BRADDELL HEIGHTS ADVANCED NEWSLETTER

On Facebook Paul said that table topics were designed as a fun way to practise answering questions at a job interview. I replied:   Do you have evidence for this? If so, the TMD could cite sources which would help the table topics master focus on work related subjects rather than asking people about fruit or colours or what animal they would like to be, which are amusing, maybe good for a one word ice-breaker, easy to answer and less stressful, but don't help you to search your memories for good things to say at interviews. Sometimes the silly subjects produce good answers. For example, I recall a topics master who produced pieces of fruit and asked members of the audience to pick a piece and talk about it. My initial reaction was that this was not useful to real life. However, she ran out of pieces of fruit and asked my husband who was a guest to talk about any fruit he liked. He talked about wines used to make grapes and how the sunny side of a hillside would produce different gr...

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. (You may copy for toastmasters and non-profitable organizations but please give me credit.)  I looked at a facebook page on business excellence and wrote about speec of response. This is a great group. I think the first thing a good business offers is a quality product or service. However, close behind that comes quick response and adapting to the customer. For example, if the customer is flying out or works long hours, you can offer to arrange a delivery at a time to suit the customer as an exception to the rule. But this requires having somebody to answer the request.  If you look on Facebook and other places you may see the announcement 'usually replies within the hour'. This might require a lot of staff. However, in many situations, it just requires one person to have a resolve and a system.  I told a member of Toastmasters who was autistic, depressed and suicidal, that when they didn't answer for hours and days, everybody worried ...

  Angela Lansbury You need to tell the evaluator how to send the evaluation form. And who to send it to.  Is the form to be sent to you, as VPE, to keep the speaker's details private? Then you can forward it to the speaker.  To the whole group for the benefit of everybody. This helps latecomers. Also those working and missing the meeting can still benefit from the advice?  If the ealuation must be sent to the speaker, include the speaker's contact details.  Tell the evaluator whether they have the version you can type into, or why you cannot. (To simplify, 'If it ends pdf you can't type in because that is an abbreviation which means picture.')  If the evaluator cannot type onto the form, tell them they can save, and print the saved version. The evaluator can draw pencil lines across the form. Then write neatly in captals, photograph it and email to the speaker.  Ideally discuss this with the evaluator on the phone or at a committee meeting or before th...

On Saturday Jan 16 Braddell Heights held its usual meeting on the third Saturday of the month and  Lim Tong Lee, who has achieved the title of Distinguished Toastmasters twice, gave us a valuable workshop on evaluation. Where do you write your evaluations? I used to be 'environmentally friendly' as he generously commented, by writing on the back of the meeting program sheet which had the speaker's name. However, my writing often would not fit on one page, ran up the margins, and got muddled. So I started downloading a spare copy of the evaluation form, one filled in by hand hurriedly, the other written neatly in block capitals for the person I was evaluating. Lim Tong Lee reminded us of all the challenges. When you are listening, how do you take notes without missing the next part? Lim Tong Lee says don't write full sentences. Note key words. But I can type quickly. You can type into notes on Learncool and copy and paste into another document. Read it off the screen. W...