Here's a collection of ideas for Table Topics and meeting themes. Many
are from the Toastmaster Newsgroup.
Submit your ideas to Sandy
Nichols.
Hear what other Toastmaster members are saying in the Toastmasters Newsgroup. If your ISP
supports newsgroups, try clicking the link.
My hat is off to all you Toastmasters around the world for
mentoring me for the
past year or so.
Here's a meeting idea that we had at the Toast of the Southwest Toastmasters
Club near Dallas
recently: The Hat Trick Meeting. Dozens of hats for wearing and
decorations.
Hat related idioms ( such as the "hat off to you" used above) and
cliches used
throughout the meeting.
Of course, Hat Trick is a sport term meaning three scores by one team member
during a game.
For Toastmasters, I, as Toastmaster-for-the-Evening, interpreted this to mean
the three aspects of a meeting: Prepared Speeches, Table Topics, and
Evaluations.
Everyone had a good time with this theme getting into the spirit by wearing the
hats. Hats ranged from hard hats to cowboy hats and from dress hats to
novelty
hats. The printed program used photos of men's and women's hats downloaded
from the web.
Hope you find this helpful as a meeting idea.
Terry Robinson
VP Ed
Toast of the Southwest (formerly Redbird Toastmasters)
Terry,
Great ideas. For her Icebreaker, Gloria (my alter-toastmaster)used hats!
She showed and talked about all the "hats" that she wore in her life.
Hats allowed her to tell the story of her life in an interesting way and
started a tradition of props to help tell her stories.
Hats off to you for an interesting meeting idea!
Good Luck
--
Dennis J. Chada, ATM-G, CL
President of First St. Paul Toastmasters Club
Meeting in White Bear Lake, MN
Mondays at 6:30p.m.
Visit http://localgator.com/toastmas.htm
Here is an idea for table topics that I used the other day in a
meeting with the theme Lifelong Learning.
I took a copy of our local public school system's Continuing Education
calendar and selected a number of course titles, things like: Hair
Braiding--Braiding Your Own Hair, Public Speaking Level 1, Basic
Cooking for Retired Husbands, and so on.
Each table topic recipient was given a course title, and asked to
explain why s/he signed up to take that particular course.
The answers were pretty creative.
John Fleming, ATM-B, AL
Rooster Rousers Toastmasters, President
Attitude Boosters Toastmasters, Member
Chamber Toastmasters, Member
Edmonton, Alberta
email: johnfgh@nce.ab.ca
(nce should be ecn)
web pages: http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/Pointe/6070
http://www.ecn.ab.ca/~johnf
One of my favorites is a Hot Seat meeting. Everyone draws there
role as
>they come into the meeting.
Yes, it's a fun one - I just scheduled one for my club a few days ago. (We
called it an Impromptu meeting - I've heard it called a Grab Bag meeting, too.)
Unfortunately, a few members were scared off from attending, because I had
requested everyone come prepared to speak, run table topics, evaluate, whatever
- but those who attended, including two guests did have a blast. (Incidentally,
our topics master was prepared for everything but that. He ended up using the
props he had for the speech he might give for table topics - and that was the
most fun part of that meeting!)
Sally Milo
http://members.aol.com/milodesign
1) Wedding
2) Christmas
3) Halloween
4) Anniversary
5) Mad Hatters
6) Reverse Order
Robert Green ATMS CL
M Division Governor
District 69 (Northern Australia)
Charged
As the TT participants are called, they are "charged" with various minor
criminal offences - shoplifting, driving their car in the ditch, speeding,
keeping a wild animal on their property, etc.
They are then asked plead innocence to the court. The audience gives
their performance a thumbs up or down at the end depending on the
believability of whatever fabricated story they might dream up.
Bill Verchere, ATM-S
Ladysmith, BC Canada
The trick was matching the "charge" to their personality.
Here is a bank of charges I created for use.
You are charged with:
How do you plead?
1. Having the dullest golf clothes on the course.
2. Slamming doors in a public place.
3. Having a car that's just way to shiny for this neighborhood.
4. Wearing ties so loud that your co-workers have to wear sunglasses.
5. Wearing the squeakiest shoes in town.
6. Singing well out of key while showering.
7. With wearing the wrong size lampshade last time you were intoxicated.
8.Refusing to park where your spouse told you to.
9.Mounting the toilet roll the wrong way. (the toastmaster who
was given
this one, won the Table Topics that evening.)
10. Using your spouses coffee cup to soak your mums dentures.
11. Regularly clogging the hairbrush.
12. Drinking directly from the juice container in the fridge.
13. Forgetting to lower the toilet seat when you're done.
Rudy Moralez, Jr., ATM-B/CL <sqnresve@mciworld.com>
wrote in message
news:37EC299B.4CAB298@mciworld.com...
Prosecuting Attorney
>Or, another twist would be than one person is the Prosecuting Attorney
(PA). The PA gives the "court" (the club) reasons why the person
was arrested
for their crime. The next person, acting as the defendant, would, as you
stated,
give their plea to the court or refute the charges. Now, you make Table
Topics a quasi-debate session.
Either way, it sounds like a Table
Topics I'll have to try at my next
opportunity!
V/R
Rudy Moralez, Jr., ATM-B/CL
Central Division Governor (Club from
Richmond to Hampton)
District 66 (Greater Virginia)
There's a few good tips I've heard on how to deal with Table Topics:
1) Come to the group with a topic already in mind. Your only challenge
then is making the question that you've been asked, fit the topic.
Sometimes easy, sometimes not.
2) Relate the question to an anecdote/story/real-life event. A good
story will often get the point across quickly.
3) As soon as you are asked your question, think of three things to say
about the subject. Then, begin your table topics by restating the
question (like a topic sentence in grade school English composition).
Your next three paragraphs are the three things you thought about
earlier. Then, conclude gracefully - how you do this will depend on your
style. Come on now, you have one.....I know you do!
4) Practice, practice, practice. When you're tired of that, practice
again. I'm not kidding.
5) Tabletopics is nothing more than conversation exerpts with you
standing in front of a group. If you and I were talking, and I asked you
to give me your opinion on your favourite restaurant, you'd probably talk
my ear off. So, if you find that it's the situation that 's throwing you
off, try talking ONLY to the Tabletopicsmaster or some other friendly
face in the crowd.
Hope this helps you. They've sure helped me a lot
Rodney Payne
VP Membership
Memorial Toastmasters
St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada
Table Topic Ideas
from other Toastmaster clubs.
Meeting
& Table Topic ideas from the Daylighters Toastmaster Club.
