Sabha Presentation Help
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A Quick and Easy Guide to Making Your Very Own Sabha
Presentation
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Table of Contents:
CHAPTER 1 - From Topic Title to Final Outline
in 3 easy steps
CHAPTER 2 - All of those other things a Good
presentation needs
For more hints on how to give a good presentation please
refer to the Learn2 Write a Speech site
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CHAPTER 1 -- From Topic Title to Final Outline
in 3 Easy Steps
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STEP 1: Decide the message that you want your presentation to
convey to the kishores.
A) What is "The Message"?
Imagine this scene:
You give the Power of Prayer presentation in your kishore sabha.
At the end of sabha, all of the kishores get up to leave. As one of the kishores is
leaving he thinks to himself, "Wow! Prayer is powerful both spiritually and in
worldly life. I should really make an effort to start praying, now that I have practical
tips about how to make it effective." That is the satsang message that you gave to
the kishore. So the message is something that you want the kishore to understand or know,
as a result of the presentation, that can make his life better than it was before the
presentation (in whatever small way). In other words the message is the main point of the
presentation. (OK,, OK, the above example may be slightly unrealistic. More than likely
the best you can hope for is the kishore to get up at the end of sabha and think,
"Cool. Prayer is neat. What's for lunch?" But when you are designing the message
for the purposes of your presentation you plan for the best (and I do mean best case
scenario.)
With each topic there are many possible messages that you can
convey to the kishores. Most of these messages fall into two categories.
B) Informative (Just tell them something)
vs.
Motivational (Tell something in order to get them to do
something)
******The message can be strictly informative************
For a presentation about "Shastriji Maharaj's Fearlessness
and Confidence", They can leave thinking
1)"Shastriji Maharaj was totally fearless and
confident!"
OR
2)"Because of his faith in the power of God, Shastriji
Maharaj was totally fearless and confident!"
******* Or the message can be informative and
motivational***********
1) "Shastriji Maharaj was totally fearless and confident!,
so I should try to be fearless and confident myself"
OR
2) "Because of his faith in the power of God, Shastriji
Maharaj was totally fearless and confident! If I develop such a faith in the power of God,
I can also be that fearless and confident"
We need to really put time into thinking about the message we
will try and covey. All the media in the world cannot impact and motivate a substantial
change in an individual if the message is raw and illogical. Please take time out to
really delve into your topic and think of the various messages that can be conveyed in an
interesting manner. Then prioritize the important messages you want to convey and
eliminate any weak ideas. Begin to put pen to paper and structure your presentation only
after you have given your topic heavy thought.
CONCLUSION STEP 1:
Your message is the main point of the presentation. The rest of
your outline, examples, etc., are all to support your main point. So it is important you
are clear what your message, or goal of the presentation is. After you finish your
outline, see for yourself what kind of message it conveys, and if that was what you
wanted.
Note: Since the presentation is not supposed to be for more than
30 minutes, you probably don't want to make your message too complicated. In most cases
two or three sentences should be all you need to concisely state your message.
STEP 2:PRELIMINARY OUTLINE
- a logical map of the points you want to make to support your
message.
Brainstorm a basic, logical outline of the topic. Do not include
examples in this outline, but the main points (and sub-points, if needed) to create a
logical flow and establish the basic points of the outline. The outline is where you try
to convey your message in a way that will be relevant to kishores.
------------HOW TO MAKE YOUR PRELIMINARY OUTLINE ----------
A)Ask 5 questions to apply to any topic. What , where, when,
why, how?
Using these 5 words, and the topic title "Shastriji
Maharaj's Confidence and fearlessness" I will make a list of questions.
How was Shastriji Maharaj fearless?, Why was Shastriji Maharaj
confident?
When was Shastriji Maharaj fearless? What is confidence and
fearlessness?
How do I get confidence and fearlessness? Why should I care so
deeply about confidence and fearlessness? Try to answer these questions. By continuing to
ask and answer these kinds of questions, you will be able to identify what most of the
important points of the topic are. Using these points you should construct a LOGICAL
argument.
