What the VPPR owns
The Vice President Public Relations (VPPR) coordinates an active publicity program for the club. The role connects the club with two audiences: members who need clear internal updates and the public or local media who need an accurate, useful reason to notice the club.
That makes the VPPR responsible for the communication system, not for doing every post personally. A good system keeps meeting details current, uses approved Toastmasters resources and messages, gives the ExCom a clear plan, and makes it easy to see which activities were completed.
Start with goals and audiences
Begin by reviewing the club’s objectives and the previous PR effort. Decide whether the next cycle is about accurate meeting information, an open house, member recognition, local media awareness, or another outcome the club can actually support. Bring the draft to the President and ExCom so publicity is connected to the club plan rather than becoming a separate stream of activity.
- -Review last cycle’s coverage, posts, invitations, and useful responses before choosing new tactics.
- -Name the internal audience, prospective-member audience, and any local media audience for each activity.
- -Choose one observable outcome, such as accurate event reach, guest questions, registrations, or a completed news pitch.
- -Confirm the PR budget and any approval limits with the Treasurer and ExCom before committing to paid promotion.
- -Write the one-sentence message a member, guest, or journalist should understand after seeing the update.
Build a repeatable publicity calendar
Use a calendar instead of relying on memory. Toastmasters’ current PR guidance recommends looking across the year, planning the next six months in detail, and revisiting the plan every three months. The exact cadence can fit the club, but every entry should have an audience, channel, owner, deadline, and next action.
- -List regular meetings, open houses, speech contests, anniversaries, conferences, projects, milestones, and member achievements.
- -Keep the next meeting’s date, time, format, location or link, guest instructions, and contact path synchronized across every public page.
- -Choose the channel for each message: club website, newsletter, social network, member message, news release, or direct media pitch.
- -Assign the writer, approver, publisher, and follow-up owner so a calendar entry can be completed without guessing.
- -Review the next six weeks each month and the full plan each quarter; retire stale events as soon as they change.
Keep messages accurate and on-brand
Publicity earns trust when the details are correct and the promise matches the meeting. Before publishing, verify the meeting owner, date, time zone, format, location or link, guest expectations, and the one action a reader should take. Use current Toastmasters brand assets and key messages instead of improvising claims about awards, benefits, or official status.
- -Use one current source of truth for meeting details and update every public channel from it.
- -Choose approved logos, images, templates, and terminology; do not redraw or alter official marks casually.
- -Keep a news release or social post specific: who, what, when, where, why it matters, and how to respond.
- -Coordinate guest-facing messages with the Vice President Membership so the invitation and follow-up agree.
- -Correct a stale or inaccurate post openly and record the change so the same error does not recur.
Collaborate and report the work
The VPPR should make progress visible to the club and district leaders without turning every meeting into a marketing report. A short monthly update can show the plan, completed activities, useful coverage, open decisions, and the next owner. That gives the ExCom a chance to adjust the message, budget, or timing while the activity is still useful.
- -Coordinate with the President on goals, the VPM on guest conversion, the Treasurer on budget, and the Secretary on approved records.
- -Record the activity, audience, channel, publication date, link, owner, and follow-up date in the club’s approved workspace.
- -Track meaningful signals such as questions, registrations, guest visits, media replies, or corrected details—not vanity impressions alone.
- -Send the club or district a concise status note with progress toward goals, activities completed, and news coverage received.
- -Close the loop after an event: preserve the useful asset, note what worked, and schedule the next improvement.
Protect privacy and permissions
Public relations does not make private member information public. Get permission before naming a member, sharing a photograph, quoting a personal story, or publishing an achievement, and follow the club’s approved process for consent and storage. Keep attendance details, evaluations, contact lists, credentials, payment information, and private discussions in authorized systems.
SpeechTimer can help plan a message or checklist, but the club’s approved records, current Toastmasters guidance, and local district direction remain the authority for permissions, brand use, and official claims.
- -Ask before publishing photos, names, contact details, quotes, or personal milestones.
- -Share only the minimum information a guest or reader needs to attend or respond.
- -Never place passwords, private member notes, payment details, or restricted links in a public post or shared template.
- -Keep consent and source decisions in the club’s approved private record system, not in a public caption or spreadsheet.
What to do in the first 30 days
Start with an inventory, not a flood of new posts. Audit the club website, meeting directory listing, social profiles, newsletter, event pages, and saved brand assets. Note the owner and last-verified date for each public detail, then bring the gaps to the ExCom.
- -Confirm access, approval owners, brand assets, privacy expectations, and the PR budget.
- -Review the previous calendar and identify one message or channel worth repeating and one worth retiring.
- -Publish a six-week working calendar with meeting updates, one member or club story, and one guest-facing opportunity.
- -Coordinate with the VPM and President on the next guest or open-house message and its follow-up path.
- -Send a short progress report with links, owners, dates, and the next review point.
What good looks like
A strong VPPR makes the club easy to discover and easy to trust. The public information is current, the message fits the meeting, members know what is being promoted, the ExCom can see progress, and the next action has an owner. That can happen with a few useful updates each cycle; posting every day is not the measure of a healthy PR program.