Um Er YouKnow …

UmErYouKnow.com Toastmasters Club Website for the Months for 2010-August … And the award goes to

Voice of Burtonsville Toastmasters club!
( burtonsville.freetoasthost.ws/index.html)

This is a freetoasthost site and come with the default navigation, which is normally easy to use.
Reviewing a freetoasthost is quite different than reviewing a free-form Toastmasters club website.

Here are some comments and suggestions about this great club website.

One of the best things is that the default home page is not used.

It might be good to move the “About Us” link higher in the menu. On the About Us page itself: the paragraphs are laid out more like citations than text with the first line indented. I don’t see any benefit to that. The centering looks a bit off on the top 2 items.

From the Membership Information page, the link to “visit a meeting’ goes to the directions page. It would be better if the destination page included meeting time and frequency.

The link to the District 36 website takes the browser away from your website – it would be better to open a new tab/window so the user stays on your site. This is the same for several external links, check ALL links in the site for this.

The page “Why Should I Join the Voice of Burtonsville?” had a stern feel to me. It is not as upbeat and welcoming as other parts of the site. Perhaps a friendly image and some statement about ‘going at your own pace’ might soften it.

The “Moments of Enjoyment …” page is pretty bare and could use a better layout. If you only have 1 statement and 2 links, the page needs to be laid out with some images to make it appear more interesting. Perhaps a thumbnail from each the items linked to.

On “Meet our members” it might be better to remove empty listings than to just list a name “no photo available”

Club news forum is a great idea, interactive and with meeting notes. It seems that there have been no updates since June, that is a concern, and may be a concern to prospective guests.

The link to Area 5 is a great idea. I checked the other clubs and none for them has a reciprocal link – that might be a good thing to check into with those clubs. Also, the upcoming speech contest could be highlighted.

Overall, I like this freetoasthost website and congratulate Burtonsville Toastmasters on their efforts.

OtherWinners:

• http://umeryouknow.com/?p=431
• http://umeryouknow.com/?p=217

<– Rev 5/2010 / Rev 2006 …

 
As usual, CL evaluators are directed to “read the project carefully before the meeting”. The fact is, unless you have a rev: 5/2010 CL manual you will be seeing the evaluation questions for each role for the first time when someone hands you a new CL manual.

How are you handling getting all in your club ready to be effective CL evaluators?

What I mean is, how are you handling this?
Many older members may have only used the older CL manual (Revision: 2006) and may have only seen it as evaluator and never owned it and read it because they did an “Old CL”

Do you NEED to bother to do anything?

The main changes apparent to me in content of the 5/2010 Cl manual:

1. Reduction of the introduction text for each project. Well, it take less time to read the project now! Some project introductions have been reduced by as much as 80%.

2. Elimination of the “Practice In Your Club” section in every project which had that section in Revision: 2006 (another change which that makes reading the project carefully” take less time)

3. Evaluation/Feedback format:
Change to a set of three to four questions for a role which are scored by circling 1,2 or 3 ( 1=Needs Work, 2=Average and 3=Outstanding) followed by 1-2 questions in small italic font to be answered by essay.
These 1-2-3 score questions and essay questions are often significantly different from the Revision 2006 CL manual. Some are improved. Some are big improvements from Revision: 2006

4. A much better and better positioned tracking sheet (near the front of the manual)
17 minutes ago

Um Er You Know presents the Toastmasters Club Website of the Month award for 2010-July to ….

http://www.starsearchtm.org

This is a quality website for a quality club. The site deserves this award because it has some great examples of how to do things right. Below are some comments and suggestions for consideration to make the site even better – at least better in my opinion! Please feel free to comment below ….

***** Good stuff: I like the organization and layout of the site, the navigation is easy to find and use and is consistent throughout the site.

Tinkering:
- Homepage link: “to learn more about Toastmasters International, click here” – the “click here” link directs to a different website. You might want to have this link open a new window/tab so that users do not leave your site. The same is true for the “Club Status” link in the navigation menu.

