Duties and responsibilities of General Evaluator

Toastmaster | Public Speaking | Impromptu Speech | Ice Breaking ( first) Speech| Evaluation

Read the following details collected from various web sites

When you are the General Evaluator

Check with the Toastmaster to find out how the program will be conducted and if there are any planned deviations from the usual meeting format. Remember, always be ready when the meeting starts.
• Call all of the evaluators to brief them on their job and to tell them whom they're evaluating and what evaluation format you will be using. Suggest each evaluator call his or her speaker to talk over any special evaluation requirements suggested in the manual for the speech.
• During the briefing, emphasize that evaluation is a positive, helping act. As conscientious Toastmasters, their goal must be to help fellow Toastmasters develop their skills. Emphasize that evaluations should preserve or at least enhance the self-esteem of the speaker.
• Call the remaining members of the evaluation team to remind them of their assignments.
• Prepare a brief but thorough talk on the purpose, techniques, and benefits of evaluation (for the benefit of the guests). Evaluation is a positive experience designed to help people overcome weak habits and add power to good ones.

Upon Arrival at the Meeting
Insure the individual evaluators have the speaker's manual and understand the project objectives and how to evaluate it.
Greet all evaluators who are present. If an evaluator is not present, consult with the Vice President Education and arrange for a substitute.
Verify each speaker's time and notify the timer.
Sit near the back of the room to allow yourself full view of the meeting and its participants.

During the Meeting
Take notes on everything that happens (or doesn't but should). For example: Is the Club's property (trophies, banner, educational material, etc.) properly displayed? If not, why? Were there unnecessary distractions that could have been avoided? Create a checklist from which you can use to follow the meeting. Did the meeting, and each segment of it, begin and end on time?
Cover each participant on the program. Look for good and unacceptable examples of preparation, organization, delivery, enthusiasm, observation, and general performance of duties. Remember, you are not to reevaluate the speakers, though you may wish to add something the evaluator may have missed.
Before table topics, you will be asked to stand and brief the audience on your team's means and methods of evaluation.
Describe what way and how your team will handle evaluations.
Identify the grammarian, ah counter, and timer. Have these members briefly state the purpose of their jobs.
Request the "Word of the Day," if your Club has one, from the grammarian.
When introduced to conduct the evaluation phase of the meeting, go to the lectern and introduce each evaluator. After each recitation, thank the evaluator for his or her efforts.
If the Toastmaster neglected to call, for the timer's report and vote for "Best Speaker" (if your Club has this award), do it before individual evaluations are given.
Wrap up by giving your general evaluation of the meeting, using the notes you took as suggested above. You may wish to comment on the quality of evaluations. Were they positive, upbeat, helpful? Did they point the way to improvement?

( http://pptoasters.8k.com/geval.html )

The General Evaluator is just what the name implies-an evaluator of anything and everything that takes place throughout the meeting. It is a large responsibility, but with proper preparation the role can be performed successfully.

• you are responsible for ensuring there is a Table Topic Evaluator and an evaluator for each speaker (you should talk to the Toastmaster to find out who will be speaking).
• prepare a list of the duties of each role during the meeting. This will become a checklist for you to easily see if roles are performed properly (and allows you to quickly note areas for improvement). A sample list is included at the back of this manual.
• designate Timer and Quizmaster.
• advise the person preparing the agenda of the names of people filling those roles

* One or more of these roles may be dropped in future scheduling.

So the you call the "traffic cop/feedback" roles, while the Toastmaster calls everybody else. As soon as you find out from the Toastmaster how many speakers there are, you can start lining up the evaluators. As a rule, the evaluator will be at least as experienced as (and preferably more experienced than), the speaker. This establishes a certain "pecking order" in the assignments. Pay particular attention to the evaluator for an Icebreaker speech; don't hesitate to assign a more experienced evaluator to this speaker. If one or more speakers back out, give a courtesy call to the evaluators you don't need just to let them know they won't be evaluating at this particular meeting.

Your general evaluation should cover three broad areas: (1) an overall evaluation of the meeting, (2) an evaluation of the table topics session, and (3) an evaluation of the speech evaluators. Regarding the actual meeting, these are a few standard questions you should answer:

1. Did the meeting start on time?
2. How was the flow of the meeting? Did we get through the routine roles at the start of the meeting in a brisk manner? Was the break too long?
3. Were the introductions of speakers/speeches informative?
4. Was proper etiquette observed? For example, was the lectern ever left unguarded? Were there handshakes at the appropriate time?
5. How were the usual last minute glitches handled?
6. Did anything happen that was not fully explained to our guests? (It's not a bad idea to mention the names of the guests during your general evaluation.)
7. Was time wasted by anyone at anytime? (E.g., did a role go significantly over their expected time?)

