Toastmasters clubs use Open Houses to show off to prospective members. I have them in mind right now – my home club (the Central Austin Toastmasters) had one three weeks ago, and one of the clubs in my area (the UT Sciences Toastmasters) had theirs a week ago.

Some thoughts:
1. Food is good. Planning who brings what is even better. The Open House on the 21st had a better selection of goodies than most Open Houses at my home club, thanks to the emails and “stuff to bring” sign-up lists passed around before the meeting. However, both clubs’ Open Houses had multiple people bringing a couple of items, and a lack of other items. Not coincidentally, both clubs organized the food through emails.

The moral: Have the Open House organizer get in peoples’ faces (so to speak) before a club meeting or in a full club business meeting when organizing the food spread. Asking people face-to-face works for meeting roles signups, it should work for Open House food organization.

2. The meeting program (prepared speeches and Table Topics) should be planned around the idea that the Open House is a sales presentation aimed at people who don’t yet know what Toastmasters is all about.

This is something my home club has historically done very well. The Toastmaster usually gives an explanation of the Toastmasters Education Program (a capsule version of the Successful Club series presentation), and speeches are chosen to showcase both CC and Advanced speeches.

OTOH, one of the Open Houses I attended recently had some of the hardest Table Topics questions I’ve ever heard – the experienced members were struggling with them, and the Table Topics master put a couple of the Open House guests on the spot as well.

The moral: For an Open House, keep the speeches and Table Topics light and fun, and focus on the reasons why someone might join the club. Explain the Toastmasters Education Program, starting with the CC and CL, and going through to the DTM award (a club officer can present a concise version of the Successful Club presentation and work toward his/her ALB). Make sure the Table Topics Master calls on the more enthusiastic members to explain what they’re getting out of being members.

3. Greeting the guests is something else the UT Sciences club did well at their Open House, thanks to a concerted effort by the club president and Open House organizer to remind all the members to pay attention to the guests, rather than getting into the usual pre-meeting groups with friends. I know all about that impulse – given a chance, I’ll stay well inside my comfort zone and talk to people I know, rather than a stranger — excuse, me, first-time visitor.

The moral: Greet your guests at the Open House. You can always go back to being stuck-up, standoffish, and cliqueish at your next meeting!

I’ve been following a discussion on the Official Toastmasters International Members Group on LinkedIn titled How mandatory is the change of TM logo and color code?

A couple of days after the discussion started, a member from South Africa posted about the expense of official Toastmasters badges – the custom printed ones with official logos that members can buy from the Toastmasters.org site.

This member noted that due to current exchange rates, the official TMI-printed badge costs twice as much (for the same quality) as badges printed locally in Cape Town. She noted that TMI forbids members and clubs to get materials like that printed locally, and she speculated that the ban on locally-printed materials was to increase Toastmasters revenues.

In my opinion, this member was right – but after thinking about it, I’ve come to a further realization.

Members think of these name badges and other Toastmasters-branded material like name badges and business cards that businesses provide to their employees.

But Toastmasters is more in the souvenir business.

Seth Godin has written about the need for musicians to get out of the music business and get into the souvenir business – that is, get into the business of creating experiences for their fans, then sell the fans souvenirs that remind them of those experiences.

For example, a band goes on tour and sells concert tickets. They’re not selling music – you can usually get a better music experience by buying the MP3 for $0.99 than the concert ticket for $49.00

Rather, they’re selling an experience of going to the same place with a number of like-minded fans. And they sell souvenirs – concert t-shirts and other apparel, CDs with a special mix (only available at the concert), programs, etc.

Thinking of Toastmasters as being in the souvenir business (like a band, or like Disneyland) helps make sense of TMI’s pricing policies.

If those of us buying items from TMI’s site were employees, it would be in TMI’s interest to supply things like name badges at the lowest possible cost, and to not complain when members find lower-cost substitutes that work (i.e., look) the same.

But if TMI is in the business of creating shared experiences, and making money from selling souvenirs – well, then it makes more sense that they’d forbid members from making their own cheap knock-offs. Disney’s lawyers will come on you like a ton of bricks if they catch you counterfeiting Disney merchandise, and most touring bands try to discourage counterfeit souvenirs as well.

Of course, Toastmasters isn’t all the way in the souvenir business – the stuff they sell is very generic, and usually not tied to specific events.

I think TMI’s marketing needs to sit down with ALL of Seth Godin’s books, and think about really committing to the souvenir business.

