Regular Meetings are held at the Pflugerville Community Library,
102 Tenth St., Pflugerville, TX, on the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of each month
10:00-11:30 a.m. Get Directions

What to Expect at a TM Meeting
Meeting Roles
Application (Download)

 

 

What's a typical meeting like? (Click here for a sample agenda.)

Meetings kick off with a brief discussion of any club business. The Toastmaster for the meeting is then introduced. He/she provides a theme for the meeting, and introduces the members who fill the other roles of the meeting, such as grammarian, and timer.

Typically, a meeting includes three to four speeches given by members following guidelines identified in one of the many Toastmasters manuals. Each project focuses on a unique presentation skill and has a tutorial that instructs in the successful completion of the project objectives. The member speaks on whatever topic they want while satisfying that particular presentation skill. Most speeches are 5-7 minutes, but a few are a little longer. Members work through the projects at their own pace. After completing the first 10 speeches, members achieve the level of Competent Communicator (CC), and may continue to achieve advanced levels of communication and leadership with other manuals.

The impromptu portion of the meeting called Table Topics follows the prepared speeches, where Toastmasters answer unexpected questions for one to two minutes. The Table Topics Masters aim to ask questions to those members without assigned roles. Guests are never asked questions unless they request to participate. Some questions are easier than other: "Tell us why you prefer dogs to cats?" Others are much harder: "How do you feel this [public official] is doing in their office, and why?" Table Topics can also be completely off the wall. We've had one meeting where we answered questions based on the headlines of a national tabloid.

Following Table Topics, assigned evaluators provide 2-3 minutes of feedback to the speakers who spoke earlier in the meeting. The evaluations focus on how well the member met the project objectives, skills done well, and areas needing improvement. An evaluation offers positive criticism and focuses on helping members achieve their goals.
Following the speaker evaluations, the members filling the other roles of the meeting give their reports for 1-2 minutes.

Finally, the meeting ends with awards handed out for Best Speaker, Best Table Topics, Best Evaluator, and Most Enthusiastic.

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Meeting Roles

When you are Ah Counter...

When you are Evaluator...

When you are General Evaluator...

When you are Grammarian...

When you are Word Provider...

When you are Presiding Officer...

When you are Sergeant At Arms...

When you are Speaker...

When you are Table Topics Master...

When you are Timer...

When you are Toastmaster...

 

Brief descriptions of the roles in a meeting (see Toastmaster manuals for details)

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Ah Counter


Tracks the number of crutch words (ahs, ums, okays, etc.) used by the members
Reports (1-2 minutes) the number of crutch words used by each member

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Evaluator

Provides positive feedback and evaluation to Speaker (2-3 minutes)

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General Evaluator

Introduces Evaluators evaluating Speakers
Requests functionary reports from Ah Counter, Timer, and Grammarian
Offers an evaluation of entire meeting (1-2 minutes)
Requests voting

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Grammarian

Tracks Word of the Day usage
Records improper grammar usage
Records exceptional grammar usage
Reports (1-2 minutes) on proper and improper grammar usage during the meeting as well as those members who used the Word of the Day

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Word Provider

Assigns a Word for the Day and keeps track of who uses it

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Presiding Officer

Opens and closes the meeting
Sees to it that guests are introduced
If guests are present, sees to it that the functionaries (Grammarian, Ah Counter, and Timer) explain their roles and that the General Evaluator explains the ballot
Requests guest comments at the end of the meeting
Conducts the business for the club
Introduces the Toastmaster for the meeting

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Sergeant At Arms

Sets up room so that it is ready to begin on time
Cleans up room after meeting (all members are encouraged to assist!)
Vote Counter (or Ballot Counter)
Counts ballots during meeting

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Speaker

Presents a speech

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Table Topics Master

Leads Table Topics by asking Toastmasters to answer impromptu questions
Table Topics Masters should endeavor to first involve those members without assigned meeting roles to ensure that all members have the opportunity to participate in the meeting. Then other members with roles should be called on (exceptions: Speakers and Evaluators are not called on because they already have plenty to do!)

Important: Guests should never be called on unless they request to participate.

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Timer

Records the time each person spoke during speeches, evaluations, and table topics
Notifies the speaker, via cards, how much time is remaining for the speech (typically green card is at 5 minutes, yellow at 6 minutes, and red at 7 minutes for speakers)
Notifies Table Topics speakers of time speaking (green card at 30 seconds, yellow at 1 minute, and red at 1 minute, 30 seconds)
Notifies evaluators of speakers of time speaking (green card at 2 minutes, yellow at 2 minutes, 30 seconds, and red at 3 minutes)
Reports the time each person spoke during speeches, evaluations, and table topics
Reports those not eligible for awards...
ending a speech 30 seconds too early
ending a speech 30 seconds too late
not speaking for at least 1 minutes during table topics
speaking for more than 1 minute 30 seconds during table topics
speaking less than 1 minute 30 seconds during an evaluation of a speaker
speaking more than 3 minutes 30 seconds during an evaluation of a speaker


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Toastmaster

Introduces Speakers, Evaluators, Table Topics Master, General Evaluator, Ah Counter, Grammarian, Timer, and other participants in the meeting
Writes and prints an agenda for the next meeting.
Offers introductory comments about the meeting's theme
Introduces Speakers
Introduces Table Topics Master
Introduces General Evaluator
Asks members to complete evaluations of speakers
Presents awards

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