Evaluators 

Evaluators give speakers positive feedback, encouragement, and suggestions for improvement.

Before the Meeting

• Contact the speaker and ask their speech topic and title; Path and project title, and personal objectives.  Ask for the Evaluator’s Resource Guide for the speech.

• Review the project goals and what the speaker or leader hopes to achieve. Evaluation requires careful preparation if the speaker is to benefit. Study the project objectives as well as the evaluation guide. Remember, the purpose of the evaluation is to help people develop their speaking skills in various situations.

 

During the Meeting

• When you arrive at the meeting, speak briefly with the general evaluator to let him or her know that you are present.  If you haven’t already done so, give him your introduction.

• Retrieve the Evaluation Resource Guide from the speaker and ask one last time if he or she has any specific goals in mind.

• Record your impressions in the Evaluation Resource Guide, along with your answers to the evaluation questions. Be as objective as possible.  By actively listening, providing reinforcement for their strengths and gently offering useful advice, you motivate members to work hard and improve. When you show the way to improvement, you’ve opened the door to strengthening their ability.

• Remember that good evaluations may give new life to discouraged members and poor evaluations may dishearten members who tried their best.   Always provide specific methods for improving and present them in a positive manner.

• Take the podium when introduced. Though you may have written lengthy responses to manual evaluation questions, don’t read the questions or your responses. Your verbal evaluation time is limited to 3 minutes. Don’t try to cover too much in your talk; two or three points is plenty.

• Begin and end your evaluation with a note of encouragement or praise. Commend a successful speech and describe specifically how it was successful. Don’t allow the speaker to remain unaware of a valuable asset such as a smile or a sense of humor. Likewise, don’t permit the speaker to remain ignorant of a serious fault: if it is personal, write it but don’t mention it aloud. Give the speaker deserved praise and tactful suggestions in the manner you would like to receive them.

 After the meeting 

Return the Evaluation Resource Guide to the speaker. Add another word of encouragement and answer any questions the member may have. By giving feedback, you are personally contributing to your fellow members’ improvement.  Preparing and presenting evaluations is also an opportunity for you to practice your listening, critical thinking, feedback and motivation skills. And when the time comes to receive feedback, you’ll have a better understanding of the process.

People join Toastmasters to improve their speaking and leadership skills, and these skills are improved with the help of evaluations. Members complete projects in Pathways, and you may be asked to evaluate their work. At some point, everyone is asked to participate by providing an evaluation. You will provide both verbal and written evaluations for speakers using the guide in Pathways.