A heartfelt thank you to the District 26 Toastmasters (serving Wyoming, Colorado, and Western Nebraska) for providing the below text.

Preparing for and Conducting Better Meetings

There is no better way to recruit new Toastmasters members than to consistently deliver a powerful, professional, and fun meeting each and every time. After all, it's easy to get visitors in the door, but getting them to come back will depend on the quality of your meetings.

In addition, great meetings retain membership. Keep your meetings organized and entertaining and your members will look forward to attending month after month and year after year.

What Makes a Meeting Successful?

Clubs conduct meetings in many different ways; although the Toastmasters concept is universal. There will always be formal speeches, evaluations and table topics. Well, that is, if the participants show up.

It is a proven fact that two things need to occur to have a successful meeting. These include:

1) Members must take ownership of their roles
2) Meetings must be prepared

Role Ownership
Many clubs assign roles to their members while others rely on membes to volunteer for each meeting role.

In either case, it is vital to the success of a meeting that once a role is assigned or selected, the member must take ownership of that role. Consider making it a mandatory rule that each member must find a replacement for their meeting role in the event of an emergency that prevents the scheduled member to be present at the meeting.

Meeting Preparation
The way clubs prepare for meetings differs from one to the next. In some clubs, the VP of Education is responsible for preparing each meeting. In others, the Toastmaster of the Day is responsible for much of the preparatory work.

Which method your club adopts is up to you. What is important is that meetings are prepared in advance.