Pathway Speedrun: September 2022

Friday, September 30, 2022

Dallas in Washington

Yes, I know it's confusing. I gave a speech called "Dallas" but I gave it in Washington DC.

I think it became a bit of a theme of this pathway that the level 2 speeches, in which I'm also counting the first speech of level 3, were a set that I struggled to be inspired by or to find compelling material for. This one (the "Negotiate the Best Outcome" project) was no exception. I had a negotiation in mind which I thought might work well (spoiler: it didn't, well not particularly) but was worried that the characters were too easily identifiable, especially when I personally am well known to them all because of my involvement in the case, and I'm posting so much of what happens on the speedrun on a public blog.

Then I hit on an idea which I thought did work well, that I could anonymise the scenario if all the players became characters from a soap opera. And what soap opera is better known around the world than Dallas?

That in turn led to the only bit of the speech I'm particularly proud of, which was to give my speech a title sequence and a theme tune. Because I've never seen a Toastmaster do that before. I've blogged about this aspect previously, here, but here's the title sequence video again anyway:

And here's what my main visuals looked like, explaining the relationships between the characters. I decided to give my characters the names of the actors in Dallas rather than the characters from Dallas, to reduce the expectation that a character in my story might play a similar role to that they had in the soap opera. "Larry" doesn't have to be a scheming machiavel, but somehow "JR" does.

But to be honest I think the visuals were the highlights. While I was giving the speech I realised I wasn't really going to be able to do justice to the nuances of the negotiation, and I think that fact (plus me bumping up against the red light) led to what Dalong identified in his evaluation as poor transitions.

I do in fact have a video of my talk (thank you Irene!) taken with a smartphone pointing at the screen of the hybrid meeting. But I've decided not to post it here. I didn't want any of the characters in the real situation to be able to identify themselves: particularly "Larry" and "Pat" might be upset if they did. I have, however, posted Dalong's excellent and thoughtful evaluation, at the end of this blog. And first here are some extracts from the evaluation form:

Always Good Advice

Sapporo Pioneers

It was fascinating to attend a Toastmasters meeting in Japan.

Sapporo Pioneers are an English language Toastmasters club, and they made every effort to make me feel welcome. I was quite touched by what appears to be a poster attached to the whiteboard in the image above, but which is actually a tea-towel with a map of Wales and the location of the most prominent Welsh castles!

The club has posted about my appearance on Facebook, and that can be seen here:

https://www.facebook.com/sapporopioneers/posts/pfbid0KUA2ARMcxGzhvPzKka7ikDSsBfqarkKC88KL42rBdg7G7BMnwqyKdedBx48Xj8xDl

My talk was called "What is a Jemmy?" A member of the club suggested this visual answer:

The concept of my talk was to present the facts of a legal case, and to ask the audience to tell me whether they considered the character in the speech to be guilty or not guilty. I had been warned that not all members of the club were fluent English speakers and that I should keep my talk fairly straightforward. The feedback indicates I had mixed success with that!

It was a fascinating meeting to attend. My fellow speaker was telling us about the traditions attached to various animals in Hokkaido. And the table topics session - I think designed in my honour - was about the attractions of Hokkaido to visitors. My abiding impression is that they have particularly good beer.

Weird

Monday was the day when this project got weird.

Of course I'd always known that it would get weird. Indeed I intended it to get weird. But Monday was particularly weird.

I didn't sleep Monday night/Tuesday morning, at all. It isn't that I wasn't sleepy. More that I had a Toastmasters meeting in Nova Scotia at 10:30pm, then another in Washington DC at midnight, and a third in Alaska at 3:30am.

In the event what I actually did was my usual morning routine after the last meeting, which is to say that I caught the first train into Cardiff to go to the gym. Then I came back home and slept through much of Tuesday

AND COSTUMING. That's another thing that's weird, costuming. Until now I haven't perceived what I wear to Toastmasters meetings as "costume". Except for things like the Henry V speech and the Reflect on Path speech which clearly are costumed, I just wear ordinary clothes that belong to me because I wear them in real life. But Monday brought home to me how much I'm actually costuming speeches without always being aware of it. I changed costumes three times on Monday. I did the Macbeth on Screen speech in a t-shirt and sweater, because that seemed appropriate to talking about a nerdy project done on a computer during lockdown, but then I changed into a suit and tie for the Dallas speech, where I was playing the lawyer in the scenario I presented. And then I changed into a different shirt which I wore open-necked with matching trousers and waistcoat for the Limerick Toastmasters Club. And then of course into jeans and a hoodie to head to the gym.

