Thursday, February 25, 2010

John Schneyer - Kids Say the Darndest Things

John Schneyer delivers speech #2 from the Entertaining Speaker advanced manual.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When You Are (or want to be) the Speaker

This is my weekly Vice President, Education post.

Our meeting last night, while successful, highlighted an opportunity for improvement.

We had 4 prepared speeches on the schedule. Each of the 4 speakers had confirmed with our Toastmaster for the evening that they would be delivering their speeches.

At the start of the meeting, we realized that 2 of our confirmed speakers were not present and our Toastmaster for the evening, Karen Novek, had not been notified by either of them.

Karen did a great job covering for this by allowing everyone an opportunity to introduce themselves and giving a 30 second spot for any members who did not have a speaking role during the meeting. Table Topics Master, Jeff Tockman, came prepared with plenty of topics to give more members a chance to speak.

How could this have been improved?

1) The two missing speakers could have called Karen to say they weren't going to be able to speak as soon as they knew. Ideally, they would have reached out to the backup speaker (we did have one listed on the online roster) and told Karen they had arranged for another speaker. Even if they hadn't arranged for another speaker, they would have given Karen the opportunity to find another speaker. By the way, if you need to cancel, call the Toastmaster, don't just send an e-mail, especially if it's the day of the meeting. Some of us can not check our e-mails all day.

2) Sometimes, life happens. Emergencies pop up and it doesn't occur to us to call someone as we are dealing with the emergency. I don't know what happened in the lives of our two missing speakers last night and, quite frankly, it's none of my business. I just hope they are ok.

Lets look at this from the flip side of the issue. Had our backup speaker arrived at the meeting prepared to speak, had other speakers been prepared, someone could have jumped in at the last minute to deliver a speech. We are a speaking club after all.

Karen did a great job but shouldn't have been in the position to cover for two missing speakers.

If you are scheduled to speak, plan on speaking. If things come up, make a phone call or two in order to find a replacement. Let the Toastmaster of the evening know what's going on so they can work with you. It's a team sport, we work together and support each other. Open speaking slots don't come back once the meeting ends. They are lost forever. Give someone else the opportunity to speak.

If you sign up to be a backup speaker, assume you ARE speaking. Come prepared to speak. If you don't get to, at least you have your next speech prepared.

Do not sign up to be a backup speaker unless you intend to come prepared to speak.

I've been told by some of our more senior members that advanced speakers should show up at each meeting with a speech in their pocket. I think that may be a good idea.

What do you think about what I have just posted? Please comment below.

Have a great week. Best of luck to Nina Potter at the Division contest this Saturday morning. Come out to support her.

John Schneyer
Vice President, Education

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Body Language Myths

This is my weekly Vice President, Education post. I found an interesting article about Body Language on the Toastmasters web site. You can view it here.

What do you think about this? The message I took away is the same my friend Kristen has given me, be yourself. Use what strengths you have to give your strongest presentation.

I'd like to hear from you. Please comment on this post.

John Schneyer, VPE

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Should You Say "Thank You" or Apologize When You Give a Speech?

This is my weekly Vice President, Education post.

Last night I noticed one of our speakers caught themselves saying "Thank You" at the end of their speech. I read their reaction as they knew they made a mistake in doing so. But did they? How about apologizing?

Click this link to read a good article on the Toastmasters web site regarding saying "Thank You" and apologizing to an audience.

I agree with the writer. I believe you speak and behave according to the situation. What is appropriate under one set of circumstances may be inappropriate under another.

Consider what you find in the article and decide what you want to do when you are speaking. Remember, it's your speech and you are the one who has to live with the consequences, good or bad, of your words and actions.

What's your opinion? Feel free to comment here, I'd like to hear from you.

John Schneyer

John Schneyer - Finding Your Match - Speech #1 Entertaining Speaker Advanced Manual

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

VPE Weekly Spot 2-3-2010

I am John Schneyer, your Vice President of Education (VPE). I have decided to do a weekly posting here on our blog focusing on an education, leadership, or club topic.

This week's topic is for all members, not just new members.

Bring both your Speech Manual and your Leadership Manual to all meetings.

Speeches given at our club come from a project in one of the official Toastmaster Speech Manuals. To get credit and, more importantly, a valuable evaluation, you need to have your speech manual with you. Go over the speech project requirements with your evaluator before the meeting starts (you could do this days before the meeting if you want to) and discuss what you would like the evaluator to focus on, if anything, outside the speech objectives.

After the meeting, get your manual back from your evaluator, discuss anything they may have said or written in your manual to make sure you are clear.

See the Vice President of Education (or another officer in the VPE's absence) and have them sign-off in the back of your manual. Once all the projects in the manual are done, see the VPE again to gain appropriate recognition and advancement.

Leadership - Many meeting roles satisfy projects in the Competent Leadership Manual. To get proper credit and feedback, you need to bring your manual.

Step 1 - Use the manual to decide which meeting role you will perform. Sign up for the role by going to our online roster here
Step 2 - Read up on the role requirements in the manual and at http://www.bocaratontoastmasters.org/ (scroll down, it's near the bottom)
Step 3 - When you arrive at the meeting, ask another Toastmaster to evaluate your performance in the role you are performing and give them the manual opened to the appropriate project page.
Step 4 - perform your role
Step 5 - retrieve your manual after the meeting and ask for feedback. Read the comments and make sure you understand them.
Step 6 - after completing all the requirements for a project, see the VPE to have the project signed off.
Step 7 - after completing all the projects, the VPE will submit the paperwork so you receive recognition

Note: You may go through the Competent Leadership Manual in any order that works for you. You go through the Competent Communicator and other speech manual in sequential order.

Discuss your objectives and progress regularly with your Mentor. If you do not have a mentor or if you can offer your services as a mentor, please let me know.

-John

Monday, February 1, 2010

John Schneyer's 2010 International Speech Contest

This is the video of John Schneyer's 2nd place speech in the Boca Raton Toastmasters International Speech Contest.