Today’s Toastmaster was Andrew and it was his first time leading the meeting. The theme for the day was, “Remembrance” and Andrew did a wonderful job leading the meeting! With a full agenda of speakers and evaluators we jumped right into the meeting.
Kathy was the Grammarian of the day and did a great job of tracking filler words and colorful use of language. Kathy chose “memorable” as the word of the day and many speakers used it throughout their speeches.
The first speaker of the day was, Marti. Marti gave her third speech titled, “Surprise Monodrama” from the Interpretive Reading Advanced Manual. Marti gave her speech in full costume and character of a homeless woman. This was the first time I’ve been able to attend a speech where the speaker was in full costume – what a great experience! Marti set the scene of her and a friend named “Charlie” at a bus stop. Her speech gave use insight into what it could be like to be homeless. Her character had a daughter that passed and away a granddaughter that made her very proud because she got a job.
Marti did an incredible job with her speech and I look forward to hearing more from you in this manual! It was like being at the theater with a free admission.
Brett gave his sixth speech titled, “Finding Out Before It’s Too Late” from the CC manual. Brett’s partner, Katherine was diagnosed with a very rare disease called FAP. This is a type of genetic cancer that affects the colon. When she was first diagnosed with the disease she went to many doctors for a diagnosis and available options to rid the cancer.
Katherine was given some advice that seemed to be very extreme such as removing the colon and other parts. She and her family wanted other options so they asked for other recommendations and discovered there were indeed less invasive options.
Needless to say, between two surgeries’ and several follow up visits, Katherine is doing great! Brett left us with the advice that if you think something is wrong with a diagnosis, you should go with your gut and get a different opinion. Wonderful speech, Brett!
Julie gave her third speech titled, “Feedback: How to Make It Constructive” from the CC manual. Julie shared some great takeaways for giving feedback to others.
When you give positive feedback, focus on specifics. For examples, don’t just say your communication is “good”. Instead, give specifics such as your volume of speech is always appropriate and you always make eye contact.
When giving negative feedback, make it descriptive by giving specific suggestions. We should also be aware of how much feedback we’re giving. It’s easy to give too much feedback so limiting your suggestions to 2 – 3 points is best. It’s also a good idea to use the sandwich approach when giving feedback. This approach uses a positive statement, a negative suggestion, and then followed by another positive suggestion.
Finally, it’s a good idea to summarize your feedback by main points so everyone’s on the same page. Julie, this was a fabulous speech with great actionable takeaways. I’ve already implemented many of your suggestions.
Cara gave her third speech titled, “Lessons Learned in Las Vegas” from the CC manual. Cara recently went to Las Vegas with friends and family and was a little apprehensive at first because she thought she wouldn’t enjoy herself. However, she had a wonderful time and actually came away with three lessons learned from the short getaway.
The first lesson Cara learned was “being open to new experiences.” She usually doesn’t drink, go out on weekday nights, and isn’t that much of a gambler – all of which are a common denominator in Las Vegas. Even so, she had a wonderful time in the Viva Las Vegas!
The second lesson she learned was “trust and verify”. An example of how Cara learned this lesson was by trying to find the Rock-n-Roll race she signed up. She was pressed for time to make it to the race so she asked a few Vegas locals for directions and was told the start line was only a few minutes away. Well, she and her race partners ended up having to take several modes of transportation getting them there just a few minutes before race time.
The third lesson Cara learned was “do what makes you happy.” Cara went to Vegas her way and not the typical drinking all day for an entire weekend but instead spent some time in the city, in the desert, and running a race.
Great job on your speech, Cara and glad to hear you had such a great trip to Vegas.
