After Level 5: Path completion

2 month ago, we could see only 5 levels, and the Reflect on your path project was inside Level 5. Then the gates opened between Levels: now we can go to any level, do the projects in any order. Even finish levels in any order!

Because of that, base camp needs a way to verify that ALL levels are done, before closing the path, considering it done. The Project Reflect on your Path, was put in Path Completion, coming after Level 5. We can arrive to Reflection, just as before, only after all the rest is done. 

This is the project description, a 10-12 minute speech about our experience completing the path we are in. So the bellow is no more true, alas it does figure in all our old images and advices. We have to put, mentally, the last speech, Reflect, outside Level 5.

One Required project, specific to the path, and at minimum one elective from many, remains in Level 5. The Reflection goes into the Path Completion. THe picture was taken just before the Path Completion was activated. 

This project applies to my life outside TM

Every Toastmasters Project in Pathways asks you this question, before and after. Once you answered, this last question, you can submit all the other answers too. When it is the After, then your Project is considered closed, done by base camp. 

Usually, I do answer yes, 5, but very rare it is true, for me, as I do not have a life outside toastmasters, or very little. Mostly, they are useful for me, inside a club. A Toastmasters club, or many TM clubs. Ing

This time, the Create à Compelling Blog Project of Level 4, was useful for me really outside. I got a lemon and made. A lemonade, as told me today’s evaluator. Indeed, I used my newly diagnosed Diabetes 2 as subject for a blog, relating how I coped with all the new, and diverse information about it. 

Marguerite Wire has evaluated the blog, Michelle Alba-Lim the speech. Indeed, strange to tell in less then 3 minutes, a month of work. Perhaps, somewhere is written, one can do it 5 minutes too, but this time, less was enough. While not so many looked read my blog, i will not give up, and find a way to spread it in more places, make it read more.

This photo applies to many things we feel as a huge problem and somehow, even n my diabetes anxiety become smaller, to its proper size during this month and blogging .

Thanks to Toastmasters and Pathways and this blogging project !

Feedback on my story : Level 1 project 2, 2nd speech

This video is a round table evaluation of my story, from childhood. Alas, the story was not recorded. I was supposed to record it myself, but was not told so. After only I realized it was not recorded.

Apply what you were told. Put the feedback in the same or another story.
I was told to go directly begin. And to round up, telling something of applying it later. Did.

Here is a picture of participants. This picture taken while someone else was speaking. No more crossed arm while I told my story...

Bellow is the feedback given upon which I tried to improve.

As for pathways, it is the second speech from the Feedback and Evaluation Project. Derrick, will send me written evaluation. Here are very short and very different feedback: it is great to repeat a speech and also great to have so different points of view. Otherwise, I really enjoyed at the reaction of all of them while I told my story. Yesterday, I also told my story to my two adolescent grandchildren who were visiting me.

Level 1 Project 3 : two speech then one evaluation

It is clear, three meeting, three tasks. The problem is, some are used to have One Task for one Project.

Same with the Evaluation: three evaluation needed. Remember: we can ask anyone's evaluation in Pathways, not only the one chosen by VPE for that time.

Online experience through video. 1

I had the impression of participating, as I went through the 3h video of chartering meeting of first 100% online club from Singapore first, then the 1h20 meeting of Global trainers Online. Here portraits from the Singapore meeting. Some of faces and what I observed. Not what I heard, this time. Even if that was also interesting. « A star is born » theme of meeting.

The new club president, making it possible.

 He was President 4 years ago, when online clubs were not yet allowed.

I did not understand, if the club met, anyway, or it was rebords from ashes.

So many participated! I did not see all at once, by one after the other. No Gallery view..

Elder or younger, smiling or pensive, not only from Singapore but even so far as USA. 

Tuesdays Talks and tips

Now, 21 already done. Some more interesting then others, but all worth looking, listening to. Here some of the firsts 20. Alas I could not fit all in one image.

She is one of my favorite, always there too.

Login and beginning

Login to Toastmasters.org - my computer and other devices too, "know" the name and password I use, so I do not have to remember them each time. If it is the first time, or we want to change the password, we say so, it is available at login.

On top, I see then in different colour "Welcome Julie", each of us with our name. On my computer. On my iphone, I go to the three lines and choose Profile, as Welcome Julie, is my profile. Instead of horizontal, the options will be vertical, one near other. Then "Go to Basecamp" - as I already have chosen a path.

When I have not yet, I can go directly English, Web based, and at bottom, Skip Assesment, click and chose the path I wanted.

