International Director John Smelser, DTM, thinks that Toastmasters’ biggest problem today is member retention. 

John, with the help of his wife Carolyn, who is also a Toastmaster, shared his ideas on membership retention. He feels that no one individual has the solution for this problem. "We bring in the members, but we do not keep them," he said.

It turns out that John is a storyteller. All of his salient points were prefaced with a story, mostly from his life at home with Carolyn. It made the hour very entertaining as well as profitable.

He told the story of how his wife Carolyn told him he had changed—for the good. She mentioned it several times as well as noting that others who are in Toastmasters had also changed for the good. One day Carolyn said, “Well, I haven’t changed. I am going to join Toastmasters!” In the nine months she has been in Toastmasters she has earned her CTM. "What is important," said John, "is that Carolyn too has changed – for the better!"

“The mission of a Toastmaster club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth.” 

John says: The problem with retention in my opinion is that when most of our new members join Toastmasters it is because they want to be able to stand in front of a group of people without the feelings of fear or anxiety, etc. By the time new members have completed five or six speeches from the basic manual, they leave without getting the full benefit of our tried and true program of ten speeches. They do not experience the change because they leave too soon. 

The chart above illustrated the number of new members in District 3 from 1994 to 2000 and the district's total membership if all members had been retained. 
Click for larger view.

At the same time he feels that members holding club officer positions are doing just that in most cases, i. e., just filling the position. In his opinion they seem to be missing the fact that they should be practicing their leadership skills. They should be planning, organizing,
implementing and measuring the DCP (Distinguished Club Plan). The seven club officers should be working as a team to be Distinguished, Select Distinguished or better yet Presidential. How do they do that? By knowing the ten goals, planning on how the club can meet the goals they set, organizing the members in such a way that they are
accomplishing the club goals while they are accomplishing their individual goals, implementing the plan during their term and by measuring the results by looking at the monthly paper work issued by TI.

When the seven officers attend the District club officer training and they have read their appropriate club officer manuals and they perform all of their individual officer functions as listed with the same vigor as they would with a speech from the C & L manual, then they will start to become the leaders we want them to become. When a club is new, all of the offices seem to care to do what is expected of them. As the next set of officers is elected, fewer do what is expected of them. It becomes worse with each succeeding election. A typical club officer in an established club does not even do 10 percent of the duties. Then the club starts to die. The banner is not placed outside nor inside the meeting. Agendas are not prepared.
The participants do not show. Visitors are not greeted nor ask to comment on the meeting. Then as soon as they join no one pays anymore attention to them. Mentors are not assigned. You know the rest. 

So, in John’s opinion, if the club officers do their assigned duties and they become the leaders we expect them to become, then membership retention would no longer be a
problem, all new members would become CTM's and we would be seeing all officers becoming CL's too. 

Also, he noted, recognition is what people love most. "Encourage your members to keep on keeping on."