Tundra Talkers Fairbanks, Alaska

7/2/20

 

Facebook saves the day!

 

Steve and I have been having trouble finding a member from an Alaskan club to respond to our emails.  So I started searching for clubs in Alaska on Facebook and Tundra Talkers popped up.  A link to their website on Facebook showed their Zoom link was posted.  I love that it was so easy to get to their club!  Tundra Talkers has 20 members and is Select Distinguished; however, from my visit, this club has it all!  

The meeting flowed well with nice transitions. It was professional yet filled with laughter.  The members are open and engaging.  This club felt like home.  Even before the meeting they greeted us, engaged us in conversation, and made us feel very special. They even asked that we put our club link on chat so that they could visit our club. 

 

Tundra Talkers has 20 members but attendance usually drops off in the summer. There were 10 in attendance at the meeting.  They asked if we would be willing to fill a role and of course we excitedly agreed.  Steve filled the role of grammarian and I served in my all-time favorite role, the Table Topics Master.

 

One role I have not seen in any club is an Education Minute for Pathways.  I think this is a great way to help members adapt to our new educational program.  This might be something my club may start doing.  One other role I enjoyed was the Quizard.  Which is basically asking questions at the end to see how well people were listening to the meeting.  Steve and I were even mentioned in one of the questions, “Where are our guests, Cynthia and Steve from?”  and everyone got that answer right!

 

I can’t say enough good things about this club.  If you are looking for a great club to visit, this is one I would recommend.  Two more members and they will be President’s Distinguished.  Maybe there are two people out there looking for a phenomenal club???

Last Chance Toastmasters Helena, Montana

7/2/20

 

Steve and I visiting these 50 states has been an eye-opening experience in the area of how accessible clubs are to the average person.  Steve has been trying for weeks to get someone from Montana to respond to his emails to visit two other clubs.  No response.  Their Zoom link is not on their website.  What do we do?  In desperation, Steve put out a message on the International Toastmasters Facebook page and received a response from Kent.  Last Chance Toastmasters would love to have us visit their club.  I wonder what a non-Toastmaster would do if he/she wanted to visit a club in Montana?  Would they even know about the Facebook page?  I just don’t think we as Toastmasters are making it easy for people to visit our clubs. 

 

I guess I need to thank Kent for us finding this fantastic jewel.  It was well worth the effort.  The members made us feel like guests of honor.  Each role holder mentioned us in some way.  For example, “Thank you Mr. Toastmaster and Cynthia and Steve from Kentucky”.  Over and over we felt acknowledged and wanted.

 

This club meeting knocked it out of the park!  The meeting was friendly and organized. Each part flowed seamlessly from one part to the other.  They embraced the Word of the Day with ease.  They decided to unmute during the speeches so the speakers could hear the applause. I understand.  This is one of the disadvantages of Zoom.  A disconnect sometimes happens between speaker and audience when you can’t hear the laughter, sounds, and applause from the audience members. 

 

At the beginning of the meeting they had an installation ceremony and I appreciate that they streamlined it.  A copy of the officer handbook was sent to each officer ahead of time and they dispensed with all the reading.  I really liked this officer installation. 

 

The speaker’s topic, “Beef, It’s what’s for Dinner”, seemed like it would be boring.  Through Toastmasters, Steve and I have judged many 4-H speech contests whose subject revolve around topics such as this.  These topics are not the most interesting in the world to me, however, I forgot It’s not the topic but the speaker who can make the subject come alive.  And Tolly did just that!  Her speaking style drew me in, she was humorous and told great stories. She even made beef so enticing I had to have steak that night for dinner.  Thanks Tolly!   Her evaluator was spot on in his comments.  He made a very insightful comment that is applicable to all using an online presence today. “Our biggest challenge is understanding this virtual environment more," he said.  From my club and all the clubs I have visited, we all can improve our understanding of our virtual environment and use it more effectively.

 

One special role that this club has that most clubs don’t is a table topics evaluator. Dave pointed out organization but mainly his comments affirmed all the table topics responses. He displayed very good listening skills.  Steve and I together answered a table topics question which was pretty fun.    

 

I enjoyed myself immensely being there.  This is a club I recommend to anyone wanting to visit or join a club.  You can’t go wrong and you will feel like a million bucks afterwards.  They sure know how to treat their guests! 

NEA Toastmasters Jonesboro, Arkansas

6/30/20

 

We’re having a summer party!!

 

Or that’s how it felt coming into this club.  We arrived online and there were already members dressed in summer attire.  Their backgrounds were beaches and water scenes.  They had leis around their necks, and were decked out in  Hawaiian shirts and big beach hats.  They told us is it was a special meeting.  A summer themed meeting.  Steve and I quickly stopped our video and ran to get our own leis and beach type props.  WE ARE  GOING TO A PARTY! We needed to fit in with this summer crowd.  By then, many more members had logged on and they were laughing, smiling and, well... having a party!  Each person was greeted by name as they arrived. This was the most festive group I have been to yet online.

