TOPIC:

Hello FTH,

I am from club #3041 [Park Toastmasters, Ramsey, NJ]. We are Area 9 so recently started on Pathways. A number of our members have already started Pathways and I am concerned. When I tried to reconcile Pathways projects to our online agenda I noticed a number of inconsistencies. In several cases the number of required speeches are incorrect while in other cases the speech length is incorrect. I noticed you already quickly fixed one of the inaccuracies due to another member so I left that one off my list. Thank you for being so quick. I do not think anyone else brought the following inconsistencies to your attention. My original list goes Path by Path but I think it is harder due to repetitions. Therefore, I am trying to condense this list and letting you know the inconsistencies by level and Path [when not all are impacted].

Some of the projects require members to complete roles. I want these "new Pathway roles" added to our agenda even though they "look" like the same role - they are not. One Pathway role is TT Master and other role is evaluator. Each of these Pathways roles needs to be evaluated so the role is not really the same role as a regular TT master or evaluator. I added these agenda roles suggestions after the speaking section.

The following have inaccuracies in the Manual/Speech part of drop down menu.

Level 3 elective - all Paths - Deliver Social Speeches project. Project requires 2 speeches. Speech #1 (3-4 min) and Speech #2 (3-4 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists project as requiring one - 5-7 min speech.

Level 3 elective - all Paths - Focus on the Positive. Requires 1 speech but can do one or the other length speech, depending on circumstances. Deliver report type speech (3-4 min) if delivered on date of event (in club on date of event) or deliver informative speech (5-7 min) if delivered on different date in club. FTH meeting agenda incorrect as it only lists 5 to 7 min speech.

Level 3 elective for almost all paths for active listening project. Two Paths [Persausive Influence and Motivational Strategies] list this Active Listening as a required speech for Level 2 – Requires 1 speech but this is not a "manual" speech. See above and below. This is role of Table TopicsMaster showing active listening skills. While project is still 5-7 minutes in total, this is a Table Topics Master role. Please remove from speech area and see my suggestion below under Pathway role suggestions.

Level 4 elective – all Paths - Create a Podcast. Requires 1 speech (2-3 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists speech as 5-7 min instead of (2-3 min).

Level 4 elective – all Paths - Write a Compelling Blog. Requires 1 speech (2-3 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists speech length as 5-7 min.

Level 4 elective – all Paths - Manage Online Meetings. Does not appear to require a speech in club. According to project, evaluator must attend entire 20-25 min online meeting or webinar session (20-25 min). While no speech is required to be delivered in club I do not want you to remove this or we will lose the knowledge that this was completed. FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists speech length as 5-7 min. Please change it to the length of the online meeting (20-25 min). I wish HQR added a required 2-3 min speech for the club but, since HQR only requires this online meeting or webinar, this suggestion is the best I can think of. If you can think of something else where clubs will not lose this project fulfillment on our agenda and our speech reports or role reports so we can check it was done, go for it.

Level 4 elective – all Paths (required for Innovative Planning) - Manage Projects Successfully. This project requires two speeches. About Plan Speech #1 (2-3 min); About Experience Speech #2 (5-7 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly only lists one required speech.

Level 5 – Required for all Paths - Reflect on Your Path. Current required speech length is incorrect. Project requires one speech (10-12 min) while FTH agenda is incorrect as it lists speech length as 5-7 min.

Level 5 elective – all Paths - Ethical Leadership project. Speech length is incorrect as it should be 20-40 min. FTH only lists one speech for 5-7 min.

Level 5 – most are electives but a few are required [required for Effective Coaching, Innovative Planning & Persausive Influence] – all Paths - High Performance Leadership [HPL]. HPL project requires delivering two speeches. Plan and Vision speech #1 (5-7 min); Results speech #2 (5-7 min). FTH online agenda incorrectly lists only one speech (5-7 min).

Agenda Role Changes:

I would like Active Listening to be removed from "Manual/Speech" area but added as a choice for another role on the agenda . I want it be listed separately in the role report as they are different requirements. Please ensure it is clear that TT Master role meets Pathway requirements when it is Active Listening project; it needs to be marked as a different sort of TT Master role that needs evaluation. All members must complete 3 roles at least once before they are promoted to L4 - toastmaster, TT Master and evaluator. However, TT Master does not have to be active listening project. Thus, we need 2 types of TT Master roles.

Likewise, all members must complete level 1 in Pathways. Second project is Evaluation & Feedback which requires 3 speeches. E&F speech # 3 is 2-3 min because it is the member taking on role of evaluator by evaluating another member’s manual speech. Currently, there is nothing in the agenda to indicate it was fulfilled. This role should be in the role report as Evaluator - L1 E&F Speech #3 or similar so it flows into role report and we can count it both as role of evaluator role and Path L1 E&F speech #3. This is one of the required roles to advance to Level 4 award.

Thank you so much for your hard work. My head was spinning from this project so I can only imagine how Pathways is adding so much more work for the administrators and I am truly thankful.

I am not the currently Web administrator (I was in the past) or Park toastmasters FTH site. I am currently treasurer.of Park Toastmasters. We are having a Pathway meeting [our members asked for this meeting to better understand Pathways] in a few weeks and I did this project, in part, to get ready for that meeting. I certainly understand Pathways better now.

I attached my original file which goes through each Path one by one. I think what I did above is easier for you but, just in case, I attached this pdf file for you.

Yours truly,

Maxine

Thank you for your list we will look it over to correct timings.

Your VP Ed can create any roles they want in the club agenda. It is not a function we perform, whether a role is Pathways or not is not a requirement of the agenda, all of the requirements of every level of the Legacy Communication and Leader tracks were not listed in the agenda.

