Moments of Truth at Harrovians 2018 - what we learned

Introduction
We are going to assess our club.
Firstly, what we do well?
Secondly, what are the challenges?
Thirdly, let's see how we can cope with problems and introduce new ideas.

(Transcript from Video)
Committee Members

President
Jesus Parada
The Role
What he does well
the challenges

Immediate Past President Sushil Shah

VPE Sarda
Amparo

Secretary
Angela

Treasurer

Membership

PR

SAA


ACTION
Sushil says we should hold a Moments of Truth the month before the handover, so the previous committee can brief the new committee, and the members in the audience can learn what they can get from each committee member.

Club Officer Training (COT)
UK Toastmasters International members can go onto Easyspeak and

Angela to write to Yasmin.
Amparo ... to write to Siobhan.

Ribbon-Winning Speech on Why You Need A Mentor

Photo of President Sushil of Harrovians presenting ribbons to speaker, evaluator and topics speaker, Angela Lansbury.

On Monday January 29th at Harrovian Speakers' Club in Edgware, Middlesex, UK, I won three ribbons, for table best table topics, best evaluator, and best speaker.

Here's my speech on mentoring:

Why You Need A Mentor
I'm your mentoring organizer. Hands up if you are a mentor. Hands up if you are a mentee. Hands up if you are neither. I'm  mentoring organizer. it should be easy. In theory I could toss a dice in the air and match you all up randomly. Or I could run along pairing you up. Numbers one and two in the line mentor each other. Two and three. And so on. Job done.

It's not as easy as that. I belong to two clubs in London and one in Singapore and I've been to more than 50 clubs in Singapore, when I'm there I visit a club every night. They all have problems matching people up and getting them to meet each other. Can anybody guess or suggest why?

No commitment
Audience member Indra replied: People don't want to commit?

Yes!

Today, at the start of this meeting, I said to Kamlesh, "I'm your mentor," - which we had agreed the previous meeting.
But he said, "Well, um, I don't really need a mentor. I haven't got my manual yet. And I haven't prepared a speech."

So we have mentees who don't want to be mentored. If you assign a mentor, they all say, "No. I want to be mentored by the President." So I phone up the president, Sushil.

Too Busy
He says, "But I already have five mentees. Besides, I'm busy running the club. And I have a job to do. And next week I'm off travelling on business to America."

It's like arranging marriages, being a marriage counsellor, and arranging divorces! I've got six singletons and a man with four wives.

Being a mentor also has its problems. I was a mentee to somebody. He didn't have a speech title. He couldn't think of a topic. He didn't have anything to say. After I spent half an hour talking him through a speech, correcting a speech, he decided to change topic. Then not to give a speech. Then to leave the club.

However, it can be very rewarding.
I had a mentee at Harrovians' sister club, the current club president (Martin Doe). His speech was scheduled and by the time he had time to do it, I was off to Singapore. I said, email it to me. He emailed it, it arrived when I reached Singapore.  I corrected. He emailed, I like your suggestions. Now I want you to see me perform it."
I replied, "I'm in Singapore. Send me a video."
"How do I do that? I don't have a video camera."
"Use your phone. Phones take videos. A selfie video."

He sent it.
But it wouldn't go through. Too big.
So we tried drop box. I had to get a password and sign up.
He had to get a password and sign up.

It wouldn't send. He was on on Microsoft word. I was on a Macbook. My husband helped. His wife helped. We must have spent a day.

Eventually, I got a video full of breaks, like a 1910 film. However, by reading the script I'd been sent, I could work out the words matching his actions, and could suggest gestures to match, change of speed and so on.
Finally, he gave his speech and won a ribbon!
I was very proud of him. Even more proud of myself.
I thought it was my help which made all the difference.
He very politely agreed.

I needed to mentor somebody for their first three speeches to complete task number 8? in the Competent leader manual.

In Singapore I went to a different club every night trying to find a mentee. The President of Club A said he'd find a mentor. Nothing happened.

I went to a college Club. I found a menteee, mentored three speeches. Job done.

