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FAST TRACK -Something New
How does an average fortnightly club become a best performing club in D17?
In the past 6 months Bunbury Toastmasters has gained 9 DCP points- 6 CC's, 8 CL's, 2 ALB's, 2 ACB's, 2 triples, and more to come. That's not possible? This club must be taking short cuts, I hear you say.
It is possible, as our achievements and increased membership show. By thinking outside the box Bunbury now provides more opportunities for members- it's as simple as that!
With an increase of younger members keen to participate and move through their projects we needed to increase speaking opportunities from the "normal" 3 per fortnight. As speechfests are normally one off we wanted something more permanent, that would provide ongoing benefits, for a maximum number of members.
That Bunbury was a fortnightly club was our major advantage. The gap week became the obvious time to conduct "our project". We also wanted something more structured than speechfest that included the disciplines of a speechcraft course. We arrived at a formula that has now stood us well and is the foundation of club achievements.
The gap week meeting is classified as a "Special Meeting" called Fast Track. Fast Track is defined as 6 sessions with a co-ordinator appointed (CL) to set the agenda and promote the meetings. There is no defined number of speakers (more than 8 is too lengthy). All speakers evaluate. Speakers and evaluators are paired off in the agenda. There are 2 speaking slots and 4 evaluation slots on the CL that a member can achieve. If the speaking number is around 4-6 one of the older heads jump in with an educational which in turn goes toward another CC, again helping the club towards its DCP. Speaker times are according to the manuals the speakers are using. Formal roles are Toastmaster, GE and timer (CL).
After the initial Fast Track 6 sessions members voted overwhelmingly to continue so it is now a permanent feature.
Benefits are absolutely positive. Members have a club of two dimensions where they progress at their speed, slow or blitz. Fast Track has rekindled the flame of achievement in our older members.
Venue proved very important. We wanted a more social environment. Originally in a private house and now held at the Bayview Tavern we found members developing closer bonds. The buzz is loud at all our meetings. Our members have the best of two training worlds- the disciple of a club meetings and the relaxed atmosphere of Fast Track.
For Bunbury Toastmasters Fast Track is a winner. Now that our secret is out of the box you too can have a go. For smart clubs and Area Directors looking for a way to boost morale, membership, and speaking opportunities, this strategy has been well and truly proven and could well be part of your clubs success formula.
For any additional information or agenda, call 0418 111 309 or email me on olaf@nqtelecom.com.au.Olaf Schubert President Bunbury Toastmasters and Club Coach Mandjar Toastmasters. (At the time of this post)
Defining the Buzz
What makes for a strong club?
That is a question that is asked regularly and one we all ask ourselves as club leaders. We have a successful club and when asked what makes it so I point out that the club follows the guidelines set out according to the TMI club constitution along with following the principles of good Toastmastering.
I was told the other day that this reason even though true was too clinical and there was something else that has not been written down something that needs to be identified and talked about. This paper hopefully goes someway to identifying the magic ingredient in the formula of success.
When you walk into a club there is a feel. For the first time visitor it is whether the members are warm and welcoming for the recurring visitor it is whether there is an energy, a buzz between the members not just toward the visitor, that is expected and whether the club meetings are the mechanical same old same old or fun and vibrant.
I am a terrible member. The first thing I ask for is a copy of a clubs constitution from committee members. Some of the reactions I received are from "What's that or get that off the net from TMI or there you go". The "there you go" is what you hope for. That question sounds like an unimportant and totally irrelevant to public speaking but it goes a long way to tell you if the committee understands the basics of conducting the business of a successful club. A TMI Club constitution represents nearly 100 years of Toastmastering. It is the main operational document- I suggest, that it is the blue print for a clubs success.
All this is written – In this I am looking for the unwritten. Those things that cause the Buzz between members, that makes the member want to attend meetings, want the member to complete their current project, achieve their next level and when a social event is called for – attend to simply enjoy each other's company.
How to find it? Let us define an average struggling club and consider what steps it would take to shape it into a club worthy of Charter and carry the Toastmasters name in our search for the non- written words.
Our theoretical club has 14 members. The executive are long serving members. Meeting numbers hover around 10. The members are aged from middle to senior. Meetings are fortnightly and generally the same with a low guest conversion.
What needs to happen is a no brainer. The club needs to get to charter strength.
The use of the term "charter" is interesting and in my opinion the above answer is worded incorrectly. The answer should be that the club needs to get to charter. A chartered club has 20 minimum members and the club's founding executive on behalf of all 20 members have signed an agreement with Toastmasters International that it will abide by the TMI Club constitution. The constitution is a formula of Toastmasters success from which our theoretical club has strayed.
So our first step is to get our theoretical Club to look at compliance and how that impacts on present and future members.
Let us assume that our executive re-discover the constitution and do the following:
Look around for a simple template to record and present the minutes to the members.
Minute executive meetings and get the members to debate the executive ideas and ratify them.
Vote in new members.
Conduct a business meeting at least once a month.
What is the impact to the members?
Minutes represent the business of the club. According to the constitution a club is an independent legal entity separate from every other club and district. Minutes are legal proof that the club is conducting what it has chartered for. The minutes record member attendance, their role and the name of any speech. Valuable to an individual particularly when most keep poor records and have been known to misplace their manuals. New Pathways should overcome some of the recording issue but will never replace the legality of minutes. Record keeping by the VPE and President should not stop at minutes which are a TMI constitutional and Australian government legal requirement – they should include keeping track of every individual. Perhaps a spreadsheet to monitor their speaking projects and their CL projects. Pathways will go some way to address this however the value of a VPE being able to view the progress of several members and know where each one is will not be there and will need to be retained. Good record keeping will assist the VPE to program meaningfully, to getting members toward their individual speaking or leadership goal. Enabling the VPE/President to encourage the member. The member will feel that the leadership cares about them. The hidden element here is "CARING". Leadership should care, as caring directly benefits the member and when the member reaches their goal the club reaches theirs.
Executive ideas and decisions openly debated and approved by members are well received with the members feeling inclusive. The constitution states that every member has an equal responsibility in running the club that is why executive decisions require debate and ratification. The hidden word here is "INCLUSION".
Vote in new members and induct them. To be invited to join a club and have its members vote you in is a privilege. It is not an embarrassing or time wasting thing it is a professional thing. Perception is everything and a club needs to look professional. The hidden word here is "PROFESSIONALISM".
A business meeting is not something that should be avoided it is the reverse it needs to be embraced. Business sessions can be as short as 5 minutes our theoretical club has decided to allow an extra 15 minutes. This provides time to teach meeting procedures and you will find that members will enjoy something different especially training motions that are fun. When explained to members that a meeting procedure is an opportunity for any member to voice ideas or grievances, to move and debate a motion and, it is their formal forum to contribute to the direction of the club. The hidden word here is the "MEMBERS HAVE THE POWER". The member is the most powerful person in any club. The constitution gives them this right.
Now that the club has created a framework for success through compliance it would be expected to generate an increase in members feeling greater worth and esteem by the executive demonstrating caring, member inclusion, and professionalism. It is now time to focus on member's achievements.
I hear a call why not concentrate on getting in new members – the short answer is that the club could go that way but if you want to achieve both getting new members and retaining them, then our theoretical club will wait a little longer. But it is encouraged to spend the time to get the club web site as slick and up to date as possible before considering the next two important issues.
Firstly the club needs to look at the current agenda. The club agrees on a meeting of 4 speaking opportunities without a business session and one with 3 speaking opportunities and a business session. To achieve this the members have elected to extend club meeting time by 15 minutes. The opportunity to conduct varying styles of meeting is still available with the executive focus on creating more speaking opportunities for members.
The interesting thing that our theoretical club executive will notice is that the club has a different feel. Members are starting to feel more empowered. The banter has picked up, the roles are easier to fill and there is a faint buzz. The other thing that becomes obvious is that conversion of guests has gone up.
The second consideration the executive have is to attract younger members. Old heads have old ideas young heads have new ideas and with only old heads a club has a limited future. The challenge with our theoretical club is that we only have middle and older aged members which will attract middle and older type guests to convert to members even though there are younger guests they do not stick around. The reason we cannot convert the younger guest is simple, because we do not have young members. The solution, is more difficult. The club needs to come up with an answer to attract young members. What to do? If the club is relatively close to another club and they have younger members arrange for 3 consecutive demo meetings inviting the younger members from the other club as speakers and role players. Promote the demo meetings at learning institutes, and larger organisations hoping to attract the 20-40 year olds.
If the theoretical club is too far away to obtain help to use the demo meeting tactic then the club could consider an in-house speechcraft course. Do whatever works to convert your first young guest to a member.
