Author malw
Date 31 Aug 07, 08:02
Views 3515 Keywords Description How to get your members' history up-to-date by uploading past speeches Article scope easy-Speak information |
Importing Members Speeches from a Spreadsheet |
You may make a mass import of your past speech details by using the Import Tools available in the Club Control Panel.
It is worthwile to import recent completed speeches for your members since this will give a complete record of achievement which may be displayed in the mentor screens and club achievements charts. You will also have all detail to hand, and may print this easily, when the member completes the requirements for CC etc.
I suggest that you load all speeches already made from any workbook that your members have started but not yet completed. This will allow their full progress to be displayed up to the point that they complete the workbook (and earn a Competent or Advanced Communicator award). If you are in the process of implementing easy-Speak for your club you should consider loading details of the last few meetings and use the 'Actual' screen to record what really happened. The benefit of doing this is that you can practice using the system without time pressure and that you will also create a history of recent meetings that will be displayed in the club charts.
To make the process easier, and to avoid you having to type the full name of each workbook, all the workbooks are numbered within easy-Speak. A full list of these workbook numbers is shown when you start the import speeches program. The current list is also shown at the foot of this article.
You may have difficulties with Excel trying to reformat your dates - prevent this by placing a single quote in front of the date e.g. '25-DEC-2007 Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file. In Excel - File> Save As> Save as type: CSV (MS-DOS).
If you use 'European' number formats on your PC (e.g. 123.456,56) Excel will change the character used to separate fields when it creates the CSV file.
Processing is in two stages and begins when you press the 'Start Import' button. At the end of the first stage you will be presented with a summary of speeches that were accepted and another summary showing speeches that were not accepted along with reasons why. Each speech is shown with a line number from the file so that you can correct the error, delete the lines that have been accepted and re-submit the file. At this point you may choose to continue and process the speeches that do not have errors or quit, correct the spreadsheet and return later. Errors are high-lighted in red. The system will try to assign any speech made since your club started using easy-Speak to the correct club meeting and will check that this member spoke at this meeting. Any non-match is highlighted in orange but not reported as an error since it may be a speech outside your regular Toastmaster meetings.
I strongly suggest that you first try the import routine with a very small file of say two speeches, check that everything worked the way that you expected by looking at the speech list for the club and for these users before you get busy with a mass upload of the full history. Here is an explanation of the warning and error messages: Warnings (Speech will be processed but check your data)
Speech already on file? - The member has already completed this task from this workbook and the date shown here is more than a week different from the one already on file. Maybe the member repeated a speech? Errors (Speech will not be processed)
Invalid Workb'k or Asn't - The workbook or assignment was left blank or does not make sense (e.g. assignment 7 from one of the advanced manuals which only have 5 assignments) Speech already on file - The member has already completed this task from this workbook and the date shown here is within a week of the one already on file. Speech already assigned - The member record shows another speech made by this member at this meeting. Invalid Speech date - The speech date was left blank or is a date in the future or more than five years ago. Invalid evaluator - The evaluator may be left blank, but if entered must be a valid username for a member of your club. List of Toastmaster workbooks used by easy-Speak (October 2006) 1 Competent Communication Manual (New program - from 2002 onwards) 2 Communication and Leadership Program (Old program up through 2002) 4 The Entertaining Speaker 6 Speaking to Inform 8 Public Relations 10 Communicating on Television 12 Speciality Speeches 14 Persuasive Speaking 16 The Discussion Leader 18 Humorously Speaking 20 Technical Presentations 22 The Professional Speaker 24 Storytelling 26 Interpretive Reading 28 Interpersonal Communication 30 Speeches by Management 32 Special Occasion Speeches 100 Better Speaker Series 102 The Successful Club Series 104 Leadership Excellence Series |