Hello, I'm .
Thanks for visiting International, where more than 4 million people have become
more confident speakers and leaders.
They did so by visiting a club in their company or community.
When you visit a club, you'll find three things: members give speeches, they take on
meeting roles and they have a great time learning.
There is no teacher in a meeting.
Instead, much of the learning happens by doing a particular task, such as giving a formal
speech or fulfilling a particular meeting role.
Ready to visit a club?
It's free, and you can find one near you on the website, at ...
The purpose of the meeting roles is to help the members improve their speaking and leadership
skills by providing feedback and evaluation.
There are seven different meeting roles: of the day, Ah Counter, , ,
, Table Topics Master and General .
Every meeting is started by the club president, who introduces the of the day.
The of the day is the host of the meeting.
Fulfilling this role is great practice for leading meetings.
The begins by introducing people who will fill other meeting roles for the
day.
He or she acts like an and keeps the meeting flowing and on time.
Many clubs use an Ah Counter to document the number of “ words” members use while
speaking.
At the end of each meeting, the Ah Counter reports how many “ahs,” “” and
other similar words each speaker used.
This helps members become more aware of words or sounds they make when they speak.
The helps members expand their vocabularies.
One of the Grammarian's duties is to provide a word of the day and its definition.
If a member uses the word of the day or says something well, the calls attention
to it.
As the name implies, the records the exact length of each speech.
He or she also uses to help speakers stay within their allocated time
limits.
The General takes notes throughout the meeting and reports back to everyone,
giving specific how well the meeting flowed and also on how future meetings might
be improved.
The general also calls for reports by the Ah Counter, and .
In every club meeting, there are at least two members who present speeches.
These speakers don't just stand up and start talking.
They use the guidelines in their education manuals to prepare their presentations
and reach the objectives for each speech.
Every speaker who has prepared speeches in advance enjoys one of Toastmasters' greatest
benefits: evaluation.
Think of it as having a friend watch you practice a speech and then give you helpful feedback.
The speaker usually meets with an before the meeting and asks for the evaluator
to pay attention to certain aspects of the talk.
After all the speeches are done, the present their feedback in front of the club,
covering areas such as: did the speakers use their hands to gesture well?
Did they control their voices throughout the speeches?
What did they do especially well, and what are some ideas for improvement?
In addition to prepared speeches, a few minutes are set aside for Table Topics®.
This is often the most challenging, but also the most fun part of our meetings.
During Table Topics, a series of questions or speaking topics are presented, and members
are selected to respond on the spot.
This is excellent training for those situations that come up in everyone's lives where we
have to think fast and say just the right thing.
It might be a job interview, a sales meeting or a dinner conversation.
Table Topics are great for practicing and honing the skills of speaking.
Now that all the reports have been made, the President calls the meeting to a close.
Everyone joins Toastmasters with a personal goal.
Maybe it's a goal to become a more competent or learn how to run a meeting or
think faster on your feet.
Whatever it is, you can achieve your goal if you participate.
So, what's your goal?
For more information on the club experience, please visit a Toastmasters club.
To learn more about how you can become a better speaker and leader, visit .toastmasters..
To find a Toastmasters meeting near you, visit the Find a Club section at .toastmasters..