The Commissioner's Speechcraft Workshop at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services – August 22, 2011

by Kerry Barnsley, DTM

Along my own road to DTM status I met the Speechcraft requirement for the Advanced Communicator Gold educational award. It was an easy meeting arranged in 2010 by then District 45 Governor Sue Francesco, DTM. While Sue had inspired me to achieve my own Distinguished Toastmaster Award, she had also inspired the Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services ("DES") to commence a quarterly Speechcraft workshop within the department. Sue tapped me to lead the first workshop in 2011. The last Speechcraft workshop on Hazen Drive in Concord, New Hampshire was held in 2006. It was sponsored by White Mountain Toastmasters, Sue's home club, and resulted in the formation of the Karner Blue Toastmasters club which still meets today, here at DES.

I found leading a Speechcraft workshop to be much like a long-term assignment as club Toastmaster. The workshop was sponsored by the Karner Blue Toastmasters club but we met in a seminar-style format at a different room, time and day than the club met. We completed the first quarter in eight sessions over ten weeks (with a couple of snow days :). We met on Friday mornings for 2 hours and had eight "speechcrafters" in our first group. My deputy coordinator and I rotated actual Toastmaster duties every week and he became the leader of the second quarterly workshop. We drew names out of a hat to decide speaking order and table topics victims each week. The curriculum in the coordinator's guide was very easy to follow and we enjoyed some superb support from other toastmasters in the area who served as mentors and shared the educational speech load. This was my first Speechcraft experience, but one of our delightful mentors, Roger Davies, DTM, had assisted in 14 previous Speechcraft workshops!

DES Commissioner, Tom Burack, warmly greeted the group at the first meeting in early January. He promised that if we completed the workshop in fine fashion he would return at graduation to show us his "moose call." During the workshop veteran " moose caller" Roger Davies taught us all the "plaintive call of the moose cow."

For the "graduation exercise" in the eighth and final session of the workshop I deviated from the guide and fashioned a true "toastmaster meeting" with the speechcrafters filling all of the primary roles, including Toastmaster and General Evaluator. They drew roles from "the hat" during the 7th session, and elected one of their own as "most-improved" to reprise a speech he had delivered earlier in the workshop. We also invited Granite Place Toastmaster Stephanie Champagne, CC, ALB, to be our graduation speaker. Of course, Commissioner Burack was on hand to award the completion certificates. When the Commissioner made good on his promise to show us his moose call, he was pleasantly surprised to receive a unanimous reply from the entire class! The Commissioner's Speechcraft Workshop at DES is in its third quarterly session and continues to enjoy success and support from management, alumni and local toastmasters!