What happens at a Toastmasters meeting?

Every Toastmasters meeting is slightly different because the meeting is always run by different people. There are a number of roles to be filled at a meeting, and all members take turns with different responsibilities.

Each meeting is run by the Toastmaster. This person chooses a theme for the meeting and makes sure all of the pieces are in place for the meeting to run smoothly. The Toastmaster then conducts the meeting as the master of ceremonies.

A meeting can begin in a number of ways. There may be a Word Master who introduces a new word to the club, or perhaps helps to clarify the use of a commonly misused word. Sometimes there is a Joke Master who brings some humor to the meeting. There can also be a Q&A, where all members of the club introduce themselves and briefly answer a question posed by the Toastmaster.

The main section of the meeting is for prepared speeches. Two to four members will have prepared speeches to deliver based on Toastmasters manuals and the Toastmasters Education Program. The Toastmaster introduces each Speaker.

The next section of the meeting is for impromptu speaking, or "Table Topics", as it is called at a Toastmasters meeting. One member of the club has been designated as the Table Topics Master, and asks a series of questions to the audience. Audience members may volunteer to answer or the Table Topics Master may select people randomly to answer the questions. Respondents need to deliver a response to the audience that is one to two minutes in length.

The last section of the meeting is the Evaluation section. This section is run by the General Evaluator. There are also Evaluators who deliver evaluations of the speeches heard earlier in the meeting. Evaluations are two to three minutes in length and should include recognition of the speaker's skills as well as some suggestions for improvement in the future.

The General Evaluator calls for reports from the Timer (who has been keeping the time on all speakers, evaluators, and Table Topics respondents), the Ah Counter (who has been tracking the number of times each member used "ah", "um", or similar words) and the Word Master (who reports on how often members used the word he introduced earlier).

The Toastmaster then returns to the podium, offers some closing remarks, and then closes the meeting.

Of course, the best way to understand what happens at a Toastmaster meeting is to attend one! Come to a meeting of Hear Me Out Toastmasters and experience it for yourself!