KammaCon

KammaCon registration in their T-Shirts

Welcome to the interactive Kammacon site.

KammaCon is the Toastmasters District 74 Toastmasters Conference. It was held on 7-9 October 2005.

For the official site, go to: rhodestoastmasters.com/kammacon.
If that link is broken, try this one: [1]

If you're enjoying the interactivity of this site, try the Toastmasters Wikia (for theme meeting ideas, table topic ideas – even timing lights!) visit: toastmasters.wikia.com.

Opening Remarks and Keynote

Drummers play at the conference opening

• Opening remarks by Ginny Reed – see pics of our DG playing the Djembe!
• Bruce Walsh's keynote – the amazing survival story of a man who was caught in a bomb blast. He received a well-deserved ovation. Click on the Bruce Walsh link to read a synopsis of his speech.

The competition speeches

Winners receiving their certificates from LG-ET Frances Boshoff

• Competition

For a synopsis of each speech (please add to the synopsis -- I couldn't type fast enough), please click on Competition Here are the results:

• 1st place: Geoff Jennett
• 2nd Place: Chris Deacon
• 3rd Place: Karyn Taylor

The Business Meeting

• Business meeting and see the District 74 website for more details.

This section also has the Hall of Fame There was no quorum (we were two measly votes short).

(Thanks to all who are using this session so well!)

District 74 Integration

During Kammacom 2005, the John Whiffen Golden City Memorial Trust (www.johnwhiffen.co.za) had the opportunity to publicise the work of the Trust within the Toastmasters community for those people who are physically and/or mentally challenged.

Jann Jevons speaks while Charito Salcedo Golden City, Madiba Bay, looks on

Two of the Trustees, Jann Jevons (John Whiffen’s sister), and Geoff Carter (Chair of the Trust and John’s brother-in-law), were supported at the Workshop by Maurizio Napoleoni & Tony Lopes from the Golden City Club in Johannesburg and Johan Steyn & Charito Salcedo from the Golden City Club in Madiba Bay.
The four Golden City members made brief presentations addressing different aspects of the issues and benefits of integrating physically and/or mentally challenged members into all Toastmaster activities.
The Toastmasters present at the Workshop were then invited to join breakout groups and share their ideas on how the Trust, and indeed District 74, could do more to create a fully integrated Toastmaster community.

The conference participants were split into groups of approximately 10 people each and each group was invited to address one of the four themes listed below: -

Johan Steyn, Pres. of Golden City Johannesburg speaks as VPE Tony Lopes looks on

1. Physical environment; what is required for attendance at Clubs, Officers Training Sessions and Conferences?
2. Educational material and any other support materials – what adaptations are required?
3. Evaluation/competition processes – is a “level playing field” possible?
4. Is inclusion/integration desirable for Toastmasters – what are the issues, where are the limits?

The text below is a summary of the feedback handed to Jann and Geoff by some of the table facilitators received from the participants. In some instances a comment was stated by more than 1 group, e.g. the need for material in Braille, and in these instances the comment has only be recorded once.

With regard to topic 4) above, the issue of whether inclusion/integration was desirable or not was not a contentious subject, it seems everyone agreed it was desirable. The view expressed was that Toastmaster Clubs are open to all anyway. It is about the HOW of integration, not the Why.

The other comments to emerge from people involved in topic 4) have been incorporated into the other three issues discussed.

The Trustees wish to record their appreciation for the contributions of all participants to the Workshop and also the warmth and goodwill that was extended to all Trust and Golden City participants during The Trust’s time at the Conference. It gave all concerned fresh energy to continue the work of the John Whiffen Golden City Memorial Trust.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Trust and how you can help then please contact Jann Jevons on jjevons@compuserve.com

Physical Environment; What is required for attendance at Clubs, Officer Training Sessions and Conferences?

