Jackson, MS: Downtown Jackson Toastmasters Club

Jackson, MS
Meets 7 PM Wednesdays Eastern Time
Attendance: 15 Attendees

Every now and then, I encounter a Toastmasters club that is just not a good fit for me. The Downtown Jackson Toastmasters Club falls into that category. Having been in Toastmasters for several years, I have come to realize that each club has its own culture and sometimes what works for one club and its members doesn't work for another club. And that's OK.

With those qualifiers and caveats in place, I'm ready to talk about my experience.

First of all, I must say I was impressed with the number of people who attended the meeting on June 17. Some clubs have been struggling with attendance during the pandemic-related shutdown, but there were 15 people at this meeting, including, by my count, five guests. I also liked that two of the evaluators gave specific suggestions on how the speakers could improve their speeches. And the meeting started on time and ended on time. 

That being said, I still didn't feel like a good fit for this club. Here are the reasons I say that:
  • The meeting wasn't very organized. In fact, one of the guests who was attending for the second time said this meeting seemed to be thrown together like it was the last time he attended. I'm more partial to meetings that are better planned.
  • When I arrived 15 minutes before the start of the meeting, there was one member on the Zoom session and most of the members didn't show up until the last few minutes before the meeting. At my home club, we open the Zoom session 30 minutes before the meeting.
  • No one really greeted us before the meeting. I firmly believe that it is important to make guests feel welcome at all of our meetings
  • Two of the speakers were also evaluators at the meeting. I believe it's important to spread the roles around and not to overload any one person at the meeting. I later found out that those two speaker/evaluators were also the club coaches, so that's probably why they were serving in two roles.
One last thing related to club culture: Members of the club all referred to each other as "Toastmaster Jones" or "Toastmasters Lanham" or the like. Another guest mentioned that formality is common in the Deep South, but I have visited several clubs throughout the South and this is the first time I've witnessed this. It's not right or wrong, just different.

Like I said before, I'm not a good fit for this club. However, the club is Distinguished this year and I can't argue against that.







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