The purpose of this blog is twofold:

One: To educate District 21 Toastmasters about:

1 – The value of using video in your clubs as a feedback and learning tool.

2 – The value of sharing great club speeches and presentations with the world through on-line video hosting – such as YouTube or Google Video.

3 – The value of pre-recorded on-line video as an – always available – tool for training club, area, division and district officers.

4 – The value of conference calling and web conferencing as ways of sharing information and conducting interactive training with large groups without them having to meet physically.

Two: To create a conversation, around One, between all District 21 Toastmasters and to capture and share the collected knowledge, experiences, intellect and wisdom of that conversation.

This blog is part of a Toastmasters HPL (High Performance Leadership) project lead by Rodney Denno.

The overall effort of this HPL is to bring the power of Video and the Internet into the service of District 21 Toastmasters………and then to share our success with the entire Toastmaster World!

Please take the time to read the other three blog entries, share them with whomever you wish and contribute to the discussion as much as you can.

It is the sharing of our collective knowledge, experience, intellect and wisdom that will make this blog a success.

Thanks for contributing!

Rodney Denno, ACB

Area 23 Governor & Leader of this HPL project.

Have you ever wondered what you look and sound like as you give a speech or presentation to your club?

Have you ever thought that maybe that speech or presentation you just gave was worth sharing with others but you did not know how?

Have you ever wished that you could find someone who could quickly and succinctly explain an officer or club role to you or effectively demonstrate how to deliver a certain type of speech?

Feedback, sharing and training are three of the valuable ways in which video can enhance your Toastmaster experience.

Video technology as a feedback tool for use in club meetings is now within the budgets of many Toastmaster clubs.

Your ability to share videos of your great performances is now free and easy to accomplish thanks to YouTube, Google and many other video hosting – social networking – web sites.

There is a wealth of highly trained and talented Toastmaster who have valuable information and insights to share with the Toastmaster world……we need to record them to video so they can be shared.

There are many reasons for making video (recorded) training available:

• Toastmasters who are considering taking on an officer role as part of their TM journey and would like to find out more before making a commitment.
• Low membership clubs looking for information on how to grow club membership.
• Officers in need of training but are geographically distant from the training facilities.
• Officers who are unable to attend scheduled training at the training facility due to time conflicts.
• Officers who would like to ‘brush up’ on their role or are considering taking on a different role and would like to find out what the role entails.
• Officers who take on a role part way through the term and would like to get trained.
• Area and Division Governors looking to recruit TM members into club, area and division roles but do not want to spend lots of time describing the roles.

The objective of this portion of the blog is threefold:

1 – Gather the success stories and do’s and don’ts from around the District regarding using video as a feedback tool in Toastmaster clubs.  A booklet will be compiled and shared with all District 21 clubs.

2 – Develop a process whereby Toastmaster member videos – that teach, educate, persuade, inspire or make us laugh – can be put onto the District 21 video hosting web site so that anyone can view them. This group of videos will be created by Toastmaster members as part of their ongoing Communication and Leadership training as they progress through the TM manuals.

3A – Training videos for officer roles:This group of videos would be created by members as educational training for Club, Area, Division and District officer roles.

3B – Training videos for the broader TM educational programs: This group of videos will be created by members specifically for TM programs like The Better Speaker Series, The Leadership Excellence Series, SpeechCraft, etc.

Here is where you can really help.  As with any new endeavor there are lots of questions.  Please provide your input/guidance/knowledge/opinion/wisdom on the questions below or pose new questions.

(If you know someone who may be able to contribute to this dialogue please forward this blog on to them — Thanks)

How does your club use video as an effective learning tool?

What are the best lighting techniques, best way of getting high quality audio and video?

What content and quality standards (and vetting process) do we apply to member created videos that will be hosted in the District 21 video web site?

Share your experiences, positive or negative, about how effective video feedback has been for you and your club.

What are your thoughts on how we can effectively create training videos (club/are/division/district, etc.) for District 21?

What training videos would you like to see created first?

What are the best (most cost effective) cameras, audio pickup, etc. currently available on the market?

What are the current video trends – is there new technology coming that we should be aware of?

What are your thoughts on how we can best promote the value of video as an effective TM feedback tool?

What do you think would be the best way to provide this information to District 21 TM clubs?

Please use this blog to pass along any other questions you may have.

