No One Left Behind

I taught a VP Education TLI session last weekend and it made me realize a couple of things:
1. As an organization, we haven't done enough to encourage existing members to start Pathways
2. Newer members (and even some existing members) are encouraged by Pathways but want more information

One person in my VPE session said she became the VPE because everyone else in her club decided that they were going to continue the Traditional Program and pretty much left her on her own.  That's not a good thing.
As veteran members, we should at least be familiar with both programs so that we can support our new members who only have 1 choice.  We shouldn't be leaving any of our members in the dust, even those who see Pathways as a reason to reconsider their membership.

When I look at members' progress, where they're at and the likelihood of them completing a Traditional DTM, I think about a couple of questions to ask them:
1. What do you want to get out of Toastmasters?
2. How likely are you to achieve your DTM in the traditional program?

The most important thing is that it should ALWAYS be the member's decision and NOT ours.  However, I believe in putting all the information in front of our members so that they can make an educated decision that works the best for them and helping them understand the impacts of their decisions.

There's Club Central and District Central, but not really a Pathways Central.  Yes, a link to Pathways information exists, but a lot of the very useful resources require that you either do an Internet search or get a link to them from a District website.  I'm not saying that TI needs to recreate materials, but I am saying that TI needs to make it easier to find these resources.

The Guides and Ambassadors were a great idea, but people, in general, weren't ready to move to Pathways.  In a way, it was because of the rushed, at least in my regions, we were just getting started when the term of our Guides ended.  We could really use another chance at having Guides, especially now that we have real-world experience.

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