Engaging and Retaining Millennials in Toastmasters

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki DTM

What a mind opener!  Lingo Advanced Communicators hosted a workshop on April 3/18 on Attracting, Engaging and Retaining Millennials in Toastmasters.

Co-facilitators Dan Mc and Eileen S presented an excellent workshop starting with exploring “Who are millennials?”  For those of you baby boomers (1945-1960) or Generation Xers (1961-1980), Dan shared that Millennials, born between 1981-1995, are often referred to as Generation Y kids.  They aspire for Freedom and Flexibility and are Digital Natives. Signature products are Tablets and Smart Phones and they communicate on-line and by text messaging. 

We had the pleasure of hearing from real life Toastmaster Millennials, Derek, Shauna, and Kamil when Eileen led a panel discussion. Millennial Jake also contributed.  They confirmed the above and discussed their first experiences with Toastmasters, such as 1) while searching online for a club as “everyone has heard of Toastmasters” being thrown by the 90 pins on the city map, 2) listening to Mom who told her about Toastmasters as suggested by a long time Toastmaster then searching online for a club or 3) being recommended by a boss. They stated that location and day and time of the meeting was the deciding factor in picking a club.

What kept them coming was the good energy and described it as “a good platform”. They liked the confidence booster feeling after attending a meeting.  The leadership part was appealing and Toastmasters presented the balance of flexibility and structure.   

The most mentioned skill learned was “networking.”  Toastmasters presents skills such as taking minutes, doing reports, being evaluated or being able to compare oneself against others.  Toastmasters offers things not learned in high school thus making it a good playground. The need for continual progress is important.

Suggestions for reaching Millennials is person to person contact and not just social media.  Word of mouth is important especially coming from another Millennial. (My thoughts are that Toastmasters can be spread like a disease but please do wash your hands or cover your mouth when sneezing).  

During the small breakout case study sessions, these topics were mentioned:  Enlisting celebrities, offering rewards, setting up a coffee meeting to discuss Toastmasters, using MeetUps (which does not require commitment), engage and involve early, and the importance of mentors. We enlisted the millennials as recorders (we learned quickly to involve them).  Their overall presentations were evaluated by Cherry during the general evaluation portion of the meeting.  

We were absolutely thrilled and thankful to have the millennial Toastmasters join us as well as three other guests in our senior residence meeting place.  We learned so much.  

Our next meeting is April 17/18, with President Melanie as Toastmaster, a further presentation by Cheryl P on Pathways   and the crew and guests from “Gilligan’s Island”* may end up stranded on Lingo’s Island. (*Millennials you may need to google this). It is going to be a jampacked meeting.  Stay tuned.