Feedback I gave to Dennis of HOD, plus general notes on How To Be A Toastmaster

I was very impressed that you (Dennis) took a day off work to prepare. 

Another option is to do your phoning around and emailing the previous weekend.  Maybe tell all members by email that speakers must contact their mentor to rehearse a week in advance and have their speech title and project numbers on the programme a week in advance. Have a backup speaker who would otherwise be on the agenda the following week, so no speaker has to prepare a speech at the last moment to fill in for a dropout. Ensure that people who need to do speeches for completing manuals, work presentations, weddings, are given priority, yet nobody is constantly pushed out to make way for VIPs.

You were very smooth and confident, calm and excellent as a toastmaster. I particularly liked the informative and positive sentences (which I noted at the time on the back of the programme):

'Sign the register so that in the case of an emergency (such as fire) we can know who came to the meeting so we can do a count.’ Very useful explaining that, because otherwise, people think only newcomers need to sign.

'I don’t expect you to run as fast as Usain Bolt.’ Amusing,attention-gettingg.

'We want to see your warmth.’ Warm.

'Toastmasters is a family.’ Positive.

'I'd like to introduce …’ Positive.

What else could you add to enhance your role if you do it again? (Watch others on video and at later meetings, noticing what you like and don’t like.)

I was Toastmaster twice in Singapore on the two nights before I flew home this week. From my two experiences plus yours I have compiled these notes 

You explained the location of toilets. Good. You asked phones switched to silent. 

Appoint Sergeant at Arms to sit near projector to help and move tables. 

Meeter and greeter should stay by door to give agenda to latecomers, smile and show them an empty chair.

VIP visitors such as area director can be put on the agenda and welcomed. 

GIFTS

(Rich in house clubs such as financial companies print a pen and notebook company colours with company name and wrap them in seasonal paper and present them to visiting Toastmasters or other VIPs doing roles such General Evaluator. Smaller clubs on small budgets (or clubs with no budget but a generous member or area governor or Toastmaster from another club) go to Poundshop and buy a dozen cheap pencils or notebooks and present one gift to each person who does a topic, answers a quiz question, travels miles across the city to be an evaluator, listing Area Governor doing the twice yearly inspection or GE etc.) Leftover chocolates from Xmas, or the wrapped in foil chocolate biscuit from the break time food would work just as well.

SAA should ensure milk and food is being organized - avoid last minute panic which stresses the President and everybody in the room. Fruit such as washed grapes or bananas should be provided because many people are on diets or should be on diets and it’s daft to have a speech at every meeting telling Toastmasters to eat more fruit and less sugar and then serve them only sugared cereal biscuits. Provide water for anybody speaking over ten minutes such as a half hour or full hour presentation. Keep the water away from paperwork and electrics.

Check speakers with slides have the needed adapter, and/or printouts of slides, and/or slides on a thumb drive, and/or another member with a laptop which does work with the club adapters and/or the slides in Word and not Apple’s Keynote if the other person has a non-apple /Android phone.

SPEAKING AND VOTING LIST

Sergeant at Arms to LIST On Board (or project on screen from a laptop)

1 Introductions: Say (eg your name, your club, your job, your hobby (For the benefit of those who don’t understand, forget, or latecomers).

2 Topic Speaker's name, one word subject, time (to help voting) and so you don’t forget voting

3 Prepared Speaker, speech title, time

4 Evaluator, speech title, time

VOICE CHECKS

Ask timer and speakers and evaluators to do a sound check to be sure people in the back row can hear the speaker.

Clear floor of bags and papers before taking photo. 

Ensure the photographer is included in one of the photos. 

MANUALS

1 Write in advance to speakers reminding them to bring their manuals. (Add this to the agenda emailed in advance.)

MATCH SPEAKERS AND EVALUATORS

Match advanced speakers with advanced evaluators. Check the speaker is happy with the evaluator. Some speakers would like a change of evaluator for a new viewpoint or more detailed feedback. Other speakers might prefer continuity so the evaluator can comment on how the speaker has improved.

MENTORS

Mention the speaker’s mentor to give the mentor credit and encourage newcomers to ask for a mentor.

