Overview
With new roles assigned every meeting, each member gets the chance to learn a variety of skill sets, all designed to help with confidence and develop leadership skills.
This page includes some resources and hints for members who are assigned to each of these roles.
Meeting Materials
The following documents have been kindly provided by members from Durack and other clubs.
Agenda Template
Toastmaster
The Toastmaster is the host for the day, responsible for ensuring that the meeting runs smoothly and according to plan. Toastmaster is a vital role that requires some preparation prior to the meeting.
Before the Meeting
The Vice-President Education will provide the Toastmaster with a proposed agenda and contact details for all scheduled participants. The Toastmaster is responsible for preparing the agenda, then checking with members to ensure they’re attending (arranging replacements if anyone can’t make it).
Consider each of the following:
- If you are going to have a “Theme” for the meeting, email all attendees and let them know what the theme is early in the week.
- Contact people by email to ensure they will be attending.
- If you haven’t received replies from some people, follow up by telephone. Their email may be offline!
- For each of the Speakers, you’ll need to know the Speech Title and which category their speech falls under.
The Agenda
Now that you know who’ll be attending, you’ll need to prepare a printed copy of the agenda to hand out to members on the day. We recommend that you also include a copy of the proposed schedule for the next few weeks on the back of the agenda.
Here’s a helpful checklist for the Toastmaster:
- Send notification to all members rostered for the next meeting (Thursday week before) noting individuals and their proposed roles, theme of meeting, etc
- Find out speech numbers and titles (some speeches are longer than normal and need to be slotted into the program in order for the meeting to finish on time)
- Follow up reminder (phone, e-mail) to rostered members on Tuesday or Wednesday
- If members are not available, re-roster others (with help of VPM if necessary)
- Prepare the Agenda for the meeting
- Arrive early at the meeting (to settle nerves and allow last minute adjustments to program)
- Make sure you know if there are any guests and welcome them by name (If not already welcomed by Sgt at Arms)
- Explain roles and all activities for the benefit of visitors and new members
- Introduce all participants with enthusiasm
- Remember to call for the evaluators to read the objectives of all speeches
- Set the tone of the meeting and keep proceedings on time
- Undertake the link between the various activities
- Lead applause, shake hands at the beginning and end of the activities
- Remind all members to pay their attendance fee
- Thank visitors for attending and invite them to make comments, observations. Welcome them to join (if appropriate) and to visit again
- Close meeting if not done by President
Inspiration
The Inspiration is the first scheduled speaking role of the meeting. It’s intended to wake the other
members up and get the meeting started.
The Inspiration is a 2-3 minute speech. It can be about absolutely any topic. Some past topics have included:
- Response to a current event (eg. a member gave an impassioned criticism of election advertising)
- Your favourite TV show (eg. why the Simpsons is so good)
- An introduction to one of your hobbies (eg. one member is into genealogy and spoke about his family tree)
- What the best thing about Perth is
- A review of a book you’ve read recently
- Why you joined Toastmasters
Basically, it can be anything at all. Just a general “mini speech”. The content of the Inspiration speech does not actually have to be inspiring. Some members think of it is a pep talk or a sales job. Some other clubs call this speech the “Tonic”. It’s designed to get the meeting started.
Table Topics Master
“Table Topics” is a definitive Toastmaster experience. The Table Topics Master (TTM) prepares a number of questions. The TTM will then ask a question, then name one of the members in the room to answer the it.
This is a chance for the respondent to practice their impromptu speaking skills. They need to stand up and reply to the question, speaking for 60 to 90 seconds.
The Table Topic Master should:
- Lead the impromptu speaking session
- Prepare 6-8 questions in advance, list them, and memorise them (so you don’t have to read them out).
- Make your intro and question length as short as possible – this time is for the respondents, not the TTM
- Check who of those present is not rostered on the agenda – the aim is to give attendees who do not have another role a chance to speak
- Explain the TTM process to any visitors, asking if they would like to participate, but don’t pressure them
- Ask the question, then call out the person’s name, maintaining as much suspense and surprise as is possible
- Move away from the centre stage to give the respondent the focus
- Watch the Time Keeper for a signal of completed time
- Hand back to the Toastmaster
The choice of the topics is up to you. You may want to choose a theme and have all the questions fit inside that theme somehow. For instance, if you had the theme “holidays”, then some questions might be:
- Where are you planning to go on your next holiday?
- What was the most memorable holiday?
- Where would you go in WA for a two week vacation?
- What is the worst holiday you ever had?
Remember that the aim is to give people a chance to get up and speak. You shouldn’t set out to really stump participants, particularly newer members.
Evaluator
After each speaking opportunity, the speaker is evaluated. Another member will give a brief response, providing feedback on the way the speech was delivered. In Toastmasters, we use a “CRC” method for evaluations. That is:
Commend
Recommend
Commend
The Evaluator should commend the speaker, point out some things that they did very well. Then they should provide a recommendation, something the speaker can improve on in the future. Finally, they should finish on a positive note, with a commendation.
Recommendations are tricky. Even a good speaker needs to improve further, so feedback and tips are needed. However, the recommendation should not a list of things the speaker did wrong. Give specific tips on how to improve.
As a general rule, commendations should be addressed to the audience as a whole. For example, “Jack told us a wonderful story, with terrific imagery”. Recommendations should be addressed to the speaker directly. For example, “Jack, I thought you had a very fast speaking speed. Perhaps concentrate on consciously pausing after each sentence?”
Remember that we want the speaker to be given enough feedback to improve but also remain motivated to keep coming back.
Some tips for the evaluator:
- Our objective is twofold: to help the speaker improve, but most importantly to encourage the speaker to keep speaking in the future.
- You are offering your own point of view only. Don’t try to represent your view as that of all participants.
- A recommendation should not simply point out what was done wrong, but also suggest tips on how to improve. For instance, you might say “you had lots of umms. Try slowing down and if you feel an umm coming on, pause instead.”
- Before the meeting, talk to the speaker on the Objectives, Evaluation Guidelines, and anything they might want you to specifically watch out for.
- Evaluate the Speech – not the person or the opinions expressed in the speech.
- Always remember to finish on a positive. We want the speaker to come back and keep trying to get better.
Joke or Phrase of the Day
- A speaking opportunity with a more light hearted and humorous focus
- Be careful to choose jokes that are appropriate for a broad audience (no smut, and be careful of exist, religious or racist material)
- Prepare – stand up and deliver (try not to read a joke if you can manage it)
- Have the punch line well rehearsed
- Hand back to the Toastmaster
Timer
The timer assists the Toastmaster by letting speakers know when their allotted time is up. The Timer provides feedback to all speakers comparing their actual time with their allotted time.
Lessons from a First Time Timer:
- If this is your first time as a Timer, ensure that you arrive ten minutes early. Bring a note pad and a couple of working pens
- You’ll need the warning box and a stopwatch, which are supplied by the club, but you’ll have to collect them from the Toastmaster or Sergeant-at-Arms before the meeting starts
- The stopwatch is more complicated than a VCR. Take a few minutes before the meeting to ensure you know how to use it
- The warning box has three switches and a red button:
- The switches control the lights. There is one silver switch under each of the colours: green, orange and red
- The times when each colour should be triggered are on the agenda. Red indicates time is up
- The red button triggers a loud buzzer. This should be used when the speaker has exceeded their time by 30 seconds.
- You can record the actual times elapsed on the agenda next to the speakers names
- After each speaker, make sure you turn all the lights off (leaving the lights showing red for when the next speaker starts must be very distressing).
- You need to record the individual times for each of the table topics as well as the total time elapsed. You may want to use your own watch for the total time elapsed and the stopwatch for the individuals
- You have two minutes to present the timing report. This doesn’t leave much time for elaboration, so be prepared and ready to start as soon as you are introduced.
Seargeant at Arms
- Schedule meeting location
- Prepare room for meeting (display banner, progress charts, materials catalogue, lectern, lights, etc.)
- Open the meeting
- Welcome visitors
- Arrange adequate supplies of materials (evaluation form, welcome pack, name badges, display charts, etc)
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