London Cardinals Toastmasters

Feature

Structure

Part I

The meeting is opened by the club President who welcomes everyone. The president then hands over the meeting to the Toastmaster.

The Toastmaster has the role of running the meeting, introducing all speakers and functionaries and ensuring that the programme keeps to time. At the beginning of the evening, the toastmaster will introduce the timekeeper and the grammarian. The timekeeper ensures that all speakers keep time, using a stopwatch and green, amber and red lights. The grammarian provides a 'word for the day' that speakers are encouraged to use and, at the end of the meeting, will provide feedback on the use of this word and mention good use of language by speakers.

The impromptu speaking session, table topics, is run by the topicsmaster. The topicsmaster provides members with a speech time; with no time to prepare, members must speak about this subject for between a minute and a minute and a half.

As evaluation is a key part of Toastmasters' proceedings, each table topic speaker is evaluated by a topics evaluator.

Short Break

Part 2

Four speakers, drawn from the club's membership, deliver speeches which vary in length from 4 to 10 minutes. When a new member joins, they are given a manual by Toastmasters International entitled 'Communitation & Leadership Program'. The manual outlines 10 speeches, each with specific objectives to develop a member's speaking ability. Once a member has successfully delivered 10 speeches, the speaker become a Competent ToastMaster (CTM).

Four evaluators assess each of the four speakers using a process of commend-recommend-commend. Use of this method ensures that evaluations begin and end on a positive note and, in the middle of the evaluation, suggestions are made for improvement. Even the most accomplished speaker welcomes feedback and seeks to continually improve!

At the end of the meeting, the grammarian reports on the use of language and a general evaluator comments on the evening's proceedings and the performance of all functionaries that have not yet received feedback.

End of meeting

The president then closes the meeting with awards for best table topic, best speaker and best evaluator. The meeting usually finishes by 10:00pm when thirsty members retire to the Cardinal's bar for liquid refreshment!