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Just Do It---Again

by Fred Coutts, President, CTM

Fellow Toastmasters. I am writing to you with an ever-widening smile; our club is on a roll! Under Ray Roman's reign as President, we achieved status as a President's Distinguished Club (PDC),  the top award any Toastmaster Club can receive. Only a few clubs ever achieve this distinction. I applaud you all!     

 Let's not sit on our laurels though,  let's do it again!     

The criteria for becoming a PDC are listed below in the article by Ray Roman.  Achieving 9 of the 10 criteria gets us the President's Distinguished Club award. Now you may be thinking, "That's nice, but how does it help me?" Well, that's a good question, and fortunately I have your answer.

The first six criteria require your completing Toastmaster educational programs. Fellow Toastmasters, you are all here to achieve your personal speaking, writing, thinking, and leadership goals. The tried-and-true method is following the laid-out educational programs. There are no shortcuts. The PDC criteria are the Toastmaster's highway to bring you quickly to your personal goals.

We now have a new leadership team (our club officers) and like our prior teams, we are committed to ensuring that you receive the most Toastmasters has to offer. As Toastmasters, we are all here to capitalize on each other's strengths and to support each other in overcoming our weaknesses. If you follow the educational program, you cannot fail;  it's impossible.

We have a wonderfully diverse, friendly and supportive membership, and I have no doubt that one year from now you will have achieved your goals. As a bonus the President's Distinguished Club distinction will once again be yours.   I applaud you all!

An Evening to Remember

On July 7, we held the first ever Notable Northgaters Potluck Supper at the home of Fred and Louisa Coutts.  A  wonderful time was had by all. 

My sister was in town this weekend and was telling the friend she thought what a warm, inclusive and "happening" group my Toastmasters club is. The party was a blast for both of us. The food was great, and the Coutts' were so gracious to host us. My sister was initially embarrassed that she was so competitive during the games—but it made me realize that I come by it honorably—or something like that! I tell all of you that couldn't attend—don't miss the next one. This was one of the best parties I have EVER attended!                ☼☼☼  Michelle Rupp

We really had a great time, and Junko especially enjoyed meeting many of the people she had heard about and seen on videotape before. I found it a delight to spend time talking freely with Club members outside of the constraints of our meetings. The game of Cranium we played was unforgettable too! Thanks to Fred and Louisa for hosting and to all who organized this event. When is the next one?   ☼☼☼ Ray Roman

Here’s to many more TM parties! Great conversation, drinks and food—speaking of food, I’d love to have the recipe for the corn salad. Now when I discuss TM at home, my husband can put a face with a name. Thanks to Fred and Louisa for hosting and to Michelle for putting it together.                                                     ☼☼☼ Julie Wicklund

 There are always the few that stay late. And this is when the party gets interesting. After everyone else left, Madeleine and Jerry, Deb and Garth, Eric B and Bob all retired to the living room with Fred and Louisa. We talked about possible themes for future meetings and were treated to an impromptu demonstration by Fred on how to answer a table topics question while pretending to be afflicted with indigestion. Bob did the same with the hiccups.  It was hilarious. Then Louisa played the piano beautifully. It made me wish we had begun this part of the evening earlier, but there is just something magic that happens late in the evening that has to come in its own time.   ☼☼☼ Deborah Ferber

SUCCESS BY THE NUMBERS

by Ray Roman, Past President, CTM

In the year 2000-2001, our Club enjoyed great success: we achieved President's Distinguished status in the 10-point Distinguished Club Program (DCP) and grew from 23 members to 34. To put this in perspective, as of June 30th, the average size of the 19 Clubs in our own Division B was 18.3 members, and the two second-largest Clubs each had 27 members. So our success in recruiting and retaining members has been extraordinary. Some might respond, "If you work the Program, the Program will work for you." But my experience in leading Notable Northgaters last year and visiting other Clubs has taught me that Club success is not merely a matter of DCP points. This article reviews our DCP performance and examines other factors that contribute to a healthy club that folks want to join and stay in.

IMPORTANT NUMBERS FOR A CLUB : The DCP

The DCP helps the Club achieve its mission of  providing a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills in two ways:  encouraging Clubs to provide enough speaking and feedback opportunities for members and maintaining  membership sufficient to conduct the program. Specifically, the DCP focuses on two key areas:

• Educational awards:  Competent Toastmaster (CTM), Advanced Toastmaster Bronze (ATM-B), Advanced Toastmaster Silver (ATM-S), Advanced Toastmaster Gold (ATM-G), Competent Leader (CL), Advanced Leader (AL) and Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM).

• Membership. At least 20 members are needed for a Club to duly carry out its educational program, according to Toastmasters International (TI). A Club needs to continually recruit new members to combat natural turnover, build its leadership base and bring in new ideas and personalities.