Converting a guest. Every club or VPM has a different approach:
The conventional. Sit the guest with a member who can explain the process of a meeting and then ask them what they thought, present them with a guest kit. Send them a follow up email thanking them for attending and reminding them of the clubs next meeting.
The Inclusive technique. Ask the guest if they would read the toastmasters pledge or offer them the opportunity to answer a table topic. Even get them to pick a table topic from the list. A great technique is for a guest to be interviewed. Just keep in mind a guest has come to the club because of their fear of public speaking, their inability to stand at the feared lectern. If you can coax them up at the lectern for a minor role, they will go home moon walking. I would be more certain on this type of guest returning next meeting than when a conventional approach is taken. To me this is qualifying a guest quickly and would encourage to complete a membership form the next meeting. Of course you still sit them with a member and provide them a guest kit then follow up email but those things are not the reason their chests are out-they have achieved, they have stepped out of their comfort zone – all done in front of strangers, friendly, but still strangers-WOW.
Maybe in our hunt for the hidden word is the "WOW I did that" factor or perhaps it simply resonates the "INCLUSION" word, they felt they were part of the meeting and they should be part of the club.
The new member. They have very special needs that in our busy world we tend to overlook. They are eager to progress through their projects. Hold on! In our theoretical club the question was raised why isn't every member eager to progress. Shouldn't every member be treated in a way that fosters their advancement?
Through their record keeping the President and the VPE have the opportunity to light the flames of the older members and maintain the flame of the new members. They know the status of each member goal. Through informed programing, challenging members, cajoling members, subtly pushing members they will see members advance to their first achievements, followed by the next and so on. The club executive pushing a little lights member's fires and then watch as the flames spread throughout all members. A leader will always carry matches to ensure the fire never dies. The hidden word here is setting a "FIRE". Rekindling the learning/achieving passion that resides within. The reason for joining.
To retain members especially those where the fire has been lit the executive need to create more speaking opportunities. Why? The more members your club has the longer for your members to attain their speaking goals as there are only 3-4 speaking opportunities every fortnight. The more younger members the club has the more competition over the limited speaking slots. So the executive have to think outside the box. The theoretical club meets every second week so there is a gap week. It was decided to use this to commence a special meeting called fast track. Instead of a maximum of 4 speakers this was increased to 8 speakers, 8 evaluators, 1 toastmaster, 1 GE and a timer. It was also decided that this would be recognised as a special 6 week event with a co-ordinator appointed. With Fast Track the theoretical club has the best of 2 speaking worlds. The disciplines of a formal Toastmasters meeting and the alternate special meeting in a social setting where guests are also encouraged to attend and given the opportunity to be inclusive in our now successful Toastmasters club.
The DCP is a great way for TMI and District to monitor the performance of a club and a club to rate itself against all other clubs via the Dash Board (when it catches up). For some of our older heads in our theoretical club the DCP is the be all and end all whilst chasing a goal. For example when 4 CC's were met it was suggested that it was not necessary to promote those other members hoping to finish their CC's as we had already met the maximum points for the DCP. Wiser heads prevailed and pointed out that by balking any member from achieving their goal it was pouring water on flames and it would be hard to rekindle something that wet. Let a fire burn – where possible throw extra fuel on it and watch the club bask in the glow.
So what makes a successful Club? In summary a successful club is one that:
Has a structure that contributes to the members. One that radiates organisation, some discipline and some formality – we all want to feel that we belong to something of substance and adds value to our learning.- "PROFESSIONALISM" and "CARING"
Warmth, comradery, fun all stirred together but held together in a vessel called challenge. It's great to feel good but it is uplifting to win a challenge.-"FUN"
To be part of an organisation that is inclusive. Toastmasters is not a business, strict business rules of top down management are turned upside down. A Toastmasters club is run by every club member with an equal responsibility as to club direction and outcome. The elected leaders are guides to the direction that members choose to take and outcomes that members choose to create. On many occasions the skills of leadership needs to be taught.-"EMPOWERING MEMBERS"
Leadership of a Toastmaster club is a blend of man management, father/mother leadership that plans, prods, cajoles, pushes (until they say no) and challenges are set for each individual member. A leader knows what makes an individual tick and how to get them to take that next step. This is a hard one-in the world of touchy touchy and feely feely to many "leaders" pay lip service and are afraid to push or cajole for fear of losing a member. The reality is by playing the Mother/Father role and pushing, cajoling and challenging a member, leadership show they care and will induce a reciprocal response from the member. "If the leadership of this club care about me- then I should care about me and reassess my progress".-"WOW I DID IT" and "LIGHTING THE FIRE OF LEARNING"
Time that our theoretical club took to achieve charter would be 12 months. The executive can now rotate and teach the newer members, the immediate past president can guide and retain the momentum started ensuring that the new team remain true to the charter and build on the good things achieved.
All clubs need members and all members need a club-Follow the formula for success which is the TMI Club Constitution.
To all those that suffered this text please remember– wishing never made anything happen – doing it did.
Understanding your club contsitution
A Compliant Club is a Strong Club
The TMI Club Constitution has evolved over nearly 100 years to provide a framework of education, governance and leadership for every Toastmasters club throughout the world. Successful clubs understand and follow their Charter, whilst others choose to ignore it or worst still, do not know it exits.
To the readers of this blog unaware of the wisdom of the TMI Club Constitution, let us highlight some of the articles/sections that influence decision making, as a club coach and/or club officer.
I recommend that a current copy of the Toastmasters International Club Constitution be at hand when reading this blog entry. This is freely available from the toastmaster International. Put "TMI Club Constitution" into your search engine and the document will be found.
Article I:
As a club officer we not only have an obligation to teach better listening, thinking and speaking but also meeting procedures. "Where Leaders are made" is the TMI logo advertised to the world.
If we are to encourage members toward leadership, we as club officers need to teach the "rules." What are their obligations and rights as individuals, what is the Constitution and what are standing orders? How can these "rules" benefit them as members and ultimately their club? What is the difference between an alliance to District and an allegiance to TMI WHQ?
The more comfortable members become at understanding where they stand as members, club officers and within their respective District, the more club and District roles are sought after and filled.
Article II:
This relates to membership. The Constitution states every club is a private association inviting membership through prospective members completing a Club Application Form. Members are required to be voted in.
This inspires respect in becoming a Toastmasters club member. In addition it can be argued, when a member is voted in, they can be voted out if they are found to breach of the TMI Code of behaviour.
Formal inductions is an experience to new members. It is a sign of professionalism and discipline looked for in any organisation.
Formality does not scare those who are seeking professionalism and the discipline to improve their own development. These members are usually the ones that contribute the most to a clubs success.
Article III:
l members are equally responsible to ensure the club complies with the TMI Club Constitution as well as having an educational program in which they contribute and participate. As a club officer your responsibilities do not change but are enhanced by the role you have been elected to perform.
In a significant number of clubs, member rights and responsibilities are not included in the education program nor in District and or through Club Officer Training (COT).
Without ongoing reminders of the TMI Club Constitution and the benefits of following these tested rules, clubs will do what they have inherited to do – some have never been taught the "rules!" Constitutional training appears to be a club responsibility as Districts may not acknowledge there is an issue, nor does it appear to be a TMI requirement on District.
"Remember the member" is a catch phrase used consistently in the District COT. Regretfully this philosophy does not appear to be applied universally across our organisation.
Article VII:
The most overlooked role of importance is that of the secretary, more specifically it is the recording of minutes of club business and the maintenance of accurate records. Not every club records and files a set of signed minutes yet this is the only legally accept transcript of club business. Some argue that agenda provide proof, this is not so. An agenda is the intention of what is to occur whilst a set of minutes is what did occur. When signed by the chairman of the business session they are deemed to be true and correct and acceptable in a court of law.
How does the member benefit from accurate records?
Minutes can always be referred back to the roles performed, speeches given, when and delivered by whom and evaluated by whom. This particularly applies if a member loses their project manual. Minutes also legally prove that the club conducts the business it has been established for.
The other ongoing record is the spreadsheet monitoring every club member for their CL and speech project and in the future their Pathways progress. This is a very powerful tool for the President and the VPE. They are able to forecast and accurately monitor their DCP. They can nudge and encourage an individual member to "just complete this to achieve that etc." To a member this translates that the President/VPE/mentor has a direct interest in their individual progress ("they care about me") which encourages member retention and increases member performance/club involvement.
Article VIII:
Executive Committee
To be elected onto the committee as a member you acknowledge you have a role to fulfil for a nominated period (6 or 12 months). You also know the decisions, direction or recommendations made by the executive are required to be approved by the members (ratified) as they (the members) share and are ultimately responsible for all decisions made.
The question has been raised how do you ratify a set of executive minutes?
