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Meetings That Explode With Excitement
Colette Gardner, Past District Governor, Founder's District, Irvine,
California
The only equal element between all of us is 24-hours a day.
The common
element between Toastmasters is "personal growth"
Are our club meetings
worth attending?
Or do we say:
"I don't need to go
today, I won't miss anything anyway."
Maybe a little creativity
may keep our members coming back with their friends!
1 "Once in a
while" Meetings
1.1
Spark Plug meetings
1.2
Out of the ordinary meetings
1.3
Meetings to keep seasoned members
1.4
Table Topics
1.5
Evaluations
2 Social Meetings
2.1
Creative meetings
2.2
Table Topics
2.3
Evaluations
3 Professional Meetings
3.1
Publicity
3.2
New Members
3.3
Educational meetings
3.4
Seasoned Members
3.5
Practical Table Topics
3.6
Challenging Evaluations
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1 "Once in a while" Meetings
1.1 Spark Plug meetings:
1.1.1
Patriotic meeting.
1.1.2
Musical meeting.
1.1.3
Costume meeting.
1.1.4
Speaker Exchange.
1.1.5
Guest speaker.
1.1.6
Meeting in the dark.
1.1.7
Learn and use debate.
1.1.8
Gourmet delight – Progressive dinner.
1.2 Out of the ordinary meetings:
1.2.1
Microphone meeting.
1.2.2
Backward meeting.
1.2.3
Mortuary meeting with eulogies
1.2.4
Courtroom Caper. Assign court duties to members.
1.2.5
Change location for variety, for one meeting.
1.2.6
Day in the park. It could include soapbox speeches.
1.2.7
Take a trip together. A boat ride is interesting, so
is a bus ride.
1.3
Meetings to keep seasoned members:
1.3.1
Listen to members' suggestions.
1.3.2
An 'Introductions' meeting where members practice
introducing their peer.
1.3.3
Impromptu meeting.
1.3.4
Candidate platform.
1.3.5
Roast. Use the Manual
"Special Occasion Speeches".
1.3.6
Poetry reading (Manual speech
"Reading").
1.3.7
Everyone gives an Editorial (Manual speech #1
"Television").
1.3.8
"This is your life". Find important events in a
member's life without his/her knowing it.
Then
'star' that
member. Past acquaintances can be asked to come to that
meeting (a
great way to introduce our program to prospective
members) guests speak one at a time,
surprising the
'star'.
1.4 Table Topics
1.4.1
Making a meeting all Table Topics, having maybe two
Masters each using a theme.
1.4.2
Pro & Con - Present two sided questions and have two
members debate issues.
1.4.3
Imitate famous personalities for voice and gestures.
1.4.4
Politics - Soapbox debate.
1.4.5
Choose a special theme and bring visual aids for
participation (e. g. cooking,
woodworking, drawing).
1.4.6
Everyone brings:
1.4.6.1 An unusual mug
1.4.6.2 A funny hat
1.4.6.3 A T-shirt with
picture then exchange and explain why that particular
choice, or where it might have been purchased and why.
1.5
Evaluations
1.5.1
Video taped meeting, a self evaluation.
1.5.2
Round Robin Evaluation.
1.5.3
Have all evaluators focus on one area for that one
meeting.
1.5.4
Sandwich evaluation = Positive remarks - constructive
suggestion - Positive remarks.
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2 Social Meetings
2.1 Creative meetings:
2.1.1
Listen to members’ suggestions.
2.1.2
Holiday meetings: gag gift exchange for Christmas,
costume meetings for Halloween,
homemade valentines
exchange, Easter parade.
2.1.3
Wear funny hats.
2.1.4
Take a trip together. A boat ride is interesting, so
is a bus ride.
2.1.5
Talk Show (Manual speech "Television").
2.1.6
As a group, do part of a play (Manual speech
"Reading").
2.2 Table Topics:
2.2.1
Everyone participates except those with major duties.
2.2.2
Do a commercial for a product (brought in).
2.2.3
Describe how ........... was invented.
2.2.4
White elephant auctioneer.
2.2.5
'On the way to the meeting'..... (maybe a funny thing
happened)
2.3 Evaluations:
2.3.1
When giving constructive suggestion give examples of
a better way.
2.3.2
Audio Evaluation. Do not watch the speaker; critique
speech based on verbal
communication only.
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3 Professional Meetings
3.1 Publicity:
3.1.1
Joint meeting with another club or an Area meeting.
3.1.2
Contest to bring in the most members.
3.1.3
Guests meetings, everyone invites friends,
co-workers.
3.2 New Members:
3.2.1
An 'Introductions' meeting where members practice
introducing their peers.
3.2.2
Everyone gives a short Ice Breaker.
3.2.3
Use the theme of the day to have everyone give a
speech.
3.2.4
List of duties' meetings. Have each participant
describe his/her duty.
3.3
Educational meetings:
3.3.1
Agendas/On time.
3.3.2
Success/Leadership meetings.
3.4 Seasoned Members:
3.4.1
An 'Introductions' meeting where members practice
introducing their peers.
3.4.2
Microphone meeting.
3.4.3
Candidate platform.
3.5 Practical Table Topics:
3.5.1
Everyone participates except those with major duties.
3.5.2
Practice participation in a board meeting.
3.5.3
Demonstrations on how to prepare visual aids.
3.5.4
Explain origin of figures of speech or short phrases
as selected by the Table Topics
Master.
3.5.5
Have telephone solicitations for ...
3.5.6
How would you describe an abstract word to an 8-year
old. Examples: freedom,
happiness, patriotism.
3.5.7
Rotating Topics - Similar to Table Topics except the Topicmaster selects the next person
to provide a topic.
3.5.8
Continuous Topics
- A member or the Topicmaster
starts a story and calls other
members to continue the story
after the allotted time for each has been reached.
3.6
Challenging Evaluations:
3.6.1
Evaluate introductions.
3.6.2
Exchange evaluators.
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And most of all
4 Recognition:
4.1 Recognize risks takers and major improvements
frequently.
4.2 Use the spark plug, risk taker.
4.3 Reward what you want more of:
4.3.1
Best attendance.
4.3.2
Best prepared.
4.3.3
Best mentor.
When announcing the best speaker
of the day, have everyone give a
standing ovation.
New
ideas anyone ????
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