by Marc Miller
In Securely Speaking it is the job of the Speech Evaluator to introduce the speaker. It's how we transition between the Toastmaster and the speaker, and it helps us practice the skill of introducing a speaker.
Thankfully, no one has introduced me with "“H-e-e-r-e’s Marc!” as it tells the audience nothing about who I am other than that the introducer thinks of me as being in the same category as late-night TV show hosts like Johnny Carson.
Rather than explain the finer points of introducing a speaker, I'm going to refer you to content already published about this topic. There is an excellent article from Toastmasters Magazine about introducing speakers at:
http://www.toastmasters.org/ToastmastersMagazine/ToastmasterArchive/2008/November/Departments/HowTo.aspx
There is another general howto on the Toastmasters International website at:
http://www.toastmasters.org/MainMenuCategories/FreeResources/NeedHelpGivingaSpeech/BusinessPresentations/IntroducingaSpeaker.aspx
Finally there is a pamphlet that is available to all members of Toastmasters at http://www.toastmasters.org/277DCD (it's ordered through the Toastmasters store, but as it's a free download, the cost is $0).
If you want to be truly great at introducing speakers, the next time you're a speech evaluator, write an introduction. If you are a speaker and want to be introduced properly, you can write your own introduction for the speech evaluator to use. Go to Easy-Speak's agenda page, edit your speech, and you'll see a space for writing the introduction. This will be available to the Toastmaster and the speech evaluator for the week to print off before the meeting.