Manningham Speechcraft week 3 26-10-09

Week 3 was full of energy, dynamic with 10 Toastmasters present to help.  Everyone (toastmaster members) are so excited about this speechcraft, and want to get on board.  It feels so good to have started something, and co-ordinated something that has raised so much enthusiasm and energy. Gets a bit addictive this successful leadership stuff, its very rewarding.

The scheduling becomes more complicated each week.  In week two we had several speechcrafters apologies so that meant I had to schedule 10 speeches for week 3.  That's a lot! and a lot of evaluations.

As it turns out I had one apology the day before and and three on the day so we only ended up hearing 6 speakers on week 3.  Which was good, I extended the evauators time to 2 min each evaluation which gave more detailed feed back for not only the speaker to benefit from but also the other speakers to learn from.

What was more challenging in relation to scheduling was that in week two we had an educational on introducing a speaker and the speechcrafters were to introduce one of the speakers.  I had pre assigned this before the meeting.  Some speechcrafters had contacted their speaker to get details for their introduction.  But with all the late appologies the introduction-speaker schedule was all out of wack, so a fluid agenda and relaxed approach was the order of the day.

We heard some great introductions (even though some of my speechcrafters were thrown into the task).  The speeches were excellent.  I could see that most had taken into consideration things we presented and encouragements from evaluations.  I could really see improvement in all of them from their first speech. 

We had two excellent educationals, one on how to evaluate and the other on body language, from two very experienced and respected toastmasters.  They entertained and educated us, connected with the audience, that's what public speaking is all about and did a brillant job.

Next week we move onto our next assignment "Be in ernest" speech  where I have encouraged the speechcrafters to use body language as a tool to convey how ernest they are about their topic.   Having several apologies in week 3 has left me with 4 speakers not presenting their second speech.  We need to keep the program moving along and in context of the sessions of the evening.  I have encouraged the speechcrafters who missed out to present their second speech at the Manningham club on a regular meeting.  Hope they take up the opportunity, it will be a great experience very supportive and expand their ability to speak outside their comfort zone. if they don't I will schedule them as reserve speakers in case we have apologies in week 4.

Invited the speechcrafters to bring along a friend on the final night.  It will be a celebration of their skills and an opportunity to expand the positive Toastmasters experience to others.  I know many of the Toastmaster presenters are keen to come back for the final night to celebrate the success and progress.

Two weeks break now due to the Melb cup weekend. Which is good to have a break mid session (its full on).  Next session on 9th Nov. 

Manningham Toastmasters Speechcraft - Week 2 19-10-09

Was very much looking forward to this session, even though I had been battling a cold all week and was not feeling so good.  Confirmed my presenters and drew up the agenda, with one apology listed.  Sent out the draft agenda and later recieved two more apologies from speechcrafters who were due to do their speeches that night.   This is one of the challenges of what being the co-ordinator is all about, keeping that agenda fluid so it works (lot like actual life).

One of our participants pulled out which left a space open for someone who was very keen on the waiting list.

We had scheduled 3 ice breaker speeches from the two speechcrafters who were unable to attend last week and one from our new speechcrafter.  4 "organising your speech" speeches.  10 participants expected and 5 toastmasters to facilitiate.  We ended up with one speechcrafter not showing up so in total 6 speeches.

It is always hard when you have people miss sessions, trying to get them up to speed with what they have missed is a balacing act of not repeating yourself but reviewing what was learnt and practice so the newer (and nervous) participants feel confident. 

We started the night off with a round robin.  Everyone took part in it.  From last week we were less one particpant and less 3 toastmasters it is amazing how you feel the energy level in a group reduce when there are less people.  It took a little time for the energy to rise in the group.  I felt that by the time everyone had given their speeches (there was a bit of a sigh of relief) and had supper they were all feeling very relaxed and comfortable.

