Zlatoust Masters

After the first meeting, the most important role at hand was to form a team - the executive committee of the club. I announced about this during the meeting and also through posts on Facebook page. Soon I had people writing to me with their motivation letters and we had an election in the club after a few meetings - during June. Indeed, because the club was not officially registered at that moment yet, these elections were more symbolic. We elected people for the following responsibilities:

• Vice-president Education
• Vice-president Membership and Treasurer
• Vice-president for Public Relations
• Secretary

My first thought was that now that I had the team, I could relax and that things would go smoothly and the team would continue as it is till next summer - June 2017. However, it proved to be much more complex than it first appeared.

Firstly, there was so much to do, but because this was a voluntary work with no one getting paid, it was difficult to keep a few of the committee members consistently deliver the agreed commitments. This is one of the key differences with supervising employees who get paid and supervising those who contribute their time and efforts for free. To keep them consistently motivated and committed in the later case is more difficult. So my expectation that the team will stick together the whole year did not really get realised: someone did not deliver consistently and we had to change, someone lost interest and left, someone moved away from Moscow for career reasons. So the club executive team was changing and evolving place rather than a set for a long term team.

With time I learned to get used to manage some of the uncertainties that such an ever-evolving dynamics would bring for the life of the club. On the positive side, those new that were joining the executive team were bringing new perspectives, creativity and ideas - and my aim was to have them discussed as a team and get implemented, if possible. Most of the discussions were happening in our WhatsApp group. Through the experience of leading a team I learned about my own leadership style and realised that in general I have more liberal, inclusive and democratic leadership, but could also act more decisively and authoritatively in urgent or crisis situations.

One other challenge for the executive team was to convince at least 20 members to register as a member and pay - so that the club could officially be registered as a Toastmasters club. We agreed with Toasbusters club that we would register our members in their club, and when they had over 40 members (some 30 of which were their own members), then we could “split” with them. It meant that some of their members would temporarily transfer their membership to our club, and when they next extend their membership - they could do it in their original club - meaning they return back. And we, as a new club, would increase our own membership base in the meantime. We did such a split with Moscow Toastbusters club. We submitted all the required charter documents for prospective club on 27 February 2017 and on 15 March 2017 I received a letter: “On behalf of Toastmasters International, I congratulate your club upon completion of its charter requirements. Zlatoust Masters Club has been assigned Club No. 06082035”.

So, since our first meeting on 19 April 2016, we had over 20 meetings till we were officially registered as a Toastmasters club. Our club was the first registered Russian-speaking Toastmasters club in Russia. We have mentioned the names of the many who supported the development and registration of the club in our official Facebook Page.

Today, the club has its own style, traditions and unique atmosphere. One great tradition our club had was going out to nearby bars after each meeting and continue discussions in more relaxed atmosphere. Some members really were famous for their toasts and entertaining skills.

I am proud of our club and I am immensely grateful to everyone who helped to realize this idea. The club helped me develop my skills in leading teams and delegating responsibilities, coordinating and monitoring processes, mitigating risks and resolving conflicts, and communicating more effectively. One of the executive club members of the club, Marina Petrova had a special role in the growth and development of the club, and she also was elected as the second president of the club in June 2017. Next, she will continue on what was it like being part of this history.