In a past post, I wrote about my experience in joining a Toastmasters Club. As I am writing this post, around a year and a half has passed since and there is a lot that I have gained from my involvement in Toastmasters. I have enjoyed it so much that I am now part of three clubs (yes, that’s a lot of time committed to Toastmasters). For those of you who have never heard about Toastmasters, you can refer to my previous post where I provide a general overview but to sum it up, it’s an organisation that helps its members develop their presentation and leadership skills.

What I would like to focus on in this post is the valuable experience that I have gained from taking the club officer role of president at one of my clubs. Every Toastmasters Club is managed by designated club officers who help in the running of the club by taking on core responsibilities that are essential for growing and maintaining a healthy club. These individuals are ordinary club members who put themselves forward at the start of an office term (more details can be found here) and are elected via the club’s officer election process.

While my first year at Toastmasters was focused on my presentation skills and on working on my speeches, my second year has been focused more on my club officer role. I have seen a lot of seasoned toastmasters who are just happy focusing on their speeches and avoid taking club officer roles due to several reasons (time commitment, additional responsibilities, etc.) but I think this is a big mistake as there is so much value from being a club officer. I believe that by taking on a club officer role, members can truly focus on harnessing their leadership skills. In this post I am summing up some of my key learnings: