Thursday Night Lights - "Balance Between Family and Work"

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Jeff Morrical, CC

Our Toastmaster for this meeting, Jeff Morrical,CC, chose the theme of this meeting "Balance Between Family and Work". This is always an intriguing conundrum. This theme was successfully woven in throughout the meeting by our members and guests.

Our President, Debbie Gregori, DTM opened the meeting with her usual reminder to our members to be certain that they were evaluated in their CL manuals for the contributions they would make during the meeting.

"Get Up And Grow" is her chosen theme. A subtitle may be "The Job Isn't Finished Until The Paperwork Is Done!!"

New Business:

None. How bout that?

Old Business :

Peter Gregori, CC Sergeant-At-Arms reminded our members that we are abandoning Yahoo Groups as our conduit for group communications and migrating the Katy Toastmaster membership to the free website http://katy.toastmastersclubs.org/.

Jim Harrington, DTM gave us all some very significant information regarding the upcoming District 56 Fall Conference that will take place on Saturday, November 8, 2014.  On the District 56 Website the start time is listed as 7:00 AM.  What they meant to say is that registration begins at 7:00 AM. The activities will commence at 8:30 AM.

Theme and Explanation of Duties

Balance Between Family and Work

Jeff started the meeting with an anecdote about his new status as a newlywed, self employed and working from home. It seems his wife grew weary of his interruptions and breaks throughout the day and locked the door. Jeff did not say which door.

Jeff  presented us with an egregious lie about the General Evaluator, Walt Butler, while introducing him. Had he not given us a clue it may have been unforgivable. Walt? Caterpillar? Oh Deere.

Walt's Evaluation Team:

Grammarian: Michelle Perzan - her words of the day were STABLE and STABILITY.
Ballot Counter: Amy Duncan
Ah Counter: Floyd Spencer
Listen Master: Linda Goldberg, DTM
Timer: Vrushali Patil
Greeter: Bryan Clark

Prepared Speeches

Neha Sinha - CC Manual #4 How To Say It

Fear of Failure

Neha offered us insights into lessons learned through the process of competing in the "Humorous Speech Contest". She had taken first place at our club contest and the area contest. She competed in the Division N contest this past Saturday and won third place.

Neha had some keen insights into the subject that were fresh in her memory. Some of  her observations that are particularly noteworthy;

"success does not give the lessons that failure does." Neha Sinha referred to the two first place finishes and compared them to the results of the Division contest.

"success does not give the lessons that failure does." Neha Sinha

Neha took and gave us lessons from Thomas Edison. When asked about the many failures that led him to some of his inventions he replied that they were not failures but that he had "found 10,000 ways that do not work."

Debbie Gregori, DTM - Speaking to Inform #2

"I Am The Toastmaster !?"

Debbie, as a DTM, has fulfilled this role, that is of Toastmaster, often. What she offered tonight was something for the experienced members as well as the newer members who have never filled this role in a meeting.

She opened with the exclamation and played the role of a newbie. "Oh my gosh. I am the Toastmaster!!"

uh-oh ?

"Oh my gosh I am the Toastmaster ?????"

The guidelines for this role are sorely missed in the Competent Leader manual. Debbie pointed this out. The good news is there are other resources for someone seeking information on how to do it. 

There are two pages devoted to this role in the Competent Communication Manual. Besides these

she pointed out that Toastmasters International does have a wealth of information as she referred us to this page:

http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/MemberExperience/MeetingRoles/Toastmaster.aspx

And again on Katy Toastmasters website there is a checklist of sorts, built around a Meeting Agenda, that points out exactly when and where, during  a meeting, that a Toastmaster would speak. The file is named "Toastmaster_Check_List.xlsx.

http://katy.toastmastersclubs.org/downloads.html

Madame President let it be known that there are a host of resources available to us. Especially the people maybe sitting right next to us. Experienced Toastmasters. Our mentors. It was not said but she held true to her theme: Get Up and Grow.

Table Topics

Our Table Topics Master was the one and only Ni Bashir. Somehow shopping did not make it as one of the topics. She was well armed and prepared. That was a good thing since one speaker dropped out and we had additional time. (What is that?)

Participating were:

Wil Delgado - "If work allowed you more free time how would you spend it?" Wil, currently being pressed into 55 hours a week, would seek more time with his family.

Lalit Patel - Lalit expressed a desire to spend more time with family.