Ratification consists of the following steps:
The executive minutes are drafted and distributed (generally by email) to all members advising that the minutes are an executive meeting and the decisions contained therein shall require to be voted on before they can be enacted.
Raise the minutes at the next meeting if the club does not schedule formal business sessions or next scheduled club business session. The chairman calls for a mover to move "that the executive minutes as presented be accepted", a seconder and then calls for a vote.
After the vote (assuming it was passed) the chairman will ask for "Any business arising from the minutes?" – This is where the chairman has opened it up to all club members to make comment, pass individual judgement on any aspect of the executive minutes. It is here that any debate of any aspect of the executive is performed, motions moved by club members that directly affect the contents of the executive minutes. In essence this is where the minutes are indeed ratified by no changes to the ideas, motions and direction contained within the minutes. Alternatively some changes are made by the members to reflect the direction the members wish the executive to follow. If the decisions proposed by the executive in the minutes were unpalatable to the members they would not have been approved.
A club executive is not a ruling body. It is a body of members elected to guide all club members along the road of good governance in a direction that all members wish or are happy to travel.
Article VI:
The constitution recognises the authority of individual members by Section 7. All members share an equal responsibility in running a club and it is the individual executive members who help steer the club in the direction the members wish to travel. The executive do not dictate what is to happen, do not hide mail or information or ideas that members may need to decide on or may benefit the members. Where there is evidence of an officer working outside the Constitution members may remove that member from office. The authority given the members by the Constitution is very powerful, as it allows any officer to be removed by vote of the members for any or no reason.
Leaders in successful clubs teach this authority to their members as a tool to ensure individual officers do not follow individual agendas.
The rotation of club officers is promoted by TMI. The organisation recognises more members performing club officer roles leads to more respect for the roles and offers an opportunity to "new blood" to taste the leadership path, test old ideas and put new ideas forward. If the same members continually perform the same club officer roles, a club stagnates into a social club without drive, direction, and real opportunities which is what young members look for. The end result is new members are hard to come by and retain.
Old clubs with old (aged) members find it difficult to attract young (aged) new members, as these new potential members do not see the dynamics that they are looking for.
The club President is one club officer position that must change. Unfortunately clubs who are not aware of Section 9, have presidents who are either ignorant of the Constitution by remaining in the President role year after year, or blatantly ignore the requirement, because of self-interest or that they are comfortable in the role and claim "no other member can do it better".
A successful club promotes new members into officer roles as it provides an opportunity to broaden the perspective of the officer and brings a new dynamic to the club with new ideas thus keeping a club vibrant and fresh.
Standing orders (rules of meeting procedures) used by a club should be according to the recognised authority of the country you are in. For example if your club was in China you would be using the Chinese recognised authority. If our club was in America it would be Roberts Rules, however as we are in Australia it is Renton. This authority is recorded in the clubs Addendum.
A club teaching meeting procedures by conducting business sessions including training motions is not only fun but another tool to encourage and teach leadership. It does not turn members away, which is the usual excuse in fact it, encourages members and provides leadership confidence to stand for those roles outside Toastmasters benefiting the community, their club and District. In some cases clubs gain members simply because they teach meeting procedures.
If we combine speaking and knowledge of meeting procedure we have a member who has the tools to be a leader. If we only provide good speaking skills, we are only half a Toastmaster. If we relate this situation to 2 football clubs - one teaches great ball, running and kicking skills but never wins a game because their players are fouled out for not knowing or playing within the rules, versus the second team who also teaches the basic skills but ensures their players know all the rules, It may not win all the time but it does most of the time.
The TMI Club constitution was the document your club founding members signed to form the club. If you interpret this document and your club remains compliant to the document then the club is working within a framework of success. It is true to say that every club needs members but equally, every member needs a club. The constitution provides one and if a club erodes away this framework by non compliance that club is dismantling the formula of success.
A Club's Formula for Success
If you look at any hugely successful franchise operation you ask yourself what gives them the ability to continually grow? The answer has to be that they have developed a formula for success that they are able to rubber stamp into every store/restaurant opened.
How do they do that? Over time with experience, trial and error and man management a system of protocols, best recipes and management rules had been developed that worked to provide maximum return in customer satisfaction and income. This was transcribed a into franchise agreement.
If you went along to the golden arches food chain and agreed to purchase a store you also need to agree to operate the business using their defined strict protocols, prepare the food in a specific manner and provide customer service with more than a smile. So the franchise agreement is signed which provides for all these things and it is all these things that constitute the formula for your business success and ultimately the Golden arches head office success. You switch on the light to the golden arches above your new store and the customers walk in.
What would happen if the owner of a Golden arches Franchise decided to play around with the agreed protocols by removing a beef Pattie from a burger or reduce the volume of chips. I suggest that customers start walking out and if disgruntled enough they will complain to the Golden arches HQ. An inspector from the Golden Arches HQ would make an impromptu visit and as they leave turn the light to the golden arches off that sits above the store advising the owner that they have breached the franchise agreement. They have just turned out the lights on their whole business.
What has the Golden Arches Franchise got to do with opening and running a Toastmaster Club? In principle the same business rules apply.
Toastmasters is an international organisation with clubs around the world. Every club is an individual entity with a signed franchise directly with world headquarters. That franchise is a contract to which all members of the club agree to abide as it provides the framework for education, conduct, operation and governance, thus licensing the club to call its self a Toastmasters club. That franchise (club charter) is the club's formula for success.
Regretfully over time, a significant number of clubs simply lose focus of the Charter document (franchise agreement), bury the document beneath a layer of ignorance due to poor training, expedience or self-interest. Their members do not understand what a club charter is, what it represents or the responsibilities and member rights it carries.
This is a major contributing factor to defining levels of success. It's the level of commitment to the charter that controls club dynamics, member commitment and volume of buzz.
If your club does not have a copy of your original charter you can obtain a copy, any club officer may requesting one by emailing Toastmasters International clubconstitution@toastmasters.org Club Quality and Service Officer.
Your club may have been chartered many years ago however regardless of when the original charter was signed the club is required to follow the current Toastmaster International Club Constitution. The document that needs to be reviewed by the club executive at least annually or if changes are made to meeting location and/or meeting dates and times is the Addendum which is used by TMI to update the club meeting and location information on the International web site.
If your club is in breach of the charter, like the Golden Arches Franchise agreement whose lights can be turned off, the title of "Toastmasters" may also be lost to a club.
The question then arises can your club exist without the word "Toastmasters" in it's name.
Which Club is Yours?
In my travels all Toastmaster clubs share the same goals and generally have the same issues. There are however obvious differences in the nature and culture of clubs that influence their levels of success.
I identify Toastmaster Clubs in 3 levels.
These are the most successful clubs. Membership is maintained with a steady intake of new members replacing those of natural loss but gaining in overall numbers. These clubs respect member's goals through individual programing, creating opportunities for members to progress speaking and leadership wise. They offer education on speaking, meeting procedures; Toastmasters club organisation and the responsibilities associated with being a TMI member. These are the strongest clubs, as they foster a depth in leadership from which the club is able to draw and nurture quality club executives. These are the clubs that consistently achieve Presidents Distinguished status and provide officers to all levels of District.
These clubs appear successful. They have a speaking program, which follows a set agenda and occasionally meetings are slightly varied to introduce something different, but basically it's the "same old, same old." These clubs are generally laid back and comfortably predictable. Members are only encouraged to advance when they want to, if they want to. This type of club ticks the boxes for an Area Directors visit, but its level of achievement at best, is Select Distinguished.
This level of club generally has the same executive team playing "musical chairs" at club officer election time. The club still gains members but will also lose members, in particular younger members, as the club tends not to provide challenges and foster or encourage leadership, new ideas or promote opportunities outside of their standard agenda. These clubs hover around the same level of members with member loss equal to member gains.
These are clubs on the brink of folding. Clubs where membership is 12 members or less with poor meeting attendance. Generally with "multi hatted and revolving door" executives nearing burn out in will and enthusiasm. Without spirit, drive and enthusiasm they fail to convert guests as there is no member buzz to attract new members.
This type of club desperately needs a club coach and an injection of new ideas and enthusiasm, without which they will continue a downward spiral.
The basic difference between the three club levels described, is a decision by club members on what type of club they want theirs to be. That is, they decide whether to be a Toastmasters club that follows the TMI Charter, or a club that only follows those protocols which make everyone feel good. In essence, a social club with a Toastmaster banner.
Level 2 type clubs need to be aware, it only takes one incident or leadership failure to cause membership bleed which may send the club into a Level 3 type situation. Upon reaching this stage it takes a lot of work to return it to a Level 1 club.
Every downward spiraling club can be restored. This requires planning, direction and will. In most cases, enabling this process needs to come from outside of the club, as the energy within the club has diminished or dissipated.
