How to Correctly Use Your Vice President of Education
From time to time, I've e-mails that basically say, "I e-mailed the VP-Ed,
so I'm covered." There are some problems with this approach:
-
He may be away from his e-mail and the message my still be in is his in
box unread.
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Messages do get lost in the mail; he may not have gotten the message.
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Managing the schedule after he's published isn't his job. The VP-Ed
is the most time consuming job without trying to keep up with last minute
changes.
What does the VP-Ed do?
-
He needs to talk to or survey members to find out their needs. He
doesn't need to have as detailed information as your mentor, but enough
to schedule you. For example, for people working on the advanced
manuals. The shortest speech is 3-4 minutes and the longest is 20-30
minutes.
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He produces the monthly schedule excluding people who said they couldn't
make a specific meeting. If you find out after he schedule is out
that you can't attend, there's a note on the schedule to find a replacement
and let the Toastmaster know. If you are the Toastmaster, find a
replacement and tell the President.
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He schedules special meetings like the contest or educational presentations.
For example, there is a module from Toastmasters International on Mentors
and Mentees. It comes with a script that's intended to be paraphrased
though I prefer to create an outline from it. A current or past officer
could present it to fulfill a requirement in earning their Competent Leader.
-
He assigns mentors to club members.
So, let the VP-Ed know that you won't be at a meeting next month.
Let the VP-Ed know that you would like you have special needs for an upcoming
speech. (For example, your next speech is from the Discussion Leader
and needs to be scheduled in place of table topics.) Let the VP-Ed
know you'd like some one to do a presentation on a specific topic.
(All members could present one of the shorter modules from Toastmasters
International. Members who have finished their CTM and should be
able to put together a speech on a specific topic.)
If you can't make next week's meeting, call the Toastmaster and tell
her who will be filling in for you.
The VP-Ed's job is to help you get the most out of Toastmasters.
So, use him correctly and don't try to bog him down with tracking last
minute changes. That's your job.
Updated: $Date: 2002/09/14 19:30:37 $ (GMT)
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