At the end of last year Dublin Toastmasters decided to survey its members on-line to try and find ways we could improve what we do. We've always been a really open club, and members are usually pretty vocal with their opinions anyway, but we wanted to make sure everyone was being heard and that we had some real measures in place.

We started by asking why people had joined in the first place and what made them stay. More than that, we wanted to know what made our club special. No surprise...people joined because they wanted to improve their public speaking, either in general or for a specific event.

People had different opinions of what made the club good: it's really welcoming, the members are diverse, the standard of speakers is high, the social aspect inside and outside of the club, and even all the clapping and encouragement every single speaker gets.

The funny thing is that these all had one thing in common: YOU - the members and the guest are in complete control of whether people had a good experience or not. It's obvious when you say it, but sometimes Toastmasters forget how reliant on each other we are for support. I know sometimes I feel a little too tired to engage or to put that extra bit of effort in, but that's not good enough. The amazing encouragement I received from day 1 helped me develop as a speaker, and I want to return the favour every week...forever.

The survey also gave us a few little ideas for how to tweak the meeting and make it more enjoyable for everyone. We changed the way we handled Topics responses so that more people got the chance to speak. Our Sergeant At Arms now prompts the audience to introduce themselves to their neighbours just before the break. We've introduced more educational talks so that new (and old!) members really understand how it all works. And we got some great ideas for social events.

Toastmasters is a really open organisation, and it's powered by its members. The member survey is just another tool, but I'd encourage it at other clubs and I'd encourage future committees at our own club to do it every year. We need to make sure we're doing everything as well as we possibly can, and we're giving our speakers as much support as possible.