Brief evaluators to start evaluations and and end evaluations with a compliment and sandwich by giving one useful suggestion on how to improve their subject matter or presentation. (They should avoid giving only praise and no helpful suggestions - if they can’t think of one they can ask around during the interval). Also try to prevent evaluators giving an entirely damning evolution about not fulfilling the objectives which depresses the speaker and the audience. They should say how much the speaker would benefit by building on their existing speech to enhance it. Pathways requires you to repeat your first speech using the the suggested enhancements - so the evaluator has to give suggestions, and the speaker has to repeat the speech.

PHOTO NEW MEMBER AT MEETING START WITH THEIR MENTOR

Check evaluators know where to find objectives in the manual. Ask evaluators to sign and return speakers’ manuals to speakers. Remind evaluators to bring manuals so that they can get credit in the leadership manual for evaluating.  Mike Freedman suggested that an advanced speaker should try to do an Advanced project rather than constantly reporting the basic manual, to develop both speaker and evaluator and impress guests and provide variety in the meeting.  Photo copy the bass manual and one or two of the advanced manuals so that if an evaluator and speaker don’t have manuals you can email or whats ap the objectives and the evaluation sheet. 

Evaluators can make notes on their phones and read back from their phones - using less paper and making less litter to clear up at the end of the evening.

Explain the manuals to guests.

TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL HISTORY & BENEFITS

Give a brief history of Toastmasters ‘for the benefit of visitors’. Numbers of clubs in the UK and worldwide, members, etc (Keep these facts on a card or better still memorise them. Express surprise and amazement at the opportunities for friendship when travelling or on holiday. 

Explain to visitors the hand shaking, applause, and terms of address. 

HOD President Martin Doe says - these are handy to practice because you will find it easier to remember these Rules of Procedure (at a rotary club) or at a wedding or other event.

SEATING & BRIEFING TOASTMASTER & PRESIDENT

SEATING AND BRIEFING

List topics evaluator on the programme. Ensure topics master knows the topics evaluator so they don’t ask the topic evaluator to speak and then get rejected.

SEATING & BRIEFING LATECOMER EVALUATORS

If an evaluator for speaker 2 is late, you risk a situation when speaker 2 runs across the room to hand a manual to evaluator 2 and whisper or chat loudly to valuator 2 about which project, whilst speaker one is trying to speak and hold audience attention.

Ensure each speaker who has no evaluator sits near the door by an empty chair and has instructions written on a note to hand to the late evaluator. If necessary, tell the whole audience that you want them to hand each other notes written in capital letters, and not talk during project speeches nor any other stage presentation.

GROUP PHOTO

Add group photo to the agenda. Ideally organise the photo at end of first half because some people leave early, and/or during the interval. You as Toastmaster or / VPE ? President can use the photo as an excuse to write to the guests and say hope they enjoyed the meeting and here’s a photo of the group with you in such and such a row. Get the photographer to email the photo while at the meeting so it can go straight up onto Facebook next day.

Ask people to come forward and sit in the front row.

CHAIRS

Ensure a spare chair is near the door so latecomers don’t feel embarrassed and don’t lurk visibly at the door distracting speakers and disrupting the speakers by walking across the room to a distant empty chair.

Call people back five minutes before you need them after the interval to allow them time to rush to the toilets (of which there are only two or three toilets between 25 guests)

In the interval ensure that guests are introduced to somebody and not left standing alone.

Before the break and/or at the end of the meeting ask guests what they thought of the meeting and if they are likely to want to join a Toastmasters club.

Give the names of the people who did topics (write the names on the flipchart or project onto the screen and give their subject in one word eg, holidays, toastmasters, cats, Calcutta.

ENTHUSIASTIC INTRODUCTIONS

Find one word to introduce each person - write it on the programme (agenda). If you don’t have time or don’t know anything, make up an alliterative compliment to make the speaker and audience laugh and smile - you can invent these in advance eg Marvellous Martin, ‘I am the delightful, dedicated Dennis, Toastmaster of the Day’, Here is jolly Justin, please welcome  Super Sina, Marvellous Manish, Amazing Michael/ Marvellous Michael, Angelic Angela Lansbury, Delightful Denise, Special Sonia, Spanish Sonia, Able Angela Hook, (with two members called Angela, please add the surname, Generous Gill, - you could even email people in advance and ask if there’s one word which sums them up,   

VIDEOS & SLIDES

Check people using videos or slides have set them up in advance to prevent delays.  

