How To Program A Strategy

Let's consider a speech that should last between five and seven minutes.

How would YOU work the lights? For example, when should the yellow light come on?

How would YOU tell the speaker when it's time to speak and time to quit, using only three lights?

A Simple Strategy

• Let's turn on the green light when the speaker starts.
• Turn on the yellow light at 6:30, warning the speaker that only 30 seconds remain.
• Turn on the red light at 7:00, meaning that time is up.
• And if the speaker is still speaking at 7:30, start flashing the red light.

Here's how you would specify that speech profile using Tick-Talk-Clock's control panel:

The Script controls the lights (and the sounds, too, but that's later). This speech profile is so simple that it's suitable for mechanical timers. These are beautiful wooden boxes with three real light bulbs. I have never seen one for less than $100. And some of them don't even time! YOU do! You have to watch your watch, and manually flip the lights on and off. Who wants to lug one of these to each meeting? And you can't leave it at the meeting room because they tend to disappear. Isn't there someone who always brings a laptop to the meeting? Do you meet in a conference room that is equipped with a PC? Our digital timer is so big that the speaker can see it from across the room. But it's an option. You don't HAVE to use it. The target range is between 5 and 7 minutes. This is important for the reports, which we'll get to later.

     

A Better Strategy

If the speech should last between 5 and 7 minutes, it's wrong to speak for 8 minutes.

Isn't it just as wrong to speak for only 4? Yet the simple strategy gives no guidance as to when a speech is long enough.

Why not start with the lights OFF? Do speakers need a light to know that they started?

We could use the green light to signal that it's OK to quit.

Here's how you would specify that speech profile using Tick-Talk-Clock's control panel:

Notice that we've made a few changes to the simple profile: We turned off the Big Digital Timer. This is an option, so you can hide it from proficient speakers who would rather rely only on the lights. We inserted a row into the script. The Green light only comes on at 5 minutes. We changed the time of the yellow and flashing events. It's easy to change anything in a script. We also point out three additional features: This is a saved file. You can have as many saved profiles as you want. You don't have to enter all these parameters during your meeting. We add sound. You can play a WAV file at any event. A small bell rings at 7 minutes, and a more serious bell rings at 8 minutes. We provide several bells and buzzers, or you can play your own. If you don't want ANY sounds, you can remove them with the "Edit" button. There is a TEST button that you can use as you write your own scripts. The timer speeds through long periods, so you don't have to wait through 5 minutes of real time. But it slows down to real time at each script event.

     

The BEST Strategy

The best strategy is YOUR strategy!

We provide several speech profiles. You can change them any way you want, and you can save your changes.

Or you can start from scratch and write your own. You can have as many profiles as you want.

 

A Town Hall Strategy

Things are quite different at a town hall meeting, which includes PTA meetings, Condo Board meetings, etc.

Imagine twenty angry people waiting in line for their turn at the mike. Everybody gets two minutes. Nobody is interested in improving their public speaking ability. 

In this case, the timer should count DOWN. The only thing that's important is how much time is left. The entire room would be thankful if a speaker only used fifteen seconds; target ranges are unimportant. But going over the limit is forbidden.

So the lights can be a lot simpler, and a lot more obvious:

• When the speaker starts, turn on the GREEN light. It's OK to speak.
• When there is only 15 seconds to go, turn on the YELLOW light. Time is almost up.
• When the time runs out, turn on the RED light.

And if the speaker is still speaking after 15 more seconds, start FLASHING the red light.

Sounds are more useful here.

• Sound a small bell when time begins and when time runs out.
• Sound a more serious bell if the speaker won't quit when time runs out.

Here's how you would specify that speech profile using Tick-Talk-Clock's control panel:

The timer begins at 2 minutes, and therefore counts down. We ring a small bell at the start and at 0:00, and a more serious bell if the speaker drones on for 30 more seconds. Notice the last event is a negative number. We use the big timer. The speaker should see how much time is left. The target range is unimportant. No report is produced in town hall mode. Nobody is trying to improve their speaking proficiency.

 

CLOCK MODE - Gets your meetings started on time!

This mode shows the real time of day on your screen, but it does so with a script. So you can use lights and sound.

This script assumes your meeting starts at 8:00 PM (remember, you can change ANYTHING!). All times are 24-hour, so 8:00 PM is 20:00.

Here's your control panel:

The timer begins at the current time of day, whenever you start it.   At 7:55 we give a 5-minute warning. The screen changes to yellow and a small bell rings. At 8:00 the screen changes to red and we bang a gavel. At 8:03 the screen starts flashing. You can bang the gavel manually, whenever and as often as you like. When you have established order, you can stop this script.  The target range is unimportant.

 


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