 

NEA has 20 members and is President's Distinguished and from their enthusiasm I can see why.  They are a fairly new club, chartering in 2014 but they have made a big splash, jumping into the Pathways Educational program with both feet. They have 28 awards on record.  Wow!  Now that’s impressive.  So as fun as today’s meeting is, they take their learning seriously.

 

They said this was their very first themed meeting online but have decided to have themed meetings every 4^th Tuesday of the month for the rest of the year.  Lacey (incoming Area Director) and George were two we had met before at Blue Nile Toastmasters.  In my opinion, this first themed meeting was a success.

 

Due to this being a special meeting, they did away with any reports at the end.  No grammarian, no Ah counter, no timer, no evaluations and no general evaluator for this meeting.  Only speeches and table topics.  Everyone seemed to have a great time trying to work in the Word of the Day, "coconut." There were four summer-themed speeches 3-5 minutes and four Table Topics questions along the same line.  Two of the speeches were regular speeches, one reveled in the joys of summer and the other the travails.  The other two speeches were different.  One was a dual poem recitation with another member and the other speech, a member recited an original free verse on why he hates summer.  I like poetry so I found it very enjoyable.

 

I really enjoyed being at the meeting.  If there was any low spot or lull,  I might say during Table Topics don’t ask for volunteers. It was like the teacher in  “Ferris Bueller's Day Off” repeating, “Bueller, Bueller”. Only the Table Topics master was saying “Any volunteers? Any volunteers? Any volunteers?”  Just call on someone!  He had already said the response could be anything you want to talk about so it shouldn’t be that hard.  One of the members that volunteered was one that had already spoken.  But that’s what happens when you ask for volunteers. 

 

To keep the meeting lively and fun, during the middle of the meeting they had a mini-dance session. They played the song “Surfing USA” by the Beach Boys and we enjoyed a few minutes of dancing. This club definitely gets the award for most creative meeting.

 

All in all, it was a fun meeting!  This meeting even gives me some ideas that I may use in my club.  Thanks for the laughter and smiles NEA Toastmasters! You gave me something we could all use at this time.

Toastatarians Toastmasters Club Rochester, New York

6/29/20

 

Murphy’s law says to the effect that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  That was on full display at this meeting. I am just hoping this is a one-time occurrence and not happening with regularity.  It started off on the wrong foot for me when we logged in at 12:35 to a meeting that is touted to start at 12:45 but was told they really wouldn’t start until 1:00 since that’s when everyone gets there.  

Samir, the only person logged on at the time rationalized the late start saying “we are informal around here”.  Informal or not, you respect people’s time.  Steve and I were members of a club who did the same thing.  They kept waiting until everyone showed to start the meeting so those arriving early or on time had to wait even longer and eventually even they started arriving later and later because they wouldn’t be starting on time anyway.  My thought is if your club isn’t starting until 1:00, then advertise that is starting time. 

 

This club has 10 members and two pathway goals which tells me they need to increase in membership and need to work the educational program.  When we did start at 1:00, we were greeted cordially.  I do appreciate beforehand that Samir sent the Zoom link and then Shirley followed up with an email.  I wish all clubs took the time and attention to do this.  Once everyone started showing up they frantically realized none of the speakers were there.  One was supposed to be a guest speaker so they called her and she had the time mixed up and would be there shortly.  In the meantime, Steve did say he had a pocket speech if they needed a speaker and they quickly accepted. 

 

They had five members at their meeting. The three women did not seem very tech savvy and the men kept trying to tell them what to do.  Steve said they were “mansplaining”.  All I know is after the meeting began that the two men’s “knowledge” of tech is what caused the rest of the meeting to go awry.  Samir was the host, and he inadvertently  locked us out of renaming ourselves on our screen. So my husband and I were "Cynthia Lanham."  We couldn’t figure out the problem even after logging out and back in twice.  We finally asked Samir to rename us and he did.  We didn’t realize until later that Samir had locked us out of renaming ourselves.  Erol was the timer and wanted to share the timing screen. We found out the hard way that when he shares the timing screen no one else’s shared screen can be seen.  

Steve gave a beautiful speech about his baby birds complete with vivid photographs as he charted their growth. Who knew, no one could see the photographs? Samir, said during the speech he figured out how to see Steve’s photographs, but no one ever stopped Steve once to say they couldn’t see his pictures.  He is pretty proud of those pictures and it hurt him that they didn’t let him know so he could figure out the solution.  In an “informal” club, he should have been given the time to figure out the problem.  They did give him time before the meeting adjourned to show his pictures so I appreciated that.  The timer ended up having to hold up fingers as signals to the second speaker. From high tech to low tech in a matter of minutes.

