Ask any Toastmaster about the top idea to do well on stage and you will get the same response – tell a story. Be it a prepared speech or a table topic, we are always encouraged to tell a story to capture audience attention.
Guess what, you can use stories to effectively introduce your roles as well. Find a short story below that serves as a beautiful introduction to your role as the Ah Counter.
Our VP Ed called me two days back requesting me to take up the role of Ah Counter. I was very reluctant mainly because of my poor listening skills. Over a network that creaked and croaked, he tried to convince me by offering various logic. However, his words kept getting drowned in network disturbances.
Immediately, an inspired thought dawned upon me. I realised that network disturbances were a lot like the disturbances we create in our speeches through our filler words. Ahs, um, err, etc as well as pauses are like the disturbances we have in phone networks that prevent our messages from reaching across effectively. While we have no control over our phone networks, we can definitely control our filler words during speeches. Enlightened by this idea, I accepted this role of keeping a track of your filler words during the course of the meeting today. I will present this report towards the end of the meeting.
Over to you the General Evaluator.
Have you ever used a personal story to introduce any role in Toastmasters. Let us know.
My Meeting Roles 