Back in London, PING! I get an email. 'I am Myanmar in Singapore. My president say you want to mentor me. Here my first my speech."

I don't have time. She has three mistakes in the first three sentences - and that's just the covering note!  So I tell her to run the speech through Grammarly.
Over coffee I suggest putting it in time order.
Later that day she comes back.
PING. She has run it through Grammarly. She urgently wants it checked for her speech tonight.
I read it and suggest she ends with a call to action, tell the members they can ask her about her job in the interval and they ever need advice on (statistics) they should come to her because she's the expert.

Next day I get another email. PING. Her speech was a great success. People particularly liked the ending.
I am so happy for her. I am so proud of her. And myself.

Mentors Helped
So mentees are helping mentors as well as being helped. You can also do mutual mentoring. My first mentor was Indra, who encouraged me to use props.

How Mentoring Helps Members And Clubs
Despite the problems, the marriage of mentors to mentees works. Mentoring helps the club provide a professional and friendly atmosphere with teamwork.
That's why you need a mentor, or to be a mentor. It's rewarding for everybody.
So, as soon as you join the club, contact the committee for a mentor. Harrovians' President Sushil meets new members and finds out their goals and needs and matches them to a suitable mentor. I keep a list and forward it to committee members Amparo and Sarda.

Are you going to sign up to be a mentor or mentee? Please applaud and shout Yes! Yes! Yes!

Angela Lansbury
Member of Harrovian Speaker, UK. Mentoring co-ordination.
Member of HOD Speakers. Secretary.
Member of Braddell Heights Advanced Speakers' Club, Singapore. VPPR.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Speeches On Coaching And Keep Safe

Audience in semi-circle at Harrovian Speakers' Club, August 2017.

Thank you to Ruth Vishnick who drove me to the meeting. We arrived smiling, in hysterics after driving over the gigantic potholes in the car park which had a switchback effect, jolting us up and down.

The audience sat arranged in a semicircle in Harovian Speakers Club's spacious hall. The venue is often delightfully decorated with colourful bunting or seasonal adornments.

President Sushil opened the meeting with his usual calm and efficiency. He conveyed the impression that all was well organised, despite delays because we did not have the projector for a speech, and were missing a speaker and an evaluator.

He replaced the evaluator by me, Angela Lansbury. I had put myself down as backup speaker and backup any role.

Suchil's most remarkable achievement was his novel way of replacing the missing printed agenda by writing the names of speakers on large oblong coloured pieces of paper, stuck onto the black back of the wheeled whiteboard. The black felt tip pen proved the most easy to read colour at a distance.

The President and his agenda board. Sushil, President of Harrovians Speakers' Club, wrote the speakers' names on paper coloured cheering, eye-catching yellow, orange and pink.

Jayanthini was Timer and explained the lights in a cheerful and positive fashion, saying, "It's my honour to be your timer." She admitted she had not been timer for many months, adding amusingly, "It's time for me to be timer!"

She described how an Advanced club claps when a speaker has spoken too long. We adopted that system for the meeting.

We started with table topics - impromptu speeches which in the early days of Toastmasters in the USA in the last century involved the speakers picking topics from cards which were on the table. I presume having topics hidden, face down, creates excitement and a random and surprise effect. But face up the topics would have offered choice to nervous speakers.

Indra Sikdar presenting table topics as Table Topics Master.

The programme stated that that Indra would evaluate odd numbered topics and another person would evaluate even numbered topics. However, Amparo was appointed topics evaluator. Ruth instead introduced the first three topics as Topic Master and Indra introduced the next three topics. Sharing the Topics Master role is a good system to give practise to more people and be more inclusive. The audience also gets to hear and to know more people.

Table Topics speaker.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. (More photos of this event are available from Angela Lansbury to members of Toastmasters International.)

Grammarian Biju introduced the word of the day, Sanguine.

Seema spoke on Keep Safe. she described how the police had changed their way of communicating danger quickly to the public by tweeting.

She gave us a list of ten things we could do to keep safe. These included having a phone which can act as a torch (and knowing how to turn on the torch) so that in an emergency we can find our way around in the dark. (A torch can also be used to signal.) A mobile phone should also be kept charged in case you need it.