REMOVING PAPERS FROM LECTERN 

Remove papers left behind by speakers from the lectern because that muddles you and others, sends bits of paper flying when you grab one and others tumble, and people go home without vital information such as their speech notes.

REMOVING VOTING SLIPS AND TALLIES

Remove any note showing numbers of votes. Good practice at club level so you remember at Toastmasters and other public contests. In contests I have experienced major disruption three times: an irate ‘loser’ attacking the judges, blaming a fellow contestant, heckling the winner at the closing ceremony, later writing to demand that the chief judge be prevented from judging again and asking judge to resign from Toastmasters. ( That’s not counting events where I was not present: 

a wrong announcements at a Toastmasters Contest which we all heard about it at an Area Club Officer Training - 

plus ongoing repercussions for a Toastmaster making the wrong announcement at a Miss World contest.) 

Put the voting count in your pocket and throw it away elsewhere. Don’t leave it on the lectern, nor in the bin.

At club meetings a speaker finding they had only one vote or none could be demoralised and depressed. You don’t have to have names on the ballot sheet or voting count to know that if nobody voted for you, your best friend or wife or President voted for somebody else or didn’t bother to vote at all so you missed out on a ribbon or lost a contest, or to feel that nobody in the club likes you.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ask around at break time if anybody wants to make announcements.

End with clear announcement of the date of the next meeting for visitors to put in their diaries. 

Allow time for announcements. Check in advance if the President or visiting area director or member of another club has an announcement so instead of last minutes discussion across the room and exchanges with you like an afterthought, they can be welcomed on stage.

CLOSING ADDRESS

Don’t just mutter, ‘That’s it. 'bye'. End with a cheer or round of applause!

Angela Lansbury CL ACG

annalondon8@gmail.com

Author, travel writer, photographer, speaker.

Follow me on Facebook, blogger.com and YouTube.

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk

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.

Fulfilling Objectives of Project Manuals - Workshops, Mentors

Many people treat Toastmasters as a place where they can practise speeches for their business, for fun, for an objective, prepare a speech without looking at the manual, then look for a project it will fit. They are too busy to read the manual. Several ways to address this: Firstly ensure that the speaker has the manual at every meeting. Add bring your manual to the agenda sent out. Keep doing show of hands, who remembered the manual, who forgot. Ask those who remembered their manual to explain why they bring it and how they remember and find it.

 WORKSHOPS Run a regular workshop at a meeting every three months on using manuals for all new members.

MENTORS Ask mentors to explain the manual before new members give the first speech. Assign mentors for all ten speeches, not just the first three. Remind everyone that to obtain a credit in the leadership manual they have to mentor. Try reverse mentoring. Some clubs insist that members alternate a speech and a role to ensure that roles are filled and that pressure on speech slots is reduced and each member completes both manuals. Assign the person who got the CC without doing projects to be a mentor. Ask their mentee, a member who has completed their CC and is doing it again, to ask the mentor for help in choosing subjects fitting the role. Pick the most diplomatic member to discuss this privately. Hold a meeting workshop devoted to the subject of using manuals, with demos of speeches or how to tweak them to fit the manual.

READING ALOUD OBJECTIVES AT MEETINGS Ensure that objectives are read out by the evaluator before each speech.

OPENING SPEECH AT MEETING COVERS MANUALS Ask whoever opens the meeting, The President or the Toastmaster of the evening, to remind audience before voting that the project should have fulfilled the objectives so the speakers are more likely to win a ribbon if following objectives. Run regular workshops on using manuals or ask TME to describe the use of manuals in the opening speech at every meeting. Assign mentors for all ten speeches, not just the first three.

PRE-VOTING REMINDER Mention manual objectives before voting for best speech.Assign mentor whose job is to speak to each speaker after their speech, in the break, to discuss how project objectives can be filled in next project to ensure speech follows manual. Ask the evaluator to mention whether speech fulfils the objectives. Point out that all aspects of speaking covered by projects are used in judging at contests. Do a 'roast' on the person who does not follow the manual, the real person, or a fictional character. (Anybody doing a roast should check that the person they are mentioning is happy with every part of the speech. Even if the subject says he does not want that subject mentioned, you have had the chance to raise it.
Angela Lansbury

What I learned from Shell Singapore Toastmasters - The Shoe Speech

I was invited to a meeting at Shell on an island.
I like going to toastmasters meeting at community centres. I catch the MRT train. The MRT trains runs every three minutes. A community club is marked on maps.

