Category Archives: Toastmasters

pathways – giving a basic speech evaluation

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There’s lot so f information out there on how to give a speech evaluation. I notice that many new members are afraid to do so. And sometimes, the volume of information out there makes it even more overwhelming.

Now that giving a speech evaluation is part of level 1 in Pathways, members should be doing a speech evaluation earlier. I find two things to help with this.

First, give a fill in the blanks speech evaluation. The most basic speech evaluation is:

  1. Thank the speaker
  2. Say something you liked about the speech
  3. Say something you think could be improved. If the speaker was really good and you can’t think of anything, say that.
  4. Wish the speaker well or say you are looking forward to the next speech

If this template is still too much, practice. In a SpeechCraft session, i wanted participants doing speech evaluations in week 2 and 3. To get them there, I “taught” the four point template. Then we did it as a group: “Sally, can you thank the speaker.”

pathways launch day – initial observations

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While I’ve been in Pathways long enough to complete four levels, today is my first day as an officer in a Pathways club. So what did I observe?

Choosing a path

The self assessment has more questions than from when I took it in December. You do have the option to skip the assessment entirely and just pick a path. I recommend taking it though. It’s interesting to see what the system suggests for you.

Approving awards

Once a member picks a path, you have the ability to submit awards for the levels. (Obviously nobody completed a level on day one.) For how to approve levels, see this blog post. Still, it is cool to see our VPE’s name having the option in Club Central.

Reports have lag

The reports in base camp manager get pathways “periodically”. I think it is every few hours, but hard to be sure. However you can click the triangle and refresh at any time.

how to create a shared email account for pathways

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Toastmasters is asking for an email account that three people can access for Pathways:

On April 25, TI contacted the VPEs, Presidents and Secretaries of all clubs in District 46 and advised them briefly of their roles as “Base Camp Managers” for their clubs under Pathways. The VPE will be responsible – with the President and Secretary as backup – for performing certain tasks in Base Camp. TI recommended the club establish a single email address accessible by all three club officers. Base Camp notifications will be sent to this email address listed in Club Central. Please review this April 25 email for more details.

So how do you do this? In a corporate club, you can use a shared mailbox and optionally set it up to forward to your actual email. Luckily, there is a free equivalent.

Creating a shared gmail account

Sign up for a new free gmail account. For example toastmasters12345@gmail.com (where 12345 is your club number). Or any other address that is free. Give this address to Toastmasters.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Who needs another address to log into. Or maybe your employer blocks gmail. Well no worries. You’ll never need to log in again. You can setup a filter to forward all emails from toastmasters:

  1. Go to the email forwarding page: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/fwdandpop
  2. Click “add a forwarding address” and add the President’s email
  3. Repeat for VPE and Secretary.
  4. Go to the email filters view: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#settings/filters
  5. Click “create a new filter”
  6. Enter toastmasters.org in the from box
  7. Click “create a filter with this search”
  8. Click “forward” and choose the address of your president
  9. Create two more filters – one for your VPE and one for your President

Alternatively, you can see what actually goes there. I suspect that signing into Base Camp once a week removes the need for the email. But it is just a suspicion right now.