TWP Newsletter October 19, 2020

Greetings my fellow Toastmasters.

Well we are in full swing of fall, Daylight Savings Time is near (November 1st) and winter is around the corner. (The first day of winter is December 21st.)

Twice a year I grouse about Daylight Savings Time. It does not save time. It has zero benefits, and causes all kinds of problems. The sun still comes up and goes down every day, with the same number of hours between them. Let’s all hope that the private members bill clears third reading and then gets Royal Assent.

Things are going well for our club we had 24 membership renewals and now are at 26 current members. Our online meetings always have 16 or more attend.

We are all really enjoying the online meetings as it gives us a chance to practice web meeting skills and to be with our friends. We have streamlined the agenda to get the most we can out of our meetings. The warm up session continues to be liked and is a great way to start off a meeting.

We had a visit from our Area Director Dan Doberstein, who reported that our club is doing very well.

Nick Iliopoulos and Dan White both received Triple Crown awards for their progress in Pathways.

Our Charter Gala was a great success, we had a lot of fun and many good feelings. We were honored to have Kris Nelson, Jennifer Magee and Tony Nelson join us.

Here are some of the comments we received which were extra to the chats.

Tess Pierce                                        

That was an awesome meeting last night and what a great group of colleagues we have. I was exhausted but happy. Thanks to you both for the insight and support that helped launch this club.

Sharon Cardie

Thank you everyone for a wonderful charter party meeting last night!

Jennifer Magee

Division E Director

What a great event!  Made me miss attending your club and seeing you all even more!

Congratulations on an incredible first year!  Your membership and the energy shared amongst your “Pros Community” is something I wish I could bottle and sprinkle on all other clubs who may be searching for that same culture or “vibe”.  You have a great thing going, and I know you are all aware of it! and that is why it is so very successful!

 

I wish you all continued success and I will pop online to visit with you in the coming weeks.  Halloween sure sounds fun…. so please include me in your email invite for that week and I will see if I can make it! In costume, of course.

Cheers to a fantastic gala celebration!

Yours in Toastmasters

Jennifer

 

Jay Wijesundara

I’m so sorry I have missed an amazing meeting.

Praneetha Mulpuri

It was a wonderful meeting and I am glad to be part of the celebrations.

 

………

Here is a snap shot of the Gala in progress.

 

 

Letter from our Toastmasters International President

 

Dear Club Officer,

It is an incredible honor to have the opportunity to serve as your International President during this program year. I hope you are doing well and staying safe during the global pandemic.

With the health and safety of you, our members, in mind, many clubs had to find new ways to hold meetings. Now, 82% of clubs hold online meetings. While this has proven itself as a challenge at times, I hope we can see the opportunities this has presented. Online Toastmasters meetings have allowed me to:

·         Learn to facilitate online meetings

·         Gain valuable practice and find comfort with new or different technologies

·         Stay connected with members, friends, and family

·         Visit clubs from around the world and experience different cultures

·         Expand my network

On top of improving your public speaking, communication, and leadership skills, I hope you and the members in your club are enjoying these benefits with me. I have come to appreciate online meetings and connecting with our members so much that I am pleased to announce that I will be starting a virtual world tour, where I will be virtually attending club meetings around the world! More details will be announced soon.
“If you haven’t yet attended an online meeting, go ahead—I promise you will not regret it. Experiment with new mediums and you will grow stronger as a club and as a member. Even if you believe that online meetings will not be able to replace your regular in-person meetings, this is a great time to remain connected until the time arrives for our new ‘normal’ way of living.”     Zunair Zafar, DTM, Lahore, Pakistan, member of three clubs
Serving as a club officer has presented unique challenges. I want to thank you for your continued efforts and dedication to providing a positive club experience. Please share the benefits of online meetings with your club members. You may also find that some prospective members are more willing to attend online meetings compared to in-person meetings. The Online Meetings webpage is full of resources, tips, and more to help you and your club have successful virtual meetings.I look forward to working with and serving you during this program year. Together, we will write the next chapter of Toastmasters history.

Sincerely,

Richard E. Peck
2020–2021 International President
Toastmasters International
www.toastmasters.org

*This email has been sent to all club Presidents, Vice Presidents Education, and Vice Presidents Membership.

 

Here we have some tips for evaluating Table Topics.

 

TABLE TOPICS EVALUATOR

AIM:

  • To assist Toastmasters to improve their impromptu speaking skills.
  • To provide useful feedback to the speaker and the meeting on the Table Topics responses.

HINTS ON EVALUATING:

As the evaluator of the impromptu speaking segment, you have only 30 seconds per speaker to present your evaluation. Evaluations should be brief and to the point – restrict yourself to 2 or 3 points of praise and 1 or 2 aspects you consider could be improved. Remember the method of effective evaluation – Praise, Improve, and then Praise.

 

Do not repeat the question, this wastes time.

Do not evaluate whether the content of the answer was right or wrong.

Concentrate on the physical appearance, posture, eye contact, voice modulation, voice clarity, gestures. Was the answer a mini speech with an opening, body and close? Were they very evident? Was the question addressed? Did the speaker use humour?

PREPARATION:

Read the assignment guide on Table Topics Master (As is available on our website, www.toastmasterswhitbypros.org. To make your self familiar with how the session is run. Review any material you have on Effective Evaluations.

ON THE NIGHT:

  • evaluation:
  1. Commence your evaluation by naming the speaker.
  2. Give a brief evaluation of the speakers.
  3. Return control to the Table Topics Master.

 

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

Look and listen intently – and choose the points that will prove most useful to the speaker. With an experienced/effective Table Topics speaker it is often difficult to find more than one point for improvement so this is why it is necessary to employ all your listening and evaluating skills. It may be useful to point out to the audience a feature that made the speech particularly effective, eg: the word picture, the construction.

Evaluations are for the benefit of the whole meeting and not just for the speaker. If you say that one speaker had a pleasant smile and confident stance, these are characteristics we can all try to adopt when we next speak. Similarly, if you comment that eye contact was poor or that hand gestures would have enhanced the table topics answer, we can all consider how effective we are in these areas and seek to improve in our public speaking. In this way each and every evaluation helps all of us improve.

As the evaluations are for everyone, address your comments to the meeting and not directly to the person (as in “you”), eg. Joan’s voice showed her enthusiasm for the subject and I could see from her natural hand gesture that Joan felt very comfortable answering this question.

TIMING:

30 seconds maximum for each speaker

 

 

TABLE TOPICS

Guidelines for Evaluation

  • Praise Improve

Physical: What I saw

Appearance

Use of hand gestures

Eye Contact with audience

Facial Expressions

Voice: What I Heard

Tone

Vitality

Volume

Vocal Variety

Structure of Answer: What I Understood

Did opening get our attention Did response develop as mini speech

Was there a clear ending?

Language:

Appropriate use of words

Word pictures

Emotive words

Use of humour

Manner:

Enthusiastic

Confident

Poised

Timing:

Was speaker able to round

off within time