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by CelineVPE on 06 Mar 11, 15:25

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Author malw  Date 31 Aug 07, 08:02  Views 3491
Description How to get your members' history up-to-date by uploading past speeches
Category Getting Started  Type Information
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.
Only one or two members in each club should have access to the Control Panel. Please refer here for more detail:
http://d71.org/kb.php?mode=article&k=15

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.
The auto-allocation engine uses a member's, history including the number of speeches made, when making decisions about which member to assign to each role - so you will need to load some history to get reliable results. (Any member with CC or CL etc in their record is viewed as 'experienced' for the auto-allocation routine)

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.
If you intend to load the meeting history you should do this before you load speech history using this program. Speeches will automatically be linked back to the meeting where they were presented if the meeting history exists when you load the speeches using this program.


Create a spreadsheet for the speeches that you wish to import. I suggest that you limit any one spreadsheet to 25-50 lines so that you may see more easily what is happening. There is an absolute maximum of 100 lines per spreadsheet.
A sample spreadsheet is available here: http://d71.org/docs/UploadSpeeches.xls

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.

The spreadsheet must have the following columns
:
Column A - Username. The username that they use on easy-Speak. This will be validated.
Column B - Workbook number. For example, '1' for the Comunication and Leadership manual.
Column C - Assignment in that workbook. For example, '1' for Icebreaker in the first manual.
Column D - Speech Title. for example, 'All about me'.
Column E - Date the speech was delivered. Use 'military' date format for your language for example, '23JAN2005'.
Column F - If you know the speech Evaluator , enter their username here. This is optional but, if entered, must be a valid member of your club.

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

Demonstration Spreadsheet

Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file. In Excel - File> Save As> Save as type: CSV (MS-DOS).

Log on to easy-Speak.

Access the Club Control Panel and select the utility - Import Tools, Speeches.
Use the 'browse' button to select the speeches file from your PC.

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.
Use the radio button to indicate that the information in your file is in this format.

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.
There is a rough validation on date - it must be a date in the last five years (and not in the future)

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)

    Not on easy-Speak - This speech has a date AFTER you started to use easy-Speak but the program could not find a meeting of that date where the member made a speech. This may be a speech made outside Toastmasters or it could be that you mis-typed the date. Check that you have used the 'Actuals' screen to confirm what really happened in all your meetings. (The 'participation' chart is an easy way to check this)
    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 user name - This user cannot be found as a member of your club.
    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

    
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