President's Tip of the Week

President's Tip of the Week

Increasing the Effectiveness of Your Opening and Closing (9/9/08)
Focusing Your Speech (9/2/08)
Slow Down to Speak More Effectively (8/26/08)
Writing and Preparing Your Speech (8/18/08)
How to Write a Great Speech (8/12/08)
Humorous Speaking Technique: The Callback (8/5/08)
How to End Your Speech with a BANG! (7/28/08)
Why YOU Should Participate in Toastmaster Speech Contests (7/23/08)
Stretch Your Comfort Zone (7/15/08 - by Emi)
Are Your Toastmasters Dues Tax Deductible? (7/7/08)
Effective Evaluations (Series)
>    The Basics of Evaluation (6/4/08)
>    Learning How to Evaluate (6/18/08)
>    Three Tips to Keep Your Evaluation on Track (6/24/08)
>    Inspired by Wayne O - Your Evaluation Sheets (7/1/08)
Club Standards - Your Opportunity for Leadership (Series)
>    Standard 1: Meetings are showcase events (4/3/08)
>    Standard 2: Club officers are effective (4/10/08)
>    Standard 3: Membership recruitment is ongoing (4/15/08)
>    Standards 4 and 5: Member inductions & Mentoring (4/21/08)
>    Standard 6: Members are working toward CC, CL, etc. (4/28/08)
>    Standard 7: All members are trained in effective evaluation (5/5/08)
>    Standard 8: Members are recognized for their accomplishments (5/12/08)
>    Standard 9: Everyone is working to help the Club become a Distinguished Club (5/19/08)
>    Standard 10: Administrative work is handled promptly and efficiently (5/27/08)
Gilbert Toastmasters Mentor Program (3/26/08)
The Distinguished Club Program (3/18/08)
The Ah Counter (3/10/08)
Evaluating Someone with More Experience (3/3/08)
How to Use the Competent Leader Manual (2/20/08) Click here for CL Tracking Sheet
Turn Your Real-Life Speaking Engagements into Credit Toward Your Toastmaster Award (2/14/08)
Playing it by the Book (2/7/08)
How to Make a Great Speech Even Greater - Write a Fabulous Introduction (1/31/08)
Four Things a Speaker Needs to Do Before the Sergeant-at-Arms Pounds the Gavel (1/17/08)
On the Spot Speakers (1/14/08)

The absolute best way to learn how to give a good evaluation is to study good evaluators. Here are some things that I did when I was trying to figure out how to become a better evaluator.

1) Listen to every speech as if you were going to give the oral evaluation. Get yourself a cheap composition notebook to work in. When you arrive at a meeting write each of the speech objectives from the agenda into your notebook. Leave yourself space to make notes. Add a section for suggestions you would offer. During the speech, write out what you observed on each of the objectives. Then, during the oral evaluation, compare your notes to what the evaluator says. What did you miss? This provides you with feedback on things you need to observe more carefully. Did you catch something the evaluator missed? Good for you!

2) Observe the structure used by good evaluators. Did the evaluator follow the basic outline I provided in the last tip? If not, was the deviation from that structure effective? Why or why not? As a reminder, here is the 5 part structure:

Opening - brief reaction
Objectives - positive
Objectives - suggestions for improvement
Positives outside the objectives
Summary - always positive

3) Discuss your evaluation notes with your mentor. The best time to do it is immediately after the meeting. Make arrangements before the night of the meeting to go out for coffee with your mentor after the meeting.

4) If you are not a new member, but still want to buff up your skills, ask someone to mentor you in this area. Mentoring an "advanced member" can count for CL credit, just as mentoring a new member does. Pick out someone who is a good evaluator and who attends meetings regularly.