President's Tip of the Week

Club Standards - Your Opportunity for Leadership
(5/19/08)

Toastmasters International (TI) has researched the ingredients that make the difference between a good club and a great club, and they have identified 10 key factors. I am going to share these with you in a series of Tips of the Week, with a particular focus on how every member contributes to Gilbert Toastmasters success.

Standard 7: All members are trained in effective evaluation.

I will be doing a series of tips on effective evaluation in a few weeks, but until then, here is the basic list of what should be included in evaluations:

In a nutshell, that's all that is necessary in an evaluation, but make sure there is a balance. We don't want a whitewash, where only good things are mentioned. This offers the speaker no useful information on how to improve, and after all, that is why we come to Toastmasters. In the same vein, we don't need a critique where only the mistakes are talked about. This offers the speaker no encouragement to continue working on their speaking skills. Both types of feedback are necessary for an effective evaluation.

Sometimes you'll hear this form of evaluation called "the sandwich" or "the oreo cookie" approach. The positive comments form the bread of the sandwich, while the specific suggestions are the meat and other yummies on the inside of the sandwich that make it worth eating. Stacked this way, your evaluation sandwich looks like this:

[-------positive comments--------]
  ~~~~specific suggestions~~~~
 ~~~~~for improvement~~~~~~
[-------positive comments--------]

Ummm, yummy!