How to write a great speech

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
Ernest Hemingway

Writing a great speech is just as difficult as writing a poor one.

You’ve got to ask yourself: Why this speech and why this audience? If you do this one thing, people will at least listen. And they’ll listen because they sense that you’re talking about them to them.

I don’t care how wonderfully crafted your speech is because if it doesn’t relate to me in some meaningful way I’ll tune out and all that work will be lost.

All great speeches have great beginnings and great endings. It’s what’s in the middle that’s the challenge.

All great writing is rewriting. Go through your speech with a big fat red pen and stroke out every unnecessary word. Kill all your pet phrases. Blot out all cliches. Use Anglo-Saxon verbs. Don’t use complicated and passive verb forms.

Read your speech out loud. Your ear will tell you more about what’s wrong (and right) with your speech than your eyes will. Your eyes will lie to you. Your brain won’t see the errors. When you read your speech out loud, you’ll stand a much better chance at hearing where it goes off the rails.

Great speeches are simple. The speak to the heart and not the head. They take risks. They compel people to listen to them. They scream out “hear me.”

Don’t write small speeches. Your speech about your day at the beech or your pet dog can be a “big” speech if you put your heart into it.

Now get writing.

 

Technorati Tags: First Oakville Toastmasters,Toastmasters International,Ernest Hemingway,Peter West

How to organize a meeting

A question came up last night about how does a meeting get set up? It doesn’t just happen. Here’s what typically takes place:

1. The VP of Education sets and publishes the schedule weeks in advance. (This means if you know you can’t fulfill your role then talk with the VP of Ed right away and see if someone else is willing to do it. If you wait until a few days before the meeting, then it’s your responsibility to find a replacement.)
2. By the way, in my opinion firing off an email saying you’re looking for someone to take your role doesn’t end your responsibility. If the email works, great. If it doesn’t then please get on the telephone and call those Toastmasters who don’t have roles to see if they’ll help you out. Just walking away from your responsibility says a lot about who you are and how you keep your word* **.
3. The designated chair then calls everyone on the agenda to confirm their roles. (The exceptions are the speakers who are called by the Toastmaster and the evaluators who are called by the General Evaluator.)
4. Once the chair hears from the Toastmaster about who are the confirmed speakers and from the General Evaluator who reports on who is evaluating whom, then the agenda is written.
5. Any changes after this point adversely affect the meeting.
6. This is the same thing that will happens in the workplace. The ability to show up and perform your function after you’ve committed to do so, is one of the teachings of Toastmasters.
7. * As a coach, I offer to you this thought: How you are in one thing is how you are in all things. If you’re not showing up when you scheduled to do so at Toastmasters, where else are you not showing up……Hummm!!!
8. ** When it comes to keeping our promises I try and live by the principles offered by Don Miguel Ruiz in this book The Four Agreements. This is hard to do.

After letting this post sit for awhile I come back to it with the thought that it could be perceived as too harsh (which is one of my failings). If the reader finds it too harsh, I apologize.

Technorati Tags: The Four Agreements,Don Miguel Ruiz,First Oakville Toastmasters,Toastmasters International,Peter West

Three great speeches

At First Oakville’s regular Thursday Night meeting we heard three relatively new speakers give really excellent speeches. Now every speech needed some work but that’s the reason why we do evaluations.

I know whenever I give a speech the evaluations I get are really helpful. There’s lots I don’t catch when I’m writing and practicing my speeches. Now I’m lucky to be married to a very successful and accomplished Toastmaster so I have the benefit of getting an early evaluation.

But everyone can do this. One of the Toastmasters I mentor called me prior to giving their speech and read it to me. I offered some comments and they made some changes that I think really worked.

Sharing our speech with someone we trust to give us an honest and uplifting evaluation is critical to developing great speaking skills. And I know it works. I’ve seen people come into Toastmasters who could barely put a sentence together because they were so nervous and two years later they’re competing in speech contests! Fabulous!

Unless you’re living on top of a mountain, there’s a Toastmaster International club near you. Everyone is invited to attend their first meeting (at our club it’s your first three meetings) as a guest.

How to win at Parliamentary Procedure

Newcomers to Toastmasters are often very frustrated by not knowing how to make Parliamentary Procedure work for them. Parliamentary Procedure is used to express the will of the majority of the members while protecting the rights of the minority to be heard.

