A few even thought that being of part of TM is like being part of a class, where you get automatically promoted. Seems they got the message wrong ... Sorry guys, there is no free lunch!!! You practise to improve in Toastmasters - that is why I like it very much. For people who are not greatly motivated, attending a class / course on public speaking for a few days/ weeks really does not prove good unless and until you practise it - well, here is where Toastmasters kicks in ... you improve yourself, even if it is in small steps, by continuously getting exposed to the TM meetings and getting the small tidbits of feedback you get from various members. There is continuous evaluation from the moment a TM meeting starts till it ends.
To make people understand the nature of Toastmasters and to get them to know how they can thrive in Toastmasters, I penned this following mail ...
Hi all,
It is around two months since we started the Toastmasters Club here.It is a great step taken by all
of us towards improving our communication skills. With great enthusiasm put in by every member, we could see the improvement in the speeches and soft skills of the speakers.
But I suppose that we have taken just the first few steps towards achieving to be a better speaker. Toastmasters is __NOT__ about getting a certficate (CTM/ATM/etc.) but it is about improving our skills over time and Toastmasters club provide the board neccessary for our improvement. Hence it is neccessary that we produce good quality speeches and good evaluations.
Over the time frame of our club, there has been a large variation in the quality of speeches. Some speeches were impeccable and others were not that interesting. It is time that we focus on our speeches. Getting a CTM without even getting atleast 2-3 best speakers award is not worth
mentioning. We should focus on speeches that utilise the time alloted effectively and efficiently to deliver the message to the audience.
Few things that we need to keep in mind while delivering/ preparing a speech are:
1. Focus on a good opening to capture the audience attention.
2. Have a nice structured body for the speech - have only 3-4 strong points that will make the audience remembers what you talked about in your speech.
3. For each of the points in your speech body, add additional material to get the point stronger into the audience' mind.
4. Have a nice closing to put emphasis on what your have talked about in your speech for the past few minutes.
5. In the body of the speech, don't try to jump back and forth from one point to another.
6. Do seamless transitions from one part of your speech to another.
7. Put in tonal variety and appropriate body language.
8. __PREPARE AND REHEARSE YOUR SPEECH__
9. Put up a smile before you start your speech.
10. Concentrate on your grammar.
As important as speeches are to Toastmasters meeting, so are evaluations.
Only if we give crisp, neat and to-the point evaluations, the quality of the speaker and the club will improve.
Here are a few links to giving effective evaluation, I would like all of you to go through them and try to provide better evalautions.
http://tritt.bizland.com/tc_berne/evaluate/index.htm
http://www.d26toastmasters.org/better-evaluations.php
http://www.parramattatm.org.au/pdfs/elizeval.PDF
http://www.toastmasters-sa.org.za/beth/downloads/eval0001.ppt
http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/toastmaster/EVALUATE.pdf
Bottomline, give evaluations that are effective that make the speaker bring him to the podium for a better speech.
Note to evaluators: You __MUST__ use your 2-3 minutes alloted time to give your effective evaluation.
To bring into effect the quality of speeches and the evaluations, once the icebreaker speeches are over, all the speeches and evaluations will be strictly monitored for their quality and speeches may be required to be repeated if they are not upto their level.
I would also like to put emphasis on the point that whoever gives a speech/evalaution/ does a role in a TM meeting, please do come prepared and do not commit mistakes on your part during the meeting.
I would also encourage everyone of you to attend other Toastmaster Clubs' meetings - this is a great oppurtunity to see how the clubs function and know about the quality of speeches they deliver.
As I mentioned earlier, we have taken just the first few steps. I would encourage everyone of you to put in your efforts to deliver quality speeches and evaluations and make each one of us and the club a great success.
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