If I asked you to set up a telephone conference call with 10 people for one hour from now, and the conference call had to be free of charge for all 10 people…….would you be able to do it?

If I asked you to set up a web conference meeting with 10 people for one hour from now, and the web conference meeting had to be free of charge for all 10 people……would you be able to do it?

While your answer to both of these questions may have been ‘No’ right now……your answer to both of these questions can be “Yes I can.”  The companies that offer conference calling and web conferencing over the Internet have matured significantly over the past few years and the technology has become very reliable.

For those who do not know what Web Conferencing is – think of it as the ability to have whatever is on your computer screen displayed on every other computer screen that is participating in the Web Conferencing meeting.  This means that everyone on the Web Conference call is seeing the same screen at the same time.

There are a broad range of uses for both conference calling and web conferencing……however this blog will focus on how they can be used to enhance the Toastmasters experience at all levels (Club, Area, Division and District).

Here is where you can help:

Specifically: “How can conference calling and web conferencing help make Club/Area/Division/District business meeting be more effective?” and “How can conference calling and web conferencing be used to effectively deliver online interactive officer training?”

Officers perform a wide variety of tasks; some can be accomplished with email or a one-on-one phone call others with a group conference call and still others would benefit greatly by using full web conferencing capabilities.

Officers need to gather people together for a variety of reasons ranging from administration, to informing, to strategy development to educating and training.

What are the best services available in web conferencing and why?

Please share your thoughts and experiences, positive or negative, regarding the effectiveness of conference calling and web conferencing as tools for interactively sharing information/knowledge/ideas, officer training or club/area/division/district business meetings.

Current TI policy is that Officer Training must be face-to-face in order for it to count towards a clubs Distinguished Club Program (DCP) goals.  The result of the current face-to-face requirement imposes severe limitations on when, where and how training takes place.

This blog entry is dedicated to building the argument that a combination of – prerecorded – video based training and – live – interactive online web conference training is essentially equivalent to face-to-face training and should count as Officer Training in the DCP.

Today’s video and Internet technologies now give us the opportunity to capture, connect, interact and share information, knowledge and ideas in ways that were not available a few years ago.

Time, distance and safety are some of the factors that influence whether a person decides to attend face-to-face training or not.

• Some clubs in District 21 are in remote communities (10’s to 100’s of kilometers away from another club or the selected training facility.)

• District 21′s weather can be very dangerous to travel through at times.
• Scheduled training session may conflict with an officers personal schedule and the personal schedule wins.
• Busy people are starved for time and need more flexible training options.
• Sometimes a member steps into an officer role part way through the term and has already missed the face-to-face scheduled training.

The emphasis should be on ‘well trained’ and not on face-to-face.

The proposal in brief is this – That effective (equivalent to face-to-face) officer training can be accomplished through a combination of on-line (prerecorded) video and on-line interactive (Conference Call & Web Conference) training.

This will not replace face-to-face officer training……It will be an alternative (but equivalent to face-to-face) form of officer training.

We live in a time when so much information is online and indeed some Universities deliver a large portion of their teaching/training on-line.

The proposal in more detail:

1 – Online officer training is scheduled and an email is sent to all participants (for example – all VP Membership officers) with links to the appropriate online videos to be watched prior to the the online training.

2 – The officers view the online video(s) related to the officer role they will be performing.

3 – The officers participate in a conference call (or more preferably a Web Conference session) conducted by a trainer designated by the District.  Information (presentation slides, etc.) will be shared and questions will be answered during this online interactive session just as if it was a face-to-face officer training session.

4 – Upon completion the club/area/division/district officer will have met the requirement for officer training (in pursuit of President’s Distinguished Club status!)

Your comments and insights are needed.

There are over 1,000 District 21 Club/Area/Division and District officers.  This proposal will ensure that some training tools (the video portion) are available at any time – 24/7/365 – and that the District has a more flexible set of tools for delivering training in an effective yet flexible way.  Energetic, informed and well trained officers are what’s needed to continue building a strong and effective District that helps all its members (almost 5,000 in District 21) become highly effective Leaders and Communicators.

I think the main question to be answered here is “What are the main benefits of face-to-face training and are they sufficiently present in this proposal (online recorded training video(s) + interactive conference calling & web conferencing) for online training to qualify as equivalent to face-to-face training?”

Please comment, argue, philosophize, wax eloquent or offer alternative suggestions.

Thanks for contributing!