On most evenings there isn't any trouble with the subsidiary roles. Every now and then, however, there's a slip-up. For example, the Timer may be confused about which setting to use on the automatic timing light. Any mistakes in this area are obviously unfair to the speaker. Mention this in your evaluation, with a suggestion of how it can be avoided in the future (printed instructions, have an experienced member sit next to the Timer, etc.).

Then move on to the next subject: how was the table topics session? Were the questions posed in such a way as to encourage respondents to formulate an extemporaneous speech that lasts a minute or two? Our somewhat larger than usual audience is probably terrifying for a novice to speak in front of the first several times, particularly in table topics. Therefore, it is critical that the table topics questions be designed so as to provide the least amount of intimidation for novices. How did the Table Topics Master do with the content of the questions? Were the questions short, simple, and open ended? What about his/her selection of respondents? If there was an invitation to guests to participate in table topics, was the invitation tactful?

With respect to the evaluations, be aware of the two most common errors:(1) too much time spent merely summarizing the speech and (2)a "whitewash" (that is, the evaluator finds nothing wrong with the speech). These two errors typically go together. There is no such thing as a perfect speech - except the Gettysburg Address and the Sermon on the Mount - and there are always at least one or two things that the evaluator can mention that would have improved the speech.

Consider this approach: as the speakers present their speech, write down the single most positive and single most negative thing they're doing. This provides a frame of reference for you to compare your observations with those of the evaluator. If you both agree, fine...Say so. If you disagree, then you have a good reason to mention something that the evaluator may have overlooked, as well as having another opportunity to help the speaker improve. (But remember: the evaluation is your target here; don't evaluate the speech all over again.)

You'll notice on some evenings that some of our more experienced members speak longer than they should (including the President!), even when the schedule is "tight" They typically come across as preachy, long winded and verbose. While being as diplomatic as possible, mention we pay the price of unnecessary and lengthy discourses with an abbreviated, or even eliminated, table topics session (which benefits the more inhibited members).

You usually call on the reports of the Grammarian and Ah Counter and you also give out the Spark Plug award to the person who does the most to make the meeting a success. Most of the time it goes to the Toastmaster. Although you obviously have a lot to discuss, your comments in the general evaluation should not go much beyond five minutes.

Tips for General Evaluator

Idea behind the role
· The most difficult functionary role is undoubtedly that of the General Evaluator who needs to pay close attention to the meeting while simultaneously writing notes and organizing a structured 5-minute analysis of events.

· Although the new meeting guidelines cover the role comprehensively, it is not really practical to comment on every aspect of the meeting in a general evaluation.

· An effective strategy, therefore, is to concentrate on one or two aspects of the meeting such as structure, timing, audience reaction, and adherence to meeting guidelines, quality of evaluations or handling of guests.

· Hopefully, this will give a fresh angle to each general evaluation rather than a simple recitation of what happened.

· Also, General Evaluators should not be afraid to "tell it like it is" as we learn nothing from an orgy of self-congratulation.

· General evaluations are normally done by very experienced Toastmasters who must obviously set a good example of both timekeeping and structure.

The General Evaluator should be commenting on the following:

The meeting:
· Did the meeting start (7:30) and end (9:00) on time?
· Was the audience in the room seated at the beginning of the meeting?
· Was the audience well seated?-Not scattered around the room, but in front of the platform

Toastmaster:
· Had the Toastmaster prepared?
-Looked over the agenda?
-Were there introductions to the speakers of the prepared speeches
· Did the audiences have time to write up feedback to the speakers of the prepared speeches?
· Were new guests encouraged to volunteer for next week's agenda? Ah counter, Timer, Word of the Day are ideal for people who are new to the club.
· How were the guests introduced to the club?

Table Topics:
· Was their rhythm in the volunteers?
· Did the audience know the names of everyone speaking?
· Were the questions broad enough for the whole audience to understand, not just the Gen X members?

If the Table Topics master did a good job, recommend that they keep up the momentum of their public speaking and encourage they volunteer to be the Toastmaster at the next meeting.

