Katy Toastmasters Game Film

During the Army-Navy football game on December 7, 1963, for the first time, sports fans saw an Instant replay.  (For Katy Toastmaster football fans, Roger Staubach was the quarterback for Navy in the game.)  It was replayed at the original speed prompting the sports commentator to tell viewers “Ladies and gentlemen, Army did not score again.”

Today it is hard to imagine watching a sports event without instant replays.  I believe the rise of popularity in NFL football is due in part to the use of instant replays to review the action. American Tackle football a chess match of the fastest and most complex team sport in the world.  Slow motion instant replays help fans understand the complex interactions of players in any given play.  Oddly, no one watches game film of chess matches.   

Football coaches and players spend hours reviewing game film.  What went right, what went wrong but more importantly, what can we learn by reviewing game film to improve our performance. 

Toastmasters also uses the instant replay during meetings.  The instant replay in Toastmaster is called “Evaluations.”  All prepared speeches are “instantly” evaluated during the meeting with positive and constructive comments to the speech presenter.  These evaluations are usually civil.

In Katy Toastmasters, we have evaluations that are far from civil.  In fact, some evaluations are brutal, merciless, savage and extremely critical. Sometime the evaluators are just disgusted with  performances.  Those evaluators are ourselves as individuals while we watch ourselves on Katy Toastmaster Game Film.

For many individuals, it is difficult to view themselves in still photos much less watching themselves  presenting a speech.  Seeing yourself on “film” is another dimension in evaluations.  A picture is worth a thousand words but a video is worth a million of words.

Those of us in Katy Toastmasters are grateful to Jim Harrington, DTM, for his tireless work in video recording speeches and evaluations.  Not only does he film, he also takes his personal time  to create individual CD’s for members to review their presentation.  As someone who was the film guy for my son’s youth football team, I can tell you it is an effort to create these CD’s.  Yet week after week, Jim creates member CD’s as he sincerely tries to help individuals become better speakers and evaluators.  Jim Harrington’s unselfish service to Katy Toastmasters is an inspiration in leadership for those of us in the club.  We can’t thank him enough for all his efforts and service to the club.

Below is a video clip Jim Harrington created for my speech on “The Big Bang” and it is Jim who was the Toastmaster that night who introduced my speech:

“The Tale of The Big Bang”

Presented by Andy Paultanis on June 6, 2013
Advanced Communication Series: Storytelling

Project 4: The Folk Tale  
Time: Five to Seven Minutes
Evaluator: Sherry Han