BenkoBLOG : TechMasters

A TechMasters Holiday Poem...

benko — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:39:03 GMT

Sometimes a little levity is all we need. I can't claim credit, but I'll play it back here. As read at the Tuesday morning meeting by Paul Scivetti...author unknown...Happy Holidays!

Twas the night before implementation and all thru the house
not a system was working, not even the mouse.
The programmers all hung by their tubes in despair,
with hopes that a miracle soon would be there.

The users were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of queries danced in their heads.

When out in the server room there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my desk to see what was the matter.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear?
but an alpha geek programmer with a six pack of beer.

More rapid than eagles, his programs they came,
and he cursed and he muttered and he called them by name!
On Update! On Insert! On Query! On Delete!
On batch jobs! On Closing! On functions complete!

His eyes were glazed over, his fingers nimble and lean,
from weekends and nights in front of a screen.
But with a wink of his eye and a twitch of his head,
soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
turning specs into code; then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger upon the "ENTER" key,
the system came up and worked perfectly.

The updates updated; the deletes, they deleted,
the queries inquired; the closings completed.
He tested each whistle, and tested each bell,
with nary a glitch; it had all gone so well.

The system was finished, the tested were concluded.
The last minute changes were even included!
And the users exclaimed with a snarl and a taunt,
"It's just what we asked for, but not what we want!"

TechMasters Twin Cities - Is going LIVE!

benko — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:25:59 GMT

I’m excited to announce that based on feedback and response to people I’ve talked with and the previous emails I’ve sent out that we have scheduled the first “Charter” meeting of “TechMasters - Twin Cities”! This meeting will be held at New Horizon’s office in Edina (4510 West 77^th Street, Edina, MN 55435) at 7:30 am – 9:00 am. This meeting will be a “Demo” meeting in the sense that we will bring in people from similar clubs to run thru an shorted example meeting with all the components of a typical meeting, but will leave time for us to do the business of chartering our club.

Join us if you can, and be witness to the charter meeting! It will be fun to get this going. Let me know if I can answer any questions.

Thanks & See you on Tuesday!

Introducing Twin Cities TechMasters

benko — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:23:45 GMT

You may have head that I've been sounding out people in the Minneapolis area lately on the idea of starting a group to help people learn the art of technical speaking. The idea is to build on the educational program of Toastmasters to give members the opportunity to practice and improve their skills. if you live in the Minnesota area and you want to get more into send me an email or join the group I setup on facebook...I'm inviting interested parties to come see how an existing club works by being my guest next week on Thursday morning at 7:30 am in Bloomington at a club that I first visited in 1991.

The way Toastmasters clubs work is they typically meet one morning (or afternoon) a week with 15-20 members in attendance. The meetings include 3 main portions, including a business meeting, an impromptu speaking portion and a prepared presentation portion. There are a number of roles that are assigned on a rotating basis which includes the following:

· Toastmaster - Runs the meeting, makes introductions and ensures that we start and end on time

· Court Jester – Starts the meeting off with a little bit of humor

· Grammarian – Picks the word of the day and evaluates the meeting for use of grammar…also picks the Word Picture winner for the week

· Topicmaster – Runs the impromptu speaking part of the meeting, asking questions of random members of the audience that they get 2 minutes to answer…I’ve seen some very creative ideas for themes on this

· Presenter (x3) – Delivers a prepared presentation usually 5-7 minutes in length…

· Evaluator (x3) – Assigned to evaluate each speaker…2-3 minute evaluation on how the presenter can improve their presentation skills

· General Evaluator – Runs the evaluation portion of the meeting including the vote for best speaker, best evaluator…provides a general evaluation of the meeting as well

Each member of the club gets a manual with the first 10 speeches which when complete give them credit for certification as a Competent Toastmaster (CTM). There are advanced certifications as well and about 20-30 manuals available to choose from which detail goals for advanced presentations.

My goal with this club is to provide an environment for people to learn and improve their speaking/presenting skills. Drop me a line if you're interested here or would like more info on how you can create one in your city. I'd love to help get you started