Ed Wischmeyer's Meeting Evaluation Guide

The Big Picture

1. Was the meeting fun?
2. Were all aspects of the meeting evaluated, thoroughly and objectively?
3. Did people speak from the heart, or only from the head?
4. Did all members participate in significant ways? (not were they given a chance to, but did they?) Were jobs rotated, or did the same people do the same things?
5. Were people encouraged to work outside their comfort zones? Did they?
6. Were all emotions okay, or only enthusiasm?
7. Were the introductions complete, or did people compensate with monologues? Were people forced to introduce themselves by talking about the theme of the day in addition to talking about any job responsibilities? Did the introductions build up to the person's name as a climax?
8. Were people trained before the meeting on how to excel at job responsibilities, and was there accountability for giving that instruction?
9. Were people allowed to both succeed and fail at the meeting, or were failures whitewashed? Were people allowed to have public failures without public humiliation?
10. Were errors in the meeting corrected unobtrusively, or did they interrupt the meeting flow?
11. Did the meeting flow, or were there interruptions, breaks, and pauses?
12. Were the speech evaluations focused, or were they mostly a rehash of the speech with maybe some congratulations thrown in?
13. Were the evaluations stated as opinions (I liked, I felt) or as absolutes (great speech!)?
14. Did people laugh at themselves?

The details

1. Meeting came to order quickly, without excessive flashing of lights or pleading from the lectern.
2. Audience asked to bow heads before the invocation, is one was given.
3. Audience asked to join in Pledge of Allegiance -- which comes after an invocation but before an inspiration.
4. If an inspiration was given, it should be brief and should flow into the rest of the meeting. Inspirations are very hard to do well, because an inspiration should be followed by an opportunity for folks to reflect on what was said in a quiet fashion. This is anathema to an upbeat start of a meeting.
5. Audience invited to sit down
6. Word of the day introduced
7. Word of the day not an adjective
8. Word of the day not part of a semi-cliche, but rather, is usable in a variety of ways
9. Each guest introduced by member, and guest's name given last so the audience knows when to applaud.
10. President introduces the Toastmaster and uses theme of the day to do so
11. President does not launch into a monologue
12. Toastmaster briefly introduces theme of the day (no more than 30 seconds), but never says, "The theme of the day..."
13. Toastmaster does not launch into a monologue
14. Toastmaster calls on grammarian, timer, ah counter, tally master, camera operator not for introductions of their duties, but for what their job means to guests and to the audience.
15. Respondents tell the audience what is important to the audience, and do not perform a table topics response in addition. (If response to the theme of the day is desired, it should be part of the introduction by the Toastmaster. Don't ask folks to introduce themselves.)
16. Respondents do not say “thank you”
17. Vote Counter explains to guests about ballots -- how to fill them out, how to submit them
18. Toastmaster introduces Table Topics master
19. Table Topics master invites audience to keep best table topics speaker in mind for voting later on
20. Table Topics master calls first on all without speaking assignments
21. Table Topics master calls on Grammarian and Timer for eligible speakers
22. Toastmaster introduces each speaker's speech objectives:
23. Evaluator does not mention the speaker's name
24. Speaker is introduced, not just the speech
25. Speaker’s name comes last
26. Speaker is introduced from where the speech will be delivered
27. Challenge: introduction is given from memory
28. Toastmaster invites audience to write comments, does not mention time limit or address timer. Those details are hidden from the audience, like the pros do.
29. Toastmaster asks Timer for times of all speeches and for which speakers qualified