This past meeting, since we had a single speaker, we tried an experiment. Instead of only having one evaluator for the speaker. We made copies of the evaluation sheet from the CC manual and had all attendees evaluate. The idea was to give a more thorough evaluation that you couldn't receive from a single evaluator. The speaker would be able to hear different perspectives and gain more insights into how he or she connected with different people in the audience.
Since I was the first sacrifice for the experiment, these are my reflections.
I thought it would have been better if there were more time to conduct the evaluations so there could be some explanation or questions for the speaker about why they did something or how they could have done something else.
In my case, I tried to give a first person type of story. I thought that it could have been inappropriate after a time and switched up the speech. Although this wrecked the speech, I was able to learn afterwards that this was something that people wanted to hear more about and I was able to ask if it would have become inappropriate. This type of discussion and feedback is priceless and I think it goes beyond what the toastmaster format does now.
It is obvious that this type of TM day can only be conducted when there are single speakers. But it does appear to be something very useful that could greatly improve speakers and possibly evaluators. The, "Oh, I didn't see that even though I was watching the speaker."
Again, this would need a lot of time and more than one round of table topics seems to break this down.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Speakers presenting in Pittsburgh
Hello all,
I am going to post some speakers that Kathy and I are planning on seeing in the future. There are others, but these are the ones I have in my calendar.
OCTOBER
Bellefield Hall Auditorium 315 S Bellefield Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
DEC
Madeline Albright
http://pittsburghlectures.org/interior.php?pageID=259
JEWEL BOX DIPLOMACY
Madeleine K. Albright was Secretary of State from 1997 -2001. She is also the author of four best-selling books. Her lecture coincides with Opening Night of the exhibition of her diplomatic jewelry, Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection, in Hillman Hall’s Wertz Gallery: Gems & Jewelry at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
FEB
National Geographic Live: Ocean Soul OCEAN SOUL Brian Skerry Underwater Photographer February 12 | Byham Theater
LIFE ON THE EDGE
http://pittsburghlectures.org/interior.php?pageID=263
Sebastian Junger, award-winning journalist and best-selling author of The Perfect Storm, is fascinated by “extreme situations.” He has covered everything from war crimes in Kosovo to wildfires in the American West, and now he tackles the trenches of Afghanistan in War, a powerful on-the-ground account of combat, fear, and survival.
For general info and schedules about other lecture series go to:
pittsburgh lectures
I am going to post some speakers that Kathy and I are planning on seeing in the future. There are others, but these are the ones I have in my calendar.
OCTOBER
Chuck Palahniuk Presented in partnership with PITT ARTS For tickets, click here to purchase online or call 412-622-8866. Ticket Prices: $40 seating up front AND VIP pass for on-stage meet & greet with Chuck* $20 general admission $40 VIP seats are sold out! $20 general admission seating is still available! *$40 VIP ticket holders will be contacted by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures for a pre- OR post-event VIP pass to the Chuck Palahniuk meet & greet. For each VIP ticket holder, Chuck will sign one copy from his backlist and as many copies of DAMNED as you like! Offbeat writer Chuck Palahniuk, the distinctive mastermind behind best-sellers Fight Club and Choke, comes to Bellefield Hall Auditorium with his new release DAMNED, due out on October 18, 2011. DAMNED follows Madison, an eleven-year-old girl who discovers the unfortunate reality that she is not only dead, but also that she’s in Hell! Of course, Palahniuk describes it better than we can: "Imagine if The Shawshank Redemption had a baby by The Lovely Bones and it was raised by Judy Blume, and you have my next new project." Pittsburgh, get ready for Chuck.
Bellefield Hall Auditorium 315 S Bellefield Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
DEC
Madeline Albright
http://pittsburghlectures.org/interior.php?pageID=259
JEWEL BOX DIPLOMACY
Madeleine K. Albright was Secretary of State from 1997 -2001. She is also the author of four best-selling books. Her lecture coincides with Opening Night of the exhibition of her diplomatic jewelry, Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection, in Hillman Hall’s Wertz Gallery: Gems & Jewelry at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
FEB
National Geographic Live: Ocean Soul OCEAN SOUL Brian Skerry Underwater Photographer February 12 | Byham Theater
Sun, February 12, 2012, 7pm – 10pm
Sebastian Junger
http://pittsburghlectures.org/interior.php?pageID=263
Sebastian Junger, award-winning journalist and best-selling author of The Perfect Storm, is fascinated by “extreme situations.” He has covered everything from war crimes in Kosovo to wildfires in the American West, and now he tackles the trenches of Afghanistan in War, a powerful on-the-ground account of combat, fear, and survival.
