Moments of Truth
Action Items
Sunshine Speakers Isabelle Southcott and Barb Rees conducted Moments of Truth in December 2009. Although the club is doing well, there are some areas where we could do better. We have 40 members, which is more than we have ever had. It is wonderful that so many people are discovering the benefits of Toastmasters but it also creates challenges for our VP of Education Barb Rees. Although we operate as one club, we are in many ways two clubs as some members attend noon meetings only, others attend evening meetings only and a handful attend both.
Feedback provided by the six breakout groups at Moments of Truth is valuable as it allows your executive to improve. Here’s what we found and what we intend to do.
First Impressions:
•It was noted that we need a base for our lectern. Neil McKenzie is in the process of building a base for the lectern. It will be a folding base that is easy to carry and store.
•We need to provide guests with the opportunity to remark on the meeting. Toastmasters should provide guests with the opportunity to comment on the meeting they run. It can be challenging during a noon hour meeting as time is short however there is ample opportunity at evening meetings.
New Member Orientation:
•When inviting guests please make sure you give them clear directions that we meet in the lower board room of the School Board offices on Ontario Avenue. Guests sometimes go upstairs to the front door which is always locked in the evening.
•Make it clear that mentoring is a free service provided by Toastmasters and that people do not have to pay their mentors. When people from other countries join Toastmasters they don’t understand our customs and one of our members thought she had to pay extra for mentoring.
•Mentors need to explain exactly what the icebreaker is to their mentees. They also need to go over roles that their mentees have for the first time. All new members are expected to attend Newbie 101 but it is a lot of information to take in at one time.
Fellowship, Variety and Communication:
•If you respond to an email that was sent out to all club members please do not hit respond all as it can be overwhelming to receive 40 emails. Hit respond to sender only.
•More practice using microphones was requested. We hope to hold a second microphone workshop.
•Name tags should be provided for all guests. All Toastmasters need to greet guests and help out. This is a club responsibility and should not only fall to the Sergeant of Arms as he is often busy attending to last minute details.
Program Planning and Meeting Organization:
•Add mini workshops that are not part of educational series on topics such as Evaluating, TableTopics, Storytelling etc.
•Mention that cheat sheets are available in the lectern for timing, tabletopics and other roles.
•If you do tip of the week please post it on the blog.
Membership Strength:
•Themes: Let each Toastmaster come up with a theme. Have the Toastmaster for each meeting let his Tabletopics master and the person who is doing the word of the day and the quote of the day know what the theme is and have their material reflect this. See blog for theme ideas.
•We need someone to oversee the mentoring program.
•Tip of the week has been added to each meeting to remind people how to do certain jobs properly.
Recognizing Accomplishments:
•Announce new appointments from the District and International levels in order to keep members up-to-date on what is happening.
•Show the CDP chart more often.