Speechcraft – It’s Not a Scary Project

Just as many of you are, I am pursuing my first DTM. One of the requirements towards the DTM is to coordinate and conduct a Speechcraft. I read all of the information about Speechcraft (https://www.toastmasters.org/education/speechcraft) and I watched the video tutorial titled Toastmasters’ Speechcraft Experience (https://youtu.be/wqYDBgHKFTo). Both of these gave me the gist of Speechcraft, but I am a learn by doing person, so I reached out to some of my Toastmasters connections and found a club that was holding a Speechcraft last Spring and I asked if I could observe their Speechcraft program. The Club was happy to have me observe. I attended all of the sessions and saved all of their materials. Attending their Speechcraft program was one of the best things that I could have done as someone who had not been through a Speechcraft before.

This Spring, my Club, FarmTown Talkers, decided to hold a Speechcraft to gain new members and also enable me to complete the Speechcraft requirement towards my DTM. We decided on a date that we would like to do a 6-week program. I went to Toastmasters.org and I purchased my Digital Bundle (https://www.toastmasters.org/shop/8600–Speechcraft-Digital-Bundle). After that purchase I received emails from Toastmasters International about how to set up my Speechcraft using the Speechcraft portal (https://speechcraft.toastmasters.org/). I set the Speechcraft dates and started going through the portal and tutorials. Downloading the Coordinator Guide is important. Then it was time to organize the agenda and get the advertising out.

I advertised six weeks prior to the start date. You at least need about four weeks to advertise well. We put it on our FTH site, in Linkedin, on Meetup, on Eventbrite, on Google, and Facebook groups. Speechcraft can sell itself with the weekly topics that are built into it. There are a couple of marketing items that come with the Speechcraft Bundle, but most of the marketing that I used, I created. I used a few different types of fliers to attract different audiences to our program and I rotated these fliers each week. Once Speechcraft started, I continued to advertise, but using fliers that revolved around the theme of the Speechcraft session. For example, vocal variety, body gestures, or giving and receiving feedback. I have found that for advertising to work, you need to be consistent with it, i.e., every day or every other day. 

Conducting the Speechcraft program was easy. All of the Club members took an educational presentation and we had a few Guest Speakers to assist with educational presentations, too. Toastmasters International also provides a tutorial on how to log Speechcrafter speech completions which is important so that the Speechcrafter gets credit for their Pathways Level 1.

I also made up a chart that had the Speechcraft week of the program, what the theme was, what the educational presentation was, what handout to use, and what evaluation form to use. I also listed who was presenting and the length of time for the Speechcrafter speech. In addition, I got all of the agendas done ahead of time. There have been some small changes along the way, but overall, the agendas were done.

For best practices, I would send out the next week’s agenda a day after we held our Speechcraft meeting and I would also send out a reminder email on the day of the meeting with the agenda, handout, and evaluation form.

Looking back, my first Speechcraft has not been a scary project at all. I have had lots of support from Club Members and our Club VPE. One of the best things that I did was to observe a Speechcraft. If you are new to conducting a Speechcraft, I encourage you to observe some Speechcraft sessions and you will see that Speechcraft is not a scary project.