Again we heard some great speeches, everything from salt water crocks in Darwin, tax definitions, alternative industrial uses of bamboo, careers in hairdressing, love of fishing, and thought provoking example of our perceptions.  WOW!  these guys are GREAT! As with all toasmaster programs the participant picks the topic and we enjoyed and were entertained by a great selection.  My speechcrafters did so well, very confident and received informative, analyitical and supportive evaluations that I am sure they will encorporate in their next speech.

We had a fun impromtu speaking session with topical questions in the current media, where again as last week everyone participated and enjoyed. Even when one of the speechcrafters was stumped by the question he was given support and several options on how to approach this next time.  Great advice that everyone could take home and use!

Our educational this week was on introducing a speaker.  Something that we may all be called upon to do at sometime in our life.  We listened to the theory then broke the speechcrafters up into pairs to interview each other.  Then they presented their introductions.  The next session will include the speechcrafters introducing the speeches. Everyone was keen to take part.

In the wrap up I explained who was speaking next week and we reviewed the introductions. Explained how our we will have some different toastmasters presenting next week and briefly explained the next speech project and how the educationals next week will help with the project. Our speechcrafters each gave a reflection on what they had learnt so far, which was rewarding, positive and great feedback.

A great night had by all.  Look forward to next week.

Manningham Toastmasters Speechcraft - week one 12-10-09

Our Toastmasters team of presenters week 1

Boy did this course create a lot of interest!

I was contacted by interested participants right up to 1 hour before the start time.  I had to turn many back, but hopefully they will attend as a guest at this or another club, will follow them up.

I had enquiries from previous guests who were had shown interested in joining either Kew or Manningham Toastmasters so I didn't want to turn them away, so the particpant number number ballooned up to 13. 
That also caused the problem of needing more manuals, after a ring around by my team we had enough manuals for all.

The participants wern't the only ones excited, there was a great buzz in District 73 Toastmasters Land.
I had planned to have the Presidents of both clubs involved as presenters the first night.  One of which is also the Area Governor.  The Eastern Division Governor found out and wanted to come too. As luck would have it the District 73 Division Governor was in town and wanted to come too.  So we had all levels of leadership in our division involved in our first night.  It was bigger than big.  The energy level of the group was so high we nearly blew the roof off, the evaluations and educationals were 1st class.  What a lucky group of speechcrafters.

All of my speechcrafters present gave their Ice Breakers, they were courageous in getting up in front of so many strangers and giving the 2 minute speech their best.  Before their speech I gave an very supportive and encouraging educational on overcoming nerves.  I would like to think that it helped them.  We had 3 participants who did not make it to this night, so will hear their ice breakers next week.
We gave short but positive, informative and encouraging educationals.
Had a lovely cuppa and some chocolate cake and muffins (they really deserved it), then back to it.

We had an excellent educational on impromptu speaking then practice by having each participant answer a table topic.   All the speechcrafters participated and they looked more confident than earlier.  Then positive, informative and supportive evaluations.

An educational on how to choose a speech topic, which will help the speechcrafters in choosing their next 3 speeches. Another educational on speech structure to compliment the written instruction in their manuals.  This was a dynamic and motivating educational.
Then I wrapped up with homework and next weeks tasks which would be split the group into two and hear group 1's "organising your speech" speeches.

We ran 15 min overtime (but we started late and the introduction went overtime) Will amend next weeks agenda to try to not go overtime again.

The speechcrafters went home uplifted and positive.  My team was thrilled and exuberant about how well the first night went, an infectious excitement I hope will filter through to all the clubs in our District.

Can't wait to week 2     :)

So you want to run a speechcraft course

This blog article is for Toastmasters members who are interested in running a Toastmasters International Speechcraft Course.  The planning experience has been a positive and enjoyable and enriching experience for me, so join me on my week by week blog.  Hope it helps other Toastmasters in speechcraft planning or inspires you to take it on as a membership and team/morale building exercise for your club.

