| Light | Table Topics | Evaluations | Speeches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green | 1 min. | 2 min. | 5 min. |
| Yellow | 1 1/2 min. | 2 1/2 min. | 6 min. |
| Red | 2 min. | 3 min. | 7 min. |
Most of the tasks at a Toastmasters meeting rotate, changing so every member has an opportunity to practice each activity. This is a brief description of each section of the meeting.
The Toastmaster is the emcee for the night. It is the Toastmaster's task to introduce each of the speakers and form a bridge between the various parts of the meeting.
The Invocation has two parts: leading the pledge to the flag and a general-purpose, non-denominational, invocation. An inspirational reading can be substituted. I did the Gettysburg address at one point because it is a great speech and it's short. Short poems have proven popular. If you are uncomfortable giving an invocation then you can decide it is optional and go straight to the pledge.
The Wordmaster presents a new or known word for us to learn and records how many times each person uses it during the meeting. As with almost everything in Toastmasters, this has two purposes. The first purpose is to help us improve our active vocabulary, the words we actually use as opposed to those we know when someone else uses. But it also gives the Wordmaster an opportunity to get used to speaking before the group and to practice listening attentively to the proceedings, trying to note each time the word is used.
The Jokemaster tells a joke. This lightens up the meeting and puts us in a good mood. It also gives the Jokemaster practice at telling a joke before a group, which for some people can be a daunting task.
The AH Counter counts the number of times each person uses unnecessary space filler words like 'ah' and 'um' instead of a stately pause. At the end of the meeting the AH Counter reports the total. This helps the members become more aware of their use of ahs and ums. It also makes the AH Counter, who is attempting to listen diligently for those words, very aware of their occurrence.
The Timer records the length of each person's speech and reports at the end of the meeting. When people are new to public speaking, and even when they are experienced Toastmasters, they often are not aware of how much time is passing while they speak. By timing each speech, and giving visual cues to the passing of time, members become more aware of time. It can be quite a shock to discover that the two minute speech you just presented actually took 30 seconds or 5 minutes.
The Topicmaster presents the Table Topics segment. This is practice in speaking extemporaneously ('off the cuff' i.e. without any preparation). Each member, and any guest interested in participating, are given a topic and then asked to speak for one to two minutes on that topic. This can be a fun and unique experience with Topicmasters bringing in off-the-wall topics for the club to practice on.
The Two Minute Tutorial is a prepared speech by an experienced toastmaster discussing one of the basic skills of public speaking. This speech is intended to be a capsule summary of only 2 minutes duration, a time limit that has proven a challenge for even experienced speakers as they attempt to prune all unnecessary verbage from their presentation.
Speakers present prepared speeches, generally from one of the manuals that Toastmasters International provides to guide member learning but occasionally just to work on aspects of speaking they feel are important or need improvement. Each speech is timed and after the speech an 'Evaluator' gives helpful feed back from the audience.
The General Evaluator gives an evaluation of the whole meeting pointing out what needs improvement but more importantly, what was done well and should be continued. The General evaluator also assigns a speech evaluator to each speaker, based on the speaker and evaluator's level of experience, and introduces each evaluator. The evaluation is the aspect that makes Toastmasters most effective, because it allows the speaker to know what the audience experienced.