This is generally in the form of a club Coach/Mentor.
Read the articles in Rebuilding and strengthening a club in this Blog.
Beyond "Moments of Truth"
Determine your club status with honesty
A club with a membership below 12 is generally a club in trouble. Club officers are wearing more than one hat and meetings are such that members are performing multiple roles. After a period of time the situation spirals downward with officer burn out and member retention disintegration, as the club fails to provide what individuals were looking for. It seems regardless of what the remaining members try nothing is attracting new members. Regretfully it is too often at this point individual emotions by those left "at the helm" boil to the surface, exacerbating an already poor situation.
It is time that a club in this situation needs to stop, think, plan then act!
All the members (not just the executive) need to realise that a Club Coach is required. A coach is generally an outsider with no emotional or political attachments to the club. Their role would be to analyse the club status, its members and the general demographics. Based on member attitude, capacity and demographics they would derive a plan to rebuild the club back to charter.
If your club is in a city area, you would request a meeting with and brief your Area Director on your club situation. The Area Director would then make a request to District for a Club Coach.
There is a Toastmaster manual on club rebuilding as well as additional document by Roger Denno, "A Guide to Rebuilding a Club." Both documents are worthwhile reading and they give great support information that needs to be understood. However, on occasion more practical solutions need to be provided, particularly to those clubs where a Club Coach and/or club mentor is not available.
This blog is designed for clubs where a club coach is unavailable but may provide a strategy a coach may choose to apply.
Self analysis.
Toastmasters International advocates the "Moments of Truth" process. This form of analysis is designed to strengthen a club. This blog is directed at the club beyond a "Moments of Truth" analysis. The moment of truth has arrived where the members know to save the club they need to adopt a recovery strategy and an injection of new members.
For a meeting re a clubs status, the Area Director should be present, as they may have access to resources that the club is unaware of. If an Area Director is unavailable the club should not use this as an excuse not to take independent steps. All clubs need to be reminded that they are independent entities with an allegiance to Toastmasters International. They have a signed agreement to conform to the Toastmaster International Club Constitution by charter so initially they have a responsibility to heal themselves. They however, have an alliance with their District whose role it is to provide training and support. For some clubs due to logistics, this support is unavailable.
Firstly your club needs to be brutally honest in its self-assessment.
It needs to consider:
A complete consensus of all remaining members on all decisions is required – not just the members of the committee.
That any plan/strategy formulated be implemented with enthusiasm. Any plan involving members seen as lacking enthusiasm by the people they are attempting to attract is doomed to failure.
That the plan/strategy agreed to be performed to its conclusion and not abandoned part way.
Strategies that may be considered are covered in this blog. Each is proven successful if used in the right context of your club circumstances:
OPEN HOUSE (Demonstration Meetings)
IN-HOUSE SPEECHCRAFT COURSE
Not so Traditional Speechcraft:
Non Traditional Speechcraft course:
For those clubs interested in using any of the above strategies and require guidance or a course templates, contact me on 0418 111 309 or email olaf@nqtelecom.com.au
When to use Speechcraft
Speechcraft is a tool gifted to every individual toastmaster club by Toastmaster International. If used correctly a speechcraft course will generate revenue and increase a clubs membership. Speechcraft can vary in design and application. It may be used by a struggling club to bolster membership or a healthy club to earn additional revenue but the trick is knowing how to define the appropriate Speechcraft course to fill your specific requirement.
Over the years I have applied speechcraft in three differing ways:
a) In-House
b) Traditional
c) Non Traditional
This is an excellent strategy for geographically isolated and struggling clubs, that is, clubs that do not have other clubs close by to help in rebuilding using techniques such as Demonstration meetings . A Speechcraft course not only provides new members, but also capital funds for the club.
"In-House Speechcraft Course" description:
This is a recognised Speechcraft course, conducted over 6 weeks, with the venue being your club premises and conducted on the same day as your regular club meeting (but instead of). The impact to your club and members is:
Regardless of how often your club meets during the time of the course, your club will need to meet weekly for 6 weeks.
Your senior club members conduct the running of the course and associated educationals.
Your newer members may elect to be part of the course as "Speechcrafters." This fast tracks their current speaking project and they receive the benefit of 12 months educationals-great for new members.
The course is promoted in the usual manner utilising local and electronic media and via the Club and District web site. When planning consider promotional lead time. You will need at least 4 weeks.
The cost to participants attending (not including members) is calculated to include a 6 months club membership, Speechcraft manuals and an acceptable loading to cover club expenses, plus allowing for a small profit.
Inform the Speechcrafters they have 6 months membership to continue to practice the skills they have learned once the course is complete. The speeches performed will count toward a CC and CL or Pathways project.
The result of this type of course is that normally out of 10 Speechcrafters (usually 10-12max participants) the minimum retention is 50% (an excellent result from a speechcraft course).
Over the 6 weeks, Speechcrafters will have been conditioned to attend your Toastmasters club meeting on your premises and with your current members. You will find if your members have offered a positive and welcoming environment plus provided good educationals conversion of Speechcrafters will exceed the minimum retention of 50%..
Costing considerations for an internal Speechcraft course:
Venue as per your club normal meeting cost. Additional consideration would be the course is run over 6 consecutive weeks. The cost is therefore weekly.
12 X Speechcraft manuals from your Toastmasters supplies source.
12 X Participation certificates
12 X Frames or mounting boards to present the certificates in a professional manner.
12 X Plastic folders to hold manual and retain course handouts
Establish a budget based on an advertising plan in your local region. Advise District of your course and promote it on their web site.
With the above costs established, divide these by 8 to obtain a base cost loading per Speechcrafter (assuming 8 is the minimum participating figure on which the course will be viable to run). 8 is a good minimum number, as combined with your club members it will still make for dynamic sessions.
To arrive at the final price to advertise your course, you need to look at a joining fee to be included into the costing which covers the first 6 months of membership.
If you are concerned re the final calculated cost of the course, check with your District as to the fees currently being charged. You should find that your course costs are comparable or far lower.
Profit is never great. This is generated by those attending the course and those electing to not to join the club. Their inbuilt joining fee is your clubs gain.
Do not accept more than 12 applications. It becomes a planning nightmare to run the course. Experience shows if you accept 12 applications, 2 will pull out before the start of the course or early in the course.
For those clubs interested in using this strategy and require guidance or a course template and educational handouts contact me on 0418 111 309 or email olaf@nqtelecom.com.au
Gaining additional members to strengthen your club (and generate revenue).
Outside of the traditional sources of recruiting, a club may wish to consider strategies to generate additional revenue and in doing so attract new members or at the very least seriously attract new members and generate some revenue. To do this a clubs only strategy is a traditional speechcraft course.
Traditional Speechcraft:
Conduct a Speechcraft course in the traditional way. Determine a venue the dates of running the course for 6 consecutive weeks, promote etc.
The result will be revenue for the club between $1000-$2000 for the 6 weeks effort, plus a possible 10-15% conversion rate to new members. Predominately a traditional Speechcraft course will raise revenue as it seen by the Speechcrafters as a quick fix to their public speaking requirements however do not count on a great member gain.
Before the revenue type of Speechcraft course you need to be up front and include 6 months membership of the club. This allows the Speechcrafters the option to continue to practice the skills they have acquired through the course. Ensure the course is stacked with enthusiastic members to perform the roles of mentors, timers and trainers. Thus building a bond between current members and future members.
In 2008 a need arose for a weekend Speechcraft Course.
A Speechcraft course consists of 12 hours of training, where the Speechcrafters perform in the traditional way of preparing speeches over the week and delivering them the following. A weekend course is a more intense environment where speeches are written, delivered and evaluated during the course. Graduation is by way of a Sunday evening session of speeches and Table Topics conducted by the Speechcrafters, with an audience of family and friends. Be warned, the Table Topic targets are usually the trainers! The presentation of certificates closes the evening.
What benefits are there to a Toastmasters club for running a weekend Speechcraft Course?
Instead of using manpower over 6 weeks, the course is conducted over a weekend.
A minimum number of 3 trainers are required.
Trainers need to be committed and available for both Saturday and Sunday.
Similar to a 6 week course the results will be revenue for the club, with a minimum 15% participants being retained as members. This strategy is to raise revenue quickly or to provide a service to a remote entity such as mines or councils.
This type of speechcraft originated by flying in on a Friday. The course conducted Saturday and half day Sunday with a BBQ on Sunday evening a final session conducted by the speechcrafter's, presentation of their certificates and Fly out Monday.
