Last year’s officers remember this – end of May comes, and they get an email: “Hey, your club is close to Distinguished, you just need to add 4 more members and 2 Educational Awards and you’ll be there.”

June 30th, the closing date for your club’s results, is one month away – so now it’s time to scramble to get in some results! The VP Education checks the speech progress to see who is the closest to completing Level 3. VP Membership urges everyone to sign up their friends, wives and cousins to prop up the membership numbers.

Wouldn’t it be nice – instead of rushing in the finish – to work on it consistently throughout the year?

Of course it would be nice. But…

The challenge here is that it’s quite difficult to energize people for something that will be evaluated ONE YEAR later.

As the authors of the book Re-Work put it:

“No one likes to be stuck on an endless project with no finish line in sight.” – Rework

If you want to energize people (e.g. your Club Officers and Club Members), you need to have them see the results more quickly. In order to create momentum, you have to give them some Quick Wins.

“Momentum fuels motivation. It keeps you going. It drives you. Without it, you can’t go anywhere.” – Rework

Luckily – one quick win is just around the corner. On August 1st, TMI is starting the prestigious “Smedley Award” campaign for club membership building. The first opportunity to prove your club’s qualities by being able to attract 5 new members in 2 months (between August 1st and September 30th).

There’s a ton of things what you can do to attract new members during a campaign. The first step, however, is simple: Tell all you members.

At the next club business meeting tell them:

“The Smedley Award is on from 1st August. If we want to win it – we’ve got to sign up 5 new members before September 30th.”

That’s not yet enough – but it certainly is a beginning.