Thursday, November 26, 2009

Manningham Speechcraft Week 6 23-11-09

The grand fanalie

The final night of the Manningham Speechcraft was full of enthusiasm,
 energy and smiles. 

Many of the speechcrafters brought a guest to hear their final speeches. We were treated to 8 well presented speeches, delivered with enthusiasm and energy.  The confidence of the speechcrafters was apparent they looked comfortable presenting and Yes looked like they were enjoying it. This sight made me very happy to be a part of someones development, to unlock the power of communication, to help people move beyond the fear of public speaking and deliver skillful presentations.  Being at the begining of the start of somthing great for a person is such a reward, imagine where they will take this skill!

We started the evening with a reflection of memorable moments which was enjoyable to relive those memories.

Then it was into the speeches.  The progress of skill was easily seen.  An experienced  Toastmaster who had come along for the first time commented, "I was amazed at the quality of their skill, being only just their 4th speech".  Again we were entertained by a huge range of topics.  Some very serious health and business issues others on a more personal experience.  I extended the speechcrafters for this speech to be 5 minutes.  The speakers had no problem speaking for the extra minute, some went over time.  I feel most could comfortably speak for 10 min or longer.

After the speeches I spoke about the benefits of joining a toastmasters club and an invitation to join was handed out.  The timing of this session was blown out by handing out these invitations individually and an unexpected interviewing of the participants (which was antincipated for the award ceremony).   Perhaps as toastmaster for the night I could have reminded the presenter of the timing contraints when he got up to speak since we were already over time.  It's a bit hard to jump up and stop what the presenter is doing once they have already invited someone to front to speak.  You can't assume that the presenters are mindful of the time.   Seamless emceeing is truely an art.  Anything can and may go wrong and it is hard to know when to be assertive.  But enough beating myself up about that, it was another opportunity for the speechcrafters to speak and the night did flow well (but finished 15 min late).

We commence the break with a toast and glass of bubbly.  I was presented with a gift and thank you for co-ordinating the course.  It was unexpected and lovely and one of the speechcrafters presented me with the award.  We had lots of yummy things to endulge in for our celebration.

After the break we heard evaluations from the Toastmasters.  I deliberately assigned toastmasters who attended earlier sessions of speechcraft so they could comment on not only the speech but the progress. The evaluations were uplifting and motivating adding to the joyful spirit of the whole evening.

Sadly we ran out of time for table topics, I would have loved the guests to experience the fun of impromptu speaking too.
Then it was onto presentations of the awards.  This was done by calling the group up and handing out the certificates individually. I invited our Division Governor to present the certificates.  Then we had a group photo.


I handed out a feedback form which all participants completed. This has also been given to the participants who did not finish the course.  So when I have all the forms I will do a complete anaylsis.  But in short the feedback showed growth in skills and confidence in public speaking in all participants.  With course content helpful that improved skills.  Overall coments of the course reflected possitive feedback from every participant.

I gave some brief thank yous to over 11 Toastmasters and the 13 participants  and then closed the meeting.

It was a wonderful night, a fitting end to an exceptional speechcraft course.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Manningham Speechcraft week 5 16-11-09

The passion shone through

Now we come to the business end of this speechcraft course.  What a transformation in confidence and speaking skills I have witnessed.  We were privileged to hear 4 passionate speeches this night.  Passionate in not just the belief in the topic that was discussed but passionate in the delivery of the topic. Again I had the speechcrafters who where not presenting speeches introduce and evaluate the speakers.  The introductions were smooth and professional and the evaluations were supportive and insightful.

We have a regular 8 speechcrafters who are very committed to the course and are getting a lot out of it.  These speechcrafters have now completed 3 speeches in 5 sessions.  Thats a big undertaking for people who came into the course scarred of public speaking.  They have been brave and taken this on despite their nerves and broken through this fear barrier to come out the other side much better communicators.   I'm so proud of them!  This now means if they join Toastmasters they will get credit for 3 speeches towards the 10 speeches required for the competitent communicator award.

Unfortunately I had an email from one of the other speechcrafters who said she is unable to continue with the course.  She wrote to me to say she has enjoyed it immensely and would be interested in future speechcraft or perhaps joining Toastmasters. She is a great speaker and speech writter so I sincerely hope she does pursue developing her speaking.   That's not too bad having two out of 13 drop out of the course.  Six weeks is a big committment and sometimes things crop up and you are unable to committ. That is why it is always better to take on extra participants, even though it is difficult when scheduling the agendas. 

