What is a Demo Team?

A Demo Team is a group of Toastmasters that volunteer an hour or two when available to help grow new clubs in our district.  We grow clubs by bringing a Demo Meeting to a company or community group.  The Demo Meeting consists of everything that goes into a regular meeting like the one you have at your own club.  We try to gather at least twenty potential Toastmasters for the meeting.  Typically we have a Toastmaster, one Speaker, a Table Topics Master, a Timer, a Grammarian, a Speech Evaluator and a General Evaluator.  We run the Demo Meeting with careful explanation of what each person does as he or she does it.  This encourages those attending to listen and learn about Toastmasters.  How am I doing?  Do I still have your attention?

The Lieutenant Governor Marketing works with the company or group contact to schedule meetings number two and three.  We usually ask for potential member participation starting with the second meeting.  One or two people may do an Icebreaker Speech.  The Demo Team moves on and a new club Sponsor and Mentor stay on to nurture and guide the new members down the communications and leadership trail.  Members need to serve as a Sponsor, Mentor or Club Specialist in order to achieve their Advanced Leader Award.

A New Club Sponsor is a Toastmaster that starts out helping form the club at the first few meetings and watches over the club’s development as time goes on.  Sponsors are officaly successful when a new club charters and sends world headquarters a letter verifying that the sponsor performed his/her duties.  World headquarters must receive this letter within 90 days of the new club charter date.

A New Club Mentor goes to every meeting that he or she can make and teaches the new club how to run effective meetings giving good evaluations and making sure manual speeches are done.  The Mentor typically stays with the club for 6 months and helps celebrate the charter at a Charter Ceremony. Mentors are officially successful after working with the new club for six months after it’s charter date and the club sends a letter verifying that the mentor performed his/her duties for those six months.

Can you be on a demo Team without a long term commitment?  Yes you can. Your help and assistance is needed, whether it is once or twenty times, it’s up to you.