On LinkedIn’s Official Toastmasters International Members Group, there have been a number of posts about using Skype or other Internet phone apps to have conference calls between a club and it’s club coach or club mentor.

Mashable just posted a collection of 6 Apps That Let You Text for Free. The five (not 6) apps listed include:

• WeChat, which lets you see which WeChat-using friends are around you (like Grindr), and lets you exchange pictures and contacts with them
• textPlus, which has group-messaging and community texting

Four of the five apps (include WeChat and textPlus) have Windows Phone 7 versions as well as the more common iOS and Android.

A common form of Toastmasters speech evaluation is the “sandwich” form –

• Open with praise of things the speaker did well
• Add some suggestions for improvement – the “meat” of the sandwich
• Close with more praise for things you liked

Unfortunately, sandwich evaluations are not as effective as they could be – especially when they’re “top-heavy”.

A top-heavy sandwich evaluation is one in which the evaluator opens with fulsome praise – because he’s afraid the speaker will be upset by the criticism suggestions for improvement, and wants to soften the inevitable blow.

By the time the evaluator apologetically hems and haws his way through the (typically gentle) suggestions, he’s already shot his [praise] wad at the beginning of the evaluation, and has nothing new to add at the end (without repeating himself). And in a Toastmasters evaluation, the evaluator may be running out of time by the time the suggestions are delivered.

The top-heavy sandwich evaluation bears a strong resemblance to the front-loaded request. You know the one – when that co-worker from another department drops by your desk, all “Hey, buddy, how’s it going? How’s the family? How about that game last night, eh?” And on, and on, and on…and you’re waiting for the request, thinking “Geez, get ON with it already!” You know a request is coming – because the guy never talks to you otherwise.

What’s the better way?

Start with two facts (according to a book by Clifford Nass and Cynthia Yen) –

• People remember the end of a communication better than the beginning
• People remember criticism – er, “suggestions for improvement” – no matter where in a communication it appears

So when you’re evaluating a speech, save your best praise for last.

Don’t waste any of your “good stuff” at the beginning of your evaluation – the person you’re evaluating is probably waiting impatiently for your suggestions for improvement and thinking “Geez, get ON with it already!”

Open with some (a little) praise – don’t jump right into your criticisms of the speech. For one thing, the person you’re evaluating may be so used to the standard top-heavy sandwich evaluation that he will think your more effective approach is rude or overly critical.

Also, if you’re delivering an evaluation in a Toastmasters evaluation contests, some judges may have “sandwich evaluation” as part of their mental checklist when they judge a speech.

For judges like that, no sandwich means bad contest placing – so start with some praise.

But move it along – you want to give yourself as much time as possible for your suggestions before delivering your encouraging closing remarks.

To be most effective as an evaluator, use the (Mostly) Open-Faced Sandwich Evaluation:

• Open with some quick praise for the speech and its speaker
• Move into your criticisms and suggestions for improvement as soon as possible.
• Finish with most of your praise for the speech – and make it memorable, for the benefit of the speaker and anyone else in the audience.

Try a (Mostly) Open-Faced Sandwich Evaluation the next time you evaluate a speech!

Last night, I posted about helping to organize a club officer training back in August, where we trained 21 officers (I know one of the attendees was counted as being trained, but he was there only to announce the Fall District Conference – he signed in, but had already been to training for his office at the beginning of August).

Today, our Division Governor circulated a list of officers trained for all the clubs in Division K, and I noticed that the UT Staff Toastmasters was listed as having only trained 2 officers in June / July / August.

Since I’d only posted about organizing that training yesterday, I remembered that the UT Staff club had sent four officers to our make-up training.

I emailed the Division Governor back, she looked into in, and got the UT Staffers credited with having four officers trained – another success story!

note: last week, I attended the AGLCC Tall Tales and Table Topics contest. The contest Toastmaster offered up a tall tale of his own to warm up the crowd for the contestants – a story about being hired to be Arnold Schwarzenegger’s personal trainer.

I’ve long known theoretically what a tall tale is, but I had something of a writer’s block when I had the chance to compete in our club’s Tall Tales contest the last time it was held several years ago. After hearing the tall tales at last Monday’s contest, however, I was reminded of a story I came up with many years ago.

As an Area Governor, I can’t compete in any Tall Tales contests this year. I thought I would share this story with the clubs in my Area, in case any members want to compete in the upcoming contests, but are suffering from writer’s block as I was.

