Angela Lansbury Speeches and Making Speeches

Speakers On Radio Programmed Must Keep Time

I often go out of time at meetings. I have not pinned the timer.

At a meeting of a club outside Toastmasters it is up to the chairman to tell the speaker the allocated time and when they should wind up. The speaker needs to have a quick final line.

When I used to speak on radio, they would stop on the hour for the news.

At every something o'clock I had to stop. No chance of going over time. The news was on the hour. My microphone was switched off and they went on to the news.

I learned to ask for a signal from the interviewer, and to have my final remarks ready. I also learned to give out my message, such as the contact details of the museum or restaurant I was promoting, well in advance of the end. Or to mention it at the start, and ask the interviewer to ask me for it again just before the end.

Contest Speaker Over Time

In a recent contest as a speaker I went over time. 

I was not asked to pin the timer.

I told the Contest Chair that he should have asked all the contestants to pin the timer.

The Contest Chair who was new to the role, argued, 'It is not in the rule book.'

I did not pin the timer. I tried to.

My husband says, "If you practised your speech enough, you would not go over time".

In District 80, Singapore, the contest chairs are meticulous about asking everybody, 'are you ready?' Then the contest chair asks each contestant to pin the timer. 

There are two ways to pin the timer. You can go into gallery view and select the three dots on the person listed as timer.

Or look in the participants for the timer. (And pin them?)

The meeting host can also pin the timer. The SAA should make sure the timer is labelled, listed on the program, or everyone is informed of the timer's name, so it is known to the contestants. 

In the breakout room you cannot see the timer. Then you go into the contest and are introduced immediately to do table topics. If the timer is away during the break, you cannot do anything as a speaker unless the contest chair tells you who is the timer, which may have changed to timer 2 at half time.

The VPE or Contest Organizer should pin the timer for everybody. Also known as spotlighting the timer.

SAA and TImer

What should the contest SAA do? Pin the timer for everybody.

Useful Websites

Labels: Contest Chair, OVER TIME, time

# posted by Angela Lansbury Author @ 3:00 PM