Loading ...Here is a good ebook that covers everything we need to know about active listening.
It will be here as a post for a while. Then, I may make it a bonus for membership.
You can download the pdf file here.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Our club president, Loretta Buckner, represented Tarpon Talkers at the recent Area Contest. We have a video of her talk.
She got second place and is going on to the Division Contest.
Yea, Loretta. Way to go, gal!
Presence as Present–Loretta Buckner from Elan Chalford on Vimeo.
Twice we have tried a meeting format that is streamlined. This is when we had fewer than usual members to take roles. It seemed to work out well. It was as if we had more people attending than really were there!
We let our president, Loretta run the whole meeting. She took on roles of Toastmaster and General Evaluator, too.
Everyone who wanted to speak was able too. Then, the speaker used the manual to evaluate the next speaker. (Like a speakathon.)
Each had an opportunity to give an oral evaluation, too.
Then, we finished with Table Topics. First Loretta asked a member to answer a question. Then the person did the table topic. And followed up by asking a question of the next person.
The meeting went smoothly. It was fun and spontaneous, and yet, we got our tasks done.
The meeting Wednesday night went smoothly for the seven members and two guests who were there. Our guests were students of SPC who were attending as part of the course requirements.
Robert was Toastmaster of the meeting. Speeches were given by Jonathan, Elan, and Loretta.
Jonathan is continuing to build on his surprising strength as a story teller. He revamped the traditional Goldilocks fable to make some points on the subject of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine.
Elan confessed to starting a marketing campaign to move a nutritional product. He asked for comments about the best way to use media for hand to hand marketing. If you weren’t there you missed the insightful comments from members and guests.
Loretta gave the talk on the Distinguished Club Program. Her theme was “written goals.” You could just about see Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins and Bob Proctor in the background nodding their heads.
Arnie was General Evaluator and also evaluated Jonathan. Kim evaluated Loretta and also led Table Topics. Elan got a written evaluation in the manual.
If Mel or Pam had been there we might have had an Ah Counter and Grammarian. Timing is the one task we cannot defer, and Alison handled that very well.
************************************************************************
At our next meeting Kim will step up for her first time as Toastmaster of the meeting. Speeches are looked for from Alison and Robert. Jonathan will serve as Table Topics Master. Loretta will be General Evaluator. That leaves Arnie and Elan to pick up what slack we can as Timer, Evaluators, Grammarian, Ah Counter and word of the day.
One idea that got discussed was allowing the Timer to select the word of the day. If I get to be Timer, I’ll have a word.
Kim Kerbs and Elan Chalford worked out a message to send guests by email. This represents out club. All the members of Tarpon Talkers can read it and see how it fits the spirit of out club.
Dear [name],
We enjoyed your recent visit to our Tarpon Talkers Toastmaster Club meeting. We hope you found the experience interesting and fun. We certainly appreciated the energy you bring to the meeting.
The Toastmasters program of training in public speaking and leadership is completely adaptable to your goals and needs. Every member of our club would like to help you develop your public speaking and leadership potential.
As a reminder, We meet every 2nd and 4th Wednesday at 6:30 in the evening. Our meeting room is the Kappa Building on the St Pete College campus in Tarpon Springs on Klosterman Road.. You are welcome to visit any future meeting as a guest.
You may consider joining us as a member on your own time table. We are ready to pitch in and set you up for success.
If you wish to call an active member for more information, try Elan Chalford at 938-1417. Or, email Elan by chalford@earthlink.net,
Kim by kkerbs@tampabay.rr.com,
Loretta by lobuckner@gmail.com.
Again, thank you for sharing your time with us. We hope to see you again.
Kim Kerbs, Secretary
*************************************************
At our last meeting our newest member, Alison Shepard, gave her Ice Breaker. She spoke of her reading as means of disengaging from social activity as she was growing up. Now she has to stand in front of all of us and talk.
Arnie inspired us to fly and pursue our dreams. Enough waddling and quacking already!
Jonathan did a smooth and effective job as Toastmaster of the meeting. And it was his first time, too.
Loretta gave an especially supportive and insightful evaluation for Alison. She recognized the good cadence of the story teller and arc of exposition.
Kim recognized Arnie for his good physical presence. She invited him to dare a more heart centered talk next time.
For the meeting coming up on Sept 22, Toastmaster of the meeting is Robert. Elan and Jonathan are scheduled speakers. There is room for another. Arnie shall be General Evaluator. (Let’s all salute him.) Kim is handling Table Topics.
Hope to see you all there!
Our last meeting of Tarpon Talkers, the Toastmasters club in Tarpon Springs, was the evaluation contest. Pam Cohn was the test speaker with a humorous speech about Mainiacs–people who live in Maine.
Tony Santarsieri won and Robert Chalford was runner up.
After the contest, Jonathan Teller gave us a story from American Indian legend about Coyote, the trickster. Apparently, he was unintentionally helpful in establishing life on our planet! Jonathan was more than merely dramatic in telling the story. He definitely lives up to his last name.
Next time, Jonathan will be Toastmaster of the meeting. Alison will be coerced into giving her Ice Breaker speech.
I need to be reminded of who else is speaking, and we need to fill some other roles.
In the August 2010 issue of Toastmaster, the article titled, “Speaking A Capella” has two paragraphs devoted to our VP-Education, Elan Chalford, DTM.
