Typical meetings

HOW DO I.../WHY DID THEY...?

The club has a number of activities for each meeting. Below is a brief explanation.

SPEECH

You work through the Communication & Leadership speech manual.

Your first speech would normally be an ‘ice breaker’, a 4 - 6 minute opportunity to introduce yourself to the other members.

Each subsequent project in the manual guides you through specific skills such as working with words, body language, organisation, making up 10 speeches in all.

IMPROMPTU SPEAKING (Table Topics)

One member will select a topic for several (maybe all) members of the club to come and speak about for a maximum of two minutes without preparation, The topics are selected to help members learn to think on their feet.

EVALUATION

Perhaps the most important of our activities. Every speech is evaluated by another member of the club. The purpose of an evaluation is to provide friendly feedback which will help you to improve, and at the same time give you more confidence as a public speaker by pointing out your plus points.

OVERALL EVALUATION (General Evaluator)

Often this is provided by a guest from another Toastmaster club, and is an evaluation of the whole evening. The main focus is on the evaluations.

CHAIR (Toastmaster of the Evening)

Each meeting is chaired by a different member of the club. Although it may seem a daunting task at first, it is an valuable exercise which will help you improve at impromptu speaking, as well as teaching you how to lead meetings in real life.

The main function of the chair is to make clear to all members what will happen throughout the evening, make each speaker feel at ease, and ensure that times are kept and the meeting runs smoothly.

EDUCATIONAL

Sometimes a member of the club, or a specially invited guest, will present an educational speech about matters relating to public speaking, such as computer based presentations, the value of being prepared etc. These educational speeches have no specific length, but can last from 5 minutes up to an hour.

WORD

At every meeting one member will select a word which the other members will try to include whenever they are speaking, whether in a speech, an evaluation or any other function. Any word can be chosen, but it should generally not be so unusual that nobody can use it, or so simple that it would be included in every speech by default. The word should be presented to the club by standing up and giving the meaning, and maybe the background for the word.

DEBATE

Occasionally the club arranges a debate over an agreed motion with three members supporting and three members opposing the motion. First the club votes over the motion, which is then presented by the first member of the proposing team. Arguments against it are delivered by the first member of the opposing team, followed by the next member of the supporting team who seconds the motion. Further arguments against it are delivered by the second speaker from the opposing team. The motion is then open to questions from the floor before the third member of the opposing team concludes the arguments against the motion and the last member of the supporting team concludes their support for it.

CONVERSATION TOPICS

Similar to topics, but three to four members get together and converse about a topic, rather than a single person standing up and talking on a subject. The purpose is to build your speaking skills in a social setting.

BALLOT/BRIEF EVALUATIONS

At each meeting we have an informal vote for the evening's best topic speaker and best speaker (one vote for each). On the ballot paper provided there is also space for a brief private evaluation of each speaker, to be delivered directly to the speaker in question. This is an invaluable aid to speakers.