Stay Seated, Until Your Name Is Called

This Toastmasters meeting I learned a simple lesson. Right before the meeting, I got an agenda sheet with all the assigned roles on it.  This meeting, I was the Word Master, so I will give the Word of the Day. The Word of the Day is a specific word that we hope people will use as a new vocabulary word which may be used throughout  the meeting and beyond. Before the meeting, I wrote the word  of the day “Agility” which means quick witted on the whiteboard that spins around. With a spinning whiteboard, I can write the word and no one can see the word until I present it to the group later.

The Toastmaster went over the agenda to make sure people were there to fulfill their roles and plug in people for the unfulfilled roles.

I was second on the agenda sheet to present. After all the roles were filled the meeting started. The Toastmaster called up the first role which was the Opener. The opener did a great job in setting the tone for the meeting with insightful wisdom.

 

Next up on the written agenda was the Word Master, me.  As the Toastmaster is moving to the next role,  he introduces the 90 second training tip person.  That should have been an indication to me to stay seated until I am actually called to come to the lectern.

As the Toastmaster shakes the hand and thanks the 90-second training person, I am thinking I am next and I should get ready.  I stand up and get ready to move to the lectern. Then, the Toastmaster introduces the Joke Master for the Joke of the Day.

I am standing there and someone who is seated with me, looks up and smiles. I quickly sit down. I am not embarrassed, but my momentum is taken down a couple of notches.

Finally, I am called to come to the lectern to give the word of the day. My energy level comes back and I deliver a good “word of the day.”

My take away from this experience is very simple is to stay seated unless already standing until I hear my role and name is called.  What I’ve Have Learned This Week At Toastmasters is that the agenda may have the order, but it can change and I have to be flexible, just bend, but never break.

Art Byrd has been a member of Executive 408 Toastmasters Youngstown, since 2009.

 

He has achieved his Competent Communicator, Advanced Bronze, Silver and Gold. Competent Leader and Advanced Leader Bronze. He is working on his Advanced Silver.

 

Currently, Art is the Vice President of Public Relations for Toastmasters 408 and

the Area Governor for Area 13 in District 10 in Ohio.

 

Last Minute Table Topics Can Be Great, If Organized

December 1, 2014, Youngstown Toastmasters 408

Table Topics is a standard for most Toastmasters meetings. Table Topics is an integral part of helping members and guests to able to improve their ability to quickly organize their thoughts and give responses to an impromptu question or topic given to them. A Table Topic answer has a time limit of two minutes and a half.

This meeting, I was set to be an evaluator. Then, the evening’s Toastmaster asked me to be the Table Topics master only a few hours before the meeting.

Early in my Toastmasters journey, I was given some advice from David Casey, a seasoned Toastmaster. He said “always be prepared do any role at any time for any meeting.” I always have something ready for any role.

As Table Topics master, I had to come up with questions. I carry a folder with my Toastmaster materials that have Table Topic questions that I have collected. Some questions have come from a Vanity Fair magazine segment called Proust Questionnaire. It asks various questions like “What is your idea of perfect happiness?  What is your current state of mind?  What is your most treasured possession? The questions were asked and answered by celebrities ranging from comedian Jerry Lewis to actress Lena Dunham.

In this blog of What I Have Learned At Toastmasters This Week, I would like to share how I prepare for doing a great Table Topics segment.

First thing I do, when I get to the meeting is get the agenda. I look to see who has roles especially the General Evaluator and the Evaluators. In our club, we try not to call on the evaluators until almost to the end of the Table Topics because they are working on their evaluations of the prepared speeches.

As the meeting is starting, I write everyone's names who are actually at the meeting. Again, I note the General Evaluator and Evaluators with a GE and E by their names. Usually, I write the questions on a separate sheet of paper beforehand. This meeting, I had to write the questions as the meeting was going on because of the short notice of getting the Table Topics master role.

At this meeting, we had 12 members including one guest.

Now, I have a list of names and questions. I look over the list and questions. Then, I match the questions with the person I would like to hear their answer to a certain question. It helps to know a little about each speaker by listening to them speak before from a prepared speech or another table topics time. I write their name right next to the questions. Maybe, other Table Topics masters like to randomly call on people with any question. My thought is that people may feel more confident and develop their impromptu skills with a question that they have some personal knowledge or not.