B) The main points of your outline should logically follow each
other.
So if your message were:
"Because of his faith in the power of God, Shastriji
Maharaj was totally fearless and confident! If I develop such a faith in the power of God,
I can also be that fearless and confident"
You could Brainstorm an outline like the one below:
I. God is all-powerful and all-doer
II. Shastriji Maharaj had faith in the power of God
III.Shastriji Maharaj's faith in the power of God made him
fearless
IV. We should believe that God is all-powerful and all-doer in
order to be fearless.
This a logical and valid preliminary outline. It states all of
the parts of the message in a logical way, with each point following the previous point.
For example, first you should show that God is all-powerful. Then you can show that
Shastriji Maharaj had faith in this All-powerful God. So point two logically follows point
one. You can convince yourself that the rest of the points logically follow each previous
point.
-NOTE: You don't have too show each and every logical step. Some
things can be assumed. For example, in point I, you have God is all-powerful. It would be
logical for there to be a point before that, say a point 0. God Exists. Although that
would be logical, there is no need to state something lie that which is pre-accepted or
assumed. How do you know what is and what isn't pre-accepted or assumed-you have to decide
depending on whether the majority of the typical youth would assume that point or not.
C) Once your outline is logical - make it relevant to the
kishores (otherwise they will be bored to death - and the Shikshapatri does say that you
shouldn't kill anyone...)
So no one can argue that the outline above is logical and valid.
However the outline is lacking an important component. You have not sold your message
through this outline, you have only shown them what your message is.
For example you could say
a)Drink colored, carbonated sugar water.
Or you could say:
b)Drink Pepsi, Choice of a new generation, and show Michael
Jordan and Bugs Bunny drinking Pepsi
Method A clearly states: here is the product that we are
offering to you.
Method B makes an effort to sell their product through things
that the soft-drink drinking population (kids and teens) find relevant (Jordan, Bugs
bunny, Choice, New generation).
Which one do you think will sell more? Why?
The second one, because it is relevant to them, they care about
it.
So again - the outline above (Shastriji Maharaj...) just states
the facts, without selling (or making an extra effort to make it relevant to the kishores
so that they care about it).
I. God is all-powerful and all-doer
II. Shastriji Maharaj also had faith in the power of God
III. Shastriji Maharaj was fearless because of his faith in the
power of God
IV. We should believe that God is all-powerful and all-doer in
order to be fearless.
How is this relevant to the average kishore? Why should they
care about it? There are not too any reasons that the average American raised kishore will
find this relevant -- so your sabha will be asleep.
Instead you could make an outline as below:
I. In many situations we(youths) commonly become fearful and
lose confidence
II. If we could be fearless and confidant we could benefit a lot
III.Shastriji Maharaj went through very dangerous situations
during which
he remained fearless and confidant
IV. How was Shastriji Maharaj fearless and confident? (How can
we become fearless and confident)? - understand that God is all-powerful and will give us
strength and help us/protect us
This is also a very simple outline, very similar to the one
above. Except this one tries to make the topic relevant to kishores though points I &
II. Most likely the kishores will like this presentation more because they can relate to
it.
Conclusion: STEP 2
- Make sure that the logic of the presentation is relevant to
the youths. After you develop your message you need to think about how you want to convey
that message to kishores. In my opinion, each presentation you make, you are trying to
sell the message. The kishore doesn't need to accept the fact that he should be fearless
and confident, but you have to sell it to him that he should be fearless and confident. In
fact, if you don't sell the kishore that it is worth his effort to listen to you in the
first place, you will end up talking to yourself, not the kishore mandal. So you should
present it in a way that appeals to buyers(youth).
- Think of the message as the product you want to sell
(Pepsi-cola) - something you want the kishores to accept. How can you get the most number
of kishores to accept your message (drink Pepsi)? Of course, when you are presenting the
topic (selling your message), make it relevant to the kishores.