 

I will say even though this meeting was a series of unfortunate events, the members maintained their composure.  They remained upbeat and positive and went with the flow.  Maybe that’s what they mean by “informal.”   

 

I am going to stop ranting now.  The experience is over.  The whole meeting would be sad if it weren’t so comical - like watching a Laurel and Hardy show.  I am going to hope this is a one-time thing and most meetings run smoothly. But then again, maybe these members like constant chaos.  Maybe it keeps them on their toes.   I am going to refrain from giving my thoughts or suggestions.  Maybe today is one of those days you just crawl back into bed and pull the cover over your head and wait for tomorrow.  So I leave it at that.  Visit the club or not and draw your own conclusions.

Once Upon A Time Toastmaster Club Lewisville, Texas

6/28/20

 

My husband and I are avid readers.  I admit he is the more intellectual reader. Each morning he enjoys his coffee and reads the Lexington Herald-Leader and Courier-Journal online and on Wednesdays he enjoys the weekly newspaper dropped off by an actual paperboy.  His choice of books are Pulitzer Prize winners, while my tastes in books run the gamut from Silas House to Michael Crichton. No book is out of bounds as long as I am enjoying it.  Imagine our excitement when fervent readers, such as ourselves, ran across Once Upon A Time, who described itself almost as a book club. My husband and I  jumped at the chance to see what this club was all about.

 

We were greeted enthusiastically almost like we were old friends who met previously between the well-worn pages of a favorite novel.  “Where the Crawdads Sing” was the book for this month’s discussion.  The Table Topics questions loosely revolved around the book but I was able to answer a question deftly even without ever reading the book.  Great job to the two speakers for casually working in scenes from the book as they delivered their Ice Breaker speeches.  Fifteen minutes was devoted to conversation about the book at the end of the meeting.  That discussion was so interesting and lively, I knew I would be getting a copy for that book for myself.  It sounded right up my alley.   

 

The evaluators used two different evaluation methods.  Andres, the visiting area director, used the” Roses, Thorns, Rosebuds” method. He said, for example, the first rose: the speaker had good transitions, for the second rose: the speech had good organization. The thorn would be how the speaker could improve and the Rosebud is something to challenge the speaker.  I had never heard of this method so I was thrilled to be learning something new.  The second evaluator, Sara, used the “What I heard, What I saw, What I felt” method.  I have seen this method used a few times.  Both evaluators gave some valuable insight in their evaluations. 

 

Kudos to this specialty club for combining the best of my two worlds, the love of reading and speaking(Toastmasters).  Next month the book they will be reading is “Bluebird, Bluebird" by Attica Locke.  Time to make a trek to the library or a purchase online, because my husband and I may just end up joining in for the discussion next month.

Top 5 Toastmasters Club Rapid City, South Dakota

6/29/20

 

Many people are getting restless right now in the United States with the sheltering in place due to COVID-19. Despite a rise in cases, people are wanting to get out and do.  Businesses and swim parks  are beginning to open back up. People are beginning to attend events.  Some patrons are wearing masks, some are not. Some are social distancing, some are not.  Some believe cases are on the rise, some believe they are overblown.  Some believe it’s all a political hoax.  

Much of what people believe depends on where they get their information and with whom they surround themselves.  However, all people seem to be doing what they believe is right for them depending on the information they hear.  

Top 5 Club is no different.  They are trying to determine if as a club they should start meeting in person and if they do,  what would it look like.  Steve and I were silent observers as they volleyed back and forth the pros and cons of meeting in person next week.  Is it safe to meet inside? If they do meet inside should they wear masks or social distance?  Is it safer to meet outside?  A hybrid club was even mentioned and quickly dismissed. Where could they meet if they meet in person?  Some had some strong opinions that conflicted with each other.  One member definitely was not ready to have an in-person meeting.  Another one definitely wanted to meet in person but could not wear a mask.  These conflicting opinions mirror the outside Toastmaster world confusion.  There was no agreement after the end of the debate and as a group decided to meet online next week and see how it goes.  That is what most of us are doing with our lives: wait and see. 

 

Top 5 used a platform called Webex that was unfamiliar to me.  Steve and I began playing around with it to try to  figure it out.  Some had a lot of difficulty with it.  Especially the speaker for the day.  For 20 minutes the host tried to help her get her sound to work. She finally called in on a cell phone but lost her picture.  She eventually gave up and delivered the speech with no picture except here and  there.  I'm not sure why members had technical difficulty.  The host never figured it out.  I think I still vote for Zoom so far as the best platform I have seen for Toastmasters meetings.

