Somewhat lengthy for this sort of page, but so well worth reading to be better informed. Toastmasters Secrets: The Unwritten Rules Toastmasters is a great organization, and you can learn a lot, and get a lot out of it, just by following the standard educational program, at least if you find yourself a good club that fits your style and gives you plenty of chances to speak. But if you want to go farther -- and especially if you want to win contests -- there are a lot of things you need to know which arent written anywhere in Toastmasters literature. The only way to learn these secrets is word of mouth, from other Toastmasters. Enough secrecy! Heres a collection of Toastmasters Unwritten Rules. If you have others you think I should add, please let me know. Saying Mister Toastmaster In this region, theres an unspoken assumption that youre supposed to address your audience -- Mister/Madam Toastmaster, fellow club members, and honored guests or something similar -- at the beginning of your speech or very shortly thereafter. We even do it in Table Topics. Why? Nothing in the Basic Manual ever mentions this, and you almost never hear a good speaker outside of Toastmasters beginning a speech this way. However: it turns out there is a reason for this: speech contests. At the higher levels -- district and above, and probably some divisions and areas -- theres a specific protocol: the Toastmaster of the contest introduces the speaker, walks back to his chair, but then remains standing until the speaker acknowledges him by saying Madam Toastmaster, Mister Contest Chair, etc. at which point the Toastmaster can sit down. If the speaker doesnt acknowledge the Toastmaster within the first, say, 20-30 seconds of the speech, the Toastmaster gives up and sits down anyway, and the judges all (probably) roll their eyes and write off the speaker as some kind of rude newbie. So even though its silly and has no relation to the real world, be sure to use the Mister/Madam Toastmaster formula in the first 20 seconds of your speech if youre speaking in a contest above the area level. (But dont actually open with it: that also brands you as a newbie, for not using an attention-getting opening.) Toastmasters talks should avoid religion, politics and other touchy subjects Certainly its usually a bad idea to offend your audience. But lots of clubs do allow speeches on political or otherwise sensitive topics. This rule varies by club; dont assume all clubs are the same. What about contests? Ive actually heard of contests where a contestant was protested because of including one of these verboten subject areas in his speech. But this is not in the rules anywhere; in theory, youre allowed to talk about anything you like, and its up to you to avoid offending audience members. (One of our club members gave an excellent humorous speech about religion in a contest, presenting funny situations involving herself and other members of her church. She did a great job, and no one was offended.) For more information, see the official Toastmasters page, You Cant Talk About That!. Is it a podium or a lectern? At a humorous contest a couple years ago, a contestant went on about how every Toastmaster knows that youre not supposed to call the thing at the front of the room a podium, its a lectern. Apparently they make a big deal of that in his club. First Id heard of it -- both my clubs called it a podium. But Ive since heard about quite a few clubs that make this distinction, and penalize anyone who says podium. Some argue that since the root of the word podium is pod, meaning foot, the word should only be used for something standing on the floor, not the small table-standing objects most Toastmasters clubs use. However, according to most dictionaries, both terms are correct for both floor- and table-standing objects. You may want to use podium for the floor-standing version and lectern for the table-standing one (or even lectern for both) if you want to be true to Latin roots. Whatever your opinion on the words, be aware if you enter a contest or speak at another club that some Toastmasters unaccountably feel very strongly about this and will downgrade you if you use the word podium instead of lectern. Should you judge based on the content, or the presentation? A letter in Toastmaster magazine recently said Toastmasters literature emphasizes that evaluators and audiences should focus on the delivery of a speech, not the content. On the other hand, the judging sheet for contest speeches reserves 50% of points for content, and only 30% for delivery (the remaining 20% is for language). Which is true? Depends on the evaluator/judge. Me, I think theyre both important, but when Im judging, I try to stick to what the judging sheet says. As a contestant, though, you shouldnt assume all judges are going to do that. The International contest is for motivational speeches The rules for the International contest say you can speak about any topic, and you can certainly enter your area contest with any good speech you choose to enter. Dont expect to get very far with that, though. Speaking Area Every contest Ive been to has defined a speaking area -- usually a rectangular area from right in front of the audience front row back to the wall behind the speaker. No more is said about this speaking area or why it has been defined. Speakers, and judges, naturally assume that it is an area beyond which speakers are not supposed to venture. A speaker who does cross the bounds of the speaking area will presumably be disqualified, or marked down by the judges, or (I especially like this one) treated as though any part of his speech that took place outside the boundaries