- Images: More images throughout the site would make the site more appealing. Best would be authorized images of members of your club “in action.”

- Inconsistent type size: On your sample agenda page, the first section ( President 7:00) is a smaller font size than the rest.

- When I mouseover the menu buttons, the white font on blue background is barely visible, a darker color for mouseover would be better.

Broken Links:
- On the Officers list page the names are links, but nothing happens when they are clicked on. Either make the links work in all browsers or removed the link formatting.
- On the Gallery the first link (in 2009) goes to a page which no longer exists

**** Usability
– For the members area, it would be better to have a regular web page to log in (rather than a little pop-up window) because when I’m unable to log in (click cancel), it takes me to a “page not found”. Same with the Videos link – but this is more important since people without a login may try “Videos” and get trapped.

**** Readability/Accessibility (14/15) –Your “Guests” page is a little disorganized. Perhaps adding details about visiting, proving “prospective members” with the application, etc. would be good. Very helpful would be a separate FAQ page for all of the answers to other questions.

*** Appearance/delivery
- Freshness issues – The top banner looks like it was made with a simple paint program. You could get a graphic designer to make a snappy one for $5 on an outsourcing website and make it look more professional/attractive.
- Originality – This website looks pretty standard and straightforward. It’s great in that it is easy to navigate and use, but by adding a few images and perhaps a subtle background style it could be made more visually provocative and appealing.

Language
***** I like that the site uses language which makes it feel very friendly and easy to read. The grammar and spelling looks great.

**** Overall a well designed, easy to use website. Could be a bit more “spicy/jazzy” and what it does it does well.

Nominate your club website or a club website you like for the next Toastmaster Club Website of the Month!

Other Winners:

• http://umeryouknow.com/?p=431
• http://umeryouknow.com/?p=284

We will be announcing a Toastmasters club website of the month starting in July 2010.
We welcome nominations, reviews and comments!

Some thoughts on filler words – after reading what other people had to say – and talking to my wife.

Filler words, aka pause fillers, crutch words, clutch words and even vampire words can be tolerated, genderly better understood and – fairly easily – reduced by half.

• Women have been accused of using “you know” and “like” much more often than men. It seems true to me. Stephen M. Croucher in his paper: Like, You Know What I’m Saying: A Study of Discourse Marker Frequency in Extemporaneous and Impromptu Speaking“ contends that the reason is cultural. He is right about that. then he goes on to suggest that it is related to the “Valley Girl” talk we learned in “Fast Times at Riddgemont High” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. I think he misses the uh- boat here.
  Women tend to look for collaboration more than men and choose the pause fillers “you know” and “like” often as part of their speech /communication for the goal of community rather than as a crutch. You know?

• Stop saying “theee” when you mean “the”.
  Since ‘um’,'em’,'er’,'uh’ and ‘ah’ all begin with a vowel, we end up saying “theee, uh, book” when we mean “the book“
  Hmmm, so we know ‘theee’ um/uh/er is coming!
  If we were going to say “the” book, we wouldn’t start with ‘theee’ (the with a long ‘e’).
  My modest proposal is to drop the “theee” form of ‘the’ from your speech: if you never say “theee” it becomes pretty hard to say “theee um”. Of course now you will have to insert an adjective every time you talk about “the” (adjective) elephant

• I read the book “Um” by Michael Erhard. It is well written and a bit of fun. It left me just a tad disappointed – I wanted more science.

  check this out
  

  http://joyfulpublicspeaking.blogspot.com/2010/05/rubics-and-figuring-out-where-you-are.html

  Tags:

Even if they are both YOUR head?

It’s time for Toastmasters Club Officer Training (COT) again – does that make you or ?

Many people need to be dragged to this, especially veterans – too bad, they can often add a lot to the discussions – especially in Phase I training.

But what about people who are officers for the first time or holding a specific office for the first time. Of course, “we” STRONGLY recommend that they attend club officer training, and most do – mainly because they are trying to help get that DCP point for 4 officers trained.