Here’s a quick summary of how to use Parliamentary Procedure to get your motion passed:

1. If you don’t know what to do – ask. You do this by rising and addressing the chair by saying “I rise to a parliamentary inquiry.” You can do this at anytime and interrupt any speaker. This inquiry requires no seconder and there’s no debate or vote taken. You ask your question (Where are we?) and you get an opinion from the chair. (*The chair makes no rulings but only offers opinions which is why the decision of the chair can be challenged.)
2. When you want to make a motion during the new business session you must first be recognized by the chair. Then you can rise and say: “I move that…..” The motion must be concise and clear and not contain any arguments (which you’ll be allowed to give once the motion is seconded). Your motion must be seconded (and you can set this up with someone to do prior to the meeting) and then you’ll be asked to speak to the motion as will other members.
3. Sooner or later the chair will ask if the assembly is ready to vote or members may shout “call the question” which means they’ve heard enough and they’re ready to vote. To pass your motion needs a simple majority.
4. Now if you want your motion to pass, I suggest way before you bring it to the meeting that you politic it. Go convince those members who you think will oppose it to support your motion when it comes up. If it’s a well-thought out and helpful motion, members will listen to you, consider your arguments and your motion will pass. If it’s not a motion that most of the club supports it will fail.
5. If your motion offends the purposes for which the club meets or otherwise is considered inappropriate (and canvassing the members before hand would have supplied you with this information), someone will rise before you are allowed to make your arguments and “Object to Consideration.”  This motion takes precedent over yours and needs no seconder and gets no debate but goes right to a vote which needs 2/3 of the membership support to pass. If the Objection succeeds your motion is lost and cannot be reintroduced.
6. If your motion goes over to the next meeting because time runs out you may find a member will rise at the next meeting (and if recognized first by the chair) will move “To table the main motion” or “take from the table the motion before us.” This motion requires a seconder but does not get debated and needs only a simple majority to pass. If it passes, it means the majority of the members don’t want to debate your motion and it will languish on the table or be taken from the table and you lose.
7. Here’s a Parliamentary trick. If I see a motion is going to pass which I strongly object to, I will vote for the motion so it passes! This will allow me to move at a later date that we “Reconsider the vote on the motion.” Only members who voted for the motion can raise the issue of reconsidering. You don’t need to be recognized by the chair to make this motion but you do need a seconder and there will be a debate. The vote is by simple majority.
8. Any member may offer an amendment to your main motion. Any main motion maybe amended twice only. The amendment must not change the main motion in any substantive way but may indicate a change of time or venue but not it’s meaning.
9. Amendments are seconded, debated and voted upon prior to moving to your main motion which now maybe modified by the amendment(s).
10. If something’s happening (or not happening) which offends Parliamentary Procedure you may rise at any time (do wait for the chair to recognize you) and say: “I rise to a point of order.” Offences can include members not rising when speaking, other members talking out of turn or a breach of process.
11. In our club you’re likely to run out of time before the process finishes. Don’t worry, so long as the motion remains on the table, it gets carried over to the next meeting.
12. One way to avoid running out of time is to move “To Suspend The Rules”. You must be first recognized by the chair and this motion needs a seconder but isn’t debateable and requires a 2/3 vote in favour to pass. If you do suspend the rules, you can spend all night, if you wish, debating your motion.
13. * If the chair rules against you, you may challenge the decision of the chair because the decision is an opinion and not a ruling. You may rise without being recognized by the chair and sayi: “I appeal from the decision of the chair.” You must have a seconder but there is no debate or amendments allowed and a simple majority rules.
14. Remember Parliamentary Procedure is a blood sport! Once you practice it for awhile you will be able to express your opinion (and likely get your way) at any government or governmental agency meeting, any meeting of a charity or non-profit organization, any school board or library board meeting or at any annual meeting of a public company.
15. Don’t allow yourself to get frustrated or angry. Get even by learning Parliamentary Procedure! You’ll be doing yourself and your club a big favour.

Technorati Tags: Toastmasters International,First Oakville Toastmasters,Parliamentary Procedure,Peter West

Welcome

Welcome to The Toastmaster.

It’s my intention to post everything I know and love about the Toastmaster International educational program. I’m doing this for the benefit of potential and new members to our program. Also, I will be offering comments and reflections on the world of public speaking which I trust will be of interest to all.

The Toastmaster program is one of the finest examples of adult education that I’ve ever experienced. It is in weekly meetings held in communities around the world that so many of us learned to overcome our fears about public speaking.

But the Toastmaster program offers so much more than just learning how to speak. Here from the Toastmaster International Site is the organization’s mission, vision and vision statements.

Here’s a link to  the Mission, Vision and Values page.

Notice in Mission section, Toastmasters says it helps men and women learn the arts of speaking, listening and thinking. It goes on to talk about leadership, understanding and self-actualization.

Too often, in my opinion, we forget that the speaking part of the program is one of three objectives.

Notice too in the Vision part, Toastmasters calls upon us to find the courage to change. This change first happens within us and then we are able to offer something to the world we live in.

Great words to aspire to live by.

 

Technorati Tags: First Oakville Toastmasters,Toastmasters International,Peter West