Enjoy!

Five Bike Racers You Meet In Heaven

I’ve told the story of how I got the scars on my arms before, but I’ve never told anyone the whole story – before today, that is.

The year was 1984, and I was a bicycle racer. An inspired bicycle racer.

The source of my inspiration was Bernard Hinault, one of the greatest French bicycle racers of all time. Hinault sprinted like a dragster, climbed like a rocket, and descended like a madman.

In 1984, Hinault had won the Tour de France four times already, and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before he won it a fifth time and joined the ranks of cycling’s immortals, men like Simpson, Garin, Bottechia, Bobet and Coppi.

I idolized Bernard Hinault.

In the first race of the season, I was so excited that I accidentally grabbed the brake levers at the start of the final bunch sprint of 200 riders. The heat caused by the friction of the brake pads on my rims caused both tires to blow out with 50 meters to go. I was forced to settle for second place.

In the next race, I decided to attack early and cruise to a solo victory. I started my attack by accelerating along the side of the pack.

Just as I got even with the front of the pack, I saw the figure of a man in a red suit directly ahead of me. It was Didi Senft, the Tour de France Devil.

I had to swerve into the ditch to keep from hitting Didi and causing an international incident. The peloton took advantage of my bad luck and accelerated like they were leaving the Devil in their dust – as indeed they were.

Did I give up? Ask yourself – would a man inspired by Bernard Hinault just give up?

I got back on my bike and accelerated quickly – so quickly, I left a ten-meter streak of burned rubber on the road, and the Doppler effect of my speed caused Didi’s cheers to sound like a sticky cassette tape – “Allez! Allez! All-lez! Aaaa…leeez…”

I passed a pair of motorcyclists riding Ninja 900s – one of them tried to draft off of me, but was forced to back off. I saw the racing pack ahead of me, just rounding a tight corner.

I waited until the last possible instant to brake, and that’s when I discovered that I was in trouble. The corner was much tighter than it had appeared, and I was going much too fast to make the turn. I braked as hard as I could – the brake pads burst into flames! – but it wasn’t enough.

I shot across the road, onto the flat grassy shoulder, and came to a sudden stop against a barbed wire fence. But my troubles were only beginning.

What I didn’t know was that the rancher who owned the land had decided to electrify his fence, and had run the wires from his fence charger parallel to some  high-voltage lines way overhead, forming a crude transformer.

My bicycle tires insulated me when I first hit the fence, but when I stood up and grabbed the fence wire to steady myself, I took the full force of the current. The lights of San Antonio dimmed as the current passed through my heart, killing me instantly.

I found myself floating down a long featureless white corridor. I reached the end of the corridor, and was met by five bike racers. I recognized Tommy Simpson, and Maurice Garin (smoking his usual cigarette), and Ottavio Bottechia, and Louison Bobet. The fifth racer was Fausto Coppi, the great Italian “champion of champions”, the campionissimo.

Fausto held out a bicycle for me and said, “Hurry, my friend, the race is about to start.” I mounted the bicycle – it fit perfectly – and we started off.

We were just out on an afternoon training race, six racers pretty evenly matched. We sprinted for light poles, and traded some trash talk. Garin told me, “You ride very well — for an American.”

We turned a corner and started up a mountain road, and things got serious. Simpson attacked first, Bobet got on his wheel, and Coppi and I followed. Garin spat out his cigarette and tried to follow, but he and Bottechia were the first to drop back. I counter-attacked and Coppi came with me. We opened a lead on Simpson and Bobet.

On and on we climbed, trading the lead back and forth. I looked back and saw that Simpson and Bobet had regrouped with Bottechia and Garin – but the race was going to be won by either me or Coppi. I also saw that a fifth rider had come up behind the others. He had a long white beard like Didi, but he was dressed all in white.

Soon we were in the last kilometer of the race, riding on sheer guts. As we passed under the banner marking the last 200 meters to the finish, I was shocked to see that the rider with the beard had caught us – and was passing us!

Fausto and I were maxed out, but the rider in white climbed past us like a rocket, sprinted across the finish line like a dragster, and started down the road going down the mountain on the other side, descending like a madman.

Fausto and I rolled over the finish line, still side-by-side, and coasted to a stop. I turned to Coppi and asked, “Who was THAT?”