My Commitment
I decided to run a speechcraft course.  This would help me ahcieve my Advanced Communicator Gold Award that I wanted to ahcieve in the 09/10 TM year.  I looked at the other projects to achieve this and although they were much less time consuming, I decided that speechcraft was in demand and would be a great membership builder.

The idea was hatched
My Club Kew has a healthy membership, but our neighbouring club Manningham (previously Doncaster) has very low membership, so why not run it in conjuction with the two clubs at the Manningham club, to boost membership for Manningham.  Our area Governor thought this was an excellent idea and put it to the Manningham club.  They were excited too, so the "Manningham Toastmasters Speechcraft Course" was officially launched.

The opportunities were:

• Credit toward my ACG award as being the official co-ordinator
• Membership building for Manningham Club
• Team/morale building for Manningham Club
• Raised awareness of the Manningham Club
• Communications and leadership opportunities outside the club for all involved
• Experience for toastmasters members in the speechcraft program for future courses
• Toastmasters members can run educationals credited to their awards
• Participants will receive high quality value for money course
• Participants will receive 6 months membership to Manningham Club at the end of the course if they take up the invitation
• Participants will receive credit for 3 speeches on their Competent Communicator Award (if they join TM)
• Club will attain DCP points for memberhsip and towards CC & CL goals

Before I started at Toastmasters I would have thought it crazy if it were suggested that "I" run a 6 week public speaking course, (especially for free).  But that's how Toastmasters can give you the skills and confidence that turns your approach to life around, when you give YOU RECIEVE.

The broad details were decided
Between our two clubs we decided to maximise the likelihood of participants joining as Manningham members:

• The venue was to be at the Manningham club rooms, they were available, reasonably priced and the infrastructure was already there, the participants would be familiar with the club rooms.
• We decided on a 6 week program, 2 hr sessions for 10 participants spanning Oct & Nov 2009
• The night was decided as a mutually available night at a similar time to the Manningham club meeting time but on a different night.
• It was decided to run it as a separate couse to the club meeting nights (the co-ordinators manual suggests run it on meeting nights)  this makes the course an event of its own and also will not detract from the meeting goals of the club's regular meetings.
• The price was set at $120pp to cover expenses with no profit.  This covered venue hire, manuals, supper, misc stationary, and six months membership to Manningham Club (the TMI joining fee would come from surplus funds from the course or met by the Manningham Club).
• Participants will be invited at the end of the course to become members, for ongoing support (which will be based on their decision to commit to join the club).

The 6 week schedule was drawn up
I planed each session, a rough agenda drawn up for each night.
My overall schedule covered:

• 4 speeches by the participants (each with a written and verbal evaluation)
• 1 evaluation by the participants
• 1 introduction by the participants
• 1 recieving an award by the participants
• At least 4 opportunities for impromptu speaking by participants
• A Toastmaster for each evening
• A timer/table topics master for each evening
• Evaluators for speeches and table topics for each evening

Educationals on:

• Overcoming nerves
• Selecting speech topics
• Speech structure
• Introducing a speaker
• Evaluations
• Body language
• Vocal variety & word selection

There is a minimum content to be covered according to the co-ordinators guide, this course covers much more.  The schedule is intense and rich in content and maximum speaking opportunities for the participants.
The scheduling did take a bit of time to complete but is an essential step to get the schedule organised in the initial stages to be clear on resourcing.



Call for volunteers
No one can run a speechcraft on their own!  Here is where the leadership comes in.
I ran an educational speech at Manningham and the Wafflers Clubs and an announcement was made at Kew.  The great thing about Toastmasters is you put out the call and people come to help.

I had more than enough Toastmasters responding.

I scheduled 4 Toastmasters members for the first 3 nights, 3 Toastmasters members for the next two and 4 again for the final night to fill the requirements on the schedule.


Assign tasks to resources
This again took a bit of time ot work out the best roles for the experienced Toastmasters and the best roles for the emerging Toastmasters.  I called in specific Toastmasters with exceptional skills for particular educationals.  It is a real show case for the talent we have in our area, the participants are very lucky to have such a skilled team to support them.

