Meeting Roles


Speakers
A major portion of each meeting is centered around three or more speakers. Their speeches are prepared based on project objectives in the Competent Communication and Advanced Communication manuals.

Serving as a speaker is an excellent opportunity to practice leadership skills. Planning, preparation, organization and time management are essential to success as a speaker. You use all of these skills as you select a speech topic, do the research and organize the presentation so you can make your point within the allotted time.

Evaluator
Members working in the Competent Communication manual present speeches. After every prepared speech, the speaker receives an evaluation. You may be asked to serve as an evaluator and evaluate one of the prepared speakers for the meeting. In addition to your verbal evaluation, you will give the speaker a written evaluation using the guide in the manual. When evaluating a leader, your purpose is to help the leader become confident and more effective and able to lead a team t achieve goals.

Your evaluation is an opportunity to practice such leadership skills as listening, critical thinking, feedback and motivation.

Timer
The Toastmasters of the meeting will call on you to explain the timing roles. One of the lessons to be practiced is that expressing a thought within a specific time. The timer is the member responsible for keeping track of time. Each segment of the meeting is timed. You should explain your duties and report to the club clearly and precisely. This exercise is an excellent opportunity to practice giving instructions and time management---something that we do everyday.

Topicsmaster
The Toastmasters program has a tradition—every member speaks at a meeting. The Table Topics session is the portion of the meeting that ensures this tradition. The purpose of this activities is to have members “think on their feet” and speak for a minute or so.
The Topicsmaster prepares and issues the topics; originality is desirable as much as possible. Each speaker may be given an individual subject, or a choice of subjects may be presented from which the members can draw at random.
The Topicsmaster provides good and practice in such leadership skills as planning, preparation, organization, time management and facilitation.

General Evaluator
The General Evaluator is just what the name implies—an evaluator of anything and everything that takes places throughout the meeting. The responsibilities are large, but so are the rewards.

The General Evaluator position provides excellent practice in such leadership skills as critical thinking, planning, preparation and organization, time management, innovation and team building.

Toastmaster (Toasmaster of the Meeting)
The main duties of the Toastmaster are to coordinate and conduct the entire meeting and act as a genial host, including introducing participants. The Toastmaster sets the tone for the entire meeting. For obvious reasons this task is not usually assigned to a member until he or she is quite familiar with the club and its procedures.

Program participants should be introduced in a way that excites the audience and motivates them to listen. The Toastmaster create an atmosphere of interest, expectation and receptivity.

Grammarian (Language Evaluator)
Being Grammarian/Language Evaluator is an exercise in expanding your listening skills. You have several responsibilities; To introduce new words to members, to comment on the use of English during the course of the meeting, and to provide examples of good grammar and word usage.

Ah-Counter
The purpose of the Ah-Counter is to note words and sounds used as a “crutch” or “pause filler” by anyone who speaks during the meeting. Words may be inappropriate interjections, such as and, well, but, so, you know. Sounds may be “ah”, um, er.

You should also note when a speaker repeats a word or phrase such as “I, I” or “This means,this means”. The Ah-counter role is an excellent opportunity to practice your listening skills.