March 8, 2010
I’ve been thinking about the power, and the benefit, of giving good evaluations – one of the most challenging aspects of being a member of a Toastmasters club. No one wants to deliver “bad news” to a fellow club member, so we all tend to be very good with the positive feedback of every speech we hear. Pointing out the weak areas, however, are essential to helping your club mates become better public speakers, and achieve the goals that brought them to Toastmasters. Your club mates need your feedback to be positive AND accurate. This week, think about the ways you provide constructive criticism in your personal and professional life. How do you tell your children, your spouse, your siblings and friends, the tough stuff they need to hear to improve on a skill? How can you communicate that better?
August 25, 2009
Past President Maya Goodson and current VP PR Helen Stutchbury headed over to the San Marcos Toastmasters club this evening, mistakenly thinking they were having a speech contest tonight. (San Marcos. New Braunfels – hmmmm, how did we get this confused?)
But we really enjoyed watching this dedicated and professional club “perform” and learned some useful things we can use at our own club.
For example – and this is a simple and easy one – SMTM posts the word of the day on the lectern AND on the opposite wall facing the speaker. That made it very easy for the all the speakers to remember and use the word of the day throughout the meeting.
Also, the Table Topics Master knew the theme of the meeting well in advance of the meeting, so his TT questions were all related, and relevant, to the theme and the word of the day.
In addition, I really enjoyed the “round robin” evaluation process, where everyone in the room was welcomed to offer a glow or grow for 1 speaker. While this could certainly compromise our timing, I think it would be a good thing to try on days when we have less than 3 speakers.
Thanks, San Marcos TM club, for making your visitors feel so welcome, and allowing us to leave with some good ideas for our own club! We hope to see you all again soon.
July 23, 2009
We’re off to a great start, chartering our club with 20 members in our first year, and we’ve got big goals to accomplish with our VP Membership planning to double our membership in the upcoming year, our club is going to be very busy. Let’s all pitch in where we can to keep us on track with our core goal – improving our communication skills – by offering to mentor a fellow member or new member. Please talk to Stan See, our VP Education, about developing your mentoring skills with live subjects this year.
