An Overview of our
Meeting Structure
A Toastmasters meeting allows for not only the opportunity for people to speak and express their speech-giving skills, but also enables them to grow as public speakers through the reception of feedback: Feedback indicating what they did well, what they could improve on, and something to keep in mind for future opportunities.
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Our meetings usually start with an emphasis on community spirit, giving us time to catch up with our fellow Toastmasters and engage together outside the realm of public speaking. UofT Toastmasters does not only value public speaking, as we put an emphasis on the family environment we strive to create.
We follow this with our President giving the official greetings and reading the club's mission. While we value a community spirit, we try to prevent it from compromising the air of formality that we try to establish during meetings.
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After the President gives his address, the Toastmaster of the Day presents the meeting theme through a 5 minute speech in which they can interact with the audience. The purpose of the theme is to set a tone of the meeting, and to get the club members to consider different aspects of our being. Themes can be anything: fear and love, anger and heartbreak, insecurity and desire. The themes are there for you to explore and to express the inner depths of your heart.
Following the Toastmaster’s speech, the meeting’s General Evaluator is given the stage, in
which they introduce the Evaluation Team for the meeting.
The Evaluation Team consists of:
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the General Evaluator themselves,
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the Ah-Counter (whose job it is to track filler words used throughout the meeting),
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the Timer (who’s responsible for monitoring the time taken up by the speakers at the meeting),
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and the Grammarian (the person in charge of monitoring the use of language throughout the meeting), who introduces the Word of the Day.
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This is then followed by the delivery of the prepared speeches. Each UofT Toastmasters meeting must have at least one prepared speech, which takes anywhere from 8-10 minutes: 5-7 minutes for the actual delivery of the speech, and 3 minutes for evaluation. As our meetings tend to last around 2 hours, we limit our prepared speeches to a maximum of 3 per meeting, giving us a 30 minute window in which prepared speeches are given.
The Prepared Speeches are followed by the Table Topics, an opportunity to show off your improvisation skills. Hosted by the Table Topics Master, each speaker has a 2 minute window to deliver a speech on a topic given to them, directly followed by a 30 second window in which the speakers are given a chance to think about what they are about to say. This segment of the meeting usually elicits cordial and humorous banter amongst club members, and is widely considered to be the most popular part of our club meetings.
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The Table Topics usually last for about 30 minutes, after which we have a period of evaluations: the speech evaluators take the chance to provide feedback to the speakers who had prepared speeches to give, and the General Evaluation Team provides feedback on the meeting procedure as a whole. The Table Topics Master then announces the winner of the Table Topics session, as given by a vote of club members. The Toastmaster of the Day gives a few parting words, after which the President assigns roles for the upcoming meeting and concludes the meeting.