Things to think about are that there is no duplication in assigning roles,  ie ensure that a toastmaster is not running a section and expected to evaluate as well.  It is important to not have too many Toastmasters involved in one night, because you don't want more Toastmasters than participants and it gets too hard to organise a lot of people each night (the exception to this comment is if you are running it inconjuction with regular  meetings).  I had an open invitiation to Toastmasters members if they were not involved on the night to come and observe as a learning experience for future courses.

When resources were assigned I sent an email out to each resource for each week with venue details, dates, times, draft agenda, outlined their specific task and educational deliverables for the tasks and timing.
Then I waited for confirmations and/or inabilities.  Then revamped the schedule.


The Participants
We sourced our participants from:

• Visitors t the Kew and Manningham clubs
• Spread the word to Area, Division and District Governors
• Letter box drop of flyers in the local area
• Contacted past enquiries made to District about upcoming speechcraft
• Visited local business networking clubs

Initially our intention was to target participants who live locally who potentially would join the Manningham Club, but invitation was extended to all interested parties.  Participants were only confirmed on the course when they had paid in full.  This was done by direct credit into the Manningham account.


The Response
1 week before the start date we had 8 participants paid up, with another 3 promising to pay prior to the course.  This article was written 6 days before the course commenced.  Participants were sent a confirmation letter with venue details, dates, times, what to bring, and instructions on preparing their first assignment a 2 min Ice Breaker, the message included an outline about the Ice Breaker speech.
Organised some extra participant's manuals to be purchased to cater for potentially one or two extra participants.  Expectation that at least one may drop out before the end of the course.


The Team Building Effect
There has been such a buzz about this course, the feedback from the participants was exciting.  The feedback from the Toastmasters members and leaders has been exciting.  The Manningham club members have joined together to promote and facilitate the administration.  It will be a much more enthused and invigorated club at the end of the 6 weeks.  I am expecting a growth in memberhip too.


Finalizing The Agenda
Preparted the draft agenda, waiting on the final participants payments to go through, to add them to the agenda, will send out agenda to participants and Toastmasters members prior to the first meeting.

IT'S ALL SO EXCITING   -   CAN'T WAIT FOR WEEK 1

Contest Chair

For years I have been entering every club contest I could. For many years I never progressed past through to the next level of competitions.  But with persistance I eventualy developed a skill for the Humorous competition.  From someone who is lousy at even telling a joke.  So the years passed and I started winning these club contests and progressing further and further.  For many years I was a contestant at our Area Humorous contest.  Unfortunately this year I did not make it through.  So when our Area Governor asked me to be the Area Humerous Contest Chair I was thrilled.

The first thing was it was so much more relaxing being on the emcee side of the night, than being the contestant.  I didn't have days and days spent on preparing and practicing the speech.

You feel like royalty when people address you as "madam contest chair"

I was determined to warm up the audience before the first speaker.  So on to google to find some appropriate jokes, it took some looking to find clean ones but I did.

So after welcoming everyone and outlining the rules I gave some corny one liners and then built up to my main joke.  Everyone had a good laugh, so mission acomplished, on with the introductions of the contestants.

The contestants were really good, and funny, pitty the judges. 

Then the judges retired to tally their votes and I interviewed the contestants picking a question to ask them that was related to their speech.  This ended up being really funny too.

It was a terrific night, very entertaining, very enjoyable experience for me.

I would recommend to any Toastmaster to take on the rewarding role of Contest Chair.

Welcome to my "Great Toast" blog

I have been involved with Toastmasters International for 11 years now.  I first joined a club in the city then had a break for a couple of years and re-joined with my current club in Kew. I am now joining a second club in the city called Wafflers.  I wish I learned to blog years ago.  I could have shared so many life enriching experiences on how Toastmasters has improved my confidence and helped my personal development. I hope some of my stories inspire you to get involved with Toastmasters too.