Open House events are a traditional means to recruiting new Toastmaster members. The title of the feature article in the July 2017 Toastmaster magazine is " Stir Up Excitement with an Open House or Demo Meeting". Just speaking from my own experience, Open House events are demoralizing. The return on investment from the resources invested is usually paltry.
It takes both money and time to orchestrate an event. Promotion requires flyers, the event itself involves refreshments as well as cost of meeting space. A club operating on a shoestring expends valuable resources. The total hours spent is a hidden cost. I have heard many members express frustration and remorse when they realize the yield is exactly zero members.
Yes, there are baby carrots such as points towards district bucks ( which are restrictive and difficult to redeem ) .
The crux of the issue is an event is by definition ephemeral. Full disclosure:
I am a zealot for going to market by what is known as Search Engine Optimization. To me, it is the art and science of getting found online when people search for what you have to offer. The premise is everything starts with a search. It's incredibly more efficient than what I did for decades in sales - knocking on doors. Prospective new members are not interested in the flyer or advertising if the timing is not right. They will attend if they happen to be thinking about fear of public speaking when they see the a
In my biased opinion, the time would be better spent developing "evergreen" web content which is bait when someone gets motivated to develop public speaking skills.
What do you think ? Am i wrong ?