General:
Was anything new brought to the evening?
Anything else that is worth commenting on?

( http://www.angelfire.com/ny/BlueRibbonTM/tip4.html)

The General Evaluator conducts the entire Evaluation Session. The Toastmaster-of-the-Meeting will relinquish control of the lectern to the General Evaluator for that portion of the meeting.

In advance, the General Evaluator should call each of the individual speech evaluators and tell them to which speaker they have been assigned. The General Evaluator is responsible for calling the Grammarian, the Time Keeper and the Vote Counter to remind them of their assignment.

At the meeting, the General Evaluator is responsible for evaluating the entire meeting. The General Evaluator should evaluate:

The room arrangement

The greeting of guests and members

Promptness of meeting opening

Conduct of the business session

The Toastmaster-of-the-Meeting's performance

The Table Topics Master and the Topics Speakers' performance

The Grammarian's performance

The Evaluators' performance

The Timing and Vote Counting procedures when needed

When neither accolades or suggestions for improvement are needed, the General Evaluator should not feel compelled to verbalize unnecessarily. While no time is specified for the General Evaluator, time is precious to everyone at the meeting so use it wisely! The General Evaluator should NOT (except in the case of the very grossest oversight) evaluate the individual speakers.This is the job of the individual speech evaluators.

The General Evaluator evaluates the meeting in chronological order. When the General Evaluator reaches the prepared speech portion of the program, the individual speech evaluators are called on to evaluate the prepared speeches. The General Evaluator then asks the audience to pass their ballots for Best Evaluator to the Vote Counter. Next the General Evaluator evaluates the individual evaluators.

The General Evaluator should then ask the Word Master for a report of how often the word of the evening was used during the meeting.

In conclusion,the Grammarian should be called on. When needed, the General Evaluator evaluates the Grammarian.

The General Evaluator retains control of the lectern during the entire Evaluation session. After the General Evaluator's final comments, control of the lectern is returned to the Toastmaster-of-the-Meeting.

http://nwtoastmasters.org/general_eval.htm

Purpose:

To guide the members through an evaluation of the meeting. With the help of your evaluation team, you will offer your opinions on the strengths of the club and the areas where the club can improve the quality of their meetings.

Before the Meeting:

As general evaluator you are responsible for facilitating the evaluation process. In preparation for the meeting you should:

Contact all the participants that you are responsible for introducing (a formal introduction such as the toastmaster would give is not necessary to introduce these participants). They include:

• Speech Evaluators
• Reports from:
• Ah counter
• Grammarians
• Voice Projection Monitor, and
• Timer

Review the sections of this guide for the various roles of the meeting that you will be evaluating.

Prepare a brief explanation of evaluations.

At the Meeting:

During the meeting, you must be attentive. Your role is to be a active observer of the meeting. You gather information on the performance of the members during the meeting. Your job includes:

• Listen and observe during meeting.
• Explain purpose of evaluations in the Toastmasters program:

ask for report from:

• Ah counter
• Grammarians
• Voice Projection Monitor, and
• Timer
• Deliver general comments on meeting.
• Return control to the Toastmaster.

Tips and Traps:

The job of an evaluator is not as easy as it might seem. Your job is to deliver your opinions on the performance of members in their various roles in a toastmaster meeting but first and foremost on the Evaluations provided by the speech evaluators. These evaluations must be constructive and positive in nature. Your responsibility is to outline the strengths of members' performances. You must also point out areas where members could improve their skills. Make sure you read the literature provided to you when you joined on evaluations.

Let your evaluation team make your job easier. Do not waste effort covering ground they have already covered. Your comments should be short and to the point. Observe the time restrictions as they are outlined on the agenda. You should do everything possible to keep the meeting running on schedule. Your comments may be short if your program is running behind schedule. If this is the situation, focus on the important comments you wish to make and end as close as you possibly can to the schedule. If the meeting is running behind schedule, you may want to focus on areas the club can work on to ensure the program is running on time.

Treat the role of general evaluator as a learning experience for yourself as well as for the club. It gives you an opportunity to practice your listening skills. It allows you to learn more because of increasing your listening skills. This is an extremely important portion of the Toastmasters program.

If you have any further questions, consult the evaluations handbook that was sent to you as a new member. It contains valuable information on performing effective evaluations.

http://www.chezsylvain.com/ph_tm/roles/gen_eval.htm