For example, Gina, our newest member, is really animated when she speaks. She always seems happy.  So, the question I asked her was “what is your current state of mind?” She answered” excited” and when on to explain why she felt this way.

I gear the question to something about the person which could apply to anyone. A key to my table topic style is that I give the question or topic and glance around the room. This gives people a chance to think about the answer. I may look directly at the person who I will give the question to, but most times, I am looking at someone else as I call their name.

Another thing, I do is that I give a second question that is similar to another question. I started with “What was the last book you read? Did you like it or dislike it?

I believe there is someone out there that is saying “I wish I would have gotten that question.” So, I came up with another question to another person with” What kind of book would you like to write?”

Also, I tried to make smooth transitions by saying something about the person’s response to the Table Topics question. For example, someone answered the last book you read question. I said something about a movie I had just seen that was based on a book called” The Book Thief.”

One last note, when you have a list of the people at the meeting for Table Topics. After they answer a Table Topics question. You can cross them off the list. This way, you don’t leave anyone out. Everyone is included and gets a chance to participate, if time permits.  Also, the list make you look good and in control because you are not in front of the group confused on who you called on and didn’t call on.

What I've learned Through Toastmasters, being the Table Topics master can be a fun role as long as you prepare and be organized even at the last minute.

Art Byrd has been a member of Executive 408 Toastmasters Youngstown, since 2009.

He has achieved his Competent Communicator, Advanced Bronze, Silver and Gold. Competent Leader and Advanced Leader Bronze. He is working on his Advanced Silver.

Currently, Art is the Vice President of Public Relations for Toastmasters 408 
and the Area Governor for Area 13 in District 10 in Ohio.

Vanity Fair with Lena Dunham courtesy of Vanity Fair

 

Toastmasters Has Prepared Me Well

In October, two fellow Toastmaster members, Greg Smith, Mike Gerrick and myself took part in a business symposium sponsored by our local library.

I spoke about listening and did an interview with a local news reporter. Weeks later, the article came out about the symposium. Holly, a friend of mine read the article. She is a high school librarian and conducts a class session with students regarding financial literacy and college preparation. She asked me to speak to her class about listening.

This blog entry is being called What I've Learned Through Toastmasters instead of What I learned At This Week In Toastmasters.

In Toastmasters, the right preparation can turn into a successful presentation. There's a lot of things that go into doing a presentation before you even do the presentation. So, I wanted to express some things I've learned through Toastmasters that were very helpful with my presentation to Holly’s students.

As part of my preparation, I e-mailed Holly asking about the names of the students and their ages. This gave me an idea of the audience, I was going to speak to.

My main focus was to make the presentation relatable to the high school students.  In my listening workshop, I do a exercise where I read a story and the participants tell me about parts of the story, they were listening to.  I wanted to try something different with the students, so what I did was tell a story, but I use the street names of their city.

In another exercise,  I wanted to demonstrate that sometimes a word can stop you from listening and the word “poem” stopped a lot of them from listening and tune me out as they confessed later on.The poem, I actually read was the lyrics to a very popular song called Fancy by Izzy Azalea. The class perked up and listen as I read more of the lyrics. Their listening went up as they focus on something they knew and had an interest in.

Another thing in the preparation that I did, was asking Holly, if they had a HDMI cable that I could hook up to my IPad. I asked that a lectern or podium be put in the room, too. These factors, if not taken care of could have made the presentation difficult.

On the presentation day, I arrived at the high school about a half hour before the presentation. This worked out really well because there was a little bit of a situation hooking up the HDMI cable for my IPad to the projector and that was worked out after some trial and error. But, if I had waited the last minute and came in maybe ten minutes before the presentation that may have been a problem.

Since I was there early, Holly introduced me to Brianna, a student who would be at the presentation. She was in the library with some other girls working on something.

Arriving early, you get a chance to meet people who will be in your audience.  A chance to get to know them and they get a chance to get to know you before you take the lectern. This can be a really tension reliever. During the presentation, I was able to call on Brianna by her name and she was comfortable interacting with me.