Elan Chalford, a violinist who lives near Tampa Bay, Florida, and a Toastmaster for nearly 12 years, views speaking and playing music as a dexterous mental leap. The two activities involve two different parts of the brain, he notes. When you’re in front of an audience talking and performing music, the key skill that’s needed “is to be able to move back and forth between those two parts of the brain,” Chalford says. “It’s a lot more difficult than people might think. When I started doing it, I could feel a resistance, a kind of wall I had to pass through. But the more you do it, the better you get at it.”
Chalford says Toastmasters has greatly improved the s peaking part of his presentation. “After I had been with Toastmasters for a while,” he says, “when I was with any band on stage and something needed to be said, I could easily step up to the microphone and say something, whether it was a question of filling time or introducing a tune.”
Credit goes to Lou Polur for spotting the quote in the magazine independently and letting me know by Facebook.
We were fortunate, at out recent meeting, to have John Hobbs as a guest. He gave an inspiring talk from a CC Manual project. Then, during table topics, he really opened up and shared a bit of his life with us. I believe I commented in a previous post that we are getting treated to some great self revelations here at the Tarpon Talkers Club.
Arnie talked to us about soy products. He did not mention soy chocolate pudding in particular, but I’m sure he would be in favor of it.
Jonathan led off with an insightful talk on miserliness and thrift. The spirit of Ben Franklin was nodding in agreement in the background.
Loretta’s Table Topics came from Eric Clapton songs. A few words from a lyric was offered as a launching pad. Our youngest member, Robert, had to report on the garbled Latin lyrics from an online game. Our newest member, Alison, expressed doubt that we would meet the same people in heaven we knew on Earth. The others were just as good. Jim tried to tell us he did not know much about cocaine. Kim’s sister is a Clapton fan. And John, as I said before, shared a personal insight into his life.
The evaluations were good and helpful for the speakers. Kim set a precedent in using the word “snarky.” I’ve seen this word in blogs a good bit. Now we can all use it in the club, too. This is what made it snarky day!
Next meeting is August 11, not this week. Here are meeting assignments, so far.
Toastmaster–Arnie
Invocation/Pledge–Alison
Speakers–Robert, Kim, Pam
Master Evaluator–Loretta
Timer–open
Ah Counter, Grammarian–open
Evaluators–Elan, others
Table Topics–Jonathan
We need to resolve the question of voting and giving awards. If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment here.
Your first comment has to be approved by the moderator. After that, you can have instant gratification.
Tarpon Talkers Toastmasters Club met Wednesday, July 14, Bastille Day. I believe we achieved a further measure of liberation in our self expression.
First we had wee bit of a business meeting. We decided to allow and hour and a half for our club meetings. This permits three speakers and five to seven table topics, as desired.
We have another bit of business coming up. We shall discuss and decide how we want to handle voting for best table topic, best speech,best evaluation.
This was the first meeting presided over from beginning to end by our new President, Loretta Buckner. She did a fine job of that, and also treated us to a story she made up, “The Goldfish Boy.” She’s starting the Advanced Manual in Storytelling.
Arnie Milnes gave a talk that reminded us about the warning, “The British are coming. The British are coming.” The reminder was that we had failed to pay attention. Now we have British Petroleum.
Elan Chalford spoke about “Teaching Violin.” He drew a comparison and contrast between teaching one on one the traditional way, and teaching by video on YouTube.
Robert Chalford, as Table Topics master, cued each question with a personal tidbit of self revelation, to set the context. This encouraged participants to really spill some beans about themselves.
Jack Lynch nearly brought down the house with his physical humor. The room was rockin’. (Well, it is a portable classroom.)
Our guest, Rochelle Goodner, joined the talk with a confession of being a staunch Harry Potter fan. We shall hear more from her, as she is joining the club.
Next time, July 28, Jonathan Teller and Pam Cohn will be speakers. One more spot is open.
Arnie will be Table Topics Master, Elan will be Toastmaster, Jim Setaro will be Timer. Other roles will be filled as we can fill them.
Thanks to everyone for making it a memorable meeting.
You hear about the sandwich method. Say something sweet, then salty, then sweet. Or, maybe sour instead of salty. But, never bitter.
That’s okay for beginners. When you want to raise your evaluations to the next level, you have to go beyond this simplicity.
My answer is the four R’s of evaluation: Recognize, Report, Recommend, Review.
Start your evaluation by Recognizing the good quality of the speech, or the boldness of the attempted presentation. Either be enthusiastic because it was a really good speech, or be sympathetic and encouraging if the speaker tried something a little beyond his or her ability at that point.
You can even be both enthusiastic and sympathetic, if you set your mind to it.
Then Report on what you saw and heard that you can commend. If the speech was well organized, report on that. If eye contact, or gestures, or vocal variety was strong, make that known.
If it was a story, or a speech to inform, or to persuade, nod to that form and say what it was. In this part of the evaluation you are simply reporting, to the credit of the speaker.
When you begin to make your Recommendation, just stick to one thing if you can. This is the takeaway or take-home part of the evaluation.
You can encourage working on a weakness, and give an example of how to work on it. Even better, in my opinion, is to recommend building a strength. If you see that the speaker has a definite strength, you can recommend pushing the envelope and making it a bigger strength.
Finally, as you close your evaluation make a quick Review of the main points. In a few words recap your evaluation. That gives more form and shape to what you said. If you can hit those first three R’s in a few sentences and express enthusiastic encouragement and interest in further speeches, that would be perfect.
Giving your evaluation this form goes beyond the sandwich into expert contest evaluator territory. Mastering this method, you can expect to win.