Here’s a thought, if one COT session is a GREAT idea for all ‘new’ officers, how great is attending 2 (or more) COT sessions?

If you are a new club officer, new to your role, don’t stop at one! Plan to attend at least 2 COT sessions in Phase one – an extra couple hours now and you may get a head/jump start that will pay off for the rest of the year!

What you might get: cheap edibles, great networking opportunities, and a chance to rethink what you just thought (learned) about

It’s almost time for the first round of Toastmasters Phase I Club Officer Training (COT) – and here is a call for Trainers to “RTFM” (Read The FINE Manual

If you are attending training you will hear most trainers say, “Make sure you read the ‘When You Are Vice President Membership manual” (for example). That is great. In fact these manuals change every year.

I wonder how many COT trainers download the freely available manuals ahead of time (They are usually mailed out to clubs in late May.)

Many trainers like to train using their “vast experience” – that is GREAT – but they do need to be informed on what Toastmasters International is telling the officers in the manual – this year. These manuals in fact change most years.

The 2010 editions are available from links of the officer pages at
http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/OfficerResources/ClubOfficerResources/ClubOfficerRoles.aspx (go to the specific office and look for the manual link at the bottom of that page)

When you get an email from District or Division officers telling you about upcoming COT – email them back and say “Thanks!” and add – “please ensure that the trainers have reviewed the new “When You Are… ” officer manuals before finalizing their training plan …”

You will be helping the trainers and EVERYONE they train!

Anyone who is a Toastmaster surely values effective evaluations and excellent feedback. I propose the development of the “Competent Evaluator” track. TI is missing a formal education and recognition program for development of evaluation and feedback.

Please join in let’s get TI to add this worthwhile program. We need your help to brainstorm and design the program: This has evolved into a 2 part track, “Competent Evaluator” and “Advanced Evaluator”.

Next steps include
Where does it apply?

Performance Appraisals
Conflict Resolution
Coaching
Mentoring
…
1. Drafting outlines of materials for the manuals. The manuals need to have evaluation/feedback forms for the evaluator, lots of advice, best practices, hints, tips and resources.

We need to explain how these processes will benefit people beyond “Toastmaster” activities and into their lives and professional careers.

2. Draft requirements for each track – subject to revision.

Proposed Competent Evaluator requirements:
- have completed CC
- Evaluate 10 CC manual speeches (no more than 3 for any speech project type and must include a speech project #9 or #10 evaluation)
- Evaluate an educational module presentation
- Present “Evaluate to Motivate”
- Serve as General Evaluator 3 times or more

Advanced Evaluator requirements: – subject to revision.
- have completed Competent Evaluator
- have evaluated an additional 3 speeches outside home club
- have evaluated 2 advanced manual speeches
- have presented “the art of effective evaluation”
- Serve as General Evaluator at 2 outside clubs
- Evaluate at least one activity for each of the 10 CL projects

This discussion is being done in detail on Toastspace.com or contact me matthew@kleinosky.com if you have comments or would like to join in the effort.

Pass the link along!: http://CompetentEvaluator.info

I disagree with several parts of Better Speaker Series (BSS) 278 “Preparation and Practice.” Some of it is good (there is the positive remark but I find the module to be of less value than most other BSS modules.

Some of it I think is silly, some wrong, some short sighted and I see a lot of questions without answers that seem to miss the mark. The module seems to concentrate on speaking outside of Toastmasters where the speaker is unfamiliar with the venue and audience. It seems to have less value to the POT – and POTs are most of the audience and most will never make many speeches outside the club environment. I think materials focused on how to prepare and rehearse for speeches IN the club environment/club contest setting would be of more benefit to most Toastmasters attending this presentation.

When I present it, I change it almost completely from the provided script.

Am I bad? Wrong?
Do you like module 278 “Preparation and Practice”?
What would you change to make it better?