WITH REGARD TO THE SYLLABUS ARTICLES:
Since you are presently using the articles and essays provided
in the syllabus package as the basis of your presentation, things are slightly easier for
you. Instead of trying to come up with a logical argument cold turkey, you merely have to
understand the logical argument that the article uses. The best way to do this is to take
a pen or pencil and a piece of paper and actually write (Yes, I do mean write) an outline
of the basic logical arguments (main points) of the article or essay that has been given
to you. Thus the logical argument of the article can be the skeleton (basic form) of the
logical outline of your own presentation.
STEP 3:
Fleshing out the preliminary outline, adding kishore-relevant
support for the main points through examples, stories, analogies, etc.
A) Structure of Semi-Final Outline How to make a presentation
outline In general, in your preliminary outline, each roman numeral is a main point. For
each main point you can have one or more subpoints that support the main point. Under each
subpoint you may have one or more examples that prove that the subpoint is true. In other
words:
1 Main point one
1.1 Subpoint one that supports main point
1.2 Subpoint two that supports main point
1.2.1 Example 1.2.1 that supports 1.2
1.2.2 Example 1.2.2. that supports 1.2
1.3 Subpoint three that supports main point
1.3.1 Subpoint 1.3.1 that supports 1.3
1.3.2 Example 1.3.2 that supports 1.3
2 Main point two
For example:
1 Role of Prayer in Life
1.1 Success = Effort +Prayer
Effort and Prayer are two oars on a boat. If we try to row with
only one of those oars we will only end up going in circles. But if we use both oars we
will progress swiftly. Prayer is as important as effort, yet it is neglected. When we
study we put in three hours of effort but not even two minutes of sincere prayer. We
should focus more on prayer in our everyday life.
1.2 When should we pray?
(Media - Satsang Photo of Bapa doing Dhun for earthquake in
front of
make-shift idols)
1.2.1 Regular Prayer Times: 1) As soon as you wake up, 2)In
Puja, 3) Before beginning to study or take exam, etc., 4)Before going to bed .
1.2.2 Other Prayer Times: When would we like to have a intimate
chat with God and Swamishri, is when we should pray. Many have felt a spiritual healing
when in contact with Bapa - Prayer is a 24-hour hotline with Bapa. (Media - Photo Sardarji
Kishore who took Drugs praying with Bapa)(NJ please Supply)
1.2.3 To gain help in doing work - Pray.
1.2.4 To gain strength to eradicate evil instincts within Pray.
1.2.4.1 We would like to follow Bapas agna but due to evil
instincts within sometimes we fail in following Bapas agna or satsang niyams. Then we feel
discouraged and think that it cant be done. To remedy this situation pray to Bapa to give
you strength.
1.2.4.2 In London Mandir mahotsav, Bapa in ashirvaad to
karyakars said, Our Indian scriptures say that when a mongoose and a snake are engaged in
battle, the snake may wound the mongoose with its venomous bite. When the mongoose does
get bitten, he retreats to the forest to smell some Norvel (a medicinal herb that is an
antidote for venom). Then he is cured and fights back with twice the vigor. Similarly if
we commit some mistaken then we should pray for forgiveness for committing the mistake and
strength not to commit the mistake again. God will then give us this strength. But we
should never become discouraged and give up.
B) Examples should be relevant to kishores
The idea of making the presentations relevant also applies to
especially to your selection of examples. --- Try to include some examples that are
relevant to the times, if possible. Dr. Swami says that people like (taaja bhajya) new
news, rather than stale news. For Ex: If you can give an example about the Mir Space
station it may arose more interest since it is more recent and they have all heard more
about it than, say, Skylab.(remember that anyone? Precisely.)
--- Another technique to get youth to understand something they
might not be able to relate to is to compare it to something they can relate to.
Ex. You can tell them that Pramukh Swami washed the bathrooms in
Bochasan with his bare hands.