For all NEW members, I recommend today, as first path to begin with Presentation Mastery. Embrace Humor is very similar path, with more about storytelling and how to handle audiences. Leadership Development, teaches goes to create a small event then, a bigger event.

Don't judge the paths by their title.

One can discover more about each in another post from this blog, or in The Navigator also.

As we go to Basecamp (or Educational Transcript) we find our path, called curriculum. Click on the MIDDLE of ACTIVATE then the middle of button Launch. (not the name of path or the project).

We have 5 Levels of increasing difficulty in every path. The first Level SAME in all paths.

The Level one has the most speeches of all levels. Level 2 has 3, and Level 3 has 3 minimum, one of the called "required" the others we can choose from 12 or 13 called "electives" : web based path, let us elect, choose the one's we want, after studying reading or saving even if we want it printing them.

Let us enter a Project: for example the Icebreaker. When we arrive to a screen which is GREY, we click on Directions and it becomes white. At the beginning and the end there is ASSESS your SKILLS before (and one after we have given the speech and been evaluated). Only we will see which number we click at each question. Instead of the big arrow, we advance here to the next question with NEXT. As we answered all questions, Submit appears at bottom.

Another post I recommend for new to pathways, from this blog is THIS.

Attention! if you click on Submit in the Assess your Skills - After, we signal to the basecamp that we finished this project. Do it only after the speech have been evaluated. To refresh then and get an x meaning this project is finished, we have to refresh, going to another project or level.

The last page is always Congratulations! alas, we get there whether we submitted the project or not.

My district 91: increased as members and awards

.

In Europe, my district, 91 so far first in new members, and new clubs.

As awards, also a good increase from last year.

Just got these in my newsletter to leaders.

There is also, again a contest between clubs, for who gets most Pathways awards.

My club was near top, last year, how it is faring now? I went to see and discover.

For the DCP points, I did contribute with a Level 5 and a level 1.

All our committee is on pathways. But we have 5 new members, who are not yet. We will have to work now on that. We also need more awards declared.

12 point for the moment, for my club in London, multiplied by 2 - all officers enrolled. Alas, our 5 last newest members not yet. Tomorrow, I hope to remedy that.

Open Leadership Central: if club officer, you can then go to the Club central.

Went to see in club central how my club fared so far. We got 9 new members since End June, but 5 of them are not yet on Pathways, the last ones. All committee members are enrolled on Pathways, but no more all members. Perhaps, need to declare soon more.

I choose Lewisham Speakers Club, then went to the Club Roaster first. 20 members, Went to look at our DCP points. We got 1 Level 5 (mine) and 2 Level 1 so far. More to declare soon!

For a brand new to Pathways

So many details not clear and may go wrong for someone NEW to Pathways! 

Yesterday, I had a coaching (mentoring?) with a new member. She was lost in the Transcript mode because she clicked on the Project Name instead of the MIDDLE of the Launch button. Or to arrow down and asked to know details... Nor of them ok. 

Once we get USED to click on middle of brown buttons, we do not think any more. 

But so many places and movements, we can get lost, before!

Here is one of my for Active Paths that I work now, this one is the last. And yes, beside that I wanted, needed to research on Diabetes2, as I was diagnosed with it recently, also wanted to see if I may do any project beside Icebreaker at the beginning. As not so long ago, for more then two years, till we did not finish Icebreaker, we could not even Activate any other path (they are called Curriculum). 

Now, we can. Begin with any project from any level. Of course, till we did not finish all projects from a Level, we can not get recognized that we were awarded that level, in Basecamp. At Club Awards level, we can only declare Level by Level. From one to five, in order. They are still not connected at all. 

In above picture, it is also shown, how to Logout from Basecamp. We remain still logged in to TMI, and as I did this morning, can for example, in Welcome Julie! my profile, lookout for my Education Awards. I just received one at the Division Contest, I did not attend, for having finished a Path and attributed it to my London club from that Division H. Last year was SR level 5, this year TC level 5: for which one was it? 

Tomorrow, I will describe all the points where we had to clear confusions with Carla, a new Toastmaster, very eager to learn. We worked through Zoom, sometimes, she showed me her screen, other times me, mine. 

Platform of visitors

Yellow are from all of Mobile devices. Absolute numbers.

Michelle 5th Path Icebreaker: How we begun pathways

2017 Spring, Online Toastmasters are "undistricted" they were a year from Launching Pathways, but a group of us was determined not to wait.

Where I find The Navigator and FAQ

We do not have to login to get there and we can learn so much from the new Navigator! I call it "new" but it has been now with us from January.

The same place, but have to login, find FAQ about Pathways, choose a path, and so on.