Most people thought that these precautions were easy to achieve and remember. However, carrying a door wedge to stop others breaking in through a door was not so easy. (But it's a matter of putting your mind to it. Door wedges are inexpensive and you can buy them in DIY shops or order them online.)

Oqbonnayei gave her icebreaker or first speech to introduce herself to the members. She spoke about fulfilling her dream of going to live and work in Atlanta, Georgia, in the USA.

Lorna spoke on Coaching.

Lorna gave a speech from the Advanced manual on Coaching, project 4 of the Communication manual. 

I usually make notes whilst listening to the speech. At the end of the meeting I copy the notes, briefly, into the manual. This delays the person giving me a lift home.

This time I wrote a detailed analysis in her manual. Afterwards I simply photographed the page with my mobile phone so that I had a record. (If she ever lost her manual, I would be able to give her the dates when she did her speech.) I also have a photo record of what I said, plus a video of myself on my mobile phone, if I need to get the record of my giving an evaluation in my leadership manual.

Jesus giving the General Evaluation of the evaluators and the whole meeting.

Jesus, GE, offered useful tips on the advantages of pausing instead of saying um and filler words. Pausing enables the speaker to gather thoughts, planning what to say next. The audience has time to reflect for a moment. You, as a speaker, sound less rushed, calmer. 

Members of the audience.

Members of the audience.

Jayanthini operating the lights.

Where's my ribbon?

President Sushil presented the winners with awards for the achievements of the evening. Winners of the ribbons were (left to right):
Rhea for Best Table Topic;
Oqbonnayei for delivering her Icebreaker speech;
President Sushil Shah (centre) presenting prize ribbons;
Seema Menon, best speech on the subject of Keep Safe;
Angela Lansbury, best evaluator, for her evaluation of Lorna's speech project on Coaching.

Author
Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG. Member of Harrovian Speakers and HOD in London, UK, and Braddell Hieghts Advanced Club in Singapore.

Fun At Club Officer Training 27 Jun 2017

Kavita Dulai who had prepared the Club Officer Training welcomed us, promising us it would be a fun evening. Each member of the audience stood up and said their club name and their role.

Those attending were:

CORNERSTONES ADVANCED
Coralie Francis

HARROVIANS
Kavita Dulai
Sarda Hirani
Angela Lansbury
Kristof Lenga
Seema Menon
Sushil Shal
Indra Sikdar
Frank Van Der Stok
Amparo Vilamil

HOD
Martin Doe
Stay Kartara
Angela Lansbury
Dennis Newman
Ade Onigbanjo
Gill Ornstein
Indra Sikdar

TJ Expressions
Ramesh Hali
Simon Naylor-Smith

WATFORD SPEAKERS:
Pam Attfield
Matt Auld
Kavita Dulai
Sorel Cunningham
Liz C?
Yohan Fernando
Michael Harper
Jean Flower
Coralie Francis
Bernie Podmore
Sonal Somala




The team showed us slides of forthcoming dates such as competitions. I took photos of the slides, to have a handy record.

Seema explained organisational structure with charts.

PREPARING FOR CLUB OFFICER TRAINING

Club officer training is essential. It gains the club points. It prepares club committee members.

Without training, they may fail to fulfil the role. The club membership drops. Leaving everything to the President means they may become so overwhelmed that he or she resigns.

If the officers miss training, they might lose interest, drop out of the committee role or get overwhelmed and leave the club altogether. You want them to stay focused on their duties, to know where to get help.  Good training helps them feel they belong, are vital, have a future, have new friends and a chance to network and find peers or seniors who can help. They are encouraged and confident so they do the job well.

Problem
How do you get people to attend the dull sounding Club Officer Training? Easy. At least Kavita made it look easy, by delegating. People had to turn up because she had involved them presenting.

Answer
Yes, Kavita's method was to give everybody a role as a trainer at the session. We were all involved with her, and each other.


***
Stories
You may be puzzled by the jargon the hierarchy of Toastmasters. What's the difference between a division and a district?

