In Episode 1 we considered how to choose the story to tell; who it is about, its scope and why it is important to tell.

Our families have roots that stretch back in time to other places and other dimensions – the past lives of our ancestors have had their impact on us. Family History is made up of the myriad of stories of individuals in our family tree and it is from these stories that we get a true sense of ‘who we think we are’.

In Episode 2 we consider the essential ingredients for your story!

Digital Storytelling Tips:

Episode 2: Seven Essential Ingredients

These 7 essential ingredients were developed by Joe Lambert from the StoryCenter, the continuing education facility for digital storytelling around the world. Your storytelling success will be enhanced by including them in your story.

1. Point of View
2. Dramatic Question
3. Emotional Content
4. Authentic Voice
5. Soundtrack
6. Pacing
7. Economy

Storytellers you can learn the art of Digital Storytelling Online through this self-paced course and collaborate with other participating storytellers. Take advantage of the special price for the next 10 enrolled participants.

Join the growing community of enthusiastic digital storytellers in social media and learn from other family historians at Digital Storytelling Community

Digital Storytelling Online helps you to create a Digital Story including voice recordings, a storyboard of digitized memorabilia and the combination of both into an oral history video using simple software.

Digital Storytelling Tips!

Episode 1: How to choose your story?

In this episode I help you to answer these framing questions!

1. Who or what is your story about?
2. What is the scope of your story?

Do you want to learn how to draft your story?

Storytellers you can learn the art of Digital Storytelling Online through this self-paced course and collaborate with other participating storytellers. Take advantage of the special price for the next 10 enrolled participant.s

Are you a family history storyteller? Do you tell digital stories of your ancestors? Where do those stories come from? How do you create and share them?

My aim this month is to provide five specialist tips for your digital storytelling projects!

• Episode 1: How to choose your story?
• Episode 2: How to create your script?
• Episode 3: How to record your narrative?
• Episode 4: How to prepare your slide deck?
• Episode 5: How to create your digital story?

Let’s set the background for these tips in context!

I am a keen family history storyteller and I love creating and sharing the stories of my ancestors with my family, my followers and my learners.

My stories document the lives of my ancestors and family members who have passed on. I am speaking about the dead, not the living. The stories may have impact on the living but are not directly about them.

My Allery family have Celtic roots with connections in England and Wales. I am married to a Scot, and his McCulloch family have connections in Scotland. To date I have not found any links to clan members in Ireland; but that may unfold as I do my family history research.

I created the Digital Storytelling Online course this year to help others to create their stories. This was developed in response to requests for digital storytelling learning in local communities, and here is their feedback:

Pauline Wilson: I really enjoyed this course and was able to create a complete  digital story through this process. There was an amazing range of resources!

Kathleen Zarubin: Excellent! Fantastic overview of the process and the requirements. Great information and examples included!”

You may wish to complete this Online Quiz to see if this type of learning is right for you!

If your appetite is whetted, you can now view the first set of lessons free and decide then if you wish to enrol in the whole course. The DST Online course is accessible here!

Base Camp Changes

Members will now be able to view projects in all Levels in their Path.

Listen to a summary of this change in Episode 1 of the Pathways Updates Podcast below.

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Want to know more? View the recording of this Zoom session:
“Base Camp Updates: Impact, Implications and Insights”
Episode 13: Tuesday Talks n’ Tips on September 24/25.
https://youtu.be/ic7fVa5rCOM

Tuesdays at 7 pm PDT
Wednesdays at 12 noon AEDT

Details and RSVP available at the
Pathways Discussion Forum events.

What would you include in a Pathways Orientation for Toastmasters just beginning their journey in Pathways?

This is a question that arises often in Pathways Training sessions and this week I have been thinking about what to include. On the one hand it would be best not to overwhelm with too many printed items. On the other hand it would be practical to include a variety of resources to suit the learning styles of your members. Some like to watch video tutorials in their own time; others like to attend face-to-face hands-on training sessions and others want access to resources on a ‘help yourself’ basis.

There are three initial things that a Toastmaster will be considering for their orientation:

1. How to get started with Pathways Online!
2. How to identify and achieve personal goals!
3. How to choose a Path that meets those goals!

My first recommendation is to instruct the Toastmaster to access Toastmasters.org and review the Pathways Learning Experience.

My second recommendation is to ensure that the Toastmaster can login at Toastmasters International and access their personal profile page to perform these tasks:

• view The Navigator
• choose a New Path
• go to Base Camp
• edit contact information and privacy

My recommendation for running an introduction workshop on Pathways is to present these slides from Michael Clancy on Pathways Commitment.

Pathways Committment Final 

Or watch the recording of his presentation here: https://sites.google.com/view/d73guide/video-tutorials 

Share with the group these slides from George Marshall, D57 and distribute this one page handout that displays the required projects for each Path.