When I heard the word island, I thought, islands are trouble. Islands have ferries.

Ferries have tickets.
I have been on small ferries to small islands, off the larger island of Singapore.
Ferries don't go in bad weather. Ferries are small and if you don't have the right ticket, somebody gets left behind. Ferries are infrequent. If you miss one, it's a long wait to the next one.

I had nothing better to do. So I went. That was a mistake. I had lots of better things to do. Listening to music. Sleeping. Anything is better than an entire day of non-stop stress.

The journey
I got lost on the way. I was wearing sandals so I could run.

I was not going to be late and miss the ferry. I left an hour extra, two hours, for a one hour journey.

I reached the MRT station and was told those four ominous words. You can't miss it. Meaning, they can't miss it, because they know it well, and won't bother to describe it properly, because they think you can't miss it. It was half way between the two stations.

I missed it. I walked for thirty minutes until I reached the next station. I spent fifteen minutes walking back, Then ten minutes along a narrow slip road. Then a queue of people for the pass onto the ferry. You have to leave your passport or ID.

Shoes
The man on the desk would not give me the ferry pass because I was wearing the wrong shoes.

I said, I can't go home to change. I live an hour away. A two hour round trip. I'll miss my ferry and my group organiser. We are a lunch time meeting.

I was wearing the wrong shoes. You have to wear closed shoes.
I asked,  Do you have any overshoes.
No.

Any spare shoes?
No.

My organiser has not yet arrived.

You have to watch a video.
I said, maybe she's watching the video. Can I go to the video area? Over there.

She wasn't there. But I watched the video. It says you must wear closed shoes.

She arrives. She has a pass, although she is wearing heels.

The visit organiser, call her Kate, turned up in high heeled shoes.

The man on the security desk called me over. He asked what size shoes I wore.

He was willing to lend me his shoes.

I took mine off.
I tried his on.
They were size eleven.
My sandals are a size too big, not 5 but six.
However, too small for him.
Never mind, he says.
I ll go barefoot until you come back I sit at my desk all day. How long will you be?
About two hours.

They called the ferry passengers.
A long walk.

We arrived at the island. Nobody to meet us. You can't leave the dock wihtout an escort. No reply from their phone.

When he turned up, very apologetically, at 2 pm. He'd been working, and his phone had been off.

I saw why, when we drove to the office block. We passed the huge cylinders of oil, bedecked with warning signs, hundreds of warning signs, in the parking area, on the road, on the stairs, on the sides of the petrol tanks: no naked lights, no phone phones. Imagine a spark from a phone, setting off a fire, with all that oil.

As we

The Moral
Check the dress code. Companies demanding closed showed should keep spare overshoes. Just as Evaluators saying the speaker would dress in a tie, should carry a tie to hand to the speaker.

The person supposed to collect us was not there to meet the seance ferry and not answering the phone. (I always ask for two phone contacts.)

We arrived at the meeting, no sign of lunch. I can't concentrate, it's 2 pm and I need food. I ask, do you have any food, anything to drink except water?

Oh, yes, we have boxes of packed lunches for you. We assumed you had eaten.

No, we didn't leave our bench seats. We could not walk off the pier. We had no escort. The restaurant is for staff only.

We ate lunch. I was allergic to everything, the shellfish, the pickles, I never eat noodles. I ate it all. If I dropped dead, I didn't care.

Speaker
Langeline gave a great evaluation of a speaker who got upset about the illness of his mother (and presumed death) - he was too overcome by emotion to reach the end of the sentence. We missed the first ferry

I am not sure whether it was the event which he recalled which was so upsetting, or the extra excitement of giving a speech which meant that he was overwrought. Probably some of both. What can you say? You will find your next speech easier for two reasons, it is not the ice breaker whose subject all about your life history. You are not performing a speech in front of others for the first time. You know which subject upset you and can avoid them.

How to convince members to mentor others?

TM has an educational workshop on mentoring with the slides you show and a question and answer session at the end.

Give examples of a mentor and a mentee session. Being a mentor is just like being an evaluator. You both get points and learn. Sometimes the mentor only has to listen as the mentee talks through the problems, discusses one, two or three solutions, and finds the action and decides to do it. A mentor is evaluated in the CL manual. You could add the public mentoring session by running publicly through how the mentoring is then evaluated.

Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotations.