General Meeting

The low-down on how meetings work

Toastmasters is about more than just public speaking — it’s also about leadership and becoming more effective at running meetings of any kind. That’s why our meetings always have structure and always have an agenda.

Members take turns assuming the various meeting roles. As a new member, we might ask you to be a Timekeeper or an Ah-Counter. As you gain more experience, we’ll ask you to fill roles that require more responsibility, like General Evaluator or Toastmaster. To learn more about how a meeting flows and what responsibilities are involved, keep reading…

Meeting Structure

Our meetings generally follow the following structure:

• Opening Remarks
• Introduction of Guests
• Toastmaster’s Speech
• Introduction of the Evaluation Team
• Prepared Speeches
• Educational Speech
  • Networking Break
• Table Topics Session
• Evaluations
• Guest Comments
• Announcements
• Closing Remarks

Opening Remarks
In the opening remarks, the Meeting Chair gets the evening started on the right note and announces any changes to the agenda.

Introduction of Guests
Guests are important! Although members will have already introduced themselves to you and talked to you casually before the start of the meeting, we want to properly introduce you and welcome you to the club. We’ll also ask you to say a few words about yourself — why you’re interested in Toastmasters, for example.

Toastmaster’s Speech
The Toastmaster is the MC (master of ceremonies) for the evening. They introduce the speakers and keep the meeting moving along smoothly, all while maintaining an upbeat and supportive atmosphere. Their first task, however, is to deliver a short speech that puts everyone in the right frame of mind and introduces the meeting’s theme.

Here are a few Toastmasters in action…

A Toastmaster’s responsibilities in our group are important.  If you have been assigned the role of Toastmaster, here are a few tips to master the role:

1. ***Print out the Agenda***
2. Before the meeting starts, make sure all the roles are filled and that each person understands his/her role.
3. The Meeting Chair will open the meeting and then introduce you.
4. Give your speech (3-5mins) —*never leave the lectern vacant*–
5. After you have given your speech, ask the General Evaluator (GE) to come up and introduce his/her evaluation team
6. Once the GE has introduced his/her team, the GE will call you back to the lectern.
7. Since we have 3 Speakers Wednesday, you will introduce all three evaluators and speakers
   1. Always introduce the speaker’s evaluator first and asks the evaluator to tell the audiences the speaker’s objectives.
   2. After the evaluator has read the speakers objectives, you will introduce the first speaker. The speaker should send (via email, and preferably the night before) the title of his/her speech and a very short (2-3 sentence max) intro about the speech. If you don’t have an intro you can always create your own.
8. The way we usually introduce speakers is: “Please welcome {Louise Bark, Everybody Secure Back There, }{Everybody Secure Back There, Louise Bark.} {So, first/last name – title of speech} – {title of speech -fist/last name}
9. After Speaker #1 has given his/her speech, ask the timekeeper for one minute so that members can fill out the evaluation sheets.**Repeat for Speaker #2
10. Try and work on transitions when returning to the lectern.
    The Toastmaster is in charge of keeping the meeting on time so, keep that in mind when we take our network break.
11. Talk to the Table Topics Master during the break tell him/her how much time we can devote to table topics.
12. After the network break your job is to reconvene the second half of the meeting.
13. Introduce the Table Topics Master.

Introduction of the Evaluation Team
Effective learning, genuine improvement, and sustained development happens only when we receive feedback on how we’re doing. The Evaluation Team includes:

• General Evaluator
• Speech Evaluators
• Table Topics Evaluator
• Grammarian
• Ah-Counter
• Quizmaster
• Timekeeper

At this stage of the meeting, the General Evaluator introduces the Evaluation Team and asks them to describe the purpose of their roles.

The General Evaluator is also a comprehensive role, as you evaluate anything and everything that takes place throughout the meeting. If you are assigned the role of General Evaluator, here are a few tips to master the responsibility:

Before the meeting:

• Follow up with your team: Ah counter, Grammarian, Table Topics Master, Quizmaster, and Timer. Log on into easyspeak and click on their names or if you have their email/contact, you can tell them to accept their role.
• These roles should be filled before the meeting.

During the meeting.

• Come early and work with the toastmaster to fill roles.  The toastmaster will call you up. You start by telling introducing yourself and what your role is.
• You then introduce your team, based on the agenda – Ah counter, grammarian, quiz master and timer.
• Tabletopics master doesn’t need to be introduced. He/she will be introduced by toastmaster after break.
• Throughout the meeting, write down the good and the bad during the meeting. I would fold the paper into two and put good stuff on one side, and bad stuff on side.
• After break, toastmaster call you up again. You call up each speech evaluator (each will speak),
• You introduce Ah counter, grammarian, quiz master, then you talk about your evaluation.
• After your evaluation, you bring up the timer.

For feedback – choose only a few significant ones. You only have 2 – 3 minutes to present your comments.  A few suggestions:

• Evaluate on things that were not mentioned.
• 2 – 3 positive and 1 – 2 improvement points. Make your comments positive. Feedback should be constructive – if you mention negative points, offer ideas or ways to improve.

Prepared Speeches
Prepared speeches represent the heart of the Toastmasters program. Members develop and refine their public-speaking skills by working through a foundational manual with 10 speech projects, then continue with advanced speech manuals of their choosing.

Speeches range from 4-6 minutes in length for Icebreakers to 10-14 minutes for advanced speeches. They represent many hours of preparation and practice, and may be touching and moving, inspirational and motivating, or even light-hearted and humorous.

Educational Speech
Educational speeches are presented every once in a while on topics that help members improve their public-speaking and leadership skills.

Here’s a workshop on how to host a meeting (with zest!)…

Table Topics Session
Public speaking isn’t just about prepared speeches. At Toastmasters, the Table Topics Session gives both members and guests the opportunity to practise impromptu speeches of up to 2 minutes in length. Speakers are informed of their topic just prior to speaking at the podium. It’s a challenge, but also a time when speakers can be at their most creative, outlandish, and even downright silly!

Evaluations
The evaluation session is a time for feedback and motivation. Each prepared speaker has their speech evaluated by a fellow member, who will encourage the speaker’s strengths and offer suggestions for improvement. Then, the Evaluation Team presents their reports, before the General Evaluator provides feedback on the meeting as a whole.

Guest Comments
This is an opportunity for guests to let us know what they thought of the meeting. We love hearing how you’ve been impacted by an evening at Liberty Village Toastmasters!

Announcements
At the end of every meeting, club officers let members know about any club news and initiatives, while the VP of Education schedules roles for the upcoming meeting.

Mentorship Program

The Liberty Village Toastmasters Mentorship Program was initiated in the autumn of 2004 and has proven to be highly effective at helping new members develop their speaking skills quickly. A Mentor is a friendly, experienced Toastmaster who helps new members obtain the maximum benefit from their first few speeches.

Here’s how it works. The VP of Education will assign each new member a Mentor by the first club meeting after the member joins. The assigned Mentor will help the new member with their Icebreaker — their first prepared speech — as well as their second and third speeches, which help develop structure and flow. Mentors will also help Mentees succeed in supporting roles such as Timekeeper, Grammarian, and Ah-Counter.

The Mentorship Program is our commitment to new members to ensure they start well, start strong, and achieve their public-speaking goals as quickly as possible. If you’d like more info about the program, feel free to ask us during your visit to the club.

Any questions? Email us at libertyvillage.tm@gmail.com