Call to Order
The Sergeant-at-Arms will tap the gavel once, welcome everyone to the meeting and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. He or she will turn "control of the meeting" to the President.
Club President
Conducts the business portion of the meeting or advises the Toastmaster if there is any club business to be conducted or announcements to be made. Introduces the Toastmaster for the meeting.
Toastmaster for the Meeting
The primary role of the Toastmaster for the day is to keep the meeting
running smoothly and crisply. Prepares and distributes the agenda
for the meeting, describes the format of the meeting for our guests,
introduces each participant in the meeting when he/she is to speak,
and waits at the lectern for the speaker.
Grammarian
He or she will be called upon at the end of the meeting to report the grammatical errors. He/she will also point out especially effective word use. Presents a vocabulary-building word for the day. Gives the definition of the word and uses it in an example sentence. Our challenge is to use the word during the meeting.
"Ah" Counter
Keeps tabs on grammatical or pronunciation errors by any speaker. Counts the "Ah's," "Um's," "You Know's" and any other words used as fillers. He or she will be called upon at the end of the meeting to report # of "Ah's," etc.
Table Topics Master
Prepares two to six topics on which other members are asked to speak extemporaneously. Presents a topic, then calls upon members to come up and speak on the topic for one to two minutes.
Timer
Manages the clock to assist each presenter in sticking to the allocated time for a particular presentation (Table Topics participants, Speakers and Evaluators) and reports on how long each participant spoke.
Table Topics Participant
Delivers a spontaneous speech on the topic he or she has been given by the Topic Master. Target time is one to two minutes. If you don't know anything about the topic, you can talk about how you feel or switch to some other topic. The goal is to fill the two minutes. Try to use an opening, a body and a close.
Speaker
The speaker delivers a speech he or she has prepared and rehearsed beforehand based on one of many Toastmasters International manuals designed to focus on specific types of speeches. Speakers choose their own topics. We typically have from two to three completely different speeches and subjects during our meetings. After the Timer's Report, we vote for the best speaker.
General Evaluator
Conducts the most important session of our meeting, the evaluation portion. This is where we learn to improve our individual speaking abilities, and how we can improve the quality of our meetings. Each speaker is assigned an evaluator. The General Evaluator will introduce each evaluator much as the Toastmaster introduces the Speakers. The General Evaluator gives his/her impressions of the overall meeting.
Speech Evaluator
The Evaluator gives his/her opinion of a speech and focuses on four points; in his/her opinion:
- Did the speaker accomplish the speech objectives in the manual?
- What were the best qualities of the speech?
- How could the speaker improve?
- Conclusion with an inspirational comment.
Awards
The Toastmaster will announce the results of voting for the Best Table Topic Presentation, Best Evaluator, and Best Speech, and Best of the "Big 3" (Toastmaster, Table Topic Master, or General Evaluator) then return control of the meeting to the President.
After the Meeting
Typically, members stay a few minutes later to chat. Then members and guests typically join together in La Madeleine restaurant for some fun and fellowship in what we affectionately call "Post Toasties." This is an excellent opportunity for guests to meet members one on one and discuss the benefits and opportunities within the club, or perhaps just sit back, relax and discuss the Cowboys, weather, or whatever comes to mind.
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