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You're listening to the Talkative Toastmaster podcast. I'm your host, melanie Serplis. In this podcast, we explore how Toastmasters can help you to polish your public speaking skills, communicate with confidence and amplify your authenticity. You'll hear from my fellow Toastmasters and I how this global organisation has impacted our lives for the better and how it could impact yours. Now let's get talkatives. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Episode 14.

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This week, I'd like to explore the Toastmasters meeting agenda in detail. To give you an idea of the different speaking opportunities at each meeting, I'll touch on what each role is and what's required, how you may be able to apply this skill to other areas of your life, and I'll then summarise the 10 specific skills I believe these roles help to cultivate. In Episode 4, I gave a brief overview of what happens at a Toastmasters meeting, and even in previous episodes we've touched on some of the roles, but this week I wanted to dive into the detail, and please also note that each club does things slightly differently, but this will give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect. At the heart of Toastmasters meetings are various roles, each contributing to the rich tapestry of learning and growth. In this episode, we'll dive into the distinctive responsibilities, of key roles within a Toastmasters meeting, including the Toastmaster, the Grammarian Table, topics, master Speakers, evaluators, timer and the General Evaluator. So firstly, let's look at the Toastmaster, which is a role about mastering the art of orchestration.

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The Toastmaster, often considered the host of the meeting Think of it like an MC plays a pivotal role in orchestrating the event, the meeting. This is the person who sets the tone for the meeting and ensures a smooth flow from start to finish. The Toastmaster introduces speakers, keeps the meeting on schedule and fosters an atmosphere of enthusiasm and encouragement. The specific responsibilities of the Toastmaster include introducing the meeting. So the Toastmaster will typically kick off the meeting by welcoming attendees, introducing the theme, providing an overview of the agenda and noting any changes to it. As there are often last minute changes to the agenda, the Toastmaster will also do speaker introductions. So, before each speaker takes a stage, this person will deliver a brief introduction, perhaps highlighting the speaker's accomplishments and setting the context for the audience.

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Transition management is another role for the Toastmaster, who is really there to ensure seamless transitions between different segments of the meeting to maintain a dynamic and engaging atmosphere. You really are, as the Toastmaster, setting the tone for the meeting and filling in the gaps, adding your own personality and slant of how the meeting is going, into those transition times. And also timekeeping and I'll discuss the timekeeper role in a moment. But the Toastmaster does keep an eye on the overall timing of the meeting just to ensure that it's running to the planned schedule. And finally, adaptability the Toastmaster must be adaptable and ready to handle unexpected situations or changes in the agenda with poise and confidence. As I mentioned, there are very often last minute changes and even changes that happen within the meeting that need to be addressed, and this is what the Toastmaster looks after. Now. You can liken this role to being an emcee at a work event or a wedding, and it's great training for that, because it really does encourage you to think on your toes and to be able to adapt and be that dynamic spaceholder for the meeting.

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Then we have the grammarian or other clubs call it different things, but basically the role of the grammarian is about looking at language with precision and other words we might use within the meeting. So in the realm of effective communication, the grammarian really does play a crucial role in trying to elevate the use of language within a Toastmasters meeting by making other speakers aware of what they are or are not saying. Now, this role encourages members to pay attention to their words, which fosters an environment where language can become a powerful tool for communication. Again, in various clubs, the responsibilities of the grammarian might involve presenting a word of the day, so they'll select a particular word, presenting it at the beginning of the meeting, and members are encouraged to use this word in their speeches, and this whole exercise is designed about promoting vocabulary expansion. A word of the day, for example, might be spectacular or incredible or something other than great, if you think, for example, how many times in a day you might use the word great rather than other words which might be more specific. So the word of the day, just really, we try to make them words that help people to expand their vocabulary.

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The grammarian also looks at a language evaluation and they will listen for notable uses of language, both positive and negative. This individual may also offer constructive feedback on grammar, pronunciation and word choice. They will also likely count ums and rs, and they will also look at filler words such as, like you know so, and some of those elements of speech that we may or may not be conscious of actually saying when we're delivering speeches, and also feedback delivery. So in their report at the end of the meeting, the grammarian aims to uplift and guide members towards, you know, more articulate and polished communication. After all, everyone is at Toastmasters to improve and this element of speaking is another way that Toastmasters can help to do this. I have to say that when you've been in Toastmasters for a while and you become trained to look at things like ums and rs and filler words and just generally how people are speaking, you become aware of it in other areas of your life. So whether it's work or just in casual conversations. But when you see other people doing that, I feel it makes me become more aware of how I might be doing that. So it becomes a bit of a mirror. It's an interesting habit that you get into after you've done it at Toastmasters for perhaps a few meetings.

