Toastmaster

The Global Toastmasters Resource

Coordinates and conducts the entire meeting and acts as a genial host; introduces participants. The Toastmaster sets the tone for the entire meeting. Program participants should be introduced in a way that excites the audience and motivates them to listen. The Toastmaster creates 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.

Contents 1 Prior to the meeting 2 At the meeting 3 During the meeting 4 Resources 5 Checklist for Toastmaster

[edit] Prior to the meeting

• 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 Topicsmaster to discuss his or her duties. Also provide the Topicsmaster with a list of program participants so he or she will know who already has a speaking role at the meeting.

• Call all speakers in advance to remind them that they are speaking. 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).

• Call the general evaluator to confirm the assignment. Ask the general evaluator to call the other members of the evaluation team (speech evaluators, leader evaluators, Topicsmaster, timer, grammariany Ah-counter) and remind them of their responsibilities.

• Prepare an introduction for each speaker. A proper introduction is important to the success of the speaker's presentation.

• 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.

• Remember that performing 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] At the meeting

• Arrive early in order to finish any last-minute details.

• Check with the speakers for any last-minute changes.

• Sit near the front of the room and have 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.

• Always lead the applause before and after the Table Topics session, each prepared speaker, and the general evaluator.

• 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; the general evaluator will then introduce the other members of the evaluation team.

• Introduce the Topicsmaster as you would any speaker.

• Introduce each speaker in turn.

• At the conclusion of the speaking program, request the timer's report and vote for Best Speaker, if your club has 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 appropriated return control to the chairman.

[edit] Resources

lntroducing the Speaker (Item 111)

Chairman (item 200)

Patterns in Programming (Item 1314)

[edit] 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 evalutators 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.