The DCP consists of 10 goals a Club should strive to achieve from July 1 through June 30, using the Club Success Plan. Six of the goals pertain to educational awards, 2 to membership, one to officer training, and one to submission of reports to TI. These are the 10 goals:     

1.  Two CTMs

 2.  Two more CTMs         

 3. One ATM-B, ATM-S, or ATM-G

4.  One more ATM-B, ATM-S or ATM-G

5.  One CL, AL or DTM

6.  One more CL, AL or DTM

7.  Four new members

8.  Four more new members

9.  Minimum of four Club officers trained during each of two training periods

10.  One semiannual membership report and one Club officer list submitted on time.

In addition, there is a membership requirement. At year-end (June 30) we must have at least 20 members or a net growth of at least five new members. (Because our Club started the year 2000-2001 with 23, we needed to maintain 20 or more to be eligible.)

A Club which achieves 5 of these goals becomes a Distinguished Club, a club which achieves 7 of the goals becomes a Select Distinguished Club, and a club which achieves 9 of the goals becomes a Select Distinguished Club.   Notable Northgaters achieved President's Distinguished status in 2000-2001 by achieving all but Goal No. 2 above, and in the process grew from 23 members to 34 members -- a 48% growth for the year.

And yet, the numbers cannot tell the whole story. For example, it is possible to achieve all 10 goals of the DCP and still have a small Club that struggles to fill roles every  week.  Similarly, it is possible to hit all of the 10 goals and yet have disorganized meetings -- a factor the DCP cannot measure. Thus, completing the DCP alone is not sufficient to make a truly strong Club.

 In short, although the DCP is an important tool for Club organization and focus, many factors that do not fall within it also contribute to the making of a stellar Club -- the kind that people want to join and stay in. Paying attention to all of the things our Club does right will assure our future stability.

Welcome Aboard

Carol Johnson, Secretary

The District 2 Officers Training held on July 14, 2001 at North Seattle Community College was an intense morning, crammed with helpful sessions. One of the highlights was the session on Effective Evaluation by Walter Carlisle which Carol Johnson and I attended.  His handout from the session is re-printed below.

The purpose of an evaluation, says Walter,  is to support the speaker. The challenge for the evaluator is to be engaged, but to take a half step back to focus on the speaker's organization and delivery. Some techniques for doing so are listed in the hand-out. As Walter pointed out, it a good idea to warn the speaker if you plan to use some of these techniques, such as the listening-with-your-eyes-closed technique.

What should you evaluate?

Focus on PCOD--purpose, content, organization, delivery--says Walter, a master of the acronym.

How should you evaluate?

Send out an SOS--be Supportive, Own the point of view, and be Specific. Walter had a very helpful metaphor to illustrate how to be supportive. Think of the speaker as climbing a staircase. Being supportive means acknowledging the speaker at whatever step he or she is on right now. What are his strengths, the base of his skill as a speaker? Then give ways to get to the next step, trying to minimize the distance to that step.  This approach, by the way,  works just as well for the general evaluator--who is evaluating the speech evaluators--as it works for the speech evaluators themselves.

What should you not do?

        Walter closed with some pet peeves, based upon his observation of a great many evaluations. 

• Don’t waste limited time in an evaluation; talk about the speech, not about yourself.

• Don't argue with the content of the speech,  no matter how tempting it is to do so. Evaluate the delivery and organization.

• Don’t quibble with factual content in a speech.

• Don’t just reiterate or summarize the speech. Evaluate it.

Evaluations - The most important slice of a great Club Sandwich

• Close your eyes and just listen to a whole speech

• Plug your ears and just watch a whole speech

• Watch a speech and write down what you think and feel- real time and no censorship

PCOD

   Purpose - Why is the speaker giving this speech?  What is their intent?

    Content - The information, story, the words

    Organization - Opening, Body, Close.  Single thread of thought?

    Delivery - Body language, vocal variety, movement, eye contact

SOS

Supportive

        Idea is to Encourage--Give Courage

        Sandwich approach:

                Establish trusted connection

                Support speaker's current achievements

                Suggest ways to get to the next level

                Re-support speaker in summary

Own point of view

        You can only share what you feel and think:

                I think, I feel - not- We think, We feel

Specific

        So the speaker knows exactly what you are talking about

        So YOU know exactly what you are talking about

        If possible- DEMONSTRATE the point       

                Multi-Modal Reinforcement

Adapted from hand-out distributed at District 2's Toastmaster Leadership Institute for Club Officers and Interested Toastmasters on July 14 and August 4, 2001.  Published by permission of Walter Carlisle of District 2.

Meeting Awards & Reports

Great job, everyone!  Keep up the good work!

NEWSLETTER STAFF

Publisher:  Fred Coutts, President, CTM

Editor: Madeleine Kolb, VP-PR, CTM