How to Pick a Path-9

Paths required projects 1.1

My recommendation for things to include in a Pathways Orientation Kit are as follows:

Copy of the Icebreaker Project

D62-Pathways-Short-Path-Description-2.13.19-1

Pathways-Companion-Guide-V2  

My recommendation for things to include as the Toastmaster makes progress in their Path:

Pathways Resource Flier from D73 Pathways Coordinator

pathways_level_completion_checklist 

For ongoing, just-in-time training and networking with other international Pathways enthusiasts you could also recommend Toastmasters to attend or review any of the regularly scheduled Pathways one-hour webinars called Tuesday Talks n’ Tips. This series of events is hosted by Global Trainers Online and represents a plethora of easy to access information, collaboration and presentation from several international Pathways Champions. Look for the recordings here: https://sites.google.com/view/d73guide/pathways-talkstips 

For other short video tutorials (15-30 mins) you can access the D73 Team Pathways videos here: https://sites.google.com/view/d73guide/video-tutorials

What a month of frenetic activity around Pathways as club executives changeover and new Base Camp Managers emerge. The changeover also meant that many new VP Education officers sought help in managing their easy-Speak club sites; a series of requests for help come across my desk in that period of time.

Meanwhile the D73 Team Pathways (now grown to 15 members) has added to our downloadable Pathways resources for clubs in D73 and planned for our monthly Online Education webinars to take place on the last Sunday of each month. The recordings of these events and shared resources will be displayed here: https://sites.google.com/view/d73guide/video-tutorials

We have also begun a new segment in our Southern Cross Newsletter, called Pathways Corner. This month we’ve followed the lead from the Toastmasters International Magazine and focused on the champions who are progressing with their projects in the Motivational Strategies Path. We aim to publish the stories and lessons learned from many of our club Pathways Champions in the Southern Cross Newsletter as motivation for others. (Link to July edition coming soon.)

Then add to these the preparation for taking on an Area Director role; attending and presenting at District Officer Training; I was feeling all Pathway-ed out! I needed a new direction – I could do with some motivation for myself. ‘Seize the Day’!

Now, I really thrive when focused on a project that has meaning and a clear process. My next project in Level 4 of my Path, Team Collaboration is Motivate Others. My goal is to motivate other Toastmasters in my Area to step up as presenters/trainers at the Club Leadership Training day in August.

Motivate Others in Area N29

I am a member of the three clubs in my Area N29, located in regional Northern Victoria, Australia. Therefore I needed a project that would benefit all three clubs. Recent discussions among members of those clubs, while planning for the Area Club Leadership and Officer Training day in August, led me to think that within those plans I had the basis for a Motivate Others project.

A plan begins to emerge!

Here’s my communication plan for building a team to fulfil the completion of this project:

1. Communicate initial plans for Educationals at the the CLT/COT event to club leaders
2. Build on suggestions from the leaders about what they want to do
3. Enable ideas for their involvement to percolate and keep communication channels open
4. Suggest that the leaders become the ‘team’ who will plan and present a series of related Educationals.
5. Invite the leaders to a Zoom meeting to discuss the plan:
   • at this meeting define the benefits of accomplishing the goals you set out
     • participating as a ‘training team’ will help club leaders in their individual growth
     • sharing the preparation for the event will help cement the Networking between the clubs

The important feature of this project is to motivate others to challenge themselves! Part of the challenge in providing Educationals at CLT/COT sessions is having confidence in themselves to engage, inspire and educate their peers. My background in professional development for adult trainers will enable me to provide support for that confidence to grow.

In Motivate Others, you will learn the different ways individuals can be motivated, how to strengthen and nurture relationships with others, and how to promote internal growth in other individuals. You will review methods of providing encouragement and helpful feedback to others.

My Pathways in July is all about motivating others!

I suggest that an executive team could all work together on the Team Collaboration Path and in particular work on these three projects during their year in office:
Level 3 ‘Successful Collaboration’
Level 4 ‘Motivate Others’
Level 5 ‘Lead in any situation’.

What’s yours?

Share your ideas, progress and challenges by attending the Tuesday Tips n’ Talks hosted by Global Trainers Online – one of the Online Clubs I belong to. (details of these weekly events in Zoom along with the schedule in your time zone displayed here: https://www.facebook.com/GlobalTrainersOnline/ )

If you have something to share from your Pathways experiences and would like to attend or present at one of the upcoming D73 Online Education sessions, please let the D73 Team Pathways know. Email pc@d73.toastmasters.org.au (details of these monthly events in Zoom displayed here: https://d73.toastmasters.org.au/online-education/

Pathways in your Club Success Plan

recording and monitoring pathways acheivements

How have you progressed in your Pathways journey(s)?

I have asked myself that question several times this year, as I move deeper into my role as D73 Pathways Coordinator. In this post I will unpack from this journey and share the lessons learned.

We established a team of Pathways Champions who were tasked with providing support for clubs in all Divisions across District 73 – which includes three states of Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. Our team members are either club executives, Area Directors or Divisions Directors, each with a passion for Pathways. They represent the eight Divisions in our District and incorporate the outgoing and incoming Education and Training Coordinators for each of the 3 states. District 73 contains 155 clubs and has a great track record for Pathways adoption so far.