Seema and Kavita explained, using charts.

The Amusing Brainstorming Workshop
This was the most entertaining, creative and involving part of the evening and best for networking. Sushil, incoming President of Harrovians, told us were to brainstorm new ideas for clubs. Not alone but in groups. We all formed an entirely new, imaginary club, in a group with people we did not know. We had to think of two new ideas, and end with a name for our club.

International Languages and Exercise
My group's ideas were:
1 To meet at a different place every week,
ideally a restaurant or cafe with a different national food,
and have the national anthem, food, culture and language of that restaurant's theme and food as the theme of the evening;
2 To do exercise at the start and end of every meeting to offset the extra calories from eating out every time.
The name of our club was alliterative. The Fun and Frolics Club.

Ideas I took from other groups were:
1 To show the faces and roles of committee members on a large board so newcomers could identify everybody.
2 To have a board with the member's names in alphabetical order and columns for achievements, showing speeches done and  showing ribbons won, like a children's school or family board which shows gold stars.

Quiz
Gill explained where we all fit in, with charts. At the end she ran a quiz. I wrote down the answers. I remembered that the numbers I needed to remember were 7 (the start, the big districts of the world), which are divided into divisions, which end with a one, two numbers ended in 1 either 9 or 6 which is an upside down 9. The easiest one was that I am in area L, which I remember as standing for London. I wish she had warned us at the start that we would be answering a quiz. I'd have taken more care to listen and make notes.

Mentoring Planning
It didn't all go as planned. Kavita heard me give a speech about mentoring at a club. She asked me to run a session on mentoring.

Format
The traditional presentation session from the USA is based on slides about the advantages of mentoring. But mentoring in previous years had been a challenge at several clubs. Two different solutions I had observed were:

At HOD:
In Singapore: Mentors were assigned and pairs were photographed together on stage.

Kavita spent an hour discussing with whether to break up into groups or pairs, or whether to involve the audience by asking questions and writing their answer on a flipchart.

The time did not allow for a lot of setting up for three different people to use flip charts or the audience to keep moving chairs, forming groups, and different groups all giving feedback.

Who?
After an hour or so of discussion, we decided that the session would be split between three people. The three presenters, each only doing five minutes of the 15 minutes session, would be me and my two mentoring pairing helpers at the mentoring committee at Harrovians, Ruth and Lorna.

Unfortunately, both of them were away on the date, Tuesday ... June 2017. I asked them both to send their comments which they did. After that I was away on holiday in Romania for a week with no phone contact.

I thought I could find somebody else merely to read out the comments on their behalf - involving little preparation, so anybody could do it.

I suggested that Indra, who had been my original mentor, and had done two presentations with me on mentoring, should be one of the other two people. Kavita was keen to involve a third person from an in-house club.

Indra and Kavita got together.

The final shape was
a Advantages of mentoring: slides made by the in house club.
b Challenges - Indra talking about four people who had done mentoring or been mentees with him.
c Solutions - my giving the HOD and Singapore solutions, ending with offering links to my blog posts and my email.

On the night, thanks to Kavita's foresight, overall plan and preparation with attention to the detail, all went well.

The evening's session ended with Coralie Francis  DTM explaining the Pathways which will be the new personalised Toastmasters path for every Toastmasters, not all following the same first ten speeches and projects in the same order but choosing a more focused plan, leading towards a specific goal, for example of giving video presentations, or performing humorous speeches.

Any lessons learned?
One member went to the wrong venue. Maybe a reminder with the right venue - especially if it has changed.

Feedback forms showed that most people were very happy with the content, loved the workshops and were more confident. One person wanted a longer break for networking.  Another wanted the meeting to end strictly to time, and/or to be spread over two evenings. Another wanted more explanation of roles, especially the VPE role.

I took photos, unofficially. I think it would have been good to have a group photo, in the interval because one or two people had to leave early and we finished slightly late so people did not want to delay further.

Apart from that, a great success.

Angela Lansbury, member of HOD and Harrovians in the UK and Braddell Heights Advanced Club in Singapore.