By: Bob Turel, DTM
It seemed like a natural offshoot of my requests for Toastmasters to video their club speeches and allow me to do a remote evaluation on them by email. I can gratefully say I think the idea is catching on! The more you think about, video conferencing apps like Zoom make it easy to record any or all parts of an online meeting. All it takes is persuading Toastmasters to stand while they deliver speeches and grant permission to video record them.
Learning curve
Like any other new idea, online meetings take some getting used to. Flexibility is at the core of accepting change, and we Toastmasters are already in the middle of substantial change with the transition to Pathways, not to mention life as we know it during the pandemic restrictions.
From a change perspective, one must admit that engagement in an online Toastmasters meeting feels so much different than being there in person. And yet, there is opportunity to be had by accepting the new reality. One can become better at creating video recorded speeches. We learn the advantages of offering a video recorded presentation to as many other Toastmasters as we would like, from whom we can get an evaluation. And the Pathways system allows you to easily download and attach your project’s evaluation documents to any email for project-specific feedback.
I have been promoting the use of video for remote evaluations for many months, and this new perspective while we temporarily alter our meeting format fits right in with that initiative. Think of it this way. If you’re already on camera, why not just take the next logical step and record your speech so you can see what your evaluation is about?
Here is a fellow District 48 Toastmaster Christine Muren explaining her transition to this new normal – https://youtu.be/SELT6uE_2bE.
Why wait until the world changes and makes us change involuntarily? Be proactive! Get on the video train right away! I’ll be looking for you, in pictures – moving pictures! Send me an email at [email protected] and I’ll explain the entire process.