Suddenly, I felt a jolt, and heard a distant voice yell “CLEAR!” I felt a stronger jolt, and heard another distant voice say, “I’ve got a pulse!”

I found myself flying backward through the featureless white tunnel, and came to in an ambulance, with paramedics working to revive me. But I’ll always remember the words Fausto said to me just before I was revived:

“It’s the same thing every year. He watches the Tour de France, gets on a bike, and pretends He‘s Bernard Hinault!”

Since I started my Area Governorship much later than most of my colleagues, I was given the opportunity to participate in phone versions of Enhance Club Quality and Develop Successful Teams trainings. These trainings are usually offered at in-person trainings for District officers during June or July, but since I wasn’t even appointed until July 31st (one day after I discovered the possibility of the K52 Area Governor opening), the phone versions were my only chance to be exposed to this training before the end of August.

I found the Enhance Club Quality training to be good, but I wouldn’t call it “life-changing”. Mostly, it seemed to be just common sense when it comes to dealing with clubs. I may review the training workbook (PDF) later in the year (after getting the Area Contest out of the way on September 17th), to see if I get anything more out of it when I’m not as pressed for time.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t say as much for the Develop Successful Teams (PDF) training. I rushed to get home from work last Tuesday (after rushing back and forth to visit one of the clubs in my Area at lunchtime) to get on the conference call with the other Area Governors.

Develop Successful Teams was not about helping clubs turn their club officer executive committee into a well-oiled machine, as I had hoped. Rather, the Successful Teams referred to are the Assistant Area (or Division) Governors for Education and Marketing.

Say what?

Apparently, on top of everything else we Area Governors have to do, we also have to find, recruit, and train Assistants – at least two of them.

Now, I’ve been in Toastmasters for over ten years, and I’ve known a number of Area Governors in that time. I’ve never heard one of them talk about their Assistant Area Governors, or give them any credit in emails. I’ve never read about Assistant Area Governors on any District or Toastmasters International webpage.

I have seen a couple of Area Governors ably assisted by spouses or significant others, but that’s all. No Assistant Area Governors, no Assistant Division Governors, nada.

I don’t know whether most AGs don’t have official assistants, or if those AGs that have them just don’t talk about them.

Hey, if I’d known the job was even available before last Tuesday, I probably would have tried to get a gig as an Assistant AG or DivG back in June, so I would have a better prepared to be an Area Governor in my own right come June 2013.

But look for someone like that now? At the same time I’m putting together an Area Contest? No way.

I might could have found an assistant or two by now if I’d had a chance to take the training in June. I might try to recruit some Assistant AGs in time to help me for the Spring Area Contest and similar events after December 1st, so they can do some on-the-job training before they campaign for an Area Governorship of their own in April or May next year.

But I think August 28th is WAY too late to do the Develop Successful Teams training for this year.

One of the first things I did as a new Area Governor was check the list of officers trained so far since June.

If you’re an officer of a Toastmasters club, you know that Toastmasters International encourages club officers to go to training every six months, by giving one full point (10% of the points available) in the Distinguished Club Program to clubs who send at least four officers to training in June/July/August and then have at least four officers trained in December/January/February.

When I checked the list, I discovered that two of the clubs in my Area had not been able to send four officers to training, and also discovered that my home club had only gotten two officers trained as well.

Last November, I had reserved a meeting room at the Austin Public Library for the use of my home club on the third Monday of each month. Our club had decided not to use the room, but I hadn’t given up hope that we would have an opportunity to make use of it – perhaps as a venue for practicing PowerPoint or whiteboard presentations.

Since club officer training has to be completed by August 31st, I contacted the Division K governor and suggested we organize a make up training on August 20th. After a few days, we had a training set up – the Division K Governor and I set up the training, and the Division L Governor was the actual training presenter.

We got 22 officers trained, including two more from my home club, but none of the clubs in Area K52 were able to send more officers to this training.

The clubs that were represented at training:

Welcome to Area K52!

A few weeks ago, I was checking out the list of Area and Division Governors on the District 55 website. I swear, all I wanted to do was find out which Area my friend Erica had been appointed to be Governor of.

While reading through the list of Austin-area clubs in Divisions J, K, and L, I noticed that Area K52 didn’t have a Governor listed.

I thought about it overnight, and emailed the District Governor the next day. After a few back-and-forth emails, I applied and was appointed the new Area Governor for Area K52 on July 31st – a month later than most of my colleagues.

And you may say to yourself, “My God – what have I done?”