Meeting Roles for Toastmasters

Meeting Roles:

Most of us even the newer members are familiar now with the roles we have during a toastmasters meeting.  This list is taken directly from the Pioneer Toastmasters web page. It is under the Members only tab and then select Meeting Roles:   I would like to add a few comments about each roll very briefly: 

The following roles are assigned to members each week, each role exercising a different area of one’s public speaking muscle. Visitors are welcome to participate in Table Topics, but the rest of the roles will be filled by members.

 

Toastmaster The person filling this role is a meeting's director and host. This person will preside over the meeting, calling up each person to fulfill their role when it is time.

 Very important role one of the things we like the toastmaster to do also is on sunday or monday go to the meetings agenda page on the Pioneer Website and click on the email icon under that weeks agenda. This will tell the system you wish to send out an email with the agenda attached.    This is a reminder to the membership about the meeting the coming Wednesday and what is going on. 

Grammarian/Inspiration/’Outspiration’ The Grammarian helps club members improve their grammar and vocabulary by taking note of exceptional usages of words and phrases, as well as the overuse of words or filler sounds. The Grammarian also brings two inspirational quotes to share, one at the beginning of the meeting and one at the end.

  Great roll. Have fun with the Inspiration and Outspiration.  We emphasize the filler words and word of the day well but there is also the element ot proper or improper use of grammar.  Like I mentioned in a recent previous educational moment use the clicker for filler words.  

Timer, Word of the Day, and Jokester Each prepared speech must stay within a predetermined time frame, and the timer is in charge of recording the length of the speech. In addition, speech evaluators and participants in table topics responses are required to stay within a certain time. In our club, the timer delivers a joke at the beginning of the meeting, and brings us a word of the day we try to use at least once in the meeting.

 Fun roll  remember to not get so enthralled with the speaker and forget to start or stop the timer. :) 

Speakers In our club we try to have three prepared speeches delivered at each meeting. Each member of our club will begin with the Competent Communicator manual, a book with 10 speech projects that focus on different aspects of public speaking (organizing a speech, vocal variety, using visual aids, being persuasive, etc).

  What we are here to do. Value these speaker rolls! We only have so many of them and this is an opportunity to improve in your public speaking abilities.  Be sure to fill in the introduction and speech information for your toastmasters on the pioneer web page. 

Table Topics Each week a member will bring a set of questions to the meeting, and ask for volunteers to come up and answer a question, on the spot. This exercise develops impromptu speaking skills, and is open to both members and visitors.

So much fun. Be creative with the way you do this role. In visiting a recent club the Table Topics master had a list of questions and had the members roll dice for the number of the question they would use.  They also threw in another option for "extra credit". That was they listed a few different accents they could use and it was awesome. One lady used the southern accent and it was awesome! Another member used the Rocky Balboa accent. SO much fun!

  Evaluators Constructive evaluation is central to the Toastmasters philosophy. Each time you give a prepared speech, an evaluator will point out strengths as well as suggest improvements. Receiving - and giving - such feedback is a great learning experience.

 This is a very important roll. Sometimes difficult when you have such good speaker. It is important to give positive feedback for sure but honestly we are here to try and help each other improve! SO be looking for things to suggest they can do better and some suggestions to take the speech just over the top in quality 

Quizmaster In Pioneer Toastmasters, we believe that listening is as important as speaking. The quizmaster will test how we’ve listened throughout the meeting by quizzing us on what was said during the course of the evening.

 Not totally unique to our club but not every club has this. It's important to listen as well as to speak.