 

One thing I really like about this club is it seems to give chocolate enticements.  Of course, at this online meeting they were giving virtual chocolate.  Virtual chocolate for saying the Word of the Day, "argot" (which I don’t think anyone said), and virtual chocolate for best table topic answer(which was ME!).  This kind of chocolate is good for my waistline. 

 

Although the members were friendly and seemed to have "bought in" to the Toastmaster program, background research showed they had no educational awards this year.  I am not sure why.  The speaker gave an Ice Breaker in Pathways so I guess she is starting out.  What about the rest of them? They have 13 members and records show 12 new members joined this year.  Is that the reason for no educational awards?  All they all new?  Why the turnover? Only one officer went to training and the officer list was not submitted on time.  Another piece of business is that they are currently looking for a Vice President Education.  No one wanted to volunteer. Maybe they aren't as "bought in" as it seems on first glance. 

Living Truth Center Toastmasters Cleveland, Ohio

6/28/20

 

The Toastmasters educational program hadn’t been upgraded for nearly 40 years: thus the creation of Pathways, the new educational online program designed to bring Toastmasters into the 21^st century. It was created to introduce relevant topics such as like writing a blog, managing webinar, and creating a podcast.  

Most clubs have embraced this new technology.  Members sometimes struggle with the user interface, but most press on with help.  In fact, our Vice President Education meets with a great deal of our members when they hit a snafu on Pathways.  Sadly, Living Truth does not seem to have embraced Pathways that well.  This club has 12 members and 4 new members.  They have 6 legacy awards and no Pathways awards.  Are the new members being trained in Pathways?  The club president did mention that this summer maybe they could have a Pathways orientation at one of their club meetings.  This is really doing a disservice to the new members. New members have no option; the only educational system they are allowed to use is Pathways. So do the new members have to wait until this summer to speak or begin their educational path? Has the club reached out for help from the district? 

 

Their website was the bare minimum.  They had a small picture in front but nothing eye catching. No "Meet Our Members" section.  I was glad they started on time, but was surprised to hear at the end someone say “Tony would really be proud we started on time!”. Does that mean they usually don’t?  They are slated to end at 8:30 and ended at 8:45.

This is an hour-and-a-half meeting and was surprised that they had on the agenda four long speeches.  One was scheduled to be 20-30 minutes and another one for 10-15 minutes.  However, maybe this fits into the time frame perfectly.  The speeches were interesting and educational. Topics were “Giving Effective Feedback”, “Parliamentary Procedures” and “Handling Challenging Situations”. The other speaker left the meeting before it was her time to speak.   The evaluators gave really good feedback.  In Eugene’s evaluation he mentioned the speaker could have employed the facilitation technique IEEI (Inform, excite, empower, involve). I had to look it up to see what it meant)

 

One cool thing that I found out is this club recently received a trophy from the district for having all seven officers trained.  Never heard of that before, but getting a trophy certainly can be a motivator.  When we logged into the meeting 15 minutes before the meeting started, they were having an officer meeting with their Division Director.  It was interesting to me. However, for non-Toastmasters visitors, I am not sure they would be interested in seeing how the sausage is made so the officers may want to consider having this meeting in a breakout room when it gets close to meeting time or have it at a different time. 

 

As my husband and I travel to different clubs, we don’t mind participating in roles or not participating in roles.  It doesn’t matter to us, however, I really hate it when I see members taking on double and triple role duties instead of asking help from fellow toastmasters from other clubs.  At the start of the meeting, the president said they had empty roles to be filled and she was already Toastmaster of the Day and Timer but would be an evaluator if needed.  Tamara was speaker and general evaluator.  Steve and I piped in and offered to assist as needed.  She politely thanked me but said we were guests and she didn't want to make a guest do it.  

I appreciate her not burdening a guest, however, in Toastmasters I think it is perfectly acceptable since so many meetings are interchangeable in the format, plus how exciting it would be to learn a role a little differently from someone outside the club.  But they didn’t ask us to help and we were perfectly content to be silent observers.  (By the way, the timer forgot to put the timing cards up for most of the speakers, was it because she was overwhelmed having other roles also?)

 

There were some members that seemed more knowledgeable about zoom than others and that’s probably the same across the board with all toastmaster clubs. We were greeted well at the meeting and members laughed and seemed to get along well.  They seemed like a very friendly group.  Although it was a fun meeting, as with any club there are always areas for improvement.  

 

In my limited observation as a visitor, I would suggest the club do consider the following:

1. Dress up your website, make it enticing for viewers, that may be what causes people to attend or stay away.
2. Be mindful of time-start and end on time if at all possible.
3. Embrace Pathways (ask for help if needed).
4. Instead of doubling up on roles, ask for help from visiting Toastmasters. If they are like me, they will feel honored to be asked, to be able to contribute. 

 

Good luck Living Truth Center Toastmaster, may your club continue to thrive!