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Educational - General Evaluator

Overview

The General Evaluator has a key role at any Toastmasters meeting. The principle requirement is to evaluate all the speakers that were not already evaluated during the meeting. It is the General Evaluator that provides an opinion on the overall running of the meeting. This is a very busy role as it requires concentration and careful listening for the entire duration of the meeting.

Getting Organised

• Ensure you arrive at the meeting early.
• Check the program for your role and the time allocation for the General Evaluators report.
• Make sure you have a GE report form and a reliable pen. This form is a useful tool to help you structure your report.
• The GE does a lot of writing during the meeting so a clipboard is really helpful.
• Sitting towards the back of the audience can help you take a full view of all the speakers and meeting proceedings.
• Check with the Toastmaster if there any changes to the program as this may affect your report.
• Ensure you know the names of any guests or visitors before the meeting starts as you may need to comment on their performance in your report. It is embarrassing and poor toastmaster practice to evaluate someone without mentioning their name.
• Once you are sure of all the names and respective roles, it is good practice to mark your copy of the program so you remember who to evaluate.
• As a general guide you would evaluate the following speakers; Sergeant at Arms, Toastmaster, Grammarian, all speech Evaluators, Table Topics Master, Table Topics Evaluators, Timer, Review Speaker and Educational Speaker.
• You DON’T evaluate any speaker that has already been evaluated. If you are not sure about who you should be evaluating ask the Toastmaster of the night.
• Make sure you are ready to start when the Sergeant at Arms opens the meeting.

Writing your Report

• Remember this is a busy role with potentially 10 or more people to evaluate.
• You may not have time to write all you want to say as the speaker is talking. So note down key words in the Commendation and Recommendation spaces on your report form or on a separate note pad.
• When a speaker that you WON’T be evaluating is speaking, use this time to add to your notes and expand on your key words.
• Try to keep your notes orderly or in a format that you can clearly understand. This will make your report delivery much easier for you and for your audience understand.
• Try not to write your evaluation comments word for word. This role is a great opportunity for you to practice delivering an evaluation from bullet points or limited notes.
• Keep together your comments about speakers that speak in the first and second half of the meeting. More about this later.
• Your notes should be structured in the CRC method for all of the evaluations you do. This is especially important for any new Toastmasters that may be filling a role for the first time.

Delivery

• Address the audience in the normal manner; ‘Madam Toastmaster’ or ‘Mr Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and welcome guests’ (if there are any)
• If there are any guests you can, at this point, very briefly describe the role of the General Evaluator.
• You can deliver your report on the speakers in any order you choose. However, to make it easy for the audience to follow, it is advisable to keep to the program order. Start with the Sergeant at Arms then the Toastmaster followed by the remaining speakers you evaluated.
• Evaluate the speakers completely that spoke in the first and second half of the meeting. It is difficult for the audience to follow if you separate your evaluation. Evaluate the speaker’s first half performance and then go straight to your evaluation of their report or second half performance.
• Congratulate any club members that have filled a role during the meeting for the first time. Be very supportive during your evaluation of their performance.
• Use the Toastmaster CRC protocol. It is critical that you close your comments about any errors and mistakes with a positive comment.
• Remember: always deliver an evaluation in the 3rd PERSON. It is very important that you don’t deliver your comments directly to the speaker you are evaluating.
• A useful technique for 3rd person delivery is to imagine the person you are evaluating has left the room.
• Watch the time carefully. It is very easy to run over time with so many evaluations to deliver.
• Close your report by saying some encouraging comments to the Toastmaster and the audience in general.
• Gesture to the Toastmaster and say ‘Madam Toastmaster’ or ‘Mr Toastmaster’ and wait for them to arrive at the lectern, shake hands and take your seat.
• Your role is complete.

Please remember the role of the General Evaluator is challenging and very busy. It is also a very important role as it sets the closing tone of the meeting. The club members will remember your comments so it is imperative that your tone is positive and encouraging.

Please also remember your CL manual when filling this role.

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