The Toastmaster Role
When you are the Toastmaster of the meeting, you run the meeting. What that means is that it is mostly on your shoulders to make sure the meeting is run professionally, has good flow, good energy, and a good atmosphere. It's not an easy task. :-)
The information below will help you prepare. And preparation is required for this role, especially for this role.
In addition to being the "orchestrator" of the meeting, the Toastmaster is responsible to confirm all of the roles and find replacements for all open roles.
Basically, it is the Toastmasters responsibility to put everything together in the week preceding the meeting. And then preside over the meeting.
Before the meeting
This is not an easy role. Get yourself familiar with it. Look at the agenda and get to know the flow of the meeting (the steps are also summarized below).- Attend the preceding meeting. You are expected to be there. (If for some reason you cannot make it, contact the VPE and coordinate.) At the meeting, look at the agenda and if there are any open roles, try to fill them during the meeting. At the end of the meeting you will be called to confirm next week's role players.
- Confirm all unconfirmed roles during the week. If the role has not yet been confirmed, make sure it is (email or call the person). If you have not received a response by Thursday, follow up with a call.
- Fill any openings. There are usually roles that are open or become open. It is your responsibility to fill every role. Contact members directly by email or phone (it is more effective than contacting the whole group).
At the beginning of the meeting
Right when you walk in, work with the VPE to get the meeting started on time. If there are role players that are not there by 9:10 AM, find a replacement. Everything should be settled before the meeting is started at 9:10AM.During the meeting
When called by the President, after the Invocation, you take over. Here's how the meeting is run.- Start with some opening remarks (around a minute is enough). You can talk about anything, but focusing on the theme usually works best.
- Introduce guests. Ask them to introduce themselves and to tell us how they heard about Toastmasters and about our club.
- Introduce the role players:
- Wordmaster
- Grammarian
- Timer
- General Evaluator
- Impromptu Speaking
- At this time you turn control of the meeting to the Table Topics Master.
- After Table Topics, you call for a vote for Best Table Topics Answer.
- Call up the Jokemaster
- 5 minute break
- Speeches and Evaluations
- Introduce each speaker.
- Gather information about the speaker and the speech before hand. During introduction state the speech manual, title, and objective.
- When the speaker is done, ask everyone to fill a quick, one-minute evaluation.
- After all speeches conclude, turn control of the meeting to the General Evaluator.
- At the end of the meeting, give Concluding Remarks, if any. (Watch for time and wrap it up quickly if we're running out of it.)