For those clubs interested in using this strategy and require guidance or a course template and educational handouts contact me on 0418 111 309, or email olaf@nqtelecom.com.au
Strengthening a club
Strengthening your club by increasing speaking opportunities:
We live in a "blip" society. In particular our younger member's wants need to be realized as fast as possible. During a regular Toastmasters meeting which allows for the usual roles, there are 3 speaking opportunities. When you have a strong membership this is perhaps not enough for those wishing to advance their speaking projects. Occasionally a member leaves feeling progress is to slow. DCP is affected by unattained member goals.
What strategies are there to create more speaking opportunities?
One way is to actively seek roles for members outside the club such as acting as MC or Chairman for other community organisations events, AGM's etc. These may be classified as a "club special event" and be recognised in the members CL or pathway. Note: A Toastmaster member must be present to evaluate the Toastmaster conducting this type of role in the community.
Speaking:
Speechfest:
This is the most common method used by clubs to "catch up" in an effort to get members over the line close to end of year.
Speechfest Description: This is usually an event organised in a social setting (backyard/Park/lounge room). Everyone is invited to speak and evaluations are usually written evaluations only.
Consider varying the usual Speechfest agenda to include verbal evaluations and roles. The event should be classified as a "special club meeting" where minutes are recorded. A Toastmaster, Timer and a GE may be appointed. All roles can be CL applied including verbal evaluations.
FastTrack:
Something new to consider. Pioneered by Bunbury TM, and been running for since May 2017 and continues to be very well supported by all members. Ideally suited to clubs that meet fortnightly with a gap week.
The concept: In design, Bunbury TM plagiarised the agenda of a normal Speechcraft Course and mixed in a Speechfest concept, then modified the meeting content in the following way:
Everyone who presented a speech was also an evaluator of another speaker (Verbal and written). All speeches were recorded against member's relevant manuals.
All speeches were presented from the member's current manual projects.
The speakers could present Educationals – these were evaluated and recorded against appropriate manuals. This included speeches toward ALB.
Educationals presented by those attending as trainers, were also recorded against a manual. In my case, as a DTM the Educationals I presented have been recorded against my next CC.
There was a Toastmaster, a GE and a timer's role which went toward a members CL.
FastTrack has a design duration of 6 sessions, after which the event was reviewed. The outcome was every 6 sessions generated 44 speeches, which is equivalent to 14 additional club meetings of 3 assigned project speakers.
Members have realised the potential of this type of session and have voted to maintain FastTrack as a "special meeting" conducted every second week. The members elected to call it a "special meeting" as the agenda does not conform to a regular Toastmasters meeting. This type of meeting also allows for Toastmaster, GE and Timer roles to be recorded to help members toward their CL.
Note: Originally Fast track was to be held in a suburban community centre however the venue was changed to a private house to reduce rental cost but provided an interesting benefit. By conducting Fast Track in this environment it was discovered at each Fast Track session the members tended to socialise more and linger after the event. The members were comfortable, relaxed and build a genuine camaraderie. If your club is considering conducting a FastTrack session, you should consider holding it in a cosy (more social) environment away from the formality of a meeting room. You will still need a lectern and a set of timing lights. If not a private house a venue where the formality of a toastmasters meeting does not appear.
Fast Track was originally designed to be a multi club activity. The original venue was central to the clubs to accommodate members from different clubs. This is a great concept and goes a long way to cross pollinate good will amongst clubs. If using Fast Track in this environment then watch your speaking numbers. Any more than 8 is a real time challenge.
The Bunbury Fast rack meetings have proved very successful and on occasion with more members attending a Fast Track meeting than a regular meeting. Originally we believed they should not include Ice breakers as these should be reserved for club meetings but it was soon discovered that most members attending Fast Track also attended regular meetings with numbers to match so Ice breakers and every other type of presentation is now included.
For those clubs interested in using this strategy and require guidance or a course template, contact me on 0418 111 309 or email olaf@nqtelecom.com.au
Demonstration Meeting or Open House
OPEN HOUSE (Demonstration Meetings)
A club of 12 members or less requiring to build up members has a real challenge. In most cases members recognise that an "open house" also known as a "Demonstration Meeting" is one proven way to attract new members. So examine the possibly of using this strategy.
"Open House" description: This is a specifically conducted meeting to showcase a Toastmaster meeting. It is a meeting with invited Toastmasters from neighbouring club/s to fulfil as many roles as possible in an effort to create a dynamic and interesting meeting, thus encouraging guest's interest in joining. Open House meeting generally follow the format of a regular meeting (without a business session) with the Toastmaster explaining the roles and the reasons for them.
A successful Open House meeting:
Will not contain a Business Session, although the meeting should still be minuted.
Should contain 3 speakers of varying ages and standards. Young, middle and Old. In this way your club is more attractive to all age groups.
One speaker (probably the older) should give an educational speech. Perhaps on butterflies , gesture, vocal variety etc.
One Open House is not enough to obtain results. Regardless of how often your club meets there needs 3 consecutive weekly Open House type meetings, in order to pursue a positive outcome.
The Open House strategy tends to work well in a populated centre, where there is at least another club within a reasonable distance, willing to provide your club with the supporting manpower over the three weeks.
If your club is the only club in a regional centre, then the Open House strategy may not be the correct strategy instead, consider an in house Speechcraft course.
Olaf Schubert DTM


text:
Q: Trying to pass dynamic value to Rundeck server. What is curl command format for [ data = '{"argString":"-servicename s.name() "}' ] Trying to pass dynamic value to Rundeck server. What is curl command format for [ data = '{"argString":"-servicename s.name() "}' ] python
import os, psutil,
import wmi, sys, requests

google=[ "Dnscache", "iphlpsvc","DPS","DsmSvc" ]
for redhat in google:
    s = psutil.win_service_get(redhat)
    if s.status() == 'running':
        print("service is running", s.name() )
    else:
        print("service is not running", s.name())
        headers = {
            'Accept': 'application/json',
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
            'X-Rundeck-Auth-Token': 'API',
        }
        data = '{"argString":"-servicename s.name() "}'
        response = requests.post('http://IP:PORT/api/16/job/JOBID/executions', headers=headers, data=data)

A: It works in the following way (three options in this case, with three string vars, string1, string2 and string3):
data = { "argString" : "-opt1 {} -opt2 {} -opt3 {}".format(string1, string2, string3)})

Check the full example.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
SOA Governance: 'Not Much' Success, Panelists Say
By Lee Thé
What are the best practices for an organization to sustain its service-oriented architecture (SOA) effort? With SOA, you associate services with specific business activities. That involves loose coupling and achieving greater granularity within the system. Under these circumstances, governance is seen as a key component for managing SOA systems, especially at the outset of the SOA effort.
A panel of experts examined the question of governance in SOAs based on real-world practices. The SOA Governance Panel was part of the Enterprise Architecture Practitioners Conference held last month in San Francisco.
The panelists were all SOA veterans. They included:
Andrew Hately, a senior technical staff member in IBM's software standards group, experienced in applying service discovery, network discovery and service management standards to industry and business problems;
Kyle Gabhart, director of the SOA technology division of Web Age Solutions, with a focus on service-oriented technologies enabled by Java, .NET and XML;
Stephen Bennett, BEA's Americas SOA practice lead with an emphasis on SOA organization and governance;
Michael Nassar, an enterprise integration architect with IBM specializing in SOA and Web services technologies (especially the IBM WebSphere Enterprise Services Bus, which provides Web services connectivity); and
Mats Gejnvall, certified enterprise architect of Capgemini. Gejnvall specializes in enterprise architecture and SOA within large organizations (such as telcos, supply chain and defense).
SOA Governance Success Stories?
The panelists were first asked to provide SOA governance success stories. The collective answer was "not much so far."
Gejnvall said that Sweden, where he works, is just getting started. "That's why we're developing these frameworks," he said.
Bennett concurred on this side of the pond, saying that "it's an ongoing multiyear project" and that customers were mainly reactive, not taking SOA governance seriously until they encounter challenges.
"You need to evangelize in force, with incentive models in place, or you'll fail," Bennett said. He stressed the importance of having a repository. "Unless you have the information at hand to course-correct, you'll get into trouble."
Nassar gave an example of why governance is important. He described the case of an insurance company that had started developing Web services for their department. When they tried to start doing reuse, they discovered that the services weren't reusable. Developers had started modifying the services to fit specific needs without taking overall company needs into account. They got into a fiasco with versioning, with 16 different versions of one service in play, for example. Nassar's team went in and straightened out the versioning issue.
Gabhart talked about a Department of Defense (DOD) group in the Washington, D.C. area.
"[They] had this lifecycle set up and the last stage was called 'governed,' he said. "They thought it happened after everything else was done."
Gabhart's group had to install key gates and make them understand that governance needed to be global and happen throughout development."
