A Typical Meeting

A typical meeting includes duties that are performed on a regular basis.

All duties are rotated within the membership to provide experience.

All duties emphasize areas of communication such as speaking, listening or leadership.

The following are brief descriptions of the duties during a standard meeting (for detailed

tuties, see the Toastmasters member manuals):

Toastmaster (Master of Ceremonies)

• Selects a meeting theme
• Prepares agenda & conducts meeting
• Introduces speakers and participants

Speaker

• Gives a prepared speech based on objectives from Toastmasters International public speaking manuals
• Speaker may choose any topic that satisfies the objectives

Table Topic Master

• Prepares topics based on the theme, which will help members learn to think quickly and speak with little or no notice
• Calls upon members at random to make impromptu, 1-2 minute, mini-speeches based on teh given topics.

General Evaluator

• Introduces evaluators
• Gives oral evaluation of technical aspects of the meeting
• Offers suggestions for improvement
• Gives oral evaluation of evaluators

Evaluator

• Gives written and oral evaluations of speaker based on the manual's guidelines

Grammarian/Word Master

• Takes notes on incorrect and correct grammar used during the meeting
• Chooses a word-of-the-day
• Prepares hand-out of the word with examples of proper usage
• Encourages participants to use the word during the meeting

Timer

• Tracks the time of each portion of the meeting
• Notifies participants when speaking time has been achieved
• Reports times of each participant

Ah Counter

• Monitors the "ah"s, "uhm"s, and other filler words or long pause
• Alerts members by use of a bell, except during the prepared speeches.

Vote Counter

• Tallies votes for best Speaker, best Table Topics participant and best Evaluator
• Prepares certificates or ribbons for the winners
• Votes only in case of a tie

More detailed functionaries