So what is a typical Toastmasters meeting and what can Toastmasters do for me?
This is probably the question most asked of us.
Whilst Toastmasters is a huge international education led organisation, the individual clubs are distinctly local and you'll find as a diverse a membership as the local population.
What Toastmasters can do for you…
Do you want to minimise your fear of public speaking and become better at it?
Do you want to learn how to organise thoughts in your head better and faster (Table Topics is great for this)?
Do you want to meet more people interested in improving themselves?
You’ll get all that and more out of Toastmasters. You’ll no longer be terrified of getting up to speak in front of people. Some fear will still linger, but it’ll be more like a nervous excitement, not complete dread. Toastmasters will definitely help you think better on your feet and express your thoughts more coherently. And best of all, it’s done in a friendly supportive club atmosphere here in Kildare Town where all members want to better themselves, and they want to help others better themselves too.
Here’s a run down of the different roles in a typical Toastmasters meeting – all roles are taken by member as part of their leadership learning
Toastmaster: The Toastmaster runs the show. He/she picks the theme of the meeting in advance, and has several opportunities to speak on it throughout. The Toastmaster also introduces various other members in their roles throughout the meeting.
Table Topics Master: It’s always fun to be the Table Topics Master. When in this role, you get to stand at the lectern and pick people from the audience to give short, impromptu speeches. You’ll usually have a list of questions/topics prepared in advance. For example, if I’m the Table Topics Master, I might say: “Last night I had a dream about a giraffe sitting on roof singing Eye of the Tiger in Spanish. Can you tell us about a strange dream you’ve had recently.” Members will then have to stand and try to give a confident, well-spoken response lasting anything from a few seconds to one minute.
Speaker We usually have three or four featured speakers at each meeting. These folks will have prepared 5-7 minute speeches on just about any topic. Each speech typically has a focus, based on the Education path the speaker has chosen (there are 11 choices) be it body language, vocal variety, entertainment value, etc. But within those frameworks, you can speak about anything at all. The first speech any member gives is an Icebreaker, where they simply introduce themselves to the other members, say who they are and what they’re about.
Evaluator Each speaker has an evaluator. An evaluator will stand up for 2-3 minutes at the end of the speeches and deliver feedback on the speaker he/she was assigned to. There are many different styles of evaluation, but the goal is always the same: help the speaker improve. An evaluator will often say what she liked about the speech, and then suggest some areas for improvement.
General Evaluator The General Evaluator evaluates the evaluators and gives he/she wraps up by giving their general thoughts on the meeting, noting anything remarkable and offering any suggestions to improve future meetings.
President The club President opens and closes the meeting, and makes any official announcements. We elect a new president every year, and that person is responsible for the proper running of the club.
Other roles At each meeting we also have people act as the following: Timer – keeps track of how long everyone speaks for and works the light signal so speakers know when to finish. Grammarian – notes interesting and inappropriate uses of grammar. Ah Counter – keeps track of any filler words (ah, um, you know, etc.) used by the speakers and Listener- they ask for members to answer questions on the meeting to see if everyone was listening.
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