Ideas
for Toastmasters. A collection of meeting ideas, ideas for officers
and speech ideas.There are programs which can assist you with scheduling. (Sorry, I don't have a current link to a scheduling program.) However, I've always scheduled meetings by hand. You need a list of when people won't be available. I find the easiest way to do the schedule is to keep a list of the major tasks. I then sort all the tasks by the date people were last scheduled. The exception is speeches, I add the number of months the member wants between speeches to the last date scheduled and sort of that number. This can be done with a spread sheet, word processor or 3x5 cards. Below is an example of a list of speakers.
Next Last Member Frequency 5 June 5 May Rick 1 month 12 June 12 May Mary 1 month 5 Jul 5 May Sally 2 months 12 Jul 12 May Bob 2 monthsMembers won't be able to make it to every meeting. Our rule for dealing with it is "Let the Vice-President of Education know before the schedule is published or find a replacement and let the toastmaster know." When they tell you, have them write it down unless your memory is a lot better than mine. Most of our members just slip me a note. One of our members who travels a lot sends me a FAX with the days we won't be there and the days he needs to be scheduled light.
The scheduled light is for the people who don't have enough time to plan a speech, table topics or toastmaster but can attend the meeting. For example, our member who travel sometimes get back late Sunday which makes it hard to prepare for Monday Morning. I belonged to a club with a member who prepares taxes. I scheduled her light in March and April. Any time someone says they can't attend for awhile, I try to encourage them to go on the light schedule. It keeps them in the habit of attending. They still get the benefit of table topics and doing evaluations.
The advanced manuals are harder to schedule. The times range from 2-4 minutes to 20-30 minutes. The advanced manual The Discussion Leader projects fit better into a table topic time slot than a speaking time slot. The advanced manuals Technical Presentations and Professional Salesperson both have team presentations. Fortunately it's part of the speaker's job to assemble the team before you schedule the meeting.
New members need to be scheduled to speak as soon as possible. If they wait too long, it becomes easier to find an excuse why they can't speak. The general evaluator and toastmaster are harder assignments. Wait until they have given their third speech before scheduling them for these assignments. The exception is if they joined to gain practice leading meetings. In that case, schedule them for toastmaster right away.
You need to work to keep the experienced members interested. Mike Steineck points out, "special meetings, such as debates, all table topics, storytelling/tall tales, even the occasional success leadership module can keep a club's meetings from getting stale and boring." I agree with Mike and try to schedule one special meeting each month. For more ideas see Meetings and Table Topics Ideas, Meeting Ideas and Table Topics Ideas.
Being a mentor gives the experienced member the feeling of helping someone and helps them recapture the magic of when they first started. I try to make sure that each experienced member gets a chance to a mentor. I try to assign a mentor with some of the same interests as the new member as long as the experienced mentor isn't currently a mentor. If the new member was a guest of a current member, I ask if they are more comfortable with someone they know or would prefer someone different.
If your mentors want information mentoring, Toastmasters International has information on mentoring "The Role of Coach/Mentor" or see the Mentor Home Page.
Your experienced members goals have probably changed since they have joined. Have they gotten temporarily busy with other activities and need to be schedule light? Do they have an important presentation at work they need to learn new skills for? Are they aware of advanced manuals that could help them learn those skills? Are they aware that you can schedule a meeting where they can practice a presentation with special time constraints?
Frank Chunn suggests, "The Vice-President of education can release a survey to every member to query their interest and what they want to do in the club environment." In fact, Toastmasters International has a form for this purpose. However, Michael Steineck has a different perspective, "I've found phone calls are better than a survey, as people will tell you more than the survey will allow, plus it develops a bond with that person." An other technique is to schedule yourself for table topics then have each member discuss their goals. Anyway you do it, it's important to know what your members need.
When they achieve the goals that brought them to Toastmasters, they should already have new goals to achieve. About speech #9 in the basic manual, encourage them to set new goals. Do they need to work on a specific type of speeches to improve their work skills? There are advanced manuals to cover many of the skill they will need. Do they want to work with their children's youth group? The Youth Leadership program and several advanced manuals can help. If they need to learn leadership skills, maybe they should look into the leadership track. Toastmasters has a lot to offer, so help them take advantage of the opportunities.
When members first join, they worked their way though the basic manual. However, many experienced members "just give speeches" then wonder why they aren't getting the same result. Each speech a member gives should have a specific purpose. This usually is a manual speech of some sort. However, occasionally, they may need to practice a speech before giving it at work or to an other organization.
Updated: $Date: 2002/09/14 18:36:52 $ (GMT)
Ideas
for Toastmasters. A collection of meeting ideas, ideas for officers
and speech ideas.
Rick's home page