[Toastmasters] General Evaluator's Report

[Jerry McMillan]

Hi All,

I had to leave yesterday's meeting before I could give my General Evaluator's report, and there were a few things I wanted to mention about the meeting.

My major concern was the time. Personally, I'm limited to a one-hour lunch, so it's important to me that our meetings stay within their designated 12:00 to 1:00 time frame. Yesterday we started on time but, when I left at 1:00, there were still several minutes of meeting left. So, how could we have stayed on time? (Disclaimer: I'm going to be calling out several meeting roles, and we know who filled those roles yesterday. However, these are general problems, and should be taken as examples of how we all can improve, not as picking on a few specific people)

1. It is the Toastmaster's responsibility to keep the meeting on time. Most of us print agendas with a rough time schedule, and it's important to know where we can afford some slack. Yesterday, time was allowed for an additional Table Topics question several minutes after the allotted time had passed. Also, if we're running late, the Toastmaster can urge brevity in the other meeting participants and limit their own comments on the meeting.

2. I've noticed a recent trend in our inspirations: instead of a short quote or brief inspiring story, we have had what have turned out to be extra 5-7 minute speeches. In my opinion, the inspiration should be something short that is inspirational, poignant and/or funny that gets us thinking and sets the stage for the longer speeches to come. Part of the reason many inspirations have been longer seems to be that we take the role of inspirer lightly and may not prepare as carefully as we might for more formal speeches, leading to more verbal wandering and less focus (something of which this sentence is an excellent example). On the other hand, I love the fact that so many of us have started using personal stories for the inspiration.

3. The timer needs to stay focused on the meeting. There's so much going on that it's easy to get distracted and lose track of our role, which can let speakers go over time without realizing it (I'm frequently guilty of this one).

4. Speakers need to pay more attention to the timing lights. Yesterday, both evaluators were significantly over time. The timing rules give us an excellent opportunity to learn how to focus our speaking--to say only what is most important within a limited time--and it's important that we all take advantage of this opportunity. If we have more to say when the red light goes on, we need to be more willing to allow ourselves to quit, even if it's not as graceful as we might wish or we haven't reached our most brilliant point yet.

5. All of the people giving reports at the end of the meeting (timer, grammarian, general evaluator, etc.) should be aware of the time and be willing to shorten or omit their report if the meeting is over time.

Of course, there was far more about the meeting that was good. Gloria has become much more comfortable in the Toastmaster's role, Emily told a great story quite well, Tom taught us how to use a table as a surfboard, and both evaluators gave the speakers (and the rest of us) a number of things to think about. This was an excellent meeting, and I look forward to our next one.

See you next week,
Jerry
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