Speech Marathon Notes

Since the monthly speech marathon is a “work in progress,” here are a few notes on our first few meetings and how we might improve it in the future. (If you have any other ideas please pass them on to our club president.)

Video DVDs

Bill Collier) I was the camera operator, and we had 6 speakers with DVDs. Each DVD must be finalized in the camera or they cannot be played back when the member takes it home. Finalizing each DVD takes on average 5-1/2 minutes. So with 6 DVDs, the time needed to finalize after the last speaker was almost 35 minutes. There is no time to do this between speeches, so finalizing must be done after the last speaker. Tonight’s last speaker didn’t finish until almost 9PM, which meant I had to stay until 9:35, as did some of the speakers waiting for their DVDs.

Here’s the solution (and I believe it was Mark Roling who had this good idea): When we have a speech-a-thon, put all the speakers with DVDs first. (This assumes that not everyone will want his/her speech recorded.) Then as soon as the last DVD is made, the camera operator starts finalizing. With any luck, the job is done before the meeting is over.

Three more tips for speech-a-thon nights:

- Initialize as many of the blank DVDs before the first speaker as possible. Doing this between speeches is possible but you barely have time.
- The camera operator needs to know the order of the speakers. Again, things are moving quickly and having the DVDs lined up by speaker helps.
- Mark the DVDs or the cases to keep them from getting mixed up. With up to 10 DVDs in front of you, staying organized is important.

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Vote Tabulator

Have two Vote Tabulators – one to count the votes and one to gather the incoming comments.

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Toastmaster

The Toastmaster should keep his/her comments to a minimum to make sure we don’t go past our 9 pm closing time.

Note from Bill C. – The Toastmaster is the Master of Ceremonies, making him or her the “traffic cop” and the “time cop.” In addition to being responsible for running an interesting and organized meeting, there is also the responsibility for getting everything done by 9 PM. Plans have been made prior to the meeting but this is a great leadership and time management learning opportunity for the Toastmaster. Far from being an innocent bystander, the TM should be ready, willing and able to spring into action and make mid-meeting adjustments. For example, the TM probably comes prepared with opening and closing remarks. He or she also expects to allot a full 20 minutes to Table Topics. But what if there are some new member inductions, or an otherwise lengthy business meeting? What if all four speakers ask for 12 minutes each? The TM should be ready to make “on the fly” decisions such as: Omit or shorten his/her own comments, ask the Topics Master to keep Table Topics to a reduced timeframe, or ask the GE to move smartly through the evaluation portion of the meeting. Bottom line: The Toastmaster is in charge – not a casual observer. Come prepared to lead the meeting and learn from the experience.

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Speech Marathon – Once a Month

The club voted last night to start a Speech Marathon program on the last week of each month. This will help us to increase the number of speeches we can give as a club. Our V.P. of Education, Kevin, will schedule these just like any other speeches and hopefully we can get in ten speeches during those nights. Speakers will be given written evaluations and personal feedback by their evaluators at the break or after the meeting. Other than a short business meeting, no other usual meetings activities will be held.