• A Needs Assessment in advance. Understand the “challenge/disadvantage, e.g. elderly, pregnant, motor, deafness, sight and understand what is necessary. This ranges from physical needs such as disabled toilet facilities through to dietary requirements
• Identify wheelchair friendly venues
• Transport; Access; Easy vehicular access to premises; Ramps
• If transport is a problem then Club members to get involved in transport & facilitation of members with difficulties, if asked.
• Cloakrooms to accommodate wheelchairs
• Meeting rooms;Seating to accommodate wheelchair space; Meetings on the ground floor; Stage access, ramps, platforms; Big screen, projection
• Clear signposting to venue and venue facilities
• Microphones passed around
• Verbal timekeeping
• People; Ushers; more than one Sergeant-at-Arms;Trained personnel at venue
• Large size programme outside
• Provide guide dogs, use venues where guide dogs are permitted

Materials & Equipment to make life easier

• Microphones; Braille manuals; Audio tapes of the manuals; Need support to read; For those who are blind, we need a stock-controller for the whole of District 74 for Braille manuals etc.
• Think about Sponsorship to cover costs; Produce a Directory of Toastmaster Clubs that are “disabled” friendly, for instance, wheelchair access to the building and/or materials available within the Club that would help, e.g. Toastmaster manuals in Braille format;
• Speechcraft at homes for the “disabled” to attract their people to join Toastmasters. Raise Toastmasters awareness, provide a briefing pack for them.

Competitions and Evaluations

• We cannot change the TMI rules – but can ask WHQ
• Benchmarking exercise with regard to how other clubs worldwide adapt the rules.
• Ideal situation; A one-on-one mentorship sitting for planning. Some battle to write, don’t have access to PC, there is a need, for instance, for interactive PCs to be sponsored
• Reality – require more time to prepare in terms of research and rehearsal, with mentorship (contests)
• Allow time for some to memorise their speeches
• Teach them “short-cut” techniques, e.g. mind-mapping
• Evaluations; Be more specific, don’t feel sorry, be fair and give pointers on how to improve (e.g. facial expression where the person cannot move)
• Understand how “eye-contact” should be evaluated
• People with speaking disabilities need more time to deliver the speech, or might take less time.
• Build in new types of competitions also that will accommodate their needs (e.g. tall story; debates; quiz).
• Suggest have more regular – in house/cross club contests to have more exposure and to practice more regularly
• Perform an evaluation after each contest on lessons learnt and ways to improve
• Allow all people to be exposed to judging workshops and give the opportunities to judge at Area/Divn/District level
• Evaluation workshops to impose their confidence in this area
• Show empathy and understanding
• Educate and understand the physical limitations - through workshops
• Longer time limits
• Timing – try to keep it short (Lesson for able bodied)
• Record the speeches of the “disabled”

Additional thoughts to emerge

• District 74 Toastmasters to produce press articles on the work it is doing in this area, for instance, the 3 minute presentation by Johan Steyn was very strong.
• This is a great opportunity for District 74 Toastmasters to establish a leadership role within the wider Toastmaster community in this whole area.
• When able bodied Toastmasters introduce the “challenged” person to others they should include in the introduction some information on that individual’s challenge. This helps the other able bodied Toastmasters to quickly get in touch with the situation and appreciate what the best approach to conversation might be.
• Take the “disabled” out of their homes and get them to visit others.
• Social events help break the ice and introduce the two communities to each other
• Invite consultants/speech therapists to be club members and/or volunteers to help, say, bi-monthly
• Able-bodied members need to assist – cross pollination – both able and non able members learn from each other.
• Branding as Toastmaster Clubs, not “able” or “disabled” clubs. If 27 “able” and 3 “disabled” would the 3 feel different? No, they want to be accepted.
• Rotate responsibilities
• Address the person when discussing their situation, not the helper
• Existing Toastmaster clubs to make invitations to people from this section of society to visit the clubs with a view to them joining.
• Link up with Rotary Club, Association for the Disabled, Lions and the National Library for the Blind (Grahamstown) etc.
• Listen to what “disabled” have to say. Communication to take place to find out the specific needs of people with any disabilities.

The comments that follow are by workshop facilitators who took personal responsibility for recording the outcomes from their specific table discussions. Our thanks to them for this extra effort.

