stupid? Am I stupid? Well I would like to say, that is because - we don't have to be the slave of money! We can do the meaningful things we really love. We can do that! It's not a dream!
Someone asked, what if we failed in the election? Believe me, you cannot find any other place to lose face in this relax way. In IBM TMC's officer election, a funny boy ran for 5 positions but didn’t get any. At last, he said: good, all the election is under my control.
Now you see, this is our Toastmasters.
So my dear fellow Toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen. What are you waiting for? Just run for the officer election, write your name in the history of No.1! You will never regret!
( Note: No.1 stands for Dalian No.1 Toastmasters Club )
