In reviewing what is called The Leader Letter on Toastmasters international Webpage. I went down some "rabbit holes" and looked around at what was on there. I came across several things that may help us as a club. I would like to present briefly the resource called: "A Toastmaster Wears Many Hats". I truly don't remember this resource from the past but my guess is this may have been around for some time.
It is an excellent review of our roles in a toastmasters meeting. I think as we assemble materials to give to new members this would be very good thing to present to them. It is already digital and would be easily forwarded to them via email.
For the educational Moment I would like to very briefly bring up some tips from this resource for different meeting roles. Here are a few tips and my thoughts about them.
When you are the Speaker:
Be sure to discuss your goals and any personal concerns about your speaking skills with your evaluator. Emphasize areas you are working on that you would like your evaluator to note.
I think I can certainly be better about thinking about What do I want to focus on improving during a given speech. I think this has tremendous value rather than just doing the speech and seeing what SO I think it is worthy of reflection and setting goals for the speech itself in regards to what area do you wish to specifically improve upon in your public speaking.
When you are the Evaluator:
The most effective evaluators make themselves aware of the member’s skill level, habits, and mannerisms, as well as their progress to date whenever possible.
Our club does very well at this. Reading what a toastmaster needs form you not just your evaluation of their speech or presentation of said speech. Some will need more encouragement because it was all they had to just get in front of the club and speak. This is monumental achievement for them and should be recognized by the evaluator as well.
When you are Table Topics Master:
Create a list of speakers, evaluators, General Evaluator, and Toastmaster for the meeting so you can call on other members first. If time permits, call on participants already scheduled to speak.
This is somthign we don't really think all that much about in our club as we often have more than enough time for most everyone to do table topics. Table topics priority should go to those who don't have another opportunity to speak in the meeting.
When you are Toastmaster:
The main duties of the Toastmaster are to coordinate and conduct the entire meeting, introduce participants, and act as a genial host. The Toastmaster sets the tone for the meeting. This task is generally reserved for members who are quite familiar with the club and its procedures.
Serving as Toastmaster is an excellent way to practice planning, preparation, organization, time management, facilitation, motivation, and team-building skills as you strive to make the meeting one of the club’s best.
I think it deserves emphasizing how important the Toastmaster role is . Once you are assigned as Toastmaster you are basically in charge of that weeks meeting. May sound daunting but it really is a lot of fun and you have a whole club of support for you. Take charge and lead the meeting. I would also emphasize what the last line says about Toastmaster "As you strive to make the meeting one of the club's best.' We need to think about all of the roles as an opportunity to do it better than we did last time! I know I am guilty of just going through the motions many times of teh roles and not really thinking about how can I do it better. To me that is what Toastmasters is all about: Becoming Better speakers, Better leaders and Better people!
These are just a a few things form this resource. I would encourage us all to go in and read this as a refresher or maybe for a first time learning experience about the meeting roles we hold so dearly in Toastmasters.
https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/a-toastmaster-wears-many-hats
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