1. Page 6: I don’t like the analogy to professional marathon running – it really does not seem to “fit” to me. Realistically, 90+% of people who run a marathon – not counting professional marathoners – do not “study the course and consider the terrain months in advance”. And I think it is overstated fro the pros.

2. Page 7: “.., if a majority of your audience members are over the age of fifty,
…using a microphone will help keep you in control”
(tacky? What about teens who have blaring iPods permanently attached to their heads?)

3. Page 8 “… you’ve probably found that relentless practice tends to be a frustrating experience, even to the point of undermining your presentation.”
(I think this is a silly claim – I know almost no toastmasters who practice relentlessly to the point of frustration, but maybe it’s just me – almost everyone I know, including me, could use a little more “smart” practice but not restraint from “relentless practice” )

4. Page 9: “If outside opinions are not available, record your speech on audio or videotape and play it back for self evaluation.”
(only if ???, I think mirror practice, audio and video taping are incredibly powerful techniques for practice and improvement. I would recommend them separately and strongly rather than as a fall back if your – perhaps non-expert in feedback and evaluation – family and friends are not available. What about work or professional/ industry colleagues? What about a coach/mentor?)

Page 10: “If you suffer from a dry mouth, try a cup of herbal tea with honey and lemon, … or fruit juice.”

(there are lots of better suggestions than this for dry mouth. And even perhaps WAY more important to consider – a trip to the restroom a few minutes before you go on stage?
Other Extras:
-Voice/throat warm up
-Appearance check by yourself in a mirror or by a buddy
-Breathing techniques to energize or relax

What is your take on 278? Is it excellent?
Posted 7 days ago | Delete discussion

At speech contests, are you – like me – tired of the same old – “What club are you from? Why did you first join Tastmasters?” interview questions of contestants (while the votes are tallied?)
Hate filling out “biodata” forms just to have them ignored anyway?

Here is my proposal:
Replace biodata from with “Contestant Interview Form”
——————————————————-
1. Name – with phonetic pronunciation
2. Club name and location (with pronunciation)
3. How long have you been a Toastmaster?

The above will be used to introduce you after the contest when we
interview the contestants. In other words. The contest chair will tell everyone your name, club affiliation and how long you have been a Toastmasters – per your written answers. THEN they will interview you.

About you:

4. Is there something specific you would like me to ask you about?

5. Is there anything you DO NOT want me to ask about?

6. May I ask you about the content of your speech?

7. Please list some hobbies, interest or unique/interesting things
about you that I may ask about:

Although protests for originality in Toastmasters speech contests may be rare, it would be nice to have rules/guidelines on how they are best handled.

I could not find an official guide to handling a protest for originality in a Toastmasters speech contest, so here are my initial suggestions.
THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT OFFICIAL! They are also a first draft. How would you improve them?

(I am not sure anyone if anyone could claim the individual did not “… alone prepared [their] speech …” so this addresses only protests of originality)

1. Anyone in attendance may believe that a contest speech is not “substantially original”.
Although protests may only be lodged by contestants and judges, anyone may request to speak with the (identified to everyone) chief judge or contestant and present the information specifying the published source of what they think is the original and uncredited source of a substantial part of the speech.
Note: Only contestants and judges may file a protest! If they receive compelling information that a speech is not original, it is their duty to file a protest.

2. The chief judge (or contestant or judge who is protesting or received the protest information from an audience member) should write down the evidence presented to them by any person, whether a contestant, judge or audience member.

3. The contestant or judge officially lodging the protest with the Chief judge should present the evidence to the chief judge verbally and be given some time (maximum 10 minutes) to prepare a written originality protest. The Chief Judge should inform the Contest Chair that a protest is being lodged and that some time is required.

3a. If the contestant has been disqualified for time, the chief judge should end the protest process here.

4. If the evidence alleged is not available in writing at the contest (this is probably close to 99% likely) a web search via computer or mobile phone could be done. Bear in mind that not all information on the web is accurate. The chief judge could allow an additional 10 minutes for this online research.
The contest chair should be advised if this time is required.