Or
Ex. You can describe in vivid sensory detail, the inside of a
porta-potty (portable toilet/Johnny-on-the-spot), something that most people have seen,
then show how Pramukh Swami cleaned something even worse than that with his bare hands.
Another example:
Ex. You can say that Shastriji Maharaj did not leave Vadtal even
when evil people tried to burn him alive.
Or
Ex. You can say, " You are walking on a deserted city
street very late at night and you hear footsteps behind you or see something move in the
corner of your eye. You start to walk faster, your heartbeat jumps up" Then you can
say, " We are afraid of even shadows, but for Shastriji Maharaj, there were dozens of
people wanting to kill him by burning him alive in broad daylight. He was so fearless even
then Shastriji Maharaj did not leave Vadtal.
C) The more examples the better. More vividly described examples
are even better.
***** People would always appreciate concrete stories and
anecdotes more than something more abstract.******
For Example:
----Abstract --Developing creativity helps you in the business
world by allowing you to come up with new solutions to problems
---Concrete Developing creativity helps you in the business
world by allowing you to come up with new solutions to problems . In fact, companies spend
millions of dollars hiring creative experts to help people develop creativity. Gillette
for example brought in such an expert, who encourage executives to step out of their old
thinking model by playing games. One such game was for each key manager to be a strand of
hair. Some wanted more body, other little less. The result was Silkience, one of the
top-selling lines of shampoo since 1980.
***** Do not describe a story. Tell it.*****
For Example.
---Describing a story -
Although Evander Holyfield was expected by all to lose to Mike
Tyson, he kept faith in his prayer. He then surprised everyone by beating Tyson. He said
that it was due to his prayer.
----Telling a story The odds were 17 to 1 in Tyson's favor. A
pay-per-view retailer offered its customers a by-the-round price so that fans would not
blame cable TV too much for another one-round blowout. Unlike last time's defeat against
Riddick Bowe, this time Tyson had trained hard to become a lean, mean, fighting machine.
But the 34 year-old Holyfield was undergoing a strict daily regimen of training... and of
prayer. He prayed with such faith and such regularity that a few days before the fight, he
declared that his faith and prayer would secure his win. And win he did, forcing referees
to call the fight in the 11th round causing the boxing upset of century. Later,
Tyson said he remembered nothing after the 3rd round. Holyfield attributed the victory to
his prayer.
But Most of All: DO NOT READ THE STORY.
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CHAPTER 2 -- All of Those Other Things a Good
Presentation Needs
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A.) INTRODUCTION
- Your introduction should be a hook that will catch the attention
of the audience. If you loose the kishores in the beginning of the presentation with a
boring introduction, no matter how good your points are they will have tuned out.
- On the other hand, if you give an exciting introduction, kishores
willbe awake, listening and interested.
Some ways to give good introductions:
- Tell an exciting, suspenseful story: Holyfield
- Tell them something that is surprising.
- Make sure they can relate to the introduction.
- Do something that engages them or requires their attention
- Do a demonstration
- Show a video
TRANSITION:
The main points of your presentation should have a logical flow.
For example, point two should logically follow from point 1. The transition in between the
points does three things: 1) It summarizes the previous point,
2) It introduces the next point,
3) It shows the logical connection between the previous point
and the next point. Look at Final Prayer Power Presentation
Media:
OHP are standard. They are just one way that you can make sure
kishores are not getting lost, since there is a visual map of the presentation that they
can refer back to. Other media or tools for presentation: videos, audio, worksheets,
workshops, games, a discussion question.
VARIETY:
This brief sheet of guidelines tells how the typical
presentation can be made. But if all the presentations are made just like this , then it
will be monotonous. So try to introduce variety into your presentations with different
media, different types of interactive presentations, etc.
CONCLUSION:
---- Conclude each main point with a small one sentence summary
--- End of presentation - Summarize the topic.
If the topic was meant to be motivational, give a call to
action. Ex: for prayer power, the last point was practical tips to praying more
effectively is to give a sense of closure. Leave them something to think about…
Thank you SanJose for this. They have Other Stuff on their Page
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