Support Program

Online Education

D73 Team Pathways has scheduled seven Pathways focussed Online Education Workshops in our D73 Zoom installation, since August 2018. For an overview of what we have accomplished there please access the Online Education page. This page and several others were created this year to provide even more support.

We invited a couple of international Pathways Champions to present and network with us during the year. These included: Lori Haynes D62 and Cajetan Barretto D20. There will be further opportunities to invite Guest Presenters in the next suite of Online Education workshops.

Pathways Orientation

During January 2019 Tracy Green and I began the planning for a Learner Guide to help new users of Pathways, especially those who were having technical challenges. Drafts of the orientation and learner guide pages were scrutinised and edited by the team. The D73 Pathways Orientation site was created as a Google Site – collaboratively designed as an easy to manage and easy to develop suite of resources. A summary of all pages in that site is provided here.

Pathways Training

During the last six months we have fine tuned our training models and resources for sharing across the district. Each Online Education workshop consisted of three 20 minutes segments on topics of interest for members, executives and Base Camp Managers. These were recorded and archived as separate video tutorials, each of which is stored in our D73 Pathways Video Tutorials site.

We developed a suite of Presentation Slides that can be used for individual club training, as well as CLT training workshops delivered during the year. These resources are provided on our Pathways Resources page at the D73 website.Pathways Training Model.

Note: We offer individual Club Pathways @ Your Club Training opportunities and where possible we deliver at club meetings either at their venue or in Zoom.

Sustainable Model

We believe we have a great working model that is both sustainable and portable. The Toastmasters in the team have different skills and talents, different preferences for team communication and most of all, consensus on the collaborative nature of the team’s work. The team is flexible and voluntary in: membership, duration of service, task delegation and leadership. [We tend to work like the traditional ‘flying geese‘ model of leadership, where different leaders step up to take the lead when required.]

Although we don’t do a lot of ‘honking’ we do keep up a regular stream of conversation in our social media tools.

The dynamic model is displayed below with each coloured row indicating the roles, tasks, promotional tools, work flow for online education workshops and a list of portals and channels.

The workflow diagram below showcases our methods of ensuring consistency and reliability of our event creation and scheduling.

The outcomes of this strategy are still evolving and we hope for even more  involvement by other D73 Pathways Champions in the next Toastmasters year.

How do you strategise Pathways Support and organise Pathways Champions in your District?

Thousands of Toastmasters across the globe have been ‘walking the Path’ in the cloud! They have been on the trail since their access was rolled out in their Districts!

Pathways Champions are ahead of the crowd now, reaching the pinnacles of success along the trail. You can find out how clubs, divisions and districts are tracking in their Pathways by viewing the stats for the progress of these Pathways Champions.

A few have been supported by guides and mentors whilst others are trail blazing on their own. Executives are now gearing up to learn how to ‘manage’ their clubs strategically and smartly. For example, those using easy-Speak for club management and using the featured tools to collate achievements and to forward plan for upcoming meetings.

Toastmasters Walk the Path!

I count myself fortunate to have been able to ‘walk the Path’ since December 2017 and to have conquered the ‘levels‘ with moderate success. For me it has been like ‘walking the Camino‘ and finding new perspectives and discovering new possibilities for my leadership goals.

Others are finding new challenges for their public speaking goals. There is still much chatter about the experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly; in the Pathways Discussion Forum; as more and more Toastmasters try on their Pathways Backpack and ‘walk the Path’.

Over in District 73 we have been helping the intrepid Pathways followers to get ready for their journey with a myriad of support resources, learner guides, stories and events.

Toastmasters on the Edge!

We are poised now on the ‘mountain ridge’, the transition period, as we move into the 2019/2020 Toastmasters year. Its time for club executives to prepare their members for success in Pathways and to support them as they move through the levels of Mastering Fundamentals, Learning Your Style, Increasing Knowledge, Building Skills and  Demonstrating Expertise.

Here’s a few simple steps for training and supporting your Toastmasters to ‘walk the Path’ confidently and embrace projects strategically:

1. Provide an overview of their journey, an itinerary to show destinations and a guide/mentor to support them.
2. Design your meeting agendas to include Pathways Mentoring networking and feedback.
3. Schedule at least one Pathways project speech in every meeting.
4. Schedule Pathways Educationals at appropriate times during the year.
5. Advise your members on how to access all resources, tutorials and events provided by their District
6. Provide incentives to grow your own Club Pathways Champions
7. Encourage members to set their own goals
8. Build in Pathways goals to club success plan
9. Encourage members to choose a ‘Themed’ approach to completion of projects and levels
10. Encourage members to attend any special Pathways focussed events on the ground or in the cloud.

We are indeed Toastmasters in the Cloud as we explore even more opportunities for learning online, meeting online, competing online and training online.

Toastmasters Lead the Way!

Share your reflections!

As you wrap up the 2018/2019 year and plan ahead for the 2019/2020 ask yourselves these questions:

1. What are your reflections so far, on your experiences as a Toastmaster in the Cloud?
2. Where and how are you sharing those reflections with other Toastmasters in the Cloud?
3. What help do you need to maximize your opportunities for growth, enjoyment and achievements by being a Toastmaster in the Cloud?