5. All evidence collected should be duplicated if possible, with enough copies of the written protest and any printed evidence/references for each judge and the challenged contestant.

6. The chief judge should convene the judges and the challenged contestant in a private area. The chief judge should chair the meeting and maintain control (including passing control of who is the speaker and time limits.) The Chief judge should read the written protest and distribute copes (if available) to all judges and the challenged contestant. All attendees should be given “adequate” time to review any written material. Do NOT include or identify the tie-breaking judge – they are NOT of this process.

7. The contestant should be given 3 minutes to orally make their case defending their speech as substantially original. If they chose to withdraw from the contest, that should be done in front of the chief judge and the convened judges at the meeting in progress. If the challenged contestant has already left the contest meeting for the duration of the contest and is not available, the process should be completed without them present.

8. The judges should be allowed 3 minutes (total) to question the contestant if desired.

9. The Chief Judge should ask all judges if any of them prefers a written ballot. If ANY judge requests a written ballot, then all voting should be done by having each judge take a piece of paper, print their name, sign their name and write “Contestant Disqualified” or “Contestant OK” on their paper. The Chief Judge should collect the ballots, tally them and announce the results to the judges. One judge should selected to audit the counting. In the event of a tie vote, the Chief judge should cast the deciding vote.

If ALL judges agree to oral vote, the judge should poll the judges for an oral Yes/No vote on the protest. Each judge gets one vote and may abstain. In the event of a tie vote, the Chief judge should cast the deciding vote.

10. If the Contestant is disqualified, the chief judge should revise the final standings of the contestants.

This process should be done in the event of a protest no matter what the results of the voting are.
This process should not be skipped because someone believes that “it doesn’t matter in the results”. There are many cases where runners-up further down and the top three have been eligible to compete in the further rounds of contests.
Of course all protests on originality must be done before the results are announced.

 
Message from the Official Toastmasters Facebook Group -
From Gary Schmidt:

Well, how is that for effective oral communication?

OK, I don’t know 7.

subtitle: I Fail therefore I am (likely to improve).

But what successful people do is … do small things consistently well over an extended time.
And they learn how to do that by failing. A Lot.
I mean failing many times.
Maybe it isn’t really failing but it is the ERROR part of Trial and Error.

Want to be SUCCESSFUL?
Maybe ask yourself, “What have I failed at today?”

Step out of your comfort zone…
Find a safe place to experiment (Toastmasters Clubs are a great place)

Try chairing a contest or running a PR campaign – ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT!

Go on, you have permission to Fail (which is really permission to Succeed.)

Except when it isn’t.

Toastmasters International is clear and consistent.
Once you have earned a DTM (distinguished Toastmaster) award (by earning CC,ABC, ACS, ACG, CL,ALB, ALS)
you can get another one by doing an ACG and an ALS – WITHOUT REDOING THE PREREQUISITES FOR THOSE!

This means a subsequent DTM earned this way IS NOT EQUIVALENT to a DTM earned by doing all the requirements.

It should be a DTM*

* = ACG and ALS only.

Period.
————————-
Update 11 Sep 2009
Now it seems TI is saying a DTM IS a DTM and people must complete all requirements from the start for subsequent DTM…
… That is a GOOD changes … now what about all those DTMs they awarded for just doing an ACG and ALB over?

Many Toasty clubs take 1 minute and ask audience to “give some feedback” to the speaker. Some use a copy of the manual speech evaluation page, some use a “sandwich” form.

What I notice though, is that most speakers waste that minute of their lives
OK, I’ll cut them a break, they just stepped up and gave a speech… but, use that minute.

Do a D-I-Y Evaluation!
Write yourself notes about what went great, what you would do better if (when) you do the speech again.
You know as well as anyone!

I find it annoying when a club has a website which says, “we meet EVERY Wednesday at noon.”

Oh, except THIS Wednesday.

And you emailed all your members.

Just not potential guests and visitors.

