Page 34 - May 2020
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FIELD NOTES
ide the crusty dinosaur and let your inner mold of a face-to-face meeting. I modify my
Rcurmudgeon out! Yes, distractions are to speeches and evaluations to fit the Zoom
be avoided when giving speeches. Yes, my glasses platform. I tailor my evaluations to how effective
do reflect the computer screen I sit in front of. I the presenter is at getting their message across.
was recently told to take them off so my audience The same speech in a face-to-face meeting would
wouldn’t be distracted! PUH-leeeze!!! This does not get the same evaluation from me—because
not work for me on multiple levels (I’ve tried it the circumstances are different!!!
and failed...so this is personal experience). First, I know that I have pet peeves (who doesn’t).
I can’t see when I take them off. Second, the Whether it’s the ongoing failure to mute when
Timer becomes an unrecognizable multi-hued not speaking or verbal interruptions (“uh-huh,”
blur. Third, I mistake my stapler for the camera “yeah,” “mmm”) when others are speaking—I
(it’s shiny and sits right beside my computer). have a long list. My current peeve is when the
And fourth, I cannot see any of the visual cues speaker stands up and moves away from their
about going over time - like people waving their camera so we can “see” their entire body. Two
hands frantically or turning off their video feed. problems usually occur: they get really small on
If removing glasses becomes the expectation, my screen and they are further away from the
then I suggest that everyone that doesn’t have microphone and I have trouble hearing them.
to use glasses to see their computer put on a I am not enamored with Zoom as a
blindfold - to make things fair. Right? I thought Toastmasters platform, but it is the platform
the whole point of a Zoom meeting was to be we have! I can still learn to be a more effective
able to SEE everyone! communicator over the computer. I look
Distractions happen all the time. How many forward to returning to some of the routines of
pets have you seen sashay & preen in front of yester-months. I am the mam-osaur (coo-coo-
the camera during a Toastmasters meeting? Or ca-chu) that is slow to embrace change (and still
maybe that damn mute button!! Or how about complains about
the chat window? I have to decide how I’m going it) but ultimately
to deal with distractions. Am I going to focus on sees the value in
the distraction to the exclusion of all else? Or can adaptation.
I be a little gracious and note the distractions... We are in this
but dismiss them from my mind to focus on the together . . . while
presentation? When it comes to Zoom meetings, sitting separately
I practice mind over what-doesn’t-matter. Give in front of our
it a try! screens. Long live
e a slightly flexible mam-osaur. The old the mam-osaurs!
Bways are behind us—do not continue to
insist that speeches and presentations fit the
34 ONE COMMUNITY
