One of the first few things that I did on moving to New Jersey was to search for a Toastmasters club. My search ended on locating the Woodbridge club. My previous club the Chennai Covansys Toastmasters Club is a corporate club, while the Woodbridge club is a community club.
Some of the striking similarities between the two clubs were those related to human nature. The last minute cancellations, whether it was the speaking slots, roles during a regular meetings and specially the abrupt substitutions filling in the gaps. The attendance was similar with the average being 15-16 members.
The flow of the meeting is pretty similar and Toastmasters International (TMI) does have a strong process in place. But it was the subtle differences that I want to highlight.
First and foremost, the meeting starts with a pledge to the American flag, now the CCTM meeting used to start with the Sgt-at-arms warning the participants not to talk about the taboo topics, sex, religion and violence. No such taboo list exists here. I am not sure if the taboo list was from the TMI or the code of conduct of the organisation (Covansys).
Secondly, there is a five minute gap after the prepared speeches. This time is used to provide feedback to the speakers in the form of written slips. This is one practice which I feel is necessary as medically the attention span of an individual lapses after 45 minutes and he would need a break after that to scientifically take an active part in the proceedings.
Thirdly there is position for the master evaluator, who gives his suggestions and comments to the evaluators for the prepared speeches. In CCTM this role was played by the general evaluator but he never played any part in the evaluation of the prepared speeches.
Finally there is no voting at every meeting. Voting is done only on days of contest when the ribbons are awarded. As a consequence the ribbons are not awarded at every meeting but only on special occasions.
These subtleties have brought an interesting change to my progress as a Toastmaster. As i start preparing for my second project from the advanced manual, I feel I have come a long way from Chennai to New Jersey, from CCTM to Woodbridge Toastmasters.
nice post vikram.
ReplyDeletesubtle differences across clubs is wot makes them stand apart maybe :)
hav a gr8 time at woodbridge toastmasters
Hi Vikram,
ReplyDeleteI liked the comparison and article you write, but here's my view on it.
Well, just to mention what I have seen here in South California the two clubs I visited.
One was corporate club and another was community club.
Regarding your point about "American Anthem" just before starting a club meeting, was similar to what I saw here in Community club, but nothing like this was part of corporate club. But I did see both the club's here mention about the Toastmaster pledge, which talks about not talking about any taboo topic's like sex and discrimination. This was mention by a Toastmaster of the day for the meeting or Sergeant at arms.
Regarding second point: Yes, even here in both the clubs I saw the Positive and negative points missed by Prepared speech evaluator are either mention by General evaluator or Toastmaster of the day.
Now, third point, in the corporate club I visited in Kaiser had really low attendance and same trend like any other club cancellation of speeches. Hence when we do not have speeches we do not have ribbons. But I guess that depend totally on club about distributing ribbons. In the other community club I saw was, we had Best Speech and Best table topic both ribbon's. But in case there is only one speech no ribbon was awarded.
so I will say, It differs from club to club. One good thing which I saw in community club, which I like, They had video tape there member speech and give them the tape end of club meeting, so they can look and improve on their speeches
Hi Kriti
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. Yes I feel the subtle differences are a part of human nature, I guess that rubs off on various clubs.
I escecially liked the club where they video tape the proceedings. This is a good idea and cost permitting should be taken up in other clubs at well.