There was a list going around a few of the subgroups at work, looking for volunteers to help out at a few of the activities. I saw one that jumped out as a good match for me: being an announcer at Bingo. Who would expect a Toastmaster who is willing to speak in front of a group. I signed up and sent a cute note to the organizer that I was signing up to help for a half-hour shift.
We got there at the beginning time, and it seemed that lots of stuff was still being set up, that I thought would already be set up. After a few minutes of looking around, my fiancee and I headed up to the bingo room. Ah, the air conditioning was very nice! The bingo items were all there, and there were a few people sitting and checking it out, but not really playing yet.
I wasn't scheduled to take part for a while, though my fiancee was ready to try when it started. There seemed to be some question on the rules and method for the prizes. I went to find the organizer to get a better idea of the guidelines running the games. It was pretty easy, we had prizes to give out while running bingo, and we could give out prizes 2 at a time.
When I got back, the people who were looking like they were going to run it at first had left, and nobody else was looking like they were ready to run the bingo. Also, it was about time for food. I went to grab food for myself and my fiancee while things were up in the air. When I got back upstairs, there were other people getting bingo started. They started with giving only one prize away at a time.
I started my shift a little late, as I was still eating at the time it was shift change, and they had stared a little late, thus it worked out well.
I went up to take my turn, reluctantly using the microphone, but realizing that as the room filled, it might be important to be able to be heard well, instead of just filling the room with my Toastmasters-practiced voice.
I had fun using some descriptive words and a bit of vocal variety. I even changed things up by doing some character voices. I even threw in my Elmo voice once or twice. Throw in a few puns to shake things up got me a comment that I shouldn't give up my day job. No worries, I took it all in fun!
About halfway through, one person asked my if I was getting Toastmasters credit for the role. I responded that I didn't bring my manual.
I wound up going lots extra - for over an hour - I must have covered at least 2 other people's shifts, but nobody seemed to mind. In the end, we ramped up the number of winners we allowed each round, then gave out multiple prizes.
We only had a few minutes left, and still a number of prizes left to give away. I decide we would do a quick round or two. I announced I would call 2 numbers, and anyone who had both numbers on their card was a winner. It took longer to verify the cards than it took to call the numbers.
After doing this two times, we had covered most of the prizes, and only had a couple of minutes left for the defined time for bingo. I then asked for anyone who had not one. By quick guess, the number left pretty much left the few prizes left - perfect! I said those people were now winners!
Yes, I wondered if I could claim Toastmaster credit for the time. Perhaps so, especially if I was working on the special occasion manual. Yet to me, it did not feel like a full Toastmasters-type activity. It was similar, and the skills from Toastmasters sure made it much easier to take on. However, I would not feel right taking credit for the activity as a Toastmasters manual 'speech'.
In addition, for this, I would definitely have needed to have [one of] my VP/Ed's permission to do this, as there is no question it would be considered outside a Toastmasters meeting.
To me, I would expect that to count for Toastmasters, there would have to be some topical message related to the process.
What do you think?
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