did not happen and was not visible or audible to the audience. Until 2011 or so the speaking area was a fiction, and nothing in the rules mentioned it. Heres what one highly successful competitor and long-time Toastmaster thought it meant: The Speaking Area, as I undderstand it, is an optimal area for speaking; within that area the lighting will be fine, the technology will work (e.g. range of the wireless mike), and the audience will have clear sightlines, etc. You may venture outside that area, but you take your chances when you do so (e.g. risk of going into a darkly lit spot). But the contest rulebooks in 2012 (maybe 2011) have added a section about speaking area, and say The contestants may only speak from within the designated area. The humorous speaking ballot (for instance) says this under Delivery (30%): The speaker makes effective use of and stays within the designated speaking area But the Contest FAQ says, Can a contestant be disqualified for speaking outside the speaking area? No. Disqualifications are limited to eligibility, originality and being over or under on time. The contestant can be marked down on their score by a judge for straying from the speaking area, if the judge felt that it took away from the effectiveness of the speech. (Thanks to Thomas Rush for alerting me to the new contest rules.) So should you stay inside the speaking area at a contest? Absolutely -- unless you have an extremely compelling reason for leaving it. Judges may or may not mark you down for it, but do you want to take that chance? Is there a dress code? Some clubs apparently encourage formal attire, and consider that an important part of Toastmasters. Ive never actually been to a club like that, but I see it mentioned in places like Toastmaster magazine (probably east-coast people are a lot more formal than we are in California). It may be important for speech contests, though: even people from clubs which dress informally may have ideas about appropriate attire for contests, and generally youll see more formal dress as you progress up the ladder. Apparently some regions even have additional unwritten rules, like women must wear dresses (and will be downgraded if theyre not). You cant repeat manuals The written rules say that when applying for any of the Advanced Communicator awards, you cant use a manual youve completed before. But obviously, this resets at some point, otherwise, when youd completed all the manuals, youd be done forever (except for infinite CC awards from then on). Most people assume that it resets when you get AC-Gold/DTM, but other people insist theyve been told by TMI that it only resets after youve completed ALL the manuals. In other words, you have to do every manual in the series, then you can go back to the ones that are useful to you. After much confusion, Toastmasters finally clarified this on the Educational Awards page: Each time you complete the series of awards on the communication track (ACB, ACS and ACG), you must complete two new Advanced Communication manuals for each award. This means that each time you earn your ACG award, you will have completed six different Advanced Communication manuals – two for ACB, two for ACS and two for ACG. When you repeat an award on the Communication track, you are permitted to repeat the manuals used for a previously earned communication award. For example: If you complete The Entertaining Speaker (226A) and Speaking to Inform (226B) for your first ACB, you may repeat these manuals for credit towards your second ACB or any other communication award that you are repeating. You can not repeat any Advanced Communication Manuals while working toward a single award (ACB, ACS, ACG). For example: You can not complete The Entertaining Speaker (226A) twice for the same ACB. This seems pretty clear: you can repeat a manual used in the previous bronze-silver-gold cycle, but you cant repeat within the current cycle. Dont go by the confusing Toastmasters FAQ, though (you have to enable Javascript and expand the Educational program category to see it): Can I repeat the same manual for award credit? If you are repeating an award, you may repeat a manual. If you are applying for a new award, you must use a manual that you have not received credit for yet. If I read that literally, it says that once youve been through all the awards once, so any further award is a repeat, you can then repeat any manual as often as you want. For instance, you could use Storytelling for your second AC-B, your second AC-S and your second AC-G. Im fairly sure thats not what they mean to say. But at least its clear that once youve gotten AC-G, you can start repeating manuals. Personally, Im sticking with the Multiple Education Awards page and ignoring the much less clear FAQ. For subsequent DTMs, you only need ALS and ALG (obsolete?) A discussion several years ago on the Toastmasters LinkedIn group came to the conclusion that after your first DTM, you can get subsequent DTMs by repeating AL-Silver and AC-Gold. No need to repeat CC and AL-Bronze. Seriously! Never mind that the written rules say that one of the requirements for AC-S is AC-B -- apparently that just means that you needed to get one at some point in your life, and after that you can repeat any award except DTM in any order. This loophole appears to have been closed, Im happy to say. Toastmasters now says You must complete all of the requirements each time you receive an award. This means that in order to receive a second DTM, you must complete another CC, ACB, ACS, ACG, CL, ALB and ALS.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 00:15:16 +0000
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