For general info and schedules about other lecture series go to:
pittsburgh lectures
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
9-14-2011
Today for the afternoon Toastmasters meeting, we did not have a speaker but tried something new to replace one.
Jim M. found a video of the 2011 world Champion, Jock Elliot's winning speech which we played for the meeting. After wards, Matt, our acting Toastmaster, asked what thoughts members had about the speech.
There were many suggestions of various thoughts ranging from, dictation, well placed pauses and making a typically cliche idea and making it entertaining and refreshing. Ok, "cliche" is my term. But typically, talking about your family, partner and close friends as the important people in your life is usually a bit redundant and cliche. But this speaker did a masterful job of spinning it to be insightful and enjoyable.
He used visual descriptions about the people he talked about and the situations he encountered. Rather than "tell us" something, he created vivid imagery making a well flowing, textural story.
See for yourself.
World Champion's, Jock Elliot, winning speech
Jim M. found a video of the 2011 world Champion, Jock Elliot's winning speech which we played for the meeting. After wards, Matt, our acting Toastmaster, asked what thoughts members had about the speech.
There were many suggestions of various thoughts ranging from, dictation, well placed pauses and making a typically cliche idea and making it entertaining and refreshing. Ok, "cliche" is my term. But typically, talking about your family, partner and close friends as the important people in your life is usually a bit redundant and cliche. But this speaker did a masterful job of spinning it to be insightful and enjoyable.
He used visual descriptions about the people he talked about and the situations he encountered. Rather than "tell us" something, he created vivid imagery making a well flowing, textural story.
See for yourself.
World Champion's, Jock Elliot, winning speech
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Newsletter of some sort
Today's newsletter will encompass the past two weeks.
We have recently added a "ha counter" to the job of Grammarian. This is a "count" of laughs. In reality it seems to best be utilize for keeping track of what makes people laugh. It is these types of elements that we want to develop into our speech presentations to keep the audiance engaged and entertained.
If the audiance is not entertained, it doesn't matter what else you have in your speech.
Last week's "Ha count" had a central theme. Or so it seemed. It was coyly deemed, "Other people's misery."
1) The accidental swallowing a candy wrapper with candy.
2) Missed opportunity to meet a girl.
3) The unfulfilled dream of writing a program.
4) The absent minded bungle of dropping off a daughter at daycare.
The humor with all of these revolved around a humility that we can look back on and smile. Everyone does these things and even though they are unwanted, they are benign and a simple part of life. People like these little epochs in life because they been there and it helps them to identify with the speaker. With a sense of empathy, the audience has a chance to reflect back on their own bungles.
We have recently added a "ha counter" to the job of Grammarian. This is a "count" of laughs. In reality it seems to best be utilize for keeping track of what makes people laugh. It is these types of elements that we want to develop into our speech presentations to keep the audiance engaged and entertained.
If the audiance is not entertained, it doesn't matter what else you have in your speech.
Last week's "Ha count" had a central theme. Or so it seemed. It was coyly deemed, "Other people's misery."
1) The accidental swallowing a candy wrapper with candy.
2) Missed opportunity to meet a girl.
3) The unfulfilled dream of writing a program.
4) The absent minded bungle of dropping off a daughter at daycare.
The humor with all of these revolved around a humility that we can look back on and smile. Everyone does these things and even though they are unwanted, they are benign and a simple part of life. People like these little epochs in life because they been there and it helps them to identify with the speaker. With a sense of empathy, the audience has a chance to reflect back on their own bungles.
Hello to the first blog
The purpose of this blog is to have one place for all newsletter postings, photos and video.
We can make announcements through this blog and have a record of our club for years to come.
We can make announcements through this blog and have a record of our club for years to come.
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