Toastmaster

The Global Toastmasters Resource

Coordinates and conducts the club meeting and acts as a genial host, introducing participants in a way that excites the audience and motivates them to listen. The Toastmaster sets the tone for the entire meeting, creating an atmosphere of interest, expectation, and receptivity.

Serving as Toastmaster is an excellent way to practice planning, preparation and organization skills, time management, facilitation, motivation, and team-building skills as you strive to make the meeting one of the club's best. It contributes to your progress in the Leadership Track.

Contents 1 Prior to the meeting 1.1 Hints 2 Before the meeting starts 3 During the meeting 4 Resources 4.1 A Checklist for Toastmaster 4.2 Sample Documents 4.3 Resources

[edit] Prior to the meeting

(Your club's website may have a “Duty Roster” to allow members (in coordination with the Vice President Education) to sign up for Meeting Roles. If so, you should modify the following points accordingly.)

• Speak with the Vice President Education to find out who is scheduled for various meeting roles, if a special theme has been set for the meeting, and if there are any program changes.
• Call the Table Topicsmaster to discuss her duties. Also provide her with a list of program participants, so she will know who already has a speaking role at the meeting.
• Call the General Evaluator to confirm the assignment. Ask him to call the other members of the evaluation team (Speech Evaluator, Leader Evaluator, Table Topicsmaster, Timer, Grammarian, Ah-Counter) and remind them of their responsibilities.
• Call each Speaker to confirm their speaking role. Interview them to find out their speech title, manual and project number, purpose to be achieved, time requested, and something interesting for you to use when introducing them (job, family, hobbies, education, why this topic for this audience).
  • Prepare an Introduction for each speaker. The speaker may wish to prepare their own introduction; in that case you will follow what the speaker has provided.
• Contact the rest of the members to confirm their meeting roles: Word of the Day, Thought for the Day, Jokemaster, Invocation.
• Prepare remarks that can be used to bridge the gaps between program segments. You may never use these, but you should be prepared to avoid possibly awkward periods of silence.
• Prepare an agenda for the portion of the meeting you will lead. You may wish to coordinate with the President (or whoever has the job of club meeting chairman) and prepare an agenda for the entire meeting. This agenda is to be distributed to the members as they arrive, along with their ballot.
• Remember that acting as Toastmaster is one of the most valuable experiences in your club work. The assignment requires careful preparation in order to have a smoothly run meeting.

[edit] Hints

• It is useful to have a Meeting Roles Worksheet, a list of club members indicating whether the member has been contacted, will not be in attendance, assigned meeting role(s), whether they have provided an introduction, etc.

[edit] Before the meeting starts

• Arrive early in order to finish any last-minute details.
• Check with the President (or meeting chair), the General Evaluator, and the speakers for any last-minute changes.
• Provide each attendee with a meeting agenda, along with their ballot (you may delegate this job to the Sergeant at Arms).
• Provide the Table Topicsmaster with a copy of the meeting roles worksheet, so they know which members to call on during Table Topics.
• Sit near the front of the room, and have the General Evaluator and your Speakers do likewise, for quick and easy access to the lectern.

[edit] During the meeting

• Preside with sincerity, energy, enthusiasm, and decisiveness. Take your audience on a pleasant journey and make them feel that all is going well.
• Pay attention to the time. Endeavor to begin and end the meeting on time. You may have to make adjustments to the schedule during the meeting to accomplish this. Make sure each meeting segment adheres to the schedule.
• Your job is to lead the applause whenever you introduce a Speaker, the Table Topicsmaster, the General Evaluator, and when you finally hand the gavel over to the President. Applause should last until you are shaking the person's hand.
• Remain standing near the lectern after your introduction until the Speaker has acknowledged you and assumed control of the meeting, then be seated.
• Introduce the General Evaluator as you would any speaker; he will in turn introduce the members of his evaluation team.
• Introduce the Table Topicsmaster as you would any speaker.
• Introduce each Speaker in turn.
• At the conclusion of the speaking program, request the Timer report and vote for Best Speaker, if your club gives this award.
• Briefly reintroduce the General Evaluator.
• While votes are being tallied, invite comments from guests and announcements (such as verifcation of next week's program).
• Award trophies if your club does so.
• Request the Thought for the Day if your club has one.
• Adjourn the meetings or, if appropriate, return control to the President.

[edit] Resources

[edit] A Checklist for Toastmaster

(by Erichv 08:07, 16 Aug 2005 UTC)

• Get there early
• Plonk your stuff near the front—you'll be bobbing up and down
• Get the evaluators, speakers and sergeant together
• Get the speakers to brief their evaluators and the sergeant about what they want
• Speakers to give evaluators their manuals
• TM TO GET THE SPEECH TITLES
• Write down the speech titles
• Write down AND PRACTICE the pronunciation of the names of all the speakers
• Your job is to introduce the speakers. Please help me welcome Erich Viedge with his speech entitled: "On the way up"; "On the way up, Erich Viedge!"
• Shake the speaker's hand when they comes up
• Get out the way and stand near your chair. wait for him to say "Madam/Mr Toastmaster".
• When he does, sit down. If he doesn't, sit down anyway after a few moments.
• When he's finished, lead the applause
• Say something like: interesting speech. Don't say "excellent speech." You're not the evaluator. Say why you found it interesting.
• Introduce the next speaker
• After all the speeches, hand over to the next person on the agenda.

[edit] Sample Documents

• Meeting Roles Worksheet
• Meeting Agenda

[edit] Resources

• A Toastmaster Wears Many Hats (Item 1167D, 6 pp, $1.00)
• Introducing the Speaker (Item 111 , 1 pp, $0.15)
• Chairman (Item 200 , 18 pp, $3.00)
• Patterns in Programming (Item 1314 , $4.00)
• Guidelines For Chairing a Toastmasters Meeting—District 72, New Zealand