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Now we also have the Table Topics Master and this is about impromptu elegance, and I discussed in episode 10 one of the hallmarks of Toastmasters meetings being the Table Topic session, where members practice their impromptu speaking for one to two minutes. The Table Topics Master is responsible for crafting engaging and thought provoking questions which challenge speakers to think on their feet. The responsibilities of the Table Topics Masters include question preparation. As I said, they devise a series of open-ended questions designed to elicit diverse and creative responses from participants. This could be anything really around a theme. The theme might be what are your goals for this year, or favorite holidays, or tell us about a time when the question should be general enough in nature that everyone can reasonably answer them and not have to think too hard. But then some clubs will really play around with this session and make the topics quite challenging, which is great because it throws you out of your comfort zone and really puts into practice that impromptu speaking muscle that Toastmasters helps to build.

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Now the Table Topics Master is also responsible for speaker selection. They will call specific speakers and we try not to give someone who's doing a seven minute prepared speech a table topic if other people have smaller speaking roles. So it's really up to the Table Topics Master to make sure that everyone at the meeting is getting a speaking opportunity. Also, time management. So, like other roles, the Table Topics Master is responsible for keeping that session within the allocated time, allowing multiple participants to participate, and encouragement. The Table Topics Master creates a supportive environment, encouraging speakers to share their thoughts without fear of judgment. One of our long-standing members will always get up when he's the Table Topics Master and say and if you need to lie, lie, we're not going to know any difference. And it's become a bit of a running joke in our club that it's okay to lie in Table Topics because really the audience isn't going to know either way Now. Then we have speakers, and I talked a lot in episodes six and eight about the role of speeches and prepared speeches in a Toastmasters meeting.

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But let's look at the responsibilities of the speaker here. So firstly is speech preparation. Normally at a meeting there'll be three or four speakers and they will have typically prepared their speech. So they'll prepare and deliver that speech according to the project requirements outlined in the Pathways program. They're also really responsible for engaging with the audience. None of us want to sit there and listen to the world's most boring speech. So we do, as speakers, have to be cognizant of choosing topics that will engage with the audience and using whatever tools and techniques we can to engage with that audience. Also, speakers are really meant to adhere to time limits, so everything on the agenda is timed and there are allocated time limits. And again, speakers must be mindful of the time constraints outlined by the timer and the assignment they're working on and to deliver speeches in that time frame.

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And feedback and reception. So after the speech, the speaker will receive constructive feedback from the evaluator, enabling continuous improvement and ideally implement that feedback in the next speech. Then we have the evaluator, and I looked at this role in detail in episode 12, but just to recap the responsibilities of speech evaluators, they are really there to do an analysis of the speech. So the evaluator is going to listen very attentively to their nominated speakers presentation, analyzing various aspects of that speech vocal variety, the content and the delivery. Their main role is to provide constructive feedback. They really are there to emphasize the positive aspects of the speech while providing insights on areas that could be refined, and the more specific it is, the more actual value it provides to that speaker who is wanting to grow. Evaluators are also there for encouragement and they really should be striving to encourage speakers while creating that balance between constructive feedback and providing positive reinforcement.

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At Toastmasters we ultimately want people to succeed while providing good, constructive feedback and encouragement, and also we want to provide objective evaluations. An evaluation will always be someone's personal opinion and the opinions on anyone's speech may vary quite substantially. It's important to realise that any evaluation that's provided is just the opinion of that evaluator. But what we also want to see in evaluations is actionable, specific suggestions for improvement, because that gives the speaker something to latch on to and to really action in their next step.

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Then we have the timer, which is all about keeping time and keeping the pace of the meeting, and in a world where time is of the essence, the timer in a Toastmasters meeting is the guardian of punctuality and this role ensures that each segment of the meeting really sticks to the specified time limits, and this helps to foster a sense of discipline and efficiency. So the responsibilities of the timekeeper include perhaps use of lights or, in some clubs, its coloured cards or signals to indicate the progression of time during speeches, evaluations and table topics. There's actually a visual representation that the speakers can see to let them know how they are tracking with time. The timer will also present a report at the end of each segment, just really helping participants to become more mindful of their time management when speaking. And time awareness. The timer's role really cultivates an awareness of time among all the members, emphasising the importance of delivering concise and impactful speeches, and if you think about any work environment or you might be having important business meetings or whatever. We don't have all day to get our message across, and keeping this discipline of sticking to times to a set agenda in a Toastmasters meeting I think is quite a valuable discipline to have and to be aware of.