Telling, retelling story evolves.

First, it was Hidden identity, during the 2008/9 financial regression.
Then it become Mistaken Identity, the title of the night theme in Canal Cafe Theatre.

For me, it was a turning point of my life. I realised, I can make audience laugh and decided, to learn as much as possible about humor.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yC0vtIPZs0&feature=share
Here is the Mistaken identity tale filmed from a lateral point of view by Spark London when I performed.

Same performance. At a Toastmasters. Club,
in the iframe so - even an ipad could see it.

AND somehow it is different when one listen to it,
I think we could learn from each kind when we relisten or relook
- and not only the evident English mistakes I made during the telling -

My body language, facial expression and even voice variety got better
but I have still far to go! And I do not rush out (most of the time) after a performance.

I am most pleased that this serious message got well across and so much laugher too: it did decide me to learn about "how to make laugh with intention" not only by chance. At 2'7 the audience begun to laugh when I stripped, took out my tee-shirt, and they never stopped.

https://app.box.com/shared/m4vj8sftdd
Sound track of the story I told at Canal Café Theatre

Meetups: The Artists Way

There are thousands Meetups one can attend, I discovered 11 years ago, as I arrived to London, July 2008. 

The first two Meetups I attended, because of my photographer pal, were: Street Photography and then, one he lead for three month Artists Way. 

The book “the Artist’s Way”, by Julia Cameron, a course to discovering and recovering your creative self. I learned, understood then used a lot from her book and our workshop, in which, week after week, we discussed our experience. 

Most important was that I discovered not to put myself in a box. 

I am not just a blogger.
I am not just a photographer.
I am not only storyteller.

I do not have (even if I was at that time) a recognized writer: I just have to write, blog, take photos. And I can do all of those at the same time. 

Also learned about “synchronicity” and “filling the well”.

Synchronicity: make your first step, be courageous and “the univers will reward you”. Helps will arrive, doors will be open around you. In bible it is written thus: Ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you”. 

Filling the our creative well. Sometimes we do not see the next steps, are tired. We should go out and “fill” experience something new. A visite to a shop we never went. Touching, looking, experiencing. We come back to our creativity work reinvigorated. 

As she proposed, I wrote, for six month or more, my three morning pages. Let come out what arrived. Only after a few month looking back, I realized how much it helped me. At that time, it helped me realize: I need connection. More and nearer as I had lately. 

That is how I found, end December my first Toastmasters club in London, then the other clubs. I found my tribe. 

Without login, road to THE Navigator through "Pathways"

THE Navigator is the first place to visit, for a new member. At least, that is what I try out now with her, till we see each other next week.

I have send her also two PDF, one showing a page for each path with Required on left and Elective Projects on right. The second, pictures by Mark Show of details of each level Projects.

Yesterday, visionary communication path first project I spoke from in our Lewisham club.They also told me that they liked explain the Levels, through Video game levels.

It was a surprise for me, that I was allowed to tackle the Research and Present, before I did Icebreaker!

When I begun March 2017, one could not go farther, till finishing icebreaker was not recognized.

I had a mentor come to my computer, from Toronto, to show me how it is done and discover that I did not answer to ALL self assessment after questions. Because used the flèche to go farther I stead of Next, soI did not answer all.

Here are a few of the written comments from visitors and new toastmasters.

Repeat a path, NOW

The first path I finished was Visionary Communication a while ago. 

As I am on 4th Level on IP and Level 5 on LD and MS I needed a new path. Not only to begin Level 1 again, but to discover how it is an open path, as we have now.

I looked again in the Navigator and decided I do NOT want SR, the only path I did not yet take on. 

I have a HPL project in Innovative Planning that is enough for me. 

I was told: the past path will no more be available, if you choose a new identical! So, before buying, I went back and ppl z took on the first time. Bellow are Level 3 from 2 years ago.

 Level 4, I begun this blog. Level 5, the first Panel discussion.

This time, I did not go through Assessment, when one begins, after choosing the Language and web based of course, under all there is a discrete Skip Assessment. I did chose it then went all down to Visionary Communication and paid for it. Less then a minute later, my path was there.

Now, I could experiment: do I have to finish the Icebreaker before others? NO! I could begin with the research and present project! I even got the How to navigate and how to print a project pages, when I begun, and even the Outline! All that usually are in the Icebreaker, it seems now come with the first project we Activate and Launch.

Different paths and projects, we can return and revisit again

All this paths are in London, and I went to all of them with my camera.

From the Base Camp of Pathways, you can reach different paths. Some, I did archive, some the system consider "done" and can be retrieved when needed from Completed, and others are still Active.

