Meeting #92: The Art of Listening

Posted on 7 September, 2011 by Dan Smith, DTM

14 September, 2011, from 7pm

Summiting Session Yingdan Liu DTM – The Art of Listening (see more below)
Speeches
- Daniel from Dell TMC
- Ken Zhuang CC
- David Xie CC
- Daniel Smith DTM
Toastmaster of the Evening: Minnie Li CC CL

About The Summiting Session

Why do children complain that their parents don’t listen to them… while parents have the same complaint?

Why do many people think about what to say next instead of listening when in a conversation?

Why are you so often interrupted before you finish what you are saying?

It’s all about listening!

In this session, you will learn:

  • What causes the above-mentioned problems
  • Why listening is vital for effective communication
  • The FPL principle to enable you to become a better listener

About The Speaker

Yingdan Liu, DTM

  • 2010-2011 District Governor of District 85, including mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau
  • IPMA Certified International Professional Trainer
  • Sina-Lingua Certified Cross-cultural Trainer
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Turning Evaluations Upside Down

Posted on 1 September, 2011 by Dan Smith, DTM

Delivering an Evaluation is challenging. You are expected to give useful feedback to different individuals, often with very different needs, from events across a two-hour or more period. While perhaps interesting to the person receiving the feedback and useful for the one giving the feedback, that doesn’t justify taking up the time of the audience.

Typically the General Evaluator will deliver report that addresses role-takers one-by-one, often going through chronologically from the start of the meeting. Often Individual Evaluations take a similar format, either addressing the specific issues in the evaluation guide in order or by summarizing the speech itself and then offering “suggestions”.

But do you actually like this style?

To me, it is boring. Ineffective. Disrespectful. Inefficient. Outdated. And I’ve got some good news: There is a much better way! Continue reading →

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Visiting Global Communicators in Beijing

Posted on 1 September, 2011 by Dan Smith, DTM

Global Communicators (#620500) meets in Beijing and is home to some leading Toastmasters. Last night (31 August, 2011) I dropped in an enjoyed a lovely meeting.

One of the sessions that they had that I really liked was what they call “Quiz Master“. In this segment, one of the members challenges the audience with specific questions about what has been said by the speakers from the meeting up until then. Last night, they did this by dividing the room into two groups, and keeping score – “my” side of the room won 4-2 :)

When we attend a meeting, it’s easy to ‘switch off’ for a period of time, not really listening to what is going on. By having a Quiz Master, we give an extra reason to keep the audience focused and attentive – which of course is better for the audience and the speakers!

I’m not sure how well this would suit CAT though one of their senior members, Monica Kwan, told me that they have had this session for about two years, so if you want to know more, you can check with them directly.

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Conquer the Stage!

Posted on 7 August, 2011 by Meca

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Talk Up Toastmasters

Posted on 2 August, 2011 by david

CAT won the Talk Up Toastmasters Award 2011. Picture from Left to Right: Immediate Past District 85 Governor – Yingdan Liu; CAT President – David Xie and CAT Immediate Past President, LGET Training & Education – Susan Zhou

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Peer Mentoring on July 27

Posted on 31 July, 2011 by david

CAT held a successful meeting on July 27. Our members attended the peer mentoring  to share more opinions about the speeches with each other after the meeting.

Comment from Jolie Hu (GE):
Strengths:
  1. Great Details (e.g. Feedback Sheets; Colourful Paper for feedback; Guest Name Card; Agenda; Coupon and Gift)
  2. High Quality Speech and Evaluation with high spirit
  3. Great mentoring time
Improvement:
  1. The Theme could be more interesting and vivid
  2. Take video to record the meeting
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CAT 89# Meeting

Posted on 25 July, 2011 by david

Title: CAT Meeting
Location: Rm.505, #1 Building, No. 355 Huanghe Road. 黄河路355号1号楼505室
Description: Regular meeting

Start Time: 19:10
Date: 2011-07-27
End Time: 21:10

Toastmaster of the Evening: David Xie, ACB, CL
Table Topic Session: Susan Zhou , DTM
Summiting Session: Impromptu Speech– David Loiselle CC,CL
Prepared Speakers:
Mecca Shi, CC
Ken Zhuang, CC, CL
Susan Zhou, DTM
Daniel Smith, DTM
Evaluators: Cheng Zhang, CC, CL; Larry Schuster, CC; Andrew Wong, ACS, ALB and Carlo Wolff, ACS ALB
General Evaluator: Jolie Hu, CC CL
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CAT 88# Meeting

Posted on 12 July, 2011 by Meca

Title: CAT Meeting
Location: Rm.505, #1 Building, No. 355 Huanghe Road. 黄河路355号1号楼505室
Description: Regular meeting

Start Time: 19:10
Date: 2011-07-13
End Time: 21:02

Toastmaster of the Evening: Andrew Wong, ACS,ALB
Table Topic Session: Justine M.YE , CC,CL
Summiting Session: Mandarin Humorous Speech– Yizhou Shen, ACB,CL
Prepared Speakers:
Alaia Liu, CC,CL
Charles Wang, CC
Shan Li, CC,CL
David Xie, ACB,CL
Evaluators: Yizhou Shen, ACB,CL; Minnie Li, ACB,ALB; Bill Wang,ACS and Ken Zhuang,CC
General Evaluator: Susan Zhou, DTM
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Exco meeting photo!

Posted on 25 June, 2011 by Susan Zhou, DTM

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CAT #87 Meeting

Posted on 20 June, 2011 by david

Title: CAT Meeting
Location: Rm.505, #1 Building, No. 355 Huanghe Road. 黄河路355号1号楼505室
Description: Regular meeting

Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2011-06-22
End Time: 21:15

Toastmaster of the Evening: Bill Wang, ACB
Facilitating Discussion: Nika Xu, CC
Summiting Session: Unique Selling Poing – Andy Guo, ACS ALB
Prepared Speakers:
Meca Shi, CC
Ken Zhuang, CC
David Xie, CC CL
Spike Gu, ACS ALB
Evaluators: Yizhou Shen, CC; Daniel Smith, DTM; Jessie Yang, CC CL and Gregory Ernoult, ACS
General Evaluator: Rebecca Hong, DTM
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