West Coast Toastmasters Club Information: First time at Toastmasters?

Never visited a Toastmasters club before and considering checking us out?

We have prepared a write up below that we hope will tell you more about what to expect when coming down to our club.

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Basic Information

Let us start off with some basic information to help improve your experience:
- Our official meeting timings are typically from 1430 to 1730hrs. An important thing to note is that we start our meetings exactly at 1430hrs, our doors will be opened by the Sergeant-At-Arms at around 1400hrs to facilitate interaction between members, guest and first-timers. Generally, we would advise you to come within this period so we could pair you up with an experienced member who would sit beside you throughout the meeting and help with explanations during the meeting.
- Our dress code is Shirt and a tie for Gentlemen and Office wear for Ladies. We at West Coast Toastmasters believe that being smartly dressed contributes to others' forming a good impression of you, hence: “When you dress well, you present yourself well. When you present yourself well, you feel good. When you feel good, that when you start building your self-confidence!”

Break down of a typical meeting

Now, we are going to do a thorough break down of our typical meeting to help you know what to expect.

In a nutshell, our meetings are usually broken into 2 sessions with a tea break in between.
In the 1st session, we have our introductions, openings and prepared speeches. The 2nd session will consist of evaluations of the prepared speeches, the Table Topics segment and meeting evaluations before closing.

Appointment Holders for a meeting:
To help keep the meeting in order, we have a few members or guests that take on a few key roles:
Sergeant-at-Arms : The SAA is the one who opens the meeting. Think of him/her as the silent worker who works behind the scenes to ensure that a meeting goes smoothly.
Toastmaster-of-the-Day : The TMD is the one who controls the flow of the meeting. Think of him/her as an emcee for the meeting.
Timer : Proper timing is a core component of a successful meeting, timers fill this gap by providing signs (in our club, a traffic light signal) to help speakers and evaluators keep to their timing, and more importantly, assist the TMD to keep to the schedule.
Speakers : The speakers are the main stars for the meeting, they would deliver the speeches that they have prepared in advance for the meeting.
Evaluators : The evaluators' role is to evaluate the prepared speeches and provide positive feedback to speaker for further improvement.
Table Topicsmaster : In our club, we have a segment called Table Topics. The job of the Table Topicsmaster is to prepare a series of easy speech topics so that members can practice 'thinking-on-their-feet”.
Ah Counter : The Ah Counter is another essential role in our meetings. His/her job is to count the number of pause-fillers like: Ah, Er, Um, etc. that speakers made during the meeting, by being more aware, one builds his/her ability to project himself/herself more coherently and confidently.
Language and General Evaluators : These special roles are usually held by more senior visiting Toastmasters, their role is to evaluate the quality of the language used and atmosphere of a club meeting. Their evaluations and suggestions contribute to the improvement of our club and are usually held in high regard.

Opening introductions:
As mentioned in the paragraph above, our club meeting is opened by the Sergeant-at-Arms who facilitates the opening of a meeting with short introductions throughout the table.
The introduction will consist of telling everyone else your name, club you belong to (if applicable) and answering a short (and easy) question that the Sergeant-at-Arms has prepared to help make introducing yourself an easy task.

Introducing of the appointment holders:
This portion will usually take around 5 minutes as the Toastmaster-of-the-Day introduces the theme of the meeting and the appointment holders who are assisting him/her to ensure that the meeting is a success.
This is also one of the more challenging roles in the meeting and is considered a route of passage for new members seeking to improve their self-confidence and leadership skills.

Prelude to the Prepared Speech segment:
This segment usually takes about 10-15 minutes as the Club President makes his opening speech to charge up the meeting atmosphere and spur the speakers to give their best in delivering their speeches.
After the opening speech, the Language Evaluator would introduce the Word-of-the-Day.
The Word-of-the-Day is usually a simple but rarely used word, by explaining the meanings of the word and its uses, participants are encouraged to use the word as many times as they could during the meeting.

Prepared Speech segment:
This is the main event of the meeting. Our club usually have 5 or 6 (occasionally 7), member or invited, speakers to deliver speeches that they have prepared beforehand. The speakers would deliver speeches on a variety of topics based of a set of objectives set out in beginner or advanced manuals.
At our club, speeches delivered generally tend towards speeches that educate or inspire. After all the speakers have had their turn, we would have the Timer report the amount of time for each speech.
Speakers who deliver speeches that fall within the time allocated in the speech manual would then be eligible for voting to be the Best Prepared Speech Speaker.

After this segment, the meeting will break for a 15-20 minute tea break. Although conversations generally tend towards small talk and getting to know you better, please do not be alarmed when asked for your thoughts about the meeting thus far. We have a very dedicated executive committee who are very enthusiastic about constantly improving the club.

Prepared Speech evaluation segment:
At the end of the break, the Sergeant-at-Arms would signal the start of the second session with a rap on the gavel. At this points, all participants are to return to their seat as the Sergeant-at-Arms hands control of the meeting back to the Toastmaster-of-the-Day.
Following that, it is the segment in which the Evaluators would present their 2-3 minute evaluation of the prepared speeches in the form of another speech.
Like the prepared speech segment, evaluators would keep within the 2-3 minute allocation are eligible to be voted Best Evaluator.

Table Topics segment:
After the prepared speech evaluation segment, our club would usually have a 20-30 minute Table Topics session. As mentioned above, a pre-appointed Table Topicsmaster would prepare a variety of 10-15 easy and simple questions. While the main aim is to develop the members' ability for 1-2 minute long impromptu speeches.
From past experience, we realise that first-timers usually enjoy the experience of talking before a small audience on a topic that they are familiar with, hence our club actively encourages first-timers to participate and 'give it a try'. However, if you are apprehensive about speaking before an audience, just let one of the members or appointment holders know.
As with the prepared speech and evaluation segments, participants who keep within the 1-2 minute range are eligible to be voted Best Table Topics Speaker.

Language Evaluation segment:
After the Table Topics segment, our club would have a short Language Evaluation segment. This segment is the portion of the meeting where the Language Evaluator would present his/her evaluation of the quality of the language used, examples of both good and bad English and examples of the uses of the Word-of-the-Day.

Ah Counter report:
One of the more important segments in a meeting is the Ah Counter report. During this segment, the Ah Counter would report the number of times the Word-of-the-Day was used and number of pause-fillers were made by speakers in the meeting. The purpose of this segment is not to embarrass the speakers but allow them to be aware of the number of times they have used pause-fillers. This allows speakers to be more conscious when they speak and project a more confident image.

General Evaluation segment:
Like the Language Evaluation segment, a General Evaluator would present his/her evaluation of the meeting. Comments usually range from the meeting atmosphere, conduct of the meeting programme, actions of the club members (as hosts) towards guests and visitors, etc. Usually, when time permits first-timers and visiting Toastmasters are also called upon to give their comments about the club meeting. At West Coast Toastmasters, we really appreciate honest comments especially if they could help improve our club meetings and organisation.

Presentation of ribbons and Closing Address:
This is the last portion of a typical meeting, the Club President would present the ribbons for Best Prepared Speech Speaker, Best Evaluator and Best Table Topics Speaker.
In his closing speech, the Club President will usually notify the club of upcoming events, important notices and his own comments of the club meeting before ending off with an inspirational note to keep one going till the next Toastmasters meeting.

More Information:

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