Being the Toastmaster of the Evening
Reference guide - September 2023
Being Toastmaster for an evening is an opportunity to lead and manage our club meeting. The role entails end to end ownership of organising and running the meeting - including selecting the evening's theme, setting the agenda, and customizing the meeting’s activities and flow.
The role develops the following critical leadership skills that promote professional advancement:
At least 3 meetings prior
Ideas for improving roles etc look at Ideas from
https://sites.uci.edu/zotspeak/meeting-roles/
https://pctoastmasters.com/meeting-roles-explained/
https://www.kingscrossspeakers.com/toastmasters-roles-explained
https://www.unstoppablexpeakers.club/2019/04/20/a-quick-guide-for-the-toastmaster/
Reference guide - September 2023
Being Toastmaster for an evening is an opportunity to lead and manage our club meeting. The role entails end to end ownership of organising and running the meeting - including selecting the evening's theme, setting the agenda, and customizing the meeting’s activities and flow.
The role develops the following critical leadership skills that promote professional advancement:
- Public speaking and moderating
- Planning and organisation
- Process design
- Time management
At least 3 meetings prior
- Volunteer to be Toastmaster for an Evening
- Select the date
- Think of a meeting theme
- Confirm these details with the VP Education (VPE)
- Set your personal goal for the evening - how will you measure your success as Toastmaster for the evening?
- Check the common Google spreadsheet to see who has registered interest in each role, and any special requests.
- Check you have the contact details for members, email and mobiles (WhatsApp).
- Approach members to register interest either via text or calls, or before club meetings or during meeting breaks.
- The VPE or President will advise the club of your Toastmaster role and theme.
- Continue approaching members to register interest for unfilled roles.
- Start communicating specific instructions to your meeting participants based on how you would like the meeting to run. Specific Whatsapp chat groups are commonly used for this purpose - whether with individual participants or to pair up participants where relevant. Some examples:
- “This is going to be a quick meeting, so I’d like you to keep your section brief and sharp.”
- “I’d like your speech introductions to be engaging and cover x,y and z.”
- “I may ask you for +/- 2 table topics questions based on how the meeting runs to schedule”
- Make a basic meeting plan.
- Think how you can incorporate your theme into the evening.
- Make a note of any gaps.
- Before the meeting and during the break, take the opportunity to ask members to fill any remaining gaps. At the end of the meeting, brief the club on the theme and highlights for the next meeting. Ask for any support or volunteers for any roles/gaps.
- Inform members of any special requests/requirements/ for the evening.
- Reflect on how you can make the evening flow with your theme and style.
- Draft your initial working itinerary with timings for each activity.
- Confirm with speakers their pathway speech details, topic, evaluators, and any other requirements (screen, power & projector, seating arrangement etc).
- Check with the VPE for special events or modules
- Confirm the Table Topics Master, General Evaluator, Speech Evaluators.
- Communicate with Grammarian to allow them to choose Word of the Day to suit your meeting theme.
- Communicate with Table Topics Master to create questions to suit your meeting theme.
- Finalize your meeting agenda. The agenda template is available on the CYTM Member Resources shared folder. Please create a copy for your meeting and edit online on a shared version. Record any apologies.
- Prepare an introduction of your theme
- Prepare introductions for the following roles:
- General evaluator
- Prepared speakers
- Table Topics Master
- Familiarize yourself with the meeting agenda.
- Think about how you would like to set up the room on the day.
- Check if any speakers need to use multimedia - and prepare accordingly.
- Email the agenda to the VPE, who will circulate it via email to all members on/by the Sunday evening preceding the meeting.
- Make any final edits to your agenda
- Make last minute substitutions if a participant cannot make it to the meeting (coordinate with the VPE)
- Print out sufficient agenda copies (around 20-25 copies).
- Turn up to the venue 20 minutes early. If you need someone else to turn up early - let them know in advance.
- Confirm the room layout and help set up the room.
- Introduce yourself to guests – and pre-arrange before the start of the meeting for someone to read the club mission statement and acknowledgement of the country.
- Follow the agenda and make sure everyone follows it as well. Where participants are not following the agenda, you are expected to interject and bring the meeting back in order.
- Acknowledge the President and thank him/her for their introduction.
- Introduce the audience to the Meeting Theme with your prepared 2-3 minute speech
- Introduce participants in the order outlined in the agenda with your prepared introductions
- Before introducing the final evaluator, ask the 1st or 2nd speaker of the meeting to turn on the jugs for tea and coffee break.
- At the end of the meeting, thank the audience and ask the next Toastmaster to come up to introduce their theme and ask for any roles for their meeting and who would be interested in doing them.
- You are our team leader for the evening, make sure all members and guests are involved / engaged in some activity/role during the meeting.
- Think how do you want the room set up, do you want the chairs arranged in a particular layout?
- Where will you sit – some like to have a desk to keep their paperwork on, others like the flexibility of sitting in different locations during the meeting.
- Be prepared for last minute changes – have a couple of back-up roles or potentials up your sleeve.
- Have a master agenda copy, a compendium or clipboard, pen that works and highlighter. Crossing agenda items as you go can help keep the meeting progressing.
- Try to start on time, and finish on time.
- In setting your agenda, be realistic in your timings for each activity, build in some time for meeting creep – if you are in a fortunate position of running ahead of time, a few more Members could take part in Table Topics.
- Think in advance, if you are behind schedule, when / how you can catch up or cut back. Some ideas are - shorten the break, or request brief Table Topics Evaluations
- Conversely - if you find yourself with a few extra minutes - consider preparing a short monologue or joke based on your theme for the night.
- Think - how will the evening flow, what goes where to make the evening informative, enjoyable and connected - a moving emotional speech may be hard to deliver immediately after a fun activity or joke!
- Where participants are expected to introduce their own roles or that of other speakers, refrain keep your introduction to a minimum. That is - the toastmaster should not cover content that other participants are expected to cover in their sections.
- Continuity – think of how you can move through the agenda with a few connecting words or transitioning comments between each speaker. The Toastmaster is the glue binding the meeting together, you are our MC for the evening! Be ready with the introductions and a few different ways to say thanks!
- Invite the audience to applaud and encourage each participant that you invite to speak. This will prompt the audience to applaud in a coordinated manner.
- Relax - Smile - Pause, everyone is here to help make the night a success,
- Ask the VPE, President or other experienced members for help with any questions.
- [TBU - Refer Educational on private Youtube channel.]
Ideas for improving roles etc look at Ideas from
https://sites.uci.edu/zotspeak/meeting-roles/
https://pctoastmasters.com/meeting-roles-explained/
https://www.kingscrossspeakers.com/toastmasters-roles-explained
https://www.unstoppablexpeakers.club/2019/04/20/a-quick-guide-for-the-toastmaster/