Demonstration Meeting or Open House

​OPEN HOUSE (Demonstration Meetings)
A club of 12 members or less requiring to build up members has a real challenge. In most cases members recognise that an “open house” also known as a “Demonstration Meeting” is one proven way to attract new members. So examine the possibly of using this strategy.
“Open House” description: This is a specifically conducted meeting to showcase a Toastmaster meeting. It is a meeting with invited Toastmasters from neighbouring club/s to fulfil as many roles as possible in an effort to create a dynamic and interesting meeting, thus encouraging guest’s interest in joining. Open House meeting generally follow the format of a regular meeting (without a business session) with the Toastmaster explaining the roles and the reasons for them.
A successful Open House meeting:

1. Will not contain a Business Session, although the meeting should still be minuted.
2. Should contain 3 speakers of varying ages and standards. Young, middle and Old. In this way your club is more attractive to all age groups.
3. One speaker (probably the older) should give an educational speech. Perhaps on butterflies , gesture, vocal variety etc.

One Open House is not enough to obtain results. Regardless of how often your club meets there needs 3 consecutive weekly Open House type meetings, in order to pursue a positive outcome.
The Open House strategy tends to work well in a populated centre, where there is at least another club within a reasonable distance, willing to provide your club with the supporting manpower over the three weeks.
If your club is the only club in a regional centre, then the Open House strategy may not be the correct strategy instead, consider an in house Speechcraft course.