Harfleur - One Country One World

It was a fabulous meeting at One Country One World. They are a great online club, and are genuinely international. I hope to revisit one day.

Unfortunately my own speech was the worst I've done in the run to date. Regular readers of the blog will know that I had concerns about its message and its possible reception, although with hindsight those were the least of my worries.

I'd prepared an introduction to the speech, on EasySpeak, which I've posted on the blog before but here it is again:

It's the first time I've ever written an intro that I thought might have more impact than the speech! As I expect you can tell, I've written that second paragraph for its rhetorical value not just because I thought a trigger warning was warranted. Also because whenever I've done a reading of the Harfleur speech to friends, nobody seems angry or upset by it - as would surely be the response of someone who understood what I was saying - so I considered the intro essential background for anyone who didn't already know a lot about my speech topic. So, for more-or-less the first time*, I had an intro which was an integral part of the speech. Speech intros aren't usually like that. It generally doesn't matter whether they are said or not.

*It's the second time. The actual first time went badly too. I'll save that story for another day.

The structure of the meeting was a bit alien to me. In another context I'd have enjoyed that - at One Country One World they have various unconventional roles like "inspiration master", "tourist of the day", "niche of the day" all of which were really enjoyable. But they confused me into getting into my speaking position about ten minutes or so before I was needed. I was feeling fairly confident that my intro would be used - not only had I put it on EasySpeak but I'd also been emailed by someone from the club a few hours before asking how to introduce me and I'd copied the wording to them, too. But it was getting too late to ask who would be introducing me and whether they had my wording and I resolved that if it wasn't used I'd have to read it myself then go back to my own material. Unfortunately I only had it available as a screenshot, and it was too late to print it out, so I just opened it on one of the two laptops I was using, and hoped it wouldn't be needed.

Unfortunately, it was. The TM introduced my speech just by saying which pathway it was from and its title: without any reference to the speedrun, which I took it she didn't know about, and, crucially for my talk, without the trigger warning.

I suppose I hadn't realised until this point how much I was relying on the assumption that someone else at the meeting will do what I'd expect them to do. That is always a mistake and I really should know better. Anyway, I then had to follow my resolution to do that part myself, which involved starting my speech by leaving my standing-up speaking position, pushing my chair back into place, reading my prepared wording from a screen outside the speaking area, then returning to where I had been. That also knocked my confidence quite severely. This isn't a memorised speech - just an important point that I wanted to make in my own words, backed by a reading: the sort of thing I'm capable of when feeling calm. And I was already about a minute (I don't really know how long) behind where I wanted to be when the speech started. Anyway, I muddled through it as best I could manage, cut short the reading as soon as I decently could, and sat back down.

I know one thing I skipped was my planned explanation of why I had decided to do a reading of this extract, rather than memorising and dramatising it as I had in other parts of the speedrun with other extracts from the same play.

To be honest I don't really like scripted speeches, but I don't think I'd try this one again without scripting it. If I did that I could incorporate the trigger warning into the script itself, perhaps just before the reading, rather than giving the most impactful bit to someone else.

It's a shame this one didn't go well. I do think there's an important message in there somewhere that I'm failing to communicate.

Anyway, turning to Tim Blackburn's evaluation - I thought it was great - very detailed and constructive. I attach some extracts from the written evaluation below, and, to be honest, I think almost all of these points would have been pertinent to the speech as I intended to give it:

Level 2 Certificate of Completion

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Triple Crown Earned (Proud)

And an update in March 2023. I now have three triple crowns!

The speedrun forms the lion's share of them:

Scorecard Day 9

Basecamp Scorecard

Monday, September 26, 2022

Speedrun Limerick

Speedrun Limerick

by Andrew Jones

I thought: "This would all be more fun

At the speed of a shot from a gun!"

So at many a meeting

With a visit quite fleeting

I invented the Pathway Speedrun!

The Limerick Toastmasters Club

The Limerick Toastmasters Club

by Andrew Jones

Here’s the story of one of my quests

To face up to life’s challenge and tests.

As such, I declare,

Madame contest chair,

Toastmasters and most welcome guests.

I was eating some chips, peas and cod

With my favourite stepdaughter, Blod,

When she made me quite scared

As she glibly declared

Her engagement to her boyfriend Rhod.

This was the news I was dreading!

I knew now where all this was heading.

I should have felt happy

But was soiling my nappy

That I might have to speak at her wedding!

To give a speech: heaven forfend!

But I knew that was how it would end.

As my mouth turned to dust

I knew that I must

Consult the witchdoctor, my friend.

He sent me for Guinness and grub

To O’Leary’s, an Irish themed pub.