So we started off with 13 have 8 regulars, 2 dropped out that leaves the other 3.  One of which I have not seen since the first meeting, another the second meeting and the other who has been held up at work on several occasions.  I have invited them to come to the last meeting which is a celebration, they can present their 2nd or 3rd speech on the night if they wish. And of course can join the Manningham club as a member, this may suit their life schedules better.

Apart from the speeches we had a swift and well run round robin session.  An entertaining table topics session.  The speechcrafters really enjoy this challenge and I believe look forward to it.

I gave an educational on vocal variety which outlined the different qualities of the voice, we had a practice example and I read a passage without and then with vocal variety to demonstrate the difference.  I also spoke about the importance of word selection. To demonstrate this I invited a fellow Kew Toastmaster to present an amazing and entertaining speech with great examples of precise word selection.

I feel I have now done my job I have armed my speechcrafters with basic communication tools to be great speakers.  So far they have learnt and practiced:
  • Speech structure
  • Speaking with passion an in earnest
  • Vocal Variety
  • Word Selection
  • Body language
  • Introducing speakers
  • Giving an award
  • Recieving an award
  • Evaluation that motivate
  • Impromtu speaking
  • Speech writing
But practice is the key word.  PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE at every opportunity given, to not loose the skills and confidence and build on it.  That's why joining toastmasters is a great way to practice and grow.

The speechcrafters have the opportunity to showcase their skills next week in their final speech.  I believe they will use all the skills learnt so far.  It will be a celebration night where they can bring a friend. We will have speeches, improptu speaking and presentation of awards, food and drinks.  I can't wait but am also a little sad it will be all over.  Its been such a journey for my speechcrafters all my fellow toastmasters I have taken along and especially me.  :)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Manningham Speechcraft week 4 9-11-09

Hot speeches and cool watermelon at speechcraft this week.


Week 4 was always going to be a worry.  It was the mid way point of the course with a two week break. Didn't get a lot of feedback from the emails I sent prior to the night ie. draft agenda and speech reminders.  Fingers crossed the speechcrafters would all return.   The other difficult thing was the weather.  It was a hot day and the venue is quite a glass house, so could everyone be bothered coming out on such a hot night?

The answer was yes!

I started the night with some fun.  A round robin interviewing all the in the room, introducing them and asking each a question regarding a theoretical scandal at the spring racing carnival.   There were lots of fun answers as each participant took on the persona of the person being interviewed.  Took up a bit of time but was worth it.

We had 8 out of our orginal 13 speechcrafters attend this week. We heard 6 terrific speeches based on the "be in earnest" project.  One of our speechcrafters was so keen he gave two speeches that night to catch up from the previous week. 

The speechcrafters who were not presenting speeches did the introductions of the speakers and also gave verbal evaluations. Putting the skills learnt from last weeks educational and the worksheet to give supportive and valuable evaluations. The toastmasters gave feedback on the evaluations, and the toastmasters gave written evaluations on the speeches. 

What worked well this week was assigning 5 min before the speeches to allow the introducer to interview the speaker.  This is especially important as the printed agenda changes when people don't show up on the night, so its impossible to organise this prior to the meeting. 

Unfortunatley one of our speechcrafters gave me notice he would not be able to continue with the course but was interested in joining the Manningham club.  So hopefully we will catch up with him then. Forwarded this onto Maningham to follow through.
We have another speechcrafter that has only been to the first session, with apologies.  We hope to see her for the last two sessions.
A couple of speechcrafters who are behind in giving their 2nd speech were invited to present their speech at a regular Manningham club meeting.  Hope they can make it along.
I was very impressed to hear that one of our speechcrafters attended the Area Speech Contest held last week, (very keen!).

Cool drinks, cold watermelon were popular at the break.  It's great the venue has a fridge to use, all these things are important when planning speechcraft.  The air conditioning progressively worked better during the night and the room was a comfortable temperature.

We heard an excellent educational on presenting and receiving an award.  We were given practical tips and then shown an example.

We had enough time for impromptu speaking session with evaluations.  These are always fun the speechcrafters seem to thrive on these now, so much more confident then session one. There were some really great examples of mini speeches in one minute impromptu.

The speechcrafters were asked to think about bringing a friend along to our final night.  It's going to be quite a celebration.  And were encouraged to visit and give feedback on this blog.

Next week will see the speechcrafters all complete their 3rd speech and have done at least one introduction and evaluation and several table topics.   It will be our last educational "vocal variety and word selection".  We have a guest Toastmaster speaker to give a great example of word selection in his speech.

We had a great team of 7 Toastmasters this week who are enjoying meeting the speechcrafters and watching their growth.

Can't believe we will be up to week 5 next week - looking forward to next Monday.

It was a fun night, lots of energy (despite the heat) and flowed smoothly.