This coming Tuesday, a delegation from U-CAN-SPEAK will visit the Avonhead Toastmasters club to start negotiations regarding a joint club.
Avonhead Toastmasters are a club in formation with currently six members, as well as a few dual members and helpers. Being a club that has not chartered yet, the six members are neither eligible for educational awards, nor can they compete, participate in District events or receive the Toastmaster magazine.
At the university, we have been planning for about half a year to (purely formally) split into two U-CAN-SPEAK clubs, as this would imply a large number of benefits for our members and executives.
By combining the 15 members from U-CAN-SPEAK, who currently visit our Thursday meetings, and the members from Avonhead Toastmasters, we would exceed the minimum membership of 20 which is required to form a new club.
Therefore, a delegation of Thursday members from U-CAN-SPEAK will visit the Avonhead Club this coming Tuesday to evaluate if we can overcome the logistical hurdles involved. Besides formalities, the major challenge will be to coordinate the meeting times of the envisaged club.
These efforts, if successful, would be well worth it. Members of Avonhead Toastmasters would immediately be recognised as full members of Toastmasters International with all benefits included. With 15 extra members, meetings would become more challenging, more diverse and less difficult to organise.
Likewise, U-CAN-SPEAK would benefit from the experience Avonhead members contribute. On our own, it would presumably take until July/August until we have sufficiently many members to split into two U-CAN-SPEAK clubs. By combining our club’s resources with Avonhead, we could charter a new club instantly.
U-CAN-SPEAK 