Thanks for the list. Keep in mind that in addition to being the current FTH developer, I was the Pathways Chief Ambassador for my district, so I have some context for the way things are. My responses to your comments:

Maxi wrote:

Some of the projects require members to complete roles. I want these "new Pathway roles" added to our agenda even though they "look" like the same role - they are not. One Pathway role is TT Master and other role is evaluator. Each of these Pathways roles needs to be evaluated so the role is not really the same role as a regular TT master or evaluator. I added these agenda roles suggestions after the speaking section.

We are not going to make specialized roles... your VPE can make any role they want. We do not define any specific roles in the agenda at all, we just provide settings that can be set for various roles that your VPE defines.

Maxi wrote:

The following have inaccuracies in the Manual/Speech part of drop down menu.

Level 3 elective - all Paths - Deliver Social Speeches project. Project requires 2 speeches. Speech #1 (3-4 min) and Speech #2 (3-4 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists project as requiring one - 5-7 min speech.

Thanks, this will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Level 3 elective - all Paths - Focus on the Positive. Requires 1 speech but can do one or the other length speech, depending on circumstances. Deliver report type speech (3-4 min) if delivered on date of event (in club on date of event) or deliver informative speech (5-7 min) if delivered on different date in club. FTH meeting agenda incorrect as it only lists 5 to 7 min speech.

I am not going to change this since it is the worst case that is displayed. As the times in the drop-down do not drive the actual times allocated in the agenda, the person doing the project still needs to be in communication with the VPE/Toastmaster to allocate time in the agenda.

Maxi wrote:

Level 3 elective for almost all paths for active listening project. Two Paths [Persausive Influence and Motivational Strategies] list this Active Listening as a required speech for Level 2 – Requires 1 speech but this is not a "manual" speech. See above and below. This is role of Table TopicsMaster showing active listening skills. While project is still 5-7 minutes in total, this is a Table Topics Master role. Please remove from speech area and see my suggestion below under Pathway role suggestions.

Not changing this... it still needs a Evaluation.

Maxi wrote:

Level 4 elective – all Paths - Create a Podcast. Requires 1 speech (2-3 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists speech as 5-7 min instead of (2-3 min).

Thanks, this will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Level 4 elective – all Paths - Write a Compelling Blog. Requires 1 speech (2-3 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists speech length as 5-7 min.

Thanks, this will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Level 4 elective – all Paths - Manage Online Meetings. Does not appear to require a speech in club. According to project, evaluator must attend entire 20-25 min online meeting or webinar session (20-25 min). While no speech is required to be delivered in club I do not want you to remove this or we will lose the knowledge that this was completed. FTH meeting agenda incorrectly lists speech length as 5-7 min. Please change it to the length of the online meeting (20-25 min). I wish HQR added a required 2-3 min speech for the club but, since HQR only requires this online meeting or webinar, this suggestion is the best I can think of. If you can think of something else where clubs will not lose this project fulfillment on our agenda and our speech reports or role reports so we can check it was done, go for it.

Thanks, the time will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Level 4 elective – all Paths (required for Innovative Planning) - Manage Projects Successfully. This project requires two speeches. About Plan Speech #1 (2-3 min); About Experience Speech #2 (5-7 min). FTH meeting agenda incorrectly only lists one required speech.

Thanks, this will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Level 5 – Required for all Paths - Reflect on Your Path. Current required speech length is incorrect. Project requires one speech (10-12 min) while FTH agenda is incorrect as it lists speech length as 5-7 min.

Thanks, this will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Level 5 elective – all Paths - Ethical Leadership project. Speech length is incorrect as it should be 20-40 min. FTH only lists one speech for 5-7 min.

Thanks, this will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Level 5 – most are electives but a few are required [required for Effective Coaching, Innovative Planning & Persausive Influence] – all Paths - High Performance Leadership [HPL]. HPL project requires delivering two speeches. Plan and Vision speech #1 (5-7 min); Results speech #2 (5-7 min). FTH online agenda incorrectly lists only one speech (5-7 min).

Thanks, this will get fixed.

Maxi wrote:

Agenda Role Changes:

I would like Active Listening to be removed from "Manual/Speech" area but added as a choice for another role on the agenda . I want it be listed separately in the role report as they are different requirements. Please ensure it is clear that TT Master role meets Pathway requirements when it is Active Listening project; it needs to be marked as a different sort of TT Master role that needs evaluation. All members must complete 3 roles at least once before they are promoted to L4 - toastmaster, TT Master and evaluator. However, TT Master does not have to be active listening project. Thus, we need 2 types of TT Master roles.

Likewise, all members must complete level 1 in Pathways. Second project is Evaluation & Feedback which requires 3 speeches. E&F speech # 3 is 2-3 min because it is the member taking on role of evaluator by evaluating another member’s manual speech. Currently, there is nothing in the agenda to indicate it was fulfilled. This role should be in the role report as Evaluator - L1 E&F Speech #3 or similar so it flows into role report and we can count it both as role of evaluator role and Path L1 E&F speech #3. This is one of the required roles to advance to Level 4 award.

Thanks, but I am not going to make major changes to the design of the agenda functionality. I will see what I can do to make it more accommodating, but do not count on changes for this.

Thank you. I appreciate your efforts and advice.

Maxine

FreeToastHost Ambassador Pam Holley has done some revisions to the project drop-down data based on your input.

Thanks so much for your quick fix and also for changing the Manual/Speech order - i.e., for putting Pathways Paths and Projects first before the legacy program. That must have been another member request but they were right to ask for that change. Maxine