EA vs. SOA Governance
When asked whether there should be a difference between SOA governance and enterprise architecture (EA) governance, Gabhart pointed out that various organizations have EA or SOA or business process management (BPM) as "the big umbrella." He sees the three areas converging. You need IT to be aligned with business goals and processes, you need consistency across business units, and you need standards for more predictable business strategies, he acknowledged.
"IT isn't just locked in the server closet," Gabhart said. "It's out there promoting visibility and enabling the business' objectives."
Bennett talked about companies where EA governance has failed, concluding that "taking it more from a portfolio or iterative way may help." It also helps to take care of governance from the start.
"SOA in general highlights existing challenges," Bennett said. "If you've had enterprise governance issues in the past, SOA will make it worse. You must straighten them out first."
Nassar sees SOA as an extension of IT.
"The reason we have SOA is so we can reuse services," he said. "You must have guidelines to ensure that these services are reusable -- rules and policies controlling this use and reuse.
Gejnvall said that if the company doesn't have EA governance beforehand, SOA governance takes over responsibility for the former. "They fit well together," he added.
Snake Oil Architecture?
Dave Estrom from Sun challenged the panel, saying, "I think SOA stands for Snake Oil Architecture…customers are asking for specifics, not platitudes."
Bennett replied that there are no pure SOA governance standards. The Web Service Interoperability Organization (WS-I) provides some industry standards, but SOA governance is about "creating your own internal IT standards and living by them," he explained.
For Nassar SOA governance is about creating a centralized entity that receives everybody's input but represents the whole company. It means making sure that the services being developed fit the requirements of the whole enterprise and aren't biased toward one department or another. Another concrete step would be a service registry or repository "like IBM's WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (ours). You can't really achieve high-level governance/reliability without tools like that," he said.
"Requirement analysis tools and the like become more critical because the use of these tools is more stringent," Nassar added.
Gabhart, referring to his DOD case study, said that a lot of what this unit was doing involved metaframeworks, but "this is one of the less mature areas of SOA." Consequently, Gabhart said he trying to play it safe for now, using configuration management products "where there's a little maturity."
Gejnvall said that "the standards part of governance is a good question we've been debating." For him, governance "is about making sure standards are followed -- every one that's been mandated by the company. It's an enforcement activity."
Gejnvall added that Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) and The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) might be appropriate standards to follow.
However, Bennett said that his group tried to use the COBIT standard "with little feedback from COBIT [the parent organization]. We did try to contact them six or nine months ago with no success."
Start With EA, Then Implement SOA
The panel was asked for a governance plan. Gejnvall said that in an ideal world, you'd start with EA and then with SOA. Next, you'd need governance within the SOA development space to make sure that EA governance is followed.
Bennett's angle was that you need to put policies in place to make sure you're not wasting your money.
"SOA has many assets that need to be governed," he said. "Make sure it's practical."
For Nassar, SOA "is just a natural evolution." You should implement practical governance ideas that ensure reliability of services. And "all the other standards we follow still apply."
Gabhart added that "what it ends up looking like depends on the business proposition." But then he parted ways with some other panelists, saying, "I don't think reuse is what we're targeting. We've been chasing that for three decades without too much success. It may be agility, alignment.…Whatever the motivation, governance is a risk mitigation strategy for achieving your company's value proposition."
How To Make SOA Governance Happen
The panel was asked what they use to make SOA governance actually happen, beyond installing a service registry. Bennett said that it takes psychology -- understanding how the company works today. As for reuse, Bennett said that "we can achieve a level of that but never what we'd like." He added, "I spend a lot of time on restructuring IT and tying it in with lines of business."
Nassar disagreed about reuse, still feeling it was possible. He said that building a service to be reused in the future with unknown applications requires using "some classic tools that help us develop software in a more stringent and methodical way." He cited using tools for requirements analysis, modeling of the business, a methodology tool and a repository of assets.
Gabhart joked -- sort of -- that "the most effective governance tools I know are Excel and Visio." He said you have to build a dialogue about how to adapt/change/mold SOA to navigate the political structures, the people and the resources, using wikis, whiteboards, whatever it takes to foster that discussion. He added that a lot of valuable items are not reusable, such as paper plates, paper diapers and foam cups.
Does SOA Governance Reduce Dev Costs?
One question to the panelists was this: If a CTO came to you and said she wanted SOA governance to reduce her costs of development, would you take the job? Gejnvall said no, as did Bennett, who added that governance has the potential to do that, but it takes a lot of education and evangelizing.
Nassar said that governance will eventually reduce costs but not in the short run. He added that SOA governance "gives you flexibility and agility so we can react faster, change our composite apps quicker so we don't have to rebuild them more than once."
How Do You Convince People To Try It?
When asked about the politics of adoption, Bennett said the most effective was an enforcement model. But it's bad for morale and most people lack the authority to force it through anyway. So they use an incentive model with links to bonuses and career structure.
"It's hardest to do with existing employees," he added. "Instead we go out and hire a skunk works team of new employees."
Gejnvall argued for incentives.
"If you've got a project and they develop a service, they get more money, time. If others start reusing it, they get even more money."
Gabhart said he's not anti-reuse…just skeptical. "And I know how many executives cringe at the thought." He mentioned making reuse the assumption and requiring developers to show why they aren't reusing. Or $1,000 spot bonuses for every successful reuse -- "though you then need QA processes to stop fraud." For Gabhart, though "governance is not an inherent good. You use it to avoid or reduce pain."
Which Methodologies Work Best?
Does a particular methodology mate well with SOA governance? For Bennett, it's the old-fashioned waterfall model. He added that "you can use agile methodology [iterating code throughout the lifecycle] with a skunk works."
Nassar touted extreme programming methodology because it "brought up issues quickly."
For Gabhart it's more of an issue of timing. If governance is implemented too late, he said, "there's a momentum already started. It can be a lean governance but it needs to be [implemented] at the start. Then you can grow it incrementally as SOA grows."
Governance Priorities?
Asked about governance priorities between services, solutions, portfolio, or service architecture, Gejnvall opted for solutions. "Make sure solutions that are available are reused," he said.
But Bennett said that "If you're starting from scratch, do the portfolio; if existing, do services. Maturity and SOA adoption dictate the priorities."
Gabhart said you have to make sure the services are "rock solid and 100 percent reliable. All hope is lost if you can't depend on the services. Then you can move to a larger context."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Sport and Wellness
Traditions and culture
Villa Magnolie
The current building is the result of a set of expansions of the original villa designed in 1864 by the local surveyor and contractor Giovenale Gastaldi for the Marquis Eugenio Dufour, a Tuscan general, who in 1874 gave it to the duke Amedeo of Savoia (whose wife, Maria Vittoria, was suffering from tuberculosis).
In the same year the Dukes had an unexpected and extraordinary guest: Maria Alexandrovna, married with the Czar Alessandro II.
The town authorities called the Duke of Aosta who organized the stay of Sanremo for Maria Alexandrovna in a great hurry.
Inside the villa we can see the fresco of the Aosta family crest with a memorial stone to celebrate the Royal Family.
Later in 1903, the villa was sold to Duke Gandolfo who called the architect Pio Soli to develop an extension of the building. In fact, he added two lateral wings and one floor.
This new building was called "Villa Magnolie" and it was destined to be a residence for aristocratic foreign families. We remember the stay of Princess Kadjar from the dynasty of the Shah of Persia (who had been overthrown in a coup).
In 1925, Villa Magnolie became the residence for the court of the last Ottoman Sultan, Mohammed VI, who had moved from Villa Nobel, where he had been living up to that period. Here he died in mysterious circumstances, in 1926.
After 1928 this Villa became school for the English who were living in town.
Later it changed its name in "St. George's School Sanremo". In 1936 it was closed after the break of the relationships between the Italian fascist government and the United Kingdom.
Around the '50ies it became a Catholic private school administered by the Doctrinaire Fathers and it operated until the '80s.
After a long period of shut down, in 2005 Villa Magnolie was bought by the province of Imperia that restored the building and gave it to "G. D. Cassini High School".


text:
The Carnegie Free Library in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, is a Public Library built with funds from Pittsburgh steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. McKeesport is located about 15 miles up the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh. The grant for this library was commissioned April 2, 1899. Out of approximately 1,688 libraries funded by Carnegie in America, McKeesport's was the 12th be commissioned. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

References

External links
 Carnegie Library of McKeesport - official site

Library buildings completed in 1902
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Libraries in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Carnegie libraries in Pennsylvania
Romanesque Revival architecture in Pennsylvania
Government buildings completed in 1902
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks
McKeesport, Pennsylvania
National Register of Historic Places in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Metakgp:Meetups/2016-04-09
From Metakgp Wiki
< Metakgp:Meetups
We're planning to have a hackathon this Saturday, around 12 pm onwards. If you can't join at 12, don't worry, come whenever you can. The aim is to have something demo-able by the end of the night!