When I finished Visionary Communication, the first path I completed, I was stunned: the path was no more visible in "My Education Transcript"!

But then I found out how to retrieve, look, save, print, any of it's projects.

When I open the Completed, I can still select between Path and Projects by type or by title.

Those are by Type, my two completed path that I can retrieve at any time.

I did sometimes, "ask back Visionary Communication" to read and save a project I did not elect, but needed for another path or other project to study. The materials of all projects are still there for us. TMI does not "take them back" once we finished them.

From the level 4 of Visionary Communication, I did finish these 3 projects.  Only one counted: so what? I learned and did the projects.

Managed many Online Meetings, one specially using Pathways suggestions. And today, I needed to read again the Manage Projects Successfully, that was not even Activated (ever read from this path) and I begun to read it, saved it also to my computer.

All those wonderful projects we can read and study and re-read again!

--- Originally published 2 years ago, 10 November --- Good to know, all that is here.

Project: Dealing with difficult audiences

The theme of the meeting in my online club where I offered this presentation was Colours. I was asked to explain for the members, how to create in Zoom the Virtual Background and given 20 minutes for it, a long time, a special offer for me. 

So, my first aim show all attending, and if possible as it was recorded, all who could not attend, what they could achieve through it and explain using images, how and, beside adding their images, what else I discovered that is also involved. Light, that has a huge impact on how it works or does not work.

I was also inspired by the project that I read but did not "do" yet from Pathways, called Learn to use Presentation Software. The presentation software I tried was not Power Point, but Keynotes, it's equivalent in Apple Computers and devices. I am also learning Slides from Google, different, I could make slides with it but did not learn yet how to transfer, send it well, from my IPad to Macintosh, which I use usually to meet online. 

Pathways incites me to learn new things, try out new tools and methods.

I tried to follow Gar Reynolds wonderful book "Naked Presentation" where he explains that you have to tell a story with the images, put little big texts, and that even in presentations we could put humour and open up,. "Present naked" : be authentic and ourselves when we present to reach and not bore our audience. 

I almost did not have text with them or very little, and yes, some of slides made them laugh, from time to time. 

Preparing the slide show was the hardest to me, but learned a lot from it. I even learned we can direct a Keynote presentation on Mac, from iPad! That will come a next time. I pretend, and it is true, that for a story one puts the picture in the head of people, painting words then let them add theirs. But in this presentation, images where needed. I also showed in direct, but did now want to rely on it only.

The actual, Pathways instructions where to learn how to handle interruptions professionally, and I did that. I really enjoyed the interruptions "programmed" in advance by a group and organised masterfully by my Pathways pal Mark Worthy all the way from Mexico with maestria: he is the one who intrerupted me with vehemence. He really believes or did believe anyway before my presentation, that GoToMeeting is best, it is easier to use from an University Campus from where he sometimes connects.

In the project, different types of difficult audience are described and even showed with short videos. On time, I will have to try doing short videos to demonstrate, different points I want to make. Learn how to show them during a presentation.

I think I was able to respond to interruptions well, nice and firm and, at the end, with an argument difficult not to take. "Do you like colours here they are" of course the theme of the day where colours, so...

 Another project I will be happy to do again.

--- Republished from 2017 --- 

This year, in August, I really needed this skill: and used it. 

How can I make them laugh, when I want?

As I approached 77, in the middle of the recession, I decided many, looking for new work, needs this tale. 

I begun to tell it in toastmasters club, in London. The story evolved till Performed at Canal Cafe Theatre with Spark London the theme was "Mistaken Identity". A true story that speakes about a time my life changed.

It happened, 10 years ago, today.

This performance bellow changed my life, again.

As I took out my shirt, a tip from Adolfo Tunon's Humorous speech at Citi Criers, a banker who become jogger before our eyes! My audience begun to laugh also from then on. 
It felt so good! 

Suddenly I become more playful, they laughed more, even at parts that surprised me.

Video curtesy of Annelise Lepage

"How to make them laugh when I want?" 

That question made me read about Humor, Comedy, Laugher and then go to Standup workshops, and even one Comedy Writing workshop when I was stuck. Test out in standup comedy clubs what I learned and learn more. All begun with this evening, this storytelling event. After many gigs in many different gigs, I improved. Humor is a practiced skill.

I was able then, to understand better and incorporate back what I learned in my storytelling again. In a Dublin bank I performed 1h ½ telling my stories and making laugh. 

I published this first in May 2017 in this blog... It does come up again, as I ponder, how important is to repeat a story and let it bloom.