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Then we have the general evaluator, whose role is really looking after overarching excellence. Think of the general evaluator as the evaluator of evaluators, and this role takes on a supervisory role, really ensuring the overall effectiveness and cohesiveness of the meeting. This role provides a holistic perspective, offering feedback not only on individual speeches but on the meeting as a whole. The responsibilities of the general evaluator include a meeting overview and really highlighting opportunities for improvement as well as strengths and things that they enjoyed about the meeting. They provide feedback to the speech evaluators and the table topics evaluator, again ensuring that the evaluators are evaluated and allowing the evaluators to grow their feedback skills. We also have encouragement and recognition as well. So, again acknowledging the efforts of all participants, the general evaluator's role is really to foster a positive atmosphere, recognising what people did well and the contributions throughout the meeting. Again, in the workplace, you might think of the general evaluator role as wrapping up a business strategy session or a long work meeting or a team event. It just really helps to hone those summarisation skills and wrap things up in a way that leaves people feeling clear and motivated about what the next steps are.

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There's also other roles in the Toastmasters agenda, again depending which club you visit. So I always recommend checking out a few clubs to see which format best suits you. But you may also see roles like the Round Robin or the Warmup Master, and their role is to provide a theme which everyone can then speak for, say 20 to 30 seconds on, just at the beginning of the meeting, to get everyone thinking and speaking. Other clubs will have a guest greeter. I know in our Mount Gravatt club we have a person assigned to welcome guests and then to introduce them in a segment of the meeting and encourage existing members and everyone to go and make that new guest feel welcome.

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What I love about Toastmasters is the fact that in each meeting the roles are rotated and you have different people in them. This ensures the meetings stay varied and interesting and each member brings their own flair to each role. What I also love is the transferable skills that can be practised at every Toastmasters meeting and applied elsewhere. Let's recap on some of the skills I've sort of alluded to so far. Firstly, there's leadership skills. So if we think about the Toastmaster and the General Evaluator, they're really holding space for the meeting in one way or another and setting the tone, managing transitions and then the evaluator backing that up, ensuring overall effectiveness of the meeting.

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There's, obviously, communication skills. So every speaking project at Toastmasters involves either speaking, listening, watching for clever word usage, watching how you deliver speeches and then getting feedback on that. Also with the agenda. There's the element of time management. Every speaker is really encouraged to speak to their allocated time slot and then the timer and Toastmaster help to package that meeting in a way that keeps to the allocated times.

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There's also adaptability. So whether it's the Toastmaster having to handle unforeseen changes either just before the meeting starts or even through it, it's a great sort of skill to be able to foster and similarly with speakers, they have to adjust and be adaptable to the conditions. Sometimes there'll be a tech glitch or the power will go out or there'll be an audience disruption. They need to be aware of their ability to adapt to the circumstances. There's also the skill of impromptu speaking and the segments like table topics or even speaking, or many of the roles are impromptu speaking opportunities that provide training for improving how you speak and respond off the cuff.

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There's also analytical skills and whether it's the evaluator or the general evaluator really looking in detail at how a speaker is doing their speech, how they're delivering it, what they're saying, how they're saying it and then how the whole meeting has come together. Analytical skills is something that definitely Toastmasters helps to develop Really the ability to provide constructive feedback, encouragement and recognition. These types of skills are borne out by the evaluator and the general evaluator and really looking for highlighting people's strengths and areas for improvement. The application of that, as I discussed in a previous episode, is really profound. If you can deliver that kind of feedback to people in your workplace or in your own personal friendships or family situations, it just becomes a much nicer way of delivering feedback. Obviously, as well public speaking skills, where pretty much all of the roles I've talked about are about improving public speaking skills and, whether it's prepared speeches or impromptu speeches, providing this environment that allows members to practice, fail if they have to fail, and improve. It's all there in a very supportive environment. And the final skill is team collaboration.

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A Toastmasters meeting has a lot of moving parts. There's likely to be between 15 or 20 members or more or less, just depending on the club Really coming together to create an event, a meeting that they've prepared for. They'll deliver their speeches, they get the feedback and everyone goes on their merry way. But that collaboration, everything we do is in collaboration. No one person is going to hold the meeting, no one person is going to break the meeting, so it's really a case of what you put into the meeting you get out of it. But in doing it in a collaborative way, it makes for some great meetings. And so there you have a summary of the key roles at each Toastmasters meeting. As you can see, each role cultivates a rich set of transferable skills that extend beyond the realm of public speaking. Each role contributes to the collective learning experience, creating a supportive environment in which people can thrive.

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Now, if you're still on the fence about checking out a Toastmasters club near you, all I would say is just go, do it. Stop procrastinating, stop putting it off, stop making excuses. It's all very easy to do that, but I am sure that if you set foot in a Toastmasters club, it's going to open up doors that really are waiting to be opened. Thanks for listening to today's show. Head to talkativetoastmastercom, where you'll find the show notes for this and all other episodes, as well as links to some awesome Toastmasters resources. If you found value in today's content, I'd really appreciate if you could share it with friends and colleagues who may be interested, or leave a review on iTunes. This helps more people to find us. Until next time, remember the words of Brian Tracy your ability to communicate with others will account for 85% of your success in your business and in your life. Have a great week.