Ideas for hackday[edit source]
Please add your idea to this list. Describe what it is, how much progress you've already made, and work needs to be done. This may be an idea you're already working on, or something for which you want other people to join.
Remember, you don't need to work on code. Feel free to start an art project, a hardware project, or anything else you can think of :)
sparrow is a DC client written in Go and React. I've already written the DC protocol layer, and the basic UI. Still need to write search, download, hashing, upload, parallel downloads using alternatives, and work out the details of the UI/UX. -- Amrav (talk)
Ideas of Hackathon -- Xtinct (talk) 16:06, 8 April 2016 (IST)
Kgp Bus Tracker - Live tracking of bus service in Kgp. Basic visualization and location logic is completed. Need to finalize the choice of remote as well as the format of data uploaded and further, integration with the hardware. Needs discussion on possible features/improvement. Nevinvalsaraj
Marcel Prosut's Swann's Way Reading Club - ILST #1 - Swann's Way is the first book in Marcel Proust's seminal work In Search of Lost Time. This book is notoriously difficult, has a weird narration / story telling pattern, and what not. Reading this book in a group of people is more fun than reading it alone (according to a reddit comment, can't find it now), because then discussion can take shape, and things that people don't understand can be explained in a non-trivial sense, without the fear of spoilers. Hence, I plan to get started reading this now, and then spill-over into the summer, and probably next semester too. (It's just 468 pages of dense literature, is all.) I want to read this book at a leisurely pace, with absolutely no hurry. This isn't really a Hackday project, more like an ongoing one. Anyone who's interested can drop by! Icyflame (talk)
I'll write a script to aggregate news and events from Facebook pages so that I don't miss them. -- Hargup (talk) 19:10, 8 April 2016 (IST)
Cab Share Web App
Illu Bot
Youtube Caching Chrome Extension
Prof Search
KGP Trends
Wiki Page Writing
A web app that keeps track of the GC scores, real time. Just the scores, updated often and properly. This should be fun, and should take the number crunching out of the life of a lot of people. (Can use something like app.js by Kik to make it look good on everything, ad make it's development **extremely** simple). - Icyflame (talk)
Kgp Game
An Intra-kgp File Transfer app
Retrieved from "https://wiki.metakgp.org/index.php?title=Metakgp:Meetups/2016-04-09&oldid=9223"
About MetaKGP
Contribution scores
Institute amenities
Societies & Clubs
About Metakgp Wiki


text:
HumanitiesSocial Impact
Can volunteers hurt the people they're trying to help?
USC professor points out the Politics of Volunteering
BY Susan Bell
Volunteers might become more effective by spending the same amount of time as activists pressuring politicians to change policies, says USC Dornsife Professor Nina Eliasoph in her new book. (USC Photo/Erica Christianson)
Volunteering is considered almost sacred in modern society. But in her book, The Politics of Volunteering (Polity Press, 2013), Nina Eliasoph, professor of sociology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said that along with the good, volunteers and nongovernmentals (NGOs) can sometimes do harm.
How did your research lead you to that conclusion?
In my research, I was surprised to find that volunteers can do real damage. Speed is one common problem. For example, in an afterschool program for underprivileged kids, volunteers wanted an emotionally rewarding experience (and maybe a line on their CVs), but had only a couple hours a week for a few months to spare. Wanting instant intimacy and lacking time to get to know the kids enough to help them, the volunteers ended up distracting the kids from their homework.
Similarly, when NGO employees and volunteers abroad quickly fly in and out of a country without seriously studying the place, they often end up giving aid to educated people who can write snazzy applications for it.
Many studies show NGOs inadvertently creating a jet-set elite of literate urbanites whose new power undermines older, or less literate, or more rural folks' power, cultures and traditions. Trying to do too much too fast is dangerous.
Volunteering can also be wonderful. By walking a mile in another person's shoes, volunteers can start to question their own preconceptions. They might form life-changing relationships, both with fellow volunteers and with the people they serve. And of course, needy people often get aid — filling out citizenship forms or receiving cans of tuna.
Beyond these personal benefits, volunteering potentially promotes democracy. Curious volunteers who gather those cans of tuna might start questioning the bigger picture, asking themselves, 'Why is there hunger in the world's wealthiest nation in the first place?' In those moments, instead of treating symptoms, volunteers start to wonder about causes. Then thoughtful, inquisitive, active citizens are born.
Can you explain the relationship between volunteering and activism and how they affect one another, for better and for worse?
Social theory often views them as complementary. Many early 20th-century social reformers, for example, began as volunteers, but painfully discovered that to help young children whose parents took them out of school to earn money, just helping each child one at a time was not enough. If the kid stopped working, the family might go homeless. The volunteers had to become political activists when they realized that if they pushed for legislation to raise the minimum wage and outlaw child labor, parents would make enough money, their kids wouldn't have to leave school at age 10 and could enjoy America's promise as the land of opportunity.
Today, too, volunteers might help more people more effectively if they spend the same number of hours as activists, pressuring politicians to change policies, as those early volunteers-turned-activists did. It may not feel as nice, but might work better.
Nina Eliasoph wants readers to think, read and talk about what volunteers can do.
In a world of social inequality, how are ordinary people's efforts to participate as volunteers and activists affected by the civic actions of the powerful, wealthy elite? What are the end results?
Social theorists call voluntary associations and activist groups 'schools for democracy.' In them, people can develop political imaginations. Yet poor people are less likely to vote than wealthy ones. Why?
Imagine a town in which 10 people privately controlled more wealth than everyone else combined. There could be no democracy. The 10 would make private decisions about investment, education, the environment, transportation, roads — anything that required money. They might voluntarily donate education to some villagers, but they might not. The 10 could make grand plans that only benefitted themselves. Meanwhile, the others would not get practice in making grand plans, but, as Alexis de Tocqueville put it, would spend long days laboring as 'brutes' in the elites' grand plans.
To create democracy, villagers would need to spread the wealth, so no one was too unhealthy, uneducated, brutalized or desperate to think. Villagers would also need to place some of this wealth in public hands, through taxes, so the majority could democratically deliberate and vote on how to distribute some of the village's resources.
How can civic associations overcome the difficulties you outline in your book to ensure they avoid doing harm and succeed in their mission to make the world a better place?
First, they can make sure that volunteers who work with people get serious training and supervision, giving help that they can realistically manage on their schedules. Second, volunteers can become activists when they confront a problem that requires more than changing the world one person, light bulb or diaper at a time.
What inspired you to write this book and why do you believe it is needed?
Since the 1970s, the U.S. has drastically rearranged the division of responsibilities between government, market and civic volunteers. In the mid-20th century, wealthy people paid very high taxes to support public goods like schools, playgrounds, pools, parks and clean water. In a 30-year experiment, we slashed the wealthiest people's taxes and expected that volunteers would take up the slack when the public goods dried up. As the alarmed Dutch scholars point out, volunteers often don't, and can't. We have to recognize what volunteers can do and what we need other institutions to do.
If your readers take away one point from your work, what do you want it to be?
To think, read and talk about what volunteers can do and to press for public policies to do the rest.
Have you volunteered? Where and why?
Yes, I've been volunteering and doing political activism since 1974, when I was a very young and clueless counselor in a camp for underprivileged kids. I don't know if I helped them, but I sure learned a lot.
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Oh I have so much to catch up on! I've finished a lot of stuff since I last posted here.
Let's start with the above shawl. Done! What a project – from the dyeing to fiber blending to spinning then knitting. It was a 6 month labor of love. The end result is really lovely but I was very glad to be finished with it. I was tired of looking at those colors every day for so long.
Then I made a hat for a precocious 5 year old. This was a quick and easy off the top of my head knit using Wolmeise in color Red Hot Chili. Perfect.
Then I made a baby blanket and romper that I had to get done before we went to the Netherlands so we could give it to the new parents-to-be. They are scuba divers so I thought the sea turtle was better than a teddy bear.
And THEN I made a sweater for myself. I decided I had so much yarn in stash that I had to start knitting sweaters – maybe even a sweater a month! If you are going to make such a bold statement like that it's best to start with a sure success, which meant knitting with bulky yarn to get it done quickly. I really love this sweater and wore it almost every day during our vacation and even the past few cold days here in SoCal. It's knit with Cascade Eco+ Wool which is a lot softer than I imagined it would be. The patten is from Vogue Knitting Fall 1994. Some things just don't go out of style.
And of course I had to knit a couple of gifts for my friends who I miss so much. It was so great to see them, even if just for a short evening.