Jing Zhao - "it's good to be a little bit of a workaholic"

Heleane Stabeneau - Mused about the conniving of a controlling employer.

Jesika Nimmo - Our youngest member "What is most important?"  "My boyfriend !!"

Matt Nimmo

Craig Coussons (guest) Empty nest is not really empty.

Ed Shaw (guest)

Cynthia Westbrook - Empty nest? "it's a wonderful feeling when you get them off the payroll"

Evaluations and Awards

Walt Butler delivered a brief but concise evaluation of the meeting and was assited by his evaluation team. We did fairly well. Out meeting began and ended on time. Our Topics Master, Ni Bashir, was very well prepared. This author would point out some things that he could not have been aware of. The Reception team, or "Greeter", performed exceptionally well. A huge shout out to Bryan Clark and Floyd Spencer for making that happen.

The myriad members that make the Sergeant-At-Arms role so much easier. People that set up, pick up and clean up. He does not really see everyone that is doing something. It is all very much appreciated.

Cynthia Westbrook

Best Table Topics

Cynthia Westbrook owns this. The "Phrase That Pays" in this weeks Table Topics was:

"it's a wonderful feeling when you get them off the payroll"

By The Numbers

In Attendance: 27

Guests: 8

Know Your Audience: Five Golden Rules

Here's the drill:  You check your e-mail and find a message with next week's Toastmasters agenda.  You open it, realizing that you've signed up as a speaker.  Okay.  No sweat.  You've got this.  You take your manual home, spend a few days drafting up your speech and practicing.  Before you can even blink, it's Thursday and the Toastmaster is calling you up to the lectern.  You step up....and let 'er rip.

Happens all the time, right?  We craft our speech, get up in front of our fellow Toastmasters, and 'thar she blows.  Sometimes it goes well, but other times we leave our listeners with a big question mark over their heads.

Last month I did exactly this: I performed a speech from the "Storytelling" manual loosely based on material from my work-in-progress novel.

It was the worst-received speech of my entire 8 year Toastmasters career.  As you might imagine, I was pretty bummed out when I received my verbal and written evaluations.  After all, I've poured my heart and soul into my manuscript for the past ten months. I went home that night downtrodden, and my husband, Derek, asked how my speech went. "They hated it!" I cried, "I don't get it; what did I do wrong?"

He asked me to perform the speech for him, and I did - a silly, dramatic scene in which two siblings quibbled over a game of chess.  When I finished, I asked Derek what he thought, and he described the speech as "watching a five minute clip of 'Lord of the Rings' where the hobbits are stealing carrots from a farm and you have no concept of anything else going on in the movie."

Ouch!  It was tough to hear.  Honest, critical feedback when your dearly cherished work flops is always hard to listen to.   But Derek wasn't telling me this to be mean.  He's a Toastmaster, too, and one of the most charming people I know.  After many, many flowers were purchased, I thanked him for his feedback.

You see, he was right.  Everyone who evaluated my speech was.  In my fervor to craft a speech under a tight deadline and share my ideas with others, I had completely failed to consider my audience.

Audience is our life blood in the business of storytelling.  And yet, it's so easily overlooked, such an underconsidered factor when we are preparing our speeches.

As a result of this experience, I developed a new speech two weeks later.  Using the material from the Toastmasters "Better Speaker Series," I presented "Know Your Audience - Five Golden Rules."

It was very well-received.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE:  FIVE GOLDEN RULES:

1.  Consider Your Audience!  Age, gender, education, career, interests, etc., are all very important.  These factors act almost as a picture frame for you put around a panoramic.  How do you frame your message?

2.  Target Your Audience!  Imagine you are giving a speech about how to take precautions against the coming down with the flu.  Your audience is a classroom of 4th graders.  Now, take that same subject and let's change your audience to a conference room of medical professionals.  The message would be very different.  We must learn to use different "voices," depending on who we are speaking to.

3.  Don't Lose Your Audience!  Make sure you understand your audience's level of knowledge on a topic before you step up to the lectern to ensure that it's neither too basic nor to complex.  If you can, try to avoid distracting gestures, as these can become an unintended focal point of your speech.  You don't want to be the guy they only remember because he jangled his keys in his pocket for half the speech.

