It’s my first time to be the toastmaster (host) of my home club’s meeting and on zoom. I checked in with the club president and our ‘tech guru’ 2 weeks prior. I reached out to the members the weekend (5 days) prior to the meeting to start the preparation (ask for speaker intro, coordinate with different roles, and try to fill the remaining roles). One speaker dropped off 2 days prior to the meeting so we were down to 2 speakers. I reached out to 5 people (who we haven’t seen for a while) to ask if they’re interested in speaking. I then received an email from the previous club president commenting that broadcast email was not effective and I reached out too late. He mentioned he’d ask a few people to speak and suggested me to ask an experienced member to re-do a speech he was running out of time in the last meeting. I liked his suggestion and appreciated his reach-out yet his words made me a bit worried…I calmed and told myself that I had reached out to people to file the roles and we’d be fine…
And we did, we had 2 visitors (+ 12 members), 3 speakers, and a fun evening. Several people congratulated me as a first-time toastmaster. I’m surprised yet delighted to see an email from the ex-president the next day complimenting my energy and flexibility to make a fun meeting. Success comes from teamwork and belief: do what I think right/ willing to try new things, invite people outside club, and not bug down by obstacles. It’ll be all right.