Toastmasters International Schedule Members Officers Announcements


West Austin
Toastmasters
Austin, Texas
District 55
Club 5531


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DESCRIPTION OF TOASTMASTER MEETING ROLES
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TOASTMASTER:
The Toastmaster leads the weekly meeting.

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting
  • Contact the scheduled Speakers, the Topics Master and the General Evaluator to ensure they are able to fulfill their duties
  • Interview each Speaker to get speech title, manual project number, objective, and length of speech
Responsibilities During the Meeting
  • Call the meeting to order at 7:30am
  • Introduce self
  • Introduce the Pledge/Invocator and ask him to lead Pledge
  • Introduce guests, Speaker(s), Topics Master, and General Evaluator
  • Shakes hands with and leads the applause before and after each speaker

Additional references:


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TABLE TOPICS MASTER:
The Topics Master leads the Table Topics portion of the meeting.

The Topics Master should ask a brief question—traditionally no longer than about 12 words—then call on a fellow member to respond. Calling for a response after the question is asked ensures each Toastmaster has a chance to form an answer as anyone is fair game to be called on.

Guests have the option of participating if called on, but shouldn't be called on until after several members have demonstrated the format.

The Topics Master should keep in mind who is on the schedule and call on those who don't have a formal role so that everyone has an opportunity to participate during the meeting.

Table Topics are usually created around a theme of his or the Toastmaster's choosing.

The questions should be relatively easy for response. The goal is not to stump the participant, but to provide an opportunity for experience expressing ideas in public.

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting

  • Prepare enough—five or six (more if there are fewer than three speakers)—table topic questions to fill up the allotted time at the weekly meeting

Responsibilities During the Meeting

  • Explain the purpose and the format of the table topics session
  • Choose members to give impromptu replies to table topic questions
  • Call for time report
  • Recap and call for a vote for the "Best Table Topic"
  • Pick up and count votes
  • Provide winner's name to Toastmaster

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SPEAKER:

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting

  • Prepare a manual or non-manual speech.
  • Prepare and provide to Toastmaster a title, introduction, manual objective and timing information.
  • Provide manual to assigned evaluator and any specific requests for feedback

Responsibilities During the Meeting

  • Deliver speech
  • Listen to evaluation for improvements to be made in the next speech

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GENERAL EVALUATOR:
The General Evaluator conducts the Evaluation portion of the meeting.

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting

  • Contact the scheduled evaluators to ensure they are able to fulfill their duties
  • Ensure that each evaluator knows which speaker he is to evaluate

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting

  • Contact the scheduled evaluators to ensure they are able to fulfill their duties
  • Ensure that each evaluator knows which speaker he is to evaluate

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EVALUATOR:
The Evalutor leads the weekly meeting.

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting

  • Contacts the scheduled speakers, the Topics Master and the General Evaluator to ensure they are able to fulfill their duties.
  • Interviews each speaker to get speech title, manual project number, purpose to be achieved, and length of speech

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TIMER:
As Toastmasters, we practice expressing ourselves within a certain period. All Table Topics, Speeches and Evaluations are timed.

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting

  • Checks with the scheduled speakers for timing objectives.

Responsibilities During the Meeting
At the request of the Toastmaster, the Timer explains how the timing works:

Table Topics:
Green: Turned on at 60 seconds - SPEAKER QUALIFIES
Yellow: Turned on at 90 seconds.
Red: Turned on (and remains on) at 120 seconds.

Prepared Speeches:
Green: Turned on when the speaker has qualified (two minutes before the requested time.)
Yellow: Turned on as a warning signal that it is time to wrap up the talk (usually one minute before requested time.)
Red: Turned on (and remains on) when the speaker has spoken for the allotted time.

Evaluations:
Green: Turned on at 2 minutes.
Yellow: Turned on at 2 minutes, 30 seconds.
Red: Turned on (and remains on) at 3 minutes.

Each speaker is allowed a 30-second grace period. If the speaker goes more than 30 seconds over, he is disqualified from the vote.


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WORH/AH COUNTER:
The Word & Ah Counter helps introduce new words into the Toastmaster's vocabulary by introducing the "Word of the Day," providing a definition and/or synonyms and using the word in a sample sentence. Each time a member speaks at the podium, the Word Counter listens for the appropriate use of the Word of the Day in his delivery. Additionally, the Word and Ah Counter listens for “uh's”and “um's,” “you know's,” “so's” and other distracting verbiage as well as bad grammar. West Austin Toastmasters charges members 25¢ for failure to use the Word and 5¢ for each grammatical error. The proceeds go toward the annual holiday party.

Responsibilities Prior to the Meeting

  • Selects the Word of the Day

Responsibilities During the Meeting

  • Announces the Word of the Day and explains the purpose, format and penalties for using the Word or making grammatical errors
  • Presents the Word and Ah report at the end of the meeting

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PLEDGE/INVOCATOR: The Pledge and Invocator leads the club members in the Pledge of Allegiance and provides an invocation, prayer or thought of the day.


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