Jann & Geoff

WORKSHOP- “YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE”

CONTESTS

Discussion on disabled Toastmasters. Facilitated by Lois Strachan

1 Are contests fair to all? Are Toastmasters with disabilities in any way placed at a disadvantage by the current system of running and judging contests?

The general feeling was that the group had not really had the opportunity to consider this topic previously. In general, it was considered that contests could well result in disabled Toastmasters being disadvantaged to some extent.

2 If some Toastmasters are being negatively affected due to a physical or mentalo condition, how can this be addressed?

Several solutions were put forward by the group, though there was not time to investigate the advantages and disadvantes of each solution. Below are some of the solutions offered

2.1 Timing- Where the disability of the Toastmaster results in a slower speaking speed, perhaps extra time could be allowed- perhaps 6-8 minutes, for a 5-7 minute speech.

2 Separate contests- one of the delegates suggested thae possibility of a separate contest being held for people with disabilities, rather like the para-Olympics. While this means that judges will not be considering able-bodied members against disabled, it does little to further the concept of integration.

3 Awareness of Judges- the topic that the group spent most time on was considering the problem of how to ensure that all contestants are judged according to their own abilities. While this is not difficult at Club level, where one is more closely acquainted with all the members and their abilities, it becomes more challenging at higher levels- Area, Division, District and beyond.

One solution put forward was to mention this at the Judges Briefing. This could then alert the Judges to the need for themselves to be sensitive in areas such as gestures, body language, etc. to avoid bias of any kind.

A second suggestion was not to judge/score contestants in areas where they might be at a disadvantage. It was reaffimed as a reminder that the judging form is a guide only, and a suggestion of categories on which to judge contest speeches.

Conclusion

In general, the group felt that educating the judges would be the best solution, to ensure that no contestant is placed at an nfair disadvantage by his or her disability. This awareness would grow with a greater level of exposure at all levels of contests to the knowledge needed in order for judges to make a fair and unbiased assessment.

As group facilitator, I felt that it would have been very interesting if we had been able to delve deeper into the issue. However, that being said, I felt that even with the superficial level of discussion that the time permitted, the group members had been exposed to an issue that most had not previously considered. This in itself is positive and will helop to combat some of the disadvantages experienced by disabled competitors in a Toastmasters contest.

Inclusivity and Integration

Is inclusion/integration desireable for Toastmasters? What are the issues, where are the limits?

Discussion on disabled Toastmasters. Facilitated by Craig Strachan

There are basically two methods to integrate disabled Toastmasters into clubs:

• create a special ‘disabled club’ as per St Giles
• integrate disabled members into current ‘normal’ clubs

The pros and cons were brainstormed:

Special ‘disabled club’

Pros:

• Members in their comfort zone – familiar surroundings
• Less transport cost
• Less logistics

Cons:

• Segregation

Integrate members into current ‘normal’ clubs

Pros:

• Treat disabled people as normal people

Cons:

• Logistical issues
• Potentially more costly
• Venue accessibility can be an issue

Other points that came up were:

• What is a disabled person?
• Different people have different comfort zones – difficult to ‘box’ people into categories
• Strong member and club mentorship (and possibly mindors) may be required – depending on nature and severity of disability
• Possibly an area/division can mentor a disabled club/members, as opposed to an individual club doing so.
• A disabled person needs to (within reasonable logistical constraints) be given the option as to weather he/she would prefer a disabled or normal club

Conference evaluation

If this conference was a manual speech, how would you evaluate it? (Remember to adhere to the Neutral Point Of View -- edit the evaluation by all means, and acknowledge other people's contributions). Just click "Edit" on the right hand side of the page and add your evaluation for the committee!

Photographer

Could the photographer, Tom Horne, please provide his contact details to enable delegates to place orders. The order forms did not include his details. (or if you know how to get hold of him, please put Tom's details here.

thomashorne @ telkomsa.net - Cell 082 601 9131

Note from Tom:
"I am under pressure with heavy after work commitments between now and end October, plus my CD writer is defective, but I will try to get orders already placed away before month end. Thank you for your support and understanding." - Tom

Airport lifts

A note a thanks to the "transport team". You did a great job and it was much appreciated.