I have a secret vice - every day I read a wedding blog. I've been reading this blog for years, so no, I'm not hinting at any type of announcement.
This line from one of today's posts jumped out at me:
"I learned that no matter how hard you try, people suck at RSVPs. I had everything online and easy to do and gave people plenty of notice, but I still had around 30 RSVPs on the day of the wedding..."
Would you look at that! People don't even respond timely to the bride and groom about coming to a super special event like a wedding! If people don't RSVP to wedding invitations, WHY should we expect people to respond timely to a role request on a routine meeting?
Being the Toastmaster for a meeting is a big, semi-frustrating job. I get that - and the biggest hassle is convincing people to click on the email to confirm their roles or to log in to Easy Speak regularly to review their upcoming roles and confirm/decline them.
When you're the Toastmaster, know that a big part of the job will be chasing down people (you'll have to pick up your phone to call them) for confirmations, speech titles, and answers to the theme question for their introductions.
The next time you're the Toastmaster, use the Easy Speak functionality, but also make phone calls. You'll have to do that to ensure that there are no unconfirmed roles on your meeting agenda. (The whole audience will know when there's an unconfirmed role - the person's name has a question mark by it.)
Having to make phone calls to get the meeting fully scheduled and planned is a good thing - it helps to develop your leadership skills. Luckily for you PSST people are an interesting and lively bunch - it's good to have even a quick chat with your fellow members!
P.S. Here is the blog post. http://offbeatbride.com/2015/07/multicultural-wedding