Last but not least, I finally finished these socks. I started them in February 2017! OMG what a bad case of second-sock-syndrome. I only really finished the second one because it was the only plane knitting project I had going on to take with me. I worked on it a lot during our layover in Toronto on the way back from Amsterdam, and also on the plane until they turned the lights out. I do have a light with me, but I always feel a bit guilty turning on lights on a flight when so many are trying to sleep or watch movies. I am pretty good at knitting without looking, but with this patterning on the legs I didn't trust myself to do it. But they are DONE and I love them!
PHEW! That's a lot of knitting. But there is also spinning! I just finished spinning 108 grams of 2-ply lace weight, gradient from dark turquoise to light green, BFL/silk. This is a gift for a friend who has given me many hours of podcasting joy.
Lastly, I'm almost finished with a worsted weight lace cardigan for myself, but I don't have a good photo of it yet. I hope to have it done this weekend.
My next projects will be hats for charity. I'm going to make hats for the Camp fire victims and most likely take them up to Chico at Christmas time. I'll keep you posted.
And that is my project catch up post for today.
I have been seriously considering starting a second blog, that is not at all fiber or knitting related. Since moving from the Netherlands to the US I have a lot of stuff in my head that needs to get out into words and into the world. I am afraid of alienating any blog readers I might still have, or would attract, who are only interested in the crafting posts. What if I had buttons at the top that said "click here for only craft related topics" and "click here for NON-craft topics" and "click here to see everything". That seems easier than creating a whole new blog. Stay tuned.
Your photos & knitting skills are amazing! That shawl is fabulous, and the sea turtle on the baby blanket is incredible. I really enjoy reading your knitting posts, and would be curious about what kind of yarns you used, techniques and how you came up with patterns etc. To answer your question; everyone I follow I read a Blog through WordPress blog reader, so wouldn't be able to differentiate between crafting and non crafting posts. My main interest is knitting, so i have a general rule of thumb about unfollowing people who post more than 5 non-knitting related posts in a row, even if it's crochet or spinning so still yarn-related but just not of interest to me. It just allows me to focus my limited free time on my passion & learning from/being inspired by others' skill & passion. Blogging connect so many different people and so many different ways, and if blogging is your passion and there is other stuff you want to share I think it would be lovely for you to put it all out there. Hope the way I've answered your question helps.
Thank you and thanks for the feedback. I really do appreciate it.


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5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy a Switch Lite – And One Reason Why You Should
Richard Seagrave
The Nintendo Switch Lite is now available, and whether you already own a Switch or not you might be interested in buying one.
But should you?
The Switch Lite may look pretty snazzy and be smaller and lighter to boot, but honestly, we don't think you should rush out to buy the thing.
If you've already got a Nintendo Switch you might just want to stick with that. If you don't currently own Switch but are thinking of buying one, you should probably buy the new standard model. That said, the Switch Lite might indeed be the console for you under the right circumstances.
So, here are five reasons why you should think twice before buying a Switch Lite, and one very good reason why you should just buy one.
Shouldn't: There's no rumble… at all
The standard Switch features fancy HD rumble. In some games it's a bit of a pain because it's just too strong, but in others it's a valuable gameplay feature. The Switch Lite doesn't have any rumble at all, which aside from being a bit boring, might also cause some issues when playing Switch games that use rumble as a prompt. It's not too much of a biggie, but it's something to consider.
Shouldn't: It doesn't have TV out
While the majority of our time playing games on Switch is spent in handheld mode, sometimes we love to get it docked and play on a big TV. Many hours have been spent playing Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun! this way, for example, because playing it in handheld mode would definitely strain our eyes. With the Switch Lite, you've got no way to output the image to a TV at all. You play your games in handheld mode and that's it whether you like it or not. And there's not even a built-in stand so you can rest it on a table to enjoy a game with friends. Keep that in mind.
Shouldn't: The new standard Switch has much better battery life
When the Switch Lite was first announced we were excited about it, but then the revised model of the standard Switch was revealed and we did a 180. Why? Because the new standard Switch has a massively improved battery life. You can play on an old Switch for between 2.5-6.5 hours before the battery runs flat, while a Switch Lite will let you have 3-7 hours of gaming time. The new standard Switch, however, lets you play for 4.5-9 hours before needing to be recharged. Why Nintendo would release a handheld only version of the Switch with such a short battery life puzzles us. It really does.
Shouldn't: Joy-Con drift
If you already own a Switch, you might have fallen victim to the dreaded Joy-Con drift; an issue with the analogue stick that causes it to register movement when left in neutral. It's awful, and more often than not completely ruins your gaming experience. With the Switch Lite not having Joy-Cons you might be jumping for joy thinking that it'll be free of the issue, but we wouldn't bet on it. Reports are already coming in that the Switch Lite also suffers from the drifting problem, and the worst thing about it? You can't simply send your Joy-Cons back to Nintendo to be fixed or buy new ones. As the controls are built in to the Switch Lite unit, you'd have to fix or replace your entire console. That sucks.
Shouldn't: It's just not a Switch
Have you seen all those adverts where people whip out their Switches in random places such as parks and coffee shops and play games with friends and strangers? You can't do that with Switch Lite – not unless you carry some Joy-Cons around with you, anyway. While the Switch Lite has one of the things that has made the Switch a success – portability – it sacrifices those impromptu group playing sessions. And combined with the lack of TV out, it loses the functionality that makes the Switch, well, a 'Switch'. The Switch Lite is pretty good if you just want to play by yourself at all times, but it's just a generic handheld. Shell out a bit more money and you get a handheld with more features, better battery life and you can use it as a console.
Should: It is a much better handheld device
Despite all the reasons above making us think that the Switch Lite isn't worth your hard-earned cash, when one's actually in our hands we see why Nintendo made the thing. You can use the standard Switch as a handheld, but it's a bit on the large side. It's weighty, too, and the detachable Joy-Cons make it a bit rickety. The Switch Lite, on the other hand, feels solid, and it's much, much lighter.
On top of that, it's just a hell of a lot more comfortable to hold. If you already have a Switch and never play it docked, you actually might want to pick a Switch Lite up because it's undoubtedly a better handheld device. And if you don't already own a Switch, well, really consider how you're going to use it if you're thinking of picking one up. For most, the new full-fat Switch with its extended battery life and complete suite of features will be the best buy, despite its higher price. But for those who are absolutely sure they're only going to want to use it as a handheld, the Switch Lite might just be the best option.
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News GIZ
NNEW, GIZ boost MSMEs capacity for market access
Josephine Okojie Dec 5, 2022
NECA's Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) and the Pro-Poor Growth, and Promotion of Employment (SEDIN) – a programme of the German Development Agency (GIZ) have collaborated to boost the capacity of small business operators on good market penetration.
The capacity building was done at a three-day business clinic on regulatory matters and access to finance held in Lagos recently.
Speaking at the summit, Funmilayo Arowoogun, the national president of NNEW said that the reason for the summit is to proffer solutions to some of the challenges limiting small businesses to expand their operations and empowered women–owned businesses for technical and financial support.
"Many businesses have issues with regulatory bodies and this is hindering them in accessing markets and finance," she said.
According to her, to resolve this, NNEW has collaborated with various regulatory agencies such as NAFDAC, Consumer Protection Agency, and Nigeria Export Promotion Council among others to enable its members to easily formalize their businesses and penetrate markets.
She added that NNEW is currently having discussions with Cameron on business linkage and partnership with African countries and beyond, and also on the African Continental Free Trade Area opportunities.
"We discover that most businesses are not standardized, for women to get the opportunities in AFCFTA there is a need to work on the products, which means getting necessary certifications, handling of packaging and other things," she noted.
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She urges the federal government to provide a conducive business environment to enable businesses to thrive.
Speaking also, Chinazo Okoye, state coordinator & policy advisor, GIZ-SEDIN, said the exhibition is supported by the pro-poor growth and promotion of employment in Nigeria program- SEDIN to link MSMEs with regulatory agencies that will help them register their businesses.
She stated that the business clinic is to support MSMEs on how to help resolve their complaints and formalize their businesses.
Citing an example, she said NAFDAC and other regulatory bodies attended the summit to lecture, mentor, and provide follow-up support on complaints, while also proffering solutions to problems that limit small businesses from penetrating new markets.
Wale Fasanya, director general of the small and medium enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) in his keynote address said that SMEDAN is looking for all possible business growth and all parameters available to exploit for entrepreneurs.
Fasanya who was represented by Yinka Fisher, deputy director SMEDAN, said that recent research conducted by NBS and SMEDAN found that access to finance, weak infrastructure, lack of workplace and inconsistency policy, and lack of access to research and development are the top challenges facing entrepreneurs in the country.
He urged businesses to tap opportunities in industrial development centers and clusters before moving to their permanent site.
Fisher further explained that a program on branding and packaging is held in the entire geo-political zone to encourage SMEs to be internationally competitive by his agency.