4.  Choose the Right Audience!  Putting good work in front of the wrong audience won't give you quality feedback.  Just as there is no one book, one movie, one TV series that every person in the world is a fan of, so, too, does this apply to a speech. Make sure you put the right work in front of the right people to achieve maximum impact.  Sometimes who your audience is can be unpredictable, so don't fret if your speech doesn't go as well as you envisioned.  We live to see another day!

5.  Don't Lose Your Message!  There is such a thing as catering too much to your audience and losing your purpose.  You want to think about your audience, but be wary of overanalyzing.  Stay true to yourself and your purpose while telling your story in a a way your audience can appreciate.  That's the goal.

Get Up And Grow - Competent Leadership

Who is this guy? And why is he smirking? You think he is smiling? Really? Take a closer look. Go ahead. Now you see. No really. That is a smirk. It is a condescending. He can't really talk. Just a pretty face.

We attend almost every meeting. We invest time and hard earned money .That is to say $$$$$. This guy puts on a suit and smirks.

We are chasing a CC or a ACLB or a DTM or WKW.

And there he is smirking. Competent Leadership. What else do you guys want???

Nice suit Toastmaster guy. Oh and a vest. I can forgive him for being young. I console myself. "Youth is wasted on the young". Just a model. All form and no substance.

One of the things that is too easy too neglect in the hustle and bustle of our meetings is our progress through this Competent Leadership manual. We have things to do. We have deadlines. We really care more that they get done. And that they get done on time.

But we are doing things we should be getting some kind of credit for. I am well aware of the tendency of this army of volunteers to just get the job done. We are not a self serving entity. Either individually or as a group.

I believe we have to dedicate some time and focus toward getting the credit for what we do. This helps us, our club, Katy Toastmasters, achieve our Distinguished Toastmaster goals. It also helps you advance toward the recognition of higher achievement that you have earned. In short let's get "paid" for the job we are already doing.

With that in mind please take the time to examine your Competent Leadership manual. Have you already completed some of these projects but have not documented this fact? You can still get credit for them. Have someone in the club fill out the evaluation portion.

I am well aware of the tendency of this army of volunteers to just get the job done. We are not a self serving entity. Either individually or as a group.

I believe we have to dedicate some time and focus toward getting the credit for what we do. This helps us, our club, Katy Toastmasters, achieve our Distinguished Toastmaster goals.

For example: Did you serve as an Ah-Counter? Then get evaluated. Take your CL manual to another member and ask them to evaluate you. Of course ideally you would do this the same meeting that you acted in this role. But if you neglected this at the time it can still be done. Have our Vice President of Education sign off on the portion that says "VPE INITIALS". It is that simple.

Some questions?

I have been a "Listen Master" I don't see anything in my manual about that. How do I get credit for that?

Project Six. "Assist the club's webmaster". As the Listen Master if you turn your notes over to the clubs webmaster then you have fulfilled 1 of 6 of the "Organization and Delegation". You are only required to assist on 1 of the 6 projects. Just one. Mission Accomplished.

I have been a "Greeter" I don't see anything in my manual about that. How do I get credit for that? You may. Let's look into this:


Project Six "Help Organize A Club Membership Campaign or Contest"

We have a year long membership campaign in progress. As the Greeter you are welcoming guests and visitors. You are also distributing the "Guest Packet" that contains vital information about our club to these visitors and guests. If you serve as a Greeter you are eligible to be credited for this project.

Project Seven: Facilitation: One is charged with the task of completing 2 of 4 projects. Not all four. One of them is "Befriend A Guest". To fulfill this project one must:

• Help the guest overcome his or her fears and influence them to join the club or attend another meeting
• Discuss the guests goals and concerns.
• Describe how the Toastmasters program would help the achieve their goals.
• Make yourself available to the guest outside of the club meeting.

Most of us have done this as a matter of course. A casual "give me a call" or "send me an email" if you have any questions qualifies for the last point. Get credit for it.


Some advice for members new and old. A bit of strategy.

For the newer members.

Start with Project One. Volunteer for the "Ah Counter" role. You need only to do it once to begin filling in the projects of your CL Manual.  The same is almost true for the "Grammarian" role. You can count on being called upon within a meeting or two to address the "Table Topics" criteria.

For the more experienced members.  More often than not it is a matter of us paying attention to what we have already done or things we do without thinking too much about the CL Manual period.

In summary I hope that the reader is more aware of the processes involved. I hope to follow this up soon with a more thorough examination of some paths we might choose to get us all there faster. Get credit for it.