How Nemo Inspired Us to Grow Our Membership

Sometimes life’s best lessons come from unexpected places. My Toastmasters club benefited from the wisdom in Finding Nemo, the animated movie about a determined fish. We kept swimming until we knew who we were and where we wanted to go.

When I joined the online club ART Advanced Royal Toastmasters, I loved its relaxed vibe. However, when I became Club President in July 2025, we consistently had only eight or nine members at meetings, sometimes even fewer. We needed to increase membership but wanted to retain the small-club vibe we cherished.

The Club Executive Committee decided to first define and differentiate our club. Finding Nemo proved to be a guide. Yes, this is a movie about fish. But it’s also about finding your own identity—something Nemo’s dad, Marlin, does as he searches the waters of Australia looking for his son.

Since there are approximately 50 other online advanced Toastmasters clubs, we needed to search for our own identity. What made our club different? What was our unique selling point? How could we make being an online club work to our advantage?

First, we laid out our strengths. 1) We have seasoned members who are outstanding speakers and evaluators. 2) We have a collegial, vibrant atmosphere that encourages mistakes and allows people to be their true selves. 3) We offer Tag Team Table Topics, where we have both a speaker and an evaluator for each question.

Our initial thought was to lean on our members’ sense of humor and promote ART as a “fun” club. However, our members are also serious about gaining new skills and challenging each other to grow. Our goal is to have everyone who attends a meeting feel they have learned at least one new thing. So we decided to brand our identity as an advanced club that creates a fun learning environment.

What does this mean in practice?

• We regularly invite prominent speakers, such as District speech champions, International Speech Contest finalists, professional speakers, and others to speak or evaluate. This allows us to hear speeches and perspectives at the highest levels of excellence. We also promote these events to the community to bring in guests and raise awareness.
• Besides following our regular agenda, we also host debates, panel discussions, workshops (on topics such as vocal variety and effective evaluations), and other creative events. We want to try fresh ideas that challenge our members.
• We also hear from people working in fields outside of speaking—for example, someone who worked for 20 years as a prison warden. These sessions make meetings interesting and help us develop into better storytellers.
• We leverage social media. We regularly post about club activities, events, and member spotlights. We have two WhatsApp groups—one for members, which also serves to build camaraderie and friendship in an online club, and the other for people who have visited but haven’t joined. It’s a wonderful way for us to engage and share club updates and ideas, and for them to share suggestions and feedback.
• We use the Distinguished Club Program (DCP) requirements to assess membership and strengthen the club. We survey members every six months to understand their needs and what they are interested in. And we continually check in as a group to evaluate: Are we shaping our identity the way we want to? How can we create the best membership experience? How do we push ourselves as speakers and evaluators?

Within a year, we doubled our membership, going from nine to 18. Have we finally found our identity? Not really! We continue to experiment, refine, and evolve.

I consider Finding Nemo the best strategy movie ever made, and it provided me with inspiration in this journey to regrowth. In the simple but sage words of Dory, the loveable fish who assists Marlin in their epic search, “Just keep swimming.”

To learn more or attend a meeting, email arttoastmasters@gmail.com.

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