One should note that each clubs procedures and responsibilities for each role may vary slightly.
The speech evaluator (SE) role is similar to the the other Evaluator roles except here you are only evaluating one person and one topic. This is a great role to truly work on ones listening skills. This role is a fundamental role in why we all joined toastmasters. We all like to hear what areas we are doing well in and which areas we need to improve. Some people are naturally good at this role and for some people it is a challenge. One way to look at it is we have to continually strive to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, it is then that we truly benefit. Additionally we must keep in mind that this is a club and we all have to participate. We all want to do speeches and get the feedback for ourselves to improve and therefore must eventually reciprocate. From the perspective of one who has to push himself out of his comfort zone to do this it's actually not that bad if you prepare! Also do not forget why we all joined toastmasters is to improve ourselves so we are always looking for peoples opinions on what we need to improve.
For most people the challenge in evaluations is to get a balance between positive reinforcement of what the speaker is doing well and the constructive feedback on what the person need to improve upon. The fundamental thing to keep in mind is than an evaluation is one persons opinion, it is not the law. Hence the sender has to be cognizant of this in the words chosen to state that this is what he/she heard, observed or felt. The receiver can also put this into the fram that this is one persons opinion.
Each person has different
speaking and presentation
styles and preferences and this will always be evident in evaluations.
Through toastmasters we have the opportunity to experience other people's
speaking styles and to experiment as we develop our own.
A Speech Evaluator:
Prior to the Meeting:
Establish what you want to focus on during this evaluation. Hence one needs to
prepare by at least figuring out what the speaker is trying to accomplish. You
should at minimum read over the speech section of the CTM (Competent Toastmaster) or ATM
(Advanced Toastmaster) manual the person is attempting and focus your attention to the
goals this person is trying to meet. You should also contact the person to see if
this is still true and discuss the speech to ensure you think it is aligned with the goals
they are trying to achieve. You should also see if there are any other aspects that
the speaker want you to keep an eye out for; issues that he/she is working on that may
have been identified in previous evaluations.
See the Resources section below for additional help.
During the Meeting:
Get the speakers manual to write your evaluation in.
When called upon by the Toastmaster, present the goals of the speech that the speaker is
trying to accomplish in this speech to the rest of the club.
Listen carefully to the speech and capture point notes for your evaluation.
Provide your evaluation to the speaker and the rest of the club following the speaker and
the Toastmaster's introduction of you.