| Being a Successful Role Taker |
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Joke-Master (to close the meeting)
The Jokemaster will leave the audience smiling as the meeting wraps up. There are two things that the jokemaster can choose to do. Option 1: 2-3 minutes of ‘observational humor’. Sign up for John Kinde’s newsletter (http://www.humorpower.com/) and this is his example here. You’ll be forced to observe carefully for talking points that occurred throughout the meeting, and use them for spontaneous humor. This takes practice of course, and just in case you don't have enough material, get ready for option 2. Option 2: Spend 2-5 minutes (depending on whether you're delivering observational humor), to facilitate joke-telling for the audience. Each joke should take less than 1 minute to deliver, so speed up the facilitation; Encourage each member who come on stage. You can probably ask before the meeting or during the break to confirm who is interested. "Humor Around Me" This segment allows the role taker to take 2 minutes to deliver a humorous story based on a true event that happened around them (as opposed to themselves, which would be 'self-deprecating humor'). It practices daily observational skills and humor writing, and humor delivery skills. A good 2 mins speech still require normal speech development: opening, a story line that has a buildup, climax, some conflict; It should have effective punchline (delivered at the end, with logic, and surprise); Humor delivery should include use of suspense, the pause, and the pace; Of course watch out for body language and vocal variety. This segment allows the role taker to take 2 minutes to deliver a series of jokes or anecdotes that are self-deprecating in nature. Through this role, the member can practice how to write self-deprecating humor, and more importantly, learn not to take oneself so seriously. A good segment requires that the theme of your self-deprecating characterstic is evident from the beginning (a short intro), and is consistently carried out throughout the segment. There should be a smooth transition between anecdotes or between jokes, so that it appears jokes are related, and flows from one to the other. The final joke should give the audience a sense of wrap-up: perhaps with a message, or a lasting thought. It should have effective punchline (delivered at the end, with logic, and surprise); Humor delivery should include use of suspense, the pause, and the pace; Of course watch out for body language and vocal variety.
Crazy Story Teller This session practices your creativity, and ability to exaggerate (important aspect of humor). The role taker has 2 minutes to tell a wild story that engages the audience. It is important to put one's imagination into high gear, using colorful words, descriptions, and metaphors that are truly fantastic in nature. What is a tall tale? The speech must be of a highly exaggerated, improbable nature and have a theme or plot. Humor and props may be used to support or illustrate the speech. Read about it here. A good 2 mins speech still require normal speech development: opening, a story line that has a buildup, climax, some conflict; It should have effective punchline (delivered at the end, with logic, and surprise); Effective use of body language and vocal variety is extremely important for a tall tale.Toastmaster Preparation activity: Confirm the theme as early as Thursday for the other roles. Send the meeting theme to the scheduler and SAA. Write up the meeting promotion piece on the website, and send it to the webmaster on Friday. Get the introduction from the prepared speakers. Email them, phone them, knock on their doors if you have to.
To start the meeting, you get to deliver a five minute speech Your speech should follow a theme that you will try to follow throughout the meeting. Your speech should be - Light, funny, and engaging. Remember the motto of the club - Energetic to pump up the audience. (This is especially important, since there won't be a 'joke-master' to open the meeting. - Related to the mission of Toastmaster and CHIC Within the allotted 6 minutes, you will also announce any changes to the agenda. You will also briefly describe the General Evaluator role, and call up the evaluation members to introduce their own roles.
Introduce the prepared speakers exactly how they had written it. Remind the speakers to prepare their introduction. Here is an article from Toastmasters International for reference. Have transitions between speakers by taking a good point from the previous speech and linking it smoothly to the next speaker. The other roles you need to introduce in full are: - The Greeter - The Table Topics Master - The General Evaluator Point out one special characteristic about the person, something related to their Toastmaster experience. Even better: relate the introduction to the meeting theme. IMPORTANT: It is your responsibility to politely to help wrap up the speech for the speaker. The audience will not clap out the speaker, until you formally end it.
While you need to introduce the roles for the GE, do not do so for the other roles. GE will introduce the evaluators, including the Table Topics Evaluator. Also, refrain from introducing roles in un-professional way such as "our handsome member", "baby skin", "lovely lady".
General Evaluator: Preparation work: Research on how to introduce the evaluator roles: The prepared speech evaluators, Timer, Ah-Counter, Grammarian, and the Table Topics Evaluator. Point out one special characteristic about the person, something related to their Toastmaster experience. Even better: relate the introduction to the meeting theme.
During the meeting: You will first go on stage only after being introduced in the 2nd half. Unlike other clubs, you will not call up the evaluation team members to introduce themselves. You can evaluate your team, the Toastmaster, plus the proceedings of the meeting—which I suggest to keep at a minimum, unless there was a major booboo that occurred.
Evaluate the evaluators based on their experience. But make sure even for young evaluators, that you point out critical points to pay attention. Refer to the Evaluation Manual for points of evaluation.
You don’t need to evaluate the speakers, the Table Topics Master. Nor do you need to introduce any other roles.