One thing I like to do as I like to walk around the environment that I'm going to be speaking in. I like to see where the audience is going to be sitting.

The lectern that is used is very important.At this presentation, I found out how important it is. The lectern that was in the room was much lower than the kind that I have used at Toastmasters. It didn't feel as natural as I had to really look down to see my notes, but since I had practiced a lot. I didn't have to look at my notes very much during the presentation.

Also, I got a chance to get the feel of the equipment that I was using and see chance to see if my IPad with all my slides were working properly and I had enough time to do all that.

Something that's very important when doing presentations and speeches is being comfortable in what you're wearing. I had some shoes on that were so comfortable that I was walking on air. A friend suggested that I should wear a suit and tie for the high school presentation. Since the speech was informal, I thought a casual look was good enough. So I wore long-sleeved gray sweater with gray dress pants and black shoes. I felt good and confident as I spoke.

What I've learned Through Toastmasters is that preparation is the key to doing a very successful presentation. The techniques I used in the preparations for the presentation were all learned by doing Toastmasters speeches. The high school presentation went very smooth as I gave good information, interacted with the students and gave them a few takeaways that they can use to make their listening better.

Art Byrd has been a member of Executive 408 Toastmasters Youngstown, since 2009.

He has achieved his Competent Communicator, Advanced Bronze, Silver and Gold. Competent Leader and Advanced Leader Bronze. He is working on his Advanced Silver.

Currently, Art is the Area Governor for Area 13 in District 10 in Ohio.

The Tale of Two Lecterns.

Warren Toastmasters-Nov 8, 2014

The last Warren Toastmasters meeting, two lecterns were set up in the church auditorium which has a stage.

This meeting,the Warren club tried the two lecterns again. One lectern was set up on the stage with a microphone and the other lectern was on the floor. Many members chose the stage lectern, which overlooked the members. The experience did give stage time as if the speaker was addressing a large audience. With the speakers, the speaker could be heard loud enough and clearly.

At the lower lectern, there was a better connection with the smaller audience because the speaker was on the same level as them. Also, a better chance for good eye contact.

The auditorium's acoustics were not that good, with fan noise constantly going. Actually, it was hard to hear the speakers at the lower lectern and the members sitting at the tables, when they spoke.

Ted, the General Evaluator said the use of the two lecterns was good, but he had a hard time hearing someone of lower lectern.

Ken Shellito, the Warren club supervisor, said about the two lecterns,” We are experimenting to be good communicators.”

New Members Doing Their Thang

The greatest thing about Toastmasters is to see the new members start out.

On Saturday, Becki did her icebreaker speech. Before, she went to the lectern, she talked about her fear of public speaking.

She got up and delivered an excellent icebreaker speech about her family, the family business, her start in becoming a dental hygienist and her husband and 16-month-old girl, Quinn.

Becki did a great ice breaker and I say that with all honesty, because I was her evaluator.

The meeting needed another evaluator for another speaker. Sue, a new member volunteered to evaluate. She said she had never did an evaluation ever.

Mike Gerrick gave her his evaluation guideline, which is excellent. I hope to post it soon. I need to ask Mike’s permission to post it.

When it was time for Sue to do her evaluation of someone reading a poem, which is hard  to evaluate. She was nervous and said she didn't know exactly what she was doing. The group altogether encouraged her to go with what she saw. She nodded and gave her impressions based on what she saw. Sue did a good evaluation. Her nervousness seems to go away.

What I've learned Toastmasters this week was a club can take a chance and experiment by having two lecterns available allowing members to have the option to speak with a microphone or not and find out what's the difference is. Also, I learned the inner strength of two new members had to overcome a fear in public speaking and taking on a new role.

90 Training Tip–If you're looking for source that can give you information to use in an open/close, word of the day, discussion, and speech ideas. Read Readers Digest.

 

Art Byrd has been a member of Executive 408 Toastmasters Youngstown, since 2009.

He has achieved his Competent Communicator, Advanced Bronze, Silver and Gold. Competent Leader and Advanced Leader Bronze. He is working on his Advanced Silver.
Currently, Art is the Area Governor for Area 13 in District 10 in Ohio.

  Follow Art @artbyrdview    and the Youngstown club @toastmasters408