OK.

methinks: bad information os worse than no information.

I am a “virtual bachelor” for the next 9 days (OK, technically I am a “real” bachelor until I get married in October) but my fiancee has left the continent …
So I am going to see how many Toastmasters meeting I can attend. Today I hope to get to 3.

The first one was “breakfast” 7:30 a.m open/community club. Having it in the back of a large corporate cafeteria helped – there was coffee available in the cafeteria. (I usually get up after this meeting has ended)
3 great speeches – I know people often say this – and like them – I mean it. An ice breaker speaker talked about the inspiration she got from her mother’s early life – and when someone get’s up at 3:30 a.m. to study by lamplight in taiwan before going to do the farming so she can not be prevented form attending school, I quit complaining about the “early” hour of this meeting.
I also liked how the Grammarian stressed the listening challenge of the role.

Listening as a part of communication is – for me – not stressed enough in Toastmasters. When I see people at a meeting looking at the agenda while a speaker is introduced or speaking (I guess I think it is OK to watch the audience a bit while a speaker speaks
I think, ” I want to be sure to ‘be in the moment’ and focus ‘”
Next stop, I get to be guest grammarian at 13:00 meeting.

The whole shebang in one role!

Go ahead, shake things up a bit, ask for 3 minutes at each end of the meeting when you are grammarian and knock their socks off!

I love Toastmasters contests. Well not everything about them.
I love the contestants performing – and I love competing myself.
I love chairing contests and chief judging.

I hate the briefings usually given by contest chairs and chief judges.
And now, I present “My ideal contest preliminaries”:

Sgt At Arms (SAA)
- opens meeting
- directs all attenders to shut off all things electronic including cameras and communication devices
- explains that door will closed during contestants on stage

The Chief judge reports that all officials have been briefed
(I recommend that anyone who insists that everyone in the audience be informed of a summary of the rules: print them on a separate sheet or on the agenda. People CAN read.)

The Chair reports that all contestants have been briefed, then announces the order they will compete and opens the contest

The audience, there for entertainment and enjoyment rather than hearing all about the rules, checks their agendas one last time and sits UP and enjoys the show!

Also subtitled: Thou shalt not compete (more than 4 times)

Here’s The Facts:
TI is an educational institution.
TI believes that Districts are/will be diverted from their mission if they hold or allow to be held a 5th contest in a calendar year.

This means that in a District which holds 2 fall and 2 spring contests at the conferences, no matter how much interest and how many resources are available at an interclub level – there cannot be a “contest” such as “debate”, “Interpetive Reading”, etc.

Clubs can do anything they want as long as no one outside the club is invited. But inter-club at any level is NO NO (NO NO!)
There can be talent showcases but no judging and no awards – that “smells” like a contest …

Here’s My Opinion:
Let the Districts decide what specific activities contribute best to enabling and helping its constituent members meet their eduational goals. 1 contest is required (International Speech) but 4 is the limit (arbitrary limit?)

I am not saying Districts HAVE to HAVE 6 contests a year. I am saying if a few clubs want to get together and do a fun debate or interpretive reading CONTEST – yes, a CONTEST – why not let them?

Oh no, something might CHANGE if we tried something a little above the bar! How scary is that?

I actually mean NO JOKE READING! PULEEEZ!
Many clubs include a JokeMaster or Humor Master or have the timer or “Toaster” give a Toast, tip or joke.
So far so good.

I regret the internet for one reason only – I used to be the best joke teller almost anyone had ever met (before the Internet I didn’t know a lot of people I can tell a mean joke and, and I can remember a lot of jokes – and – before the internet, I had a secret list of punch lines on a couple pages in very small print.
When I got my hands on a new crowd, I’d excuse myself, pull out the punch line “database” (papers) review a few punch lines and go back in and knock ‘em dead.

