More Meeting Information

Meeting Agenda

A typical Leading Edge meeting has four parts:

Part 1: Opening Remarks, Word of the Day, Timing Instructions, Joke, Inspirational Thought, and Book Review

The meeting chairman opens the meeting and invites the Grammarian to introduce the word of the day, the Timer to give timing instructions, the Jokemaster to present a joke, the Inspirator to present an inspirational thought, and the Book Reviewer to present a book review. Not all roles are present at every meeting.

Part 2: Toast, Prepared Speeches and Evaluations

The Chairman turns the meeting over to the Toastmaster who presents a toast. The Toastmaster then introduces speakers and evaluators. Members deliver prepared speeches that range from 5 to 7 minutes for novice speakers to upwards of an hour for advanced speakers. Before a speech begins, the evaluator reads the objectives. Evaluators provide written and oral evaluations to their assigned speaker. These evaluations highlight both strong and weak areas for the speaker.

Part 3: Table Topics and Evaluations

The Toastmasters turns the meeting over to the Table Topics Master. In life, we can’t always prepare for everything. Table topics helps us practice ‘thinking on our feet’ by inviting members and guests to answer questions with no preparation. (We encourage guest participation but do not require it.)

Part 4: Timer's Report, Grammarian's Report, Guest Comments, General Evaluation, and Closing Remarks

The Table Topics Master turns the meeting over to the Chairman. Towards the end of the meeting, the Timer reports on the timing for speakers, the Grammarian reports on usage of the Word of the Day and grammatical foibles, guests share their comments and observations, the General Evaluator evaluates those who did not present a prepared speech, and the Chairman makes closing remarks.

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Meeting Roles

Below is a list of club meeting roles and their description. For more details, see Toastmasters International’s Meeting Roles.

Chairman

The chairman is in charge of the meeting. He or she sets the tone and keeps the meeting on track and on schedule.

Timer

There’s nothing worse than a speaker who drones on and on… So in Toastmasters we have a timer, whose role is to remind speakers when they are about to run out of time.

As with traffic signals, a green light means proceed. An amber light means proceed with caution (start making concluding remarks). And a red light means stop. The timer may lead applause to remind a speaker if he or she continues speaking past the red light.

Grammarian

Poor grammar can detract much from your message, whereas clear pronunciation and descriptive language will greatly enhance your effectiveness as a public speaker. The grammarian strives to help everyone improve his or her grammar by listening carefully. The grammarian also encourages everyone to use the word of the day and counts filler words like ah or um.

Inspirator, Jokemaster, Book Reviewer

These roles let members develop their public speaking skills by presenting short, prepared speeches.

Toastmaster

The Toastmaster introduces prepared speeches and evaluators. The Toastmaster also presents the toast.

Table Topics Master

The Table Topics Master has prepared questions in advance that may relate to the theme of the night...or not. He or she may have speakers draw questions, prohibit hand gestures, or enforce hilarious eye contact rules. You never know what can happen during table topics!

The table topics master is also actively developing his or her listening skills by listening carefully to each table topic answer and using the material to make bridging comments between speakers.

Table Topics Evaluator

While the Timer and Grammarian monitor each table topics speaker, there is also sometimes a Table Topics Evaluator. This evaluator pays attention to each speaker’s presentation and observes the:

• volume,

• tone,

• vocal variety,

• body language,

• and speech content.

Speech Evaluator

Prepared speeches receive written and oral evaluations from a speech evaluator. The speech evaluator records his or her comments in the speaker’s manual and delivers a 3 minute oral evaluation.

General Evaluator

Everyone should have feedback. At the end of the meeting, the General Evaluator provides feedback on the performance of the meeting in general, the Chair, other evaluators, and everyone who has not yet been evaluated.