SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/30215
Facility&Operations • The new Monsanto Turf promises to reduce serious abrasion-type injuries more than 30 percent. The first statement provides mere de- scription. The second statement delivers context and explains the importance of the topic. Get to your thesis very early in the speech. Use the old adage of “tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em and tell ‘em STMA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT speakers end up being a joke. Sometimes that happens because the joke is unrelated to the topic at hand. Sometimes that hap- pens because the joke is in poor taste. Sometimes that happens because the joke just isn’t funny. Sometimes it’s all of the above. The moral of the story is if you must use humor, keep it related to the topic at hand, tions from the players or boos from the fans than normal. “That was my first lesson that style tri- umphs over substance,” he said. Then he went on to prove style was tri- umphing over substance in television news. Pertinent, tasteful and closely tied to the topic. Generally speaking, if you can come up with a personal experience or anecdote, often one that pokes fun at yourself, you will have found an attention-grabbing way of starting your speech. Just don’t start thinking you’re the next David Letterman. The second item on the big no-no list is DO NOT READ FROM A PREPARED SCRIPT. If you do it will look and sound like you’re reading from a prepared script. Working from an outline usually provides sufficient structure to keep your mind at ease and your speech on track. It also pro- vides enough departure so you won’t sound like you’re reading it from a prepared script. Extemporaneous is clearly the best way. >> BOARD MEMBER Mike Tarantino presents during the 2011 STMA National Conference in Austin. what you just told ‘em” as the basic organi- zational structure of the speech. That will help you provide a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning grabs the audience and sets the thesis. The middle provides the evidence to prove your thesis. The end should make the final reference to the thesis, leaving the audience, hopefully wanting more, rather than making them glad this whole speech is over. PRODUCE Once you’ve decided on your topic and have turned that into a thesis, you now must decide how you will present it. Let’s start with what not to do. Do not try to imitate David Letterman. Dave has carved out a nice career saying funny things in front of live audiences. He also employs a number of people to help him write those funny things. Far too many speakers think you must start your presen- tation with a joke. As a result, far too many 28 SportsTurf | May 2011 show good taste, and for goodness sake, make it funny. Former CBS Television Pres- ident Van Gordon Sauter once began a speech about the decline in quality of tele- vision news. He recalled working his way through graduate school refereeing high school basketball games. One night he tossed the opening tip-off and a player acci- dentally knocked off his glasses and smashed them as his feet came back to the floor. Sauter confessed he couldn’t see a thing without his glasses. He also had not brought an extra pair to the game, so he would have to offici- ate without the benefit of clear eyesight. He promptly decided that whenever he would blow his whistle, he would “sell” the call with great conviction. At the game’s end he noted he had not received any more com- plaints from the coaches, ques- It allows you to connect better with the au- dience because your focus is on them, not your note cards or script. It’s also the most dangerous one, dangerous because if you ever forget where you’re going or where you’ve been, the awkward silence of trying to get back on pace will turn out to be a speech killer. The audience will remember you all right—just for the wrong reasons. Keep in mind you got invited because your inviters knew that you knew a lot about the subject. You probably talk about that subject virtually every day. You don’t need note cards to talk to your boss or a member of the city council or a coach. >> STMA PRESIDENT Troy Smith, CSFM informally presents to a group during the educational roundtable sessions that closed the conference education program in Austin. www.sportsturfonline.com