Now, virtually every joke has been emailed to every person 400 times.
The good news is that many people still don’t remember jokes (or apparently don’t read every single email they receive like me) and the art of the joke is not dead. Great jokes never dies – unless someone tries to kill a joke by reading it

Jokes are made for TELLING. C’mon Toastmasters – it;s not an original speech of 5-7 minutes, review the joke and then TELL IT – embellish, act, play but PLEASE don;t read jokes to me! Just rehearse it a couple times, PREPARE it ahead of time – it will give you a chance to smile (or frown) and make eye contact during the joke. Someday you will be Jokemaster – find a joke now and get it ready
No Reading.
It isn’t funny. I’m not kidding!

Honestly, I love going to Toastmasters meetings and I enjoy them …

Here’s some more stuff I don’t like

When speakers (in any role) say “Thank You” at the end of their talk.
If they have some gratitude to express and can be specific about who and why, great!

But No “Walk-Off” Thank You please.
It is the audience who thanks you! Just return or pass control, don’t “turn it over” to the person next in charge of the meeting.

and … Thank You!

It isn’t really – but it has been (mis) used so much that a second definition of Podium is now Lectern.

It’s similar to imply and infer. Infer DOES mean the same thing as imply in secondary definition. I am not happy about this but I have come to peace with it.

Lectern vs. Podium

Until you have hosted a nationally televised talk show for 10 or more years you need a GREAT introduction to your talks and presentations.

Let me be more specific. The talks, speeches and presentations which you deliver need great introductions.

And the best introductions are not about YOU – they are not even really about your talk as much as about the audience and why the audience should listen and care.

I think speech introductions are the most neglected thing in Toastmasters. Week in week out, at so many clubs, I hear uninspiring intros. Last week was no exception, I heard something to the effect:
“So those are the objectives. I don’t have his title, but please welcome up John to give his speech.”

Yuck! Not even a title? That means that the speaker couldn’t be bothered to come up with or at least communicate the title, let alone write an introduction. AND, the Toastmaster didn’t check with the speaker for an introduction ahead of time!

And don’t give me your bio. I DON’T CARE. I want to know about your speech and why it will be worth listening to!

Craig Valentine says it better than I can: Read his article here

Toastmasters: C’mon print out the objectives – let people read them to themselves. Give the Toastmaster of the Day an introduction that puts the audience on the edge of their seats!

But, please, for ME, never give a Toastmasters speech again without writing an introduction which fires up the audience!

Update: 6 July … And then today I visited a TM club which chartered about 2 months ago and the Toastmaster had great, spot on introductions for both speakers- Ice breaker Speakers – way to go IO!

I recently attended a local Toastmasters club as a guest and it was a great meeting: Run crisply on time, with energy and enthusiasm with a nice. welcoming. inclusive community feel. A very nice group of people. (Of course, I made some recommendations to the club at the end

They are an appreciative bunch – one of them bought gifts for each of their outgoing officers in appreciation of their efforts. At the meeting, one member raised a motion to reimburse the cost from club funds and the motion passed unanimously.

I raised my hand and told them I applauded their sentiment. I also told them what they were doing might be in violation of the
club constitution (pdf). I suggested they check and amend their club constitution if they like.

I told them I was sorry!

What would you do? Do we have an obligation to point this stuff out or is it better to “look the other way”?
For better or worse, and meaning well, I find the latter harder to do

Article XI Legal Status and Dissolution:
Sec. 1. This Club is an unincorporated association formed solely for
the purpose of privately educating its individual members. This Club is not legally affiliated with
any company, agency, or special interest group from which this Club may draw its individual members.
The use of the funds of this Club shall be limited to educational purposes. They may not be used
for social or political purposes, or for the benefit of any individual.

Additional comment:  4 July
Based on various offline discussions, I am very glad I raised the issue and informed the club of official policy…

Dark as in NO MORE WHITEWASHING!

I mean it – I heard a speech evaluation this week which ended with: “And I tried really hard but I couldn’t come up with any suggestions”. That is WHITEWHASHING. And it does little to benefit the speaker or anyone else in the audience. Today, I talk about why Whitewashing is Bad, Bad, Bad -  and how to make it good, better, best. By the way, it irks me when people start (or “middle”) “I’ll also tell you what I didn’t like about your speech.” WHAT? That is not evaluation.

