How to General Evaluator the RDG Way

2.2. During the Meeting

Sit in a position where you can easily observe the entire meeting. Prepare to take notes on both the positive and negative aspects of the meeting.

One framework for organizing your report and your notes is the TEECO format:

• Timely – Did we respect everyone’s time?
  
• Did the meeting start on time? Will the meeting end on time? 
• Have the meeting segments progressed on time?
• Have we been mindful of time when in control of the meeting?
• Entertaining – Was the meeting worth coming to?
• Was a theme used? How effective was it?
• What specific parts of the meeting were enjoyable? How can more of these moments be created next time?
• Educational – What did we learn from this meeting?
• Provide feedback for the evaluators
• Were speeches done according to manuals?
• Who completed a task in their CL manual?
• Challenging – What motivated us to grow?
• Was the word of the day appropriate to the theme and skill level of the club?
• Were table topics appropriate to the skill level of the club?
• Were members assigned roles appropriate to their skill level?
• Organized – Was the meeting well planned and setup?
• Was the room ready ahead of time? (evaluation forms, seating, lighting, ribbons, etc.)
• Was the agenda completed, with roles assigned appropriate to the levels of skill in the audience? Was it printed for everyone?
• Were introductions provided to the Toastmaster?

Monitor the speakers’ as if you were an evaluator. Compare your notes against what your evaluators deliver. Some guidelines for what to watch for include:

• Did the evaluator point out the objectives (or at least, give an executive summary of them) for the project? Did they comment on how these were met?
  
• Did the evaluator point out what was good about the speech that everyone can benefit from? (i.e. what were the positive examples of the speech?)
  
• Did the evaluator point out some areas for improvement in a tactful way? Were the suggestions to improve specific and actionable?
  
• Was the logic behind the evaluator’s observations presented clearly? (e.g. “I noticed your eye contact was good because you delivered an entire thought while focused on a single audience member.”)
  
• Did the evaluator take care to “pad” their statements with phrases such as “I feel” or “I think” when appropriate?
  
• What did the evaluator end with? Was it something positive, or something negative?
  
• Did the evaluator structure the evaluation in an easy to follow way?
  
• Did the evaluator refrain from making the evaluation a rebuttal or a response to the content presented? For example, if the speaker gave a speech about supporting issue X, did the evaluator spend time speaking against issue X?
  
• Did the evaluator keep themselves within time?
  
• Did the evaluator tailor their evaluation to the theme of the meeting?
  

Some other things to watch for include:

• Recognition of and first impressions for guests
  
• Introductions/transfer of Meeting Control

When it's time for the Toastmaster to begin the evaluation portion of the meeting, transfer control and begin your segment. Introduce the first evaluator, then take back control once they finish. Repeat for the other evaluators, if applicable. After the evaluators are finished, ask for a timers report. If your club votes for a best evaluator and there were two or more evaluators, conduct that vote (as well as any other voting that needs to be done). Provide your report on the meeting and the evaluators, then turn control back over to the Toastmaster once you're finished.

Again, be sure to point out the good things as well as those needing improvement. Keep your remarks limited to 3-5 minutes, not including calling for WAG and timer reports.