At the back of their floor

Is the magical door

To the Limerick Toastmasters Club.

By an iconic bust of St Kilda,

I was greeted by SAA, Hilda.

I then met their resident

Immediate past president

Mats, which is short for Matilda.

She said:

To prevent you from feeling dystopic

Or your worldview becoming myopic

You can compete

To talk on your feet

We call it a table topic.

I thought that my topic went well

(On Dante’s nine circles of hell)

My fear abated,

I felt quite elated,

And my confidence started to swell.

But I lost all my sense of elation

For a speech that required preparation.

I just couldn’t write,

With my increasing fright,

And a smidgen of procrastination.

Has your fear turned you into a quaker?

Each person can be a risk taker!

Let go of despair:

You just need to prepare -

Next week you give your icebreaker!

Do your talks leave you feeling quite shivery?

Did your speech have its impact, or didn’t he?

Get your information,

From an evaluation,

Based on content, structure and delivery.

The whole thing was getting quite fun.

But I didn’t know more than thing one.

So they gave me a mentor –

Her name was Magenta –

And she showed me how it was done.

I decided to rise up the ramp,

Towards being a Toastmaster champ,

When I heard of a rumour

About “Engaging Humour”,

Which I found on the Pathways BaseCamp.

Now you may find our sessions quite flitty;

But at the back of it there’s nitty-gritty.

The roles all need manning,

And meetings need planning.

So we need you on our committee.

"There’s only one role left, and that’s

VP Education," said Mats.

"It’s an interesting slot.

You’ll enjoy it a lot.

It’s very much like herding cats."

I compete, now I’m more in the loop.

Against this most talented group.

They’re very bright sparks,

And to earn judges marks,

There’s no depth to which they won’t stoop!

I’ve almost got over my scare.

I think that I’m nearly there.

But the glorious sight

Of that lovely green light…

Makes me say: Madame contest chair.

Dallas Speech Opening Titles

When this was rendered, I realised there was quite a lot more I could do, even with my not-unlimited video editing skills, to improve the image quality. But I decided I prefer it as it is. If I'd gone further and made it too slick, there's a risk people would switch off and not spot the joke. In its clunky form I don't think that's possible. Anyway, with apologies to everyone involved in the show and to the fine people of Dallas, Texas, this is the version I used.

Scorecard Day 6

Sum

Have you ever done that thing where you start writing some maths down, then realise you really could have done it in your head?

This is my calculation of the timing for the Harfleur speech:

Even then I didn't manage to get the minus sign in the right place.

Toast of the Coast

In the circumstances it was something of a privilege to visit Toast of the Coast Toastmasters.

Hurricane Fiona has given quite a battering to parts of the Caribbean and Eastern Canada. Unfortunately many members of Toast of the Coast were without power and were unable to attend the meeting. I hope they and their families stayed safe and that they will all be meeting together again shortly.

I joined the zoom meeting anyway, as did Jonathan Bohm and Michael Lawlor, and they were kind enough to go ahead with the smallest Toastmasters meeting I've ever been to, although we did manage to include two full speeches and a round-table evaluation.

Turning to the speech itself, I'm afraid there isn't a recording of it. There are two videos relating to it though. The first is this little animation (which I've posted on the blog before) of the graphic slides.

The second is this, my technical rehearsal video. I wasn't altogether sure I was going to post this, but I talked all the way through it on the assumption someone might be listening. And in the circumstances I'm glad I've got something to post. I should add that I was MUCH SLICKER in the real thing than I was in this rehearsal. No, really, I was.

The main issue in this video was the question of what colour my sweater is. Feel free to post what colour you think my sweater is, in the comments below. At the meeting I wore a shirt and tie. (Some people thought my shirt was pink, some people thought it was green.) So I was dressed like a lawyer. More accurately, I was barefoot, so I was dressed like a lawyer from the ankles up.

DISCLAIMER: In addition to the general disclaimer (i.e. for goodness sake don't take your tax advice from a vlog on the internet) and the specific disclaimer (i.e. does not apply in Canada (also does not apply in the USA)(indeed, thinking about it, does not apply anywhere except the UK (and even then only in the right circumstances))) I need to add another even more specific disclaimer which is that I make a mistake in the rehearsal video - not made when I performed it for real - by implying (when I say that the last step is "unnecessary") that skipping that step would simply lead to no further tax, which ain't necessarily so. What I'm saying is, by all means be entertained and educated by this video but do not even think about basing tax planning decisions on it!

But, spotting a sales opportunity and wanting to end on a call to action, if you do want my tax advice, then please get in touch with me professionally.