Our growth and improvement comes through the repeated cycle of action, effective feedback, and (re)cycle.

As Randy on American Idol would say, “Dog, check this out,”: PEOPLE DO NOT WANT YOU OPINION.

It is worth saying again: PEOPLE DO NOT WANT YOUR OPINION.

They want your ANALYSIS (Sorry for all the shouting, I do get worked up about this.)

Competent Evaluation (I will soon revive my proposal for Toastmasters to offer “Competent Evaluator Bronze, Silver and Gold) involves suggestions.

WHITEWASH EXTERMINATION PROPOSAL: IF anyone – including you or me – ever gives a whitewash speech evaluation, the General Evaluator and all club members will take action.

Action: Gently but firmly counsel the Whitewasher. Give them feedback, which might be something like, “You did a good job in pointing out positive things and parts of the speech you liked. We are all here to develop and grow further, of course. That comes from analysis of what we do and specific recommendations.”

Further Action:

• Put  them in the “Whitewasher doghouse”. (OK, call it the “Evaluator Improvement Throne” if you like
• The Whitewashers must attend and observe at least 5 speech evaluation before they are asked to do another one.
• Ask them to consider presenting the Successful Club Series Program: Evaluate to Motivate – If one has to teach something, they will usually remember 95% of it it.

Come over to the dark side (we have cookies) and help stamp out whitewash speech evaluations!

The poor neglected WOTD (Toastmasters Word of The Day), not the refulgent thing it can be – so sad

The Toastmasters Word of The Day is a nice feature of almost every Toastmasters meeting. It is also very often selected poorly, ignored or forgotten during most of the meeting and used in contrived ways. Yeek! I still like the WOTD, but there are ways to get a LOT more out of it.

My basic assumptions here:

1. Most things can be improved
2. A lot of what we do -  we do because “we always do it that way”
3. 2, above is not usually a good long term strategy – trying new things/shaking things up is a good thing.

refulgent

\rih-FUL-juhnt\ , adjective:

def: Shining brightly; radiant; brilliant; resplendent.
This blog is, dare I say, refulgent in its on-target analysis and oh so helpful recommendations.

On the WOTD – Let’s rethink some of things many clubs do.
Please spare me:

• A loud CLAP when someone uses the WOTD  – anything disruptive – disrupting the speaker is NOT the point
• Nouns – It is easier to try a new adjective or adverb than to work in a noun.
• Common words – I mean, do we really need to use the word “Power” as a word of the day? How does that expand our vocabulary and communication?
• People who giggle or point to the WOTD when they use it – making fun of the WOTD is NOT the point. Is that how you use new words outside of Toastmasters – with a giggle?
• WOTD in a font too small to see from the back of the room

What I like (But which I rarely have seen a club do)

• Asking all members to write the WOTD ALL OVER their agendas – put it “in their face” – Try that one meeting and see if the WOTD gets ignored. The fact is many people learn and intake information in many ways and repeating something is even better. Even the act of writing the WOTD onto the agenda primes people’s minds to the word – it makes them consider it.
• Have all members say the word – with enthusiasm – after it is presented early in the meeting. Speaking the word primes … (well, you know what I said above)
• Hang ‘Em’High – and wide – If you post the WOTD, post if in the back of the room (and the sides?) where speakers will see it when they stand to speak. Posting it on the back of the lecturn is good but not for reminding the speaker!
• Fun – even funny example sentences. Did you watch the Scripps Spelling Bee? Word pronunciation, languages of origin, definition and use in a sentence.
• Adjectives and Adverbs are best most of the time. These words add flavor and nuance to our speech. Nouns are OK from time to time but are often much more ‘forced’ when worked into a speech as WOTD.

Now, go forth and be refulgent with your next WOTD!