Each meeting provides an opportunity to practice. This page describes a typical Northwestern Toastmasters Meeting.

Five days (or more) before meeting, the Vice-President of Education should contact the Toastmaster of the Meeting with any changes to the schedule. The Toastmaster of the Meeting will then contact these participants to make sure that they understand their duties.
General Evaluator
Joke Master *
Prepared Speakers
Table Topics Master *
Word Master *

* These people should be told the theme of the meeting.

6:45 pm (The Educational Session)
The Presiding Officer calls the Educational Program to order (from the lectern), announces any changes to the program and introduces the Toastmaster of the Meeting.

The Presiding Officer gives control of the lectern to the Toastmaster of the Meeting.

The Toastmaster of the Meeting introduces the theme of the meeting with a short commentary designed to make everyone comfortable and glad to be present. (Note: This is an ideal time for a manual speech. Just let the vice-president of Education know ahead of time so an evaluator can be assigned.)

The Toastmaster of the Meeting calls on the Word Master, who will give the word for the evening from a standing position near the Word Master's chair.

The Toastmaster of the Meeting introduces and gives control of the lectern to the Table Topics Master .

The Table Topics Master introduces the theme for the Table Topics Session, then asks a question and calls on a member to answer. There should be an average of four questions. The response to the questions should be delivered from a standing position near the chair of the person receiving the question.

After the last question the Table Topics Master should call on the Time Keeper for the time used by the Table Topics Speakers. The Time Keeper will deliver the report from a standing position near the Time Keeper's chair.

The Table Topics Master should determine which speakers are eligible (time must be greater than one minute and less than three minutes) and ask those present to vote and pass their ballots to the Vote Counter. The Table Topics Master then gives control of the Lectern to the Toastmaster of the Meeting.

The Toastmaster of the Meeting will introduce the first Prepared Speaker and give control of the lectern to the Prepared Speaker. When the speaker concludes, control of the lectern returns to the Toastmaster of the Meeting. This continues until all speakers have finished.

The Toastmaster of the Meeting will call on the Time Keeper for a report on the time used by each Prepared Speaker. To qualify, a Prepared Speaker must be within one minute of the requested time. (For example, a speaker asks for six minutes so the time must be between five and seven minutes.)

After the Timer's report, the Toastmaster of the Meeting will ask those attending to vote and pass their votes to the VoteCounter.

The Toastmaster of the Meeting will then introduce and give control of the lectern to the General Evaluator.

The General Evaluator normally evaluates the meeting up to the the first Prepared Speaker. At that point, the General Evaluator will call on each Evaluator. Each Evaluator will give his or her report from a standing position near their chair.

After all evaluations, the General Evaluator will call on the Time Keeper for the Time Keeper's report. The target time for evaluations is two minutes. To qualify, an evaluation must be between one and three minutes. The General Evaluator will ask those attending to vote for the best evaluation given by an Evaluator and pass their ballots to the VoteCounter.

While voting for best Evaluation is occurring, the General Evaluator will call on the Grammarian for the Grammarian's report. This report should be delivered by the Grammarian standing near his or her chair.

Finally, the General Evaluator will call on the Word Master for the Word Master's report. This report is delivered from a standing position near the Word Master's chair. After the Word Master's report, the General Evaluator will give control of the lectern to the Toastmaster of the Meeting.

The Toastmaster of the Meeting will deliver any concluding remarks. This is a good place to thank all the members (and the roles that they filled) who helped make the meeting a success. This concludes the responsibility of the Toastmaster of the Meeting and control of the lectern is resumed by the presiding officer.

The presiding officer will call on the VoteCounter for the results of the voting and present the awards for Best Table Topics Speaker, Best Prepared Speaker and Best Evaluator.

The Presiding Officer next calls on the Joke Master for the humor of the evening. The Joke Master should stand and deliver the levity from a position near the Joke Master's chair.

Finally, the presiding officer will call for guest comments, make any announcements and adjourn the meeting.