What it is about
You keep track of the speakers‘ annoying habits. It could be the well-known „Ah“ or continuous lick-smacking. You watch out for distracting verbal fillers; or unnecessary repetitions; or nervous tics (distracting physical fillers), or all of these.
Have pen and paper and a list with the names of the participants ready when the meeting starts. Do count everything that is being uttered. The Ah-Counter is there for everyone.
How will you profit from being the Ah-Counter?
You can get at least three things out of being the Ah-Counter.
- You give a prepared mini speech and an impromptu speech.
- You become more aware of your own speaking patterns, and
- You practice giving bad news. It is no fun to tell other members they used 40 Ah’s in five minutes. But if you are ever going to achieve a leadership position, you will have to provide feedback on sub-par performances. Start practicing now and learn to do it in a good way.
Why do we use the Ah-Counter?
Toastmasters International defines the purpose of the Ah-Counter as follows: “The purpose of the Ah-Counter is to note any overused words or filler sounds used as a crutch by anyone who speaks during the meeting. Words may be inappropriate interjections, such as and, well, but, so and you know. Sounds may be ah, um or er”
The Ah-Counter helps us to improve our ability to listen to ourselves and to really take notice of how we are saying the things we are saying.
How To
When introduced by the Toastmaster of the Evening, you have one minute to explain the role and what you will do to help us get rid of verbal and paraverbal crutches and disadvantageous patterns.
This is a mini speech. Try to be concise, to be ambitious and to wow us with your description. That could be achieved by using a quote, presenting a fitting metaphor or anything else that will amaze or entertain us.
At the end of the evening, you announce the results for each participant. Keep it short.
If you go to the stage to report, remember to shake hands with the GE when you come to and leave the stage.
Some announce the results person-by-person, others give the results in categories: 0 filler words; 1-5 ; 6-10; 10 or more. Do not comment on the results,
Never ever make a big thing out of who used the most fillers.
Remember, at Toastmasters, we aim to encourage not discourage! If you’ve seen improvement in a speaker, do comment! But only on the improvement.
How to make use of the bell
If members ask for it, you are to ring the bell for the first three occurrences after the first three occurrences. After that, you continue to count quietly as you do for everyone else. Do not ring the bell more than three times, even if the speaker asks you to.
Ringing the bell is not an easy feat. Once you master it, interrupting others when necessary or claiming your speaking time when challenged will become much easier.
Do not use the bell with guests, for Icebreakers, and with members who opt out. Those members would have to alert you of the fact that they want to opt out before the meeting.
Personally for me (Friederike) the bell has done two things:
a) I have become extremely resilient against interruptions and disturbances.
b) It helps me to notice and clean my speaking of bad habits much faster. I wish I had an Ah-Counter with me at all times.