IMPORTANT: It is your responsibility to politely to help wrap up the evaluations for the evaluators. The audience will not clap out the speaker, until you formally end it.
Table Topics Master Introduce the purpose of table topic and the time limit. Your table topics should be: - Brief and Clear (Explained in 1 minute) - Fun and Creative (Remember our branding) - Allow the participants to be fun and creative. (don’t give close-ended questions) - Allow various levels of difficult, according to the level of the participant Check out the Table Topics Ideas on the Website for simple, fun, and effective ways to conduct the session.
During the session: Only call on the members without roles that day. Review the agenda beforehand. Call on an experienced member first. You are free to call on members without them volunteering. Don’t force the guests. Encourage the participants after they are done. If possible, provide a one-sentence transition before calling on the next participant. IMPORTANT: It is your responsibility to politely to help wrap up the speech for the speaker. The audience will not clap out the speaker, until you formally end it.
Remember, you are, above all, a facilitator and motivator.
Table Topics Evaluator Evaluate the table topic master, in terms of usage of time, clarity of the topic, effectiveness/creativity of the topic, and the encouragement given to participants. Evaluate the table topic speakers, based on the structure (intro, body, conclusion), and delivery. It is not necessary to evaluate their content.
Timer Introduce your role: Time management is an important role in delivering speeches, speakers need to be aware of the time and you are here to remind them. You have 3 cards of different color: green one means you have reach minimum required time for the speech, yellow one means that you are approaching the end of your speech and you need to prepare your closing soon, red card means that your time is over and you have 30 seconds to finish. Otherwise, I will clap my hand once, to signal the Toastmaster, or Table Topics Master, or General Evaluator to help you wrap up.
Give some examples of how you will time: - "For Table Topics, the green will go up after 1 minute, the yellow goes up after 1.5 minutes, and the red goes up at 2 minutes." - "For prepared speeches of 5-7 minutes, the green will go up at 5 minutes, the yellow goes up at 6 minutes, and the red goes up at 7 minutes." Established eye contact with the speaker when you are showing the card Hold the card up until the next card. Hold the card high enough for the speaker to see Clap once to signal the speaker and the emcee at that time.
When you’re delivering your report, you can still be lively and try to make it funny. And remember, the total of 4 minutes you have on stage is still the time for you to improve some aspect of your speech delivery.
Grammarian
Preparation work: Two days before the meeting, confirm the Word of the day, and how to use it in a sentence, and send it to the SAA to print on the agenda. It should be an interesting word that we see other people use, but hardly use it ourselves. Better to relate it to the theme of the meeting
Introduce your role: Grammar and the right use of words is very important in the delivery of a speech. You will pay attention to grammar mistakes and report them at the end of the meeting Introduce the word of the day.
Listen for the poor usage of grammar. And more difficult, but just as important, the good or interesting usage of the language.
When you’re delivering your report, you can still be lively and try to make it funny. And remember, the total of 4 minutes you have on stage is still the time for you to improve some aspect of your speech delivery.
Ah Counter Introduce your role: Say that you are going to listen to unnecessary words or sounds that disturb the audience attention. Those words or sounds are: "Ah", "Hmmm", "Huh", "So", "You know". When you’re delivering the report, do not go through all the details, but sum up by range and category, perhaps. (For Table Topics, less than 5 ah’s, between 5 and 10, over 10. For Prepared Speakers. For evaluators…)
When you’re delivering your report, you can still be lively and try to make it funny. And remember, the total of 4 minutes you have on stage is still the time for you to improve some aspect of your speech delivery.
Greeter Before the meeting: Get the guest registration list from the Guest Administrator. Come to the meeting early to greet the guests. Make them feel warm welcome. If there are first-time guests who came without registering, help them sign up, and put them on your ‘introduction list’.
Remember that the greeting session is only 5 minutes, so make sure you control the time. In less than 90 seconds, introduce to the guests about Toastmasters and CHIC. - Toastmasters is a non-profit organization that helps improving their public speaking and leadership skills - CHIC is a themed club, focusing on Creativity, Humor and Imagination. We hope guests and members can improve in these three areas through our meetings and activities. - Tell how you personally benefited in your professional life from toastmaster
From your guest list, call up the first-time guests one by one to stand up. If there are more than 6 first-time guests, just acknowledge their names, and don’t ask for self-introduction. After you’ve gone through the names, then ask the members to give them a hand. Also announce if there are first-time guests who arrived after the meeting, then we will get to know them during the break. If there are 6 or fewer guests, ask them to do a 30-seconds self-introduction. But let them know that they will be timed, and you will kindly remind them when they go overtime—look for the timer’s red card. They can start with their name, their job and why they came to visit.
IMPORTANT: It is your responsibility to politely to help wrap up the self-introduction in a warm and kind manner! The audience will not clap out the speaker, until after you help the guest end the intro.
After the meeting: Shake hands with all the guests one-by-one and thank them for coming. Do it before they scramble out of the meeting. Then, once you're home, email all the guests to thank them for coming.
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