This page provides some guidance on undertaking the role of Toastmaster and how to use EasySpeak to change, finalise and print the meeting agenda.
1.0 Contents
1.1 Role
1.2 Meeting Theme
1.3 Removing a presenter
1.4 Adding a presenter
1.5 Assigning a speaker
1.6 Attendence
1.7 Edit Agenda
1.8 Printing Agenda
1.9 Adding an educational
1.1 Role
Taking on this role improves organizational skills, time management skills and public speaking skills.
The Toastmaster is a meeting's director and host. A member typically will not be assigned this role until they are thoroughly familiar with the club and its procedures.
Before the meeting, as Toastmaster, you:
- Come up with a meeting theme and publish it on EasySpeak*
- Handle and make changes to the meeting agenda on EasySpeak* including events, presenters and times after the VPE has done the initially scheduling**
- Ensure all club participants know their roles and responsibilities.
- Prepare short interesting comments on the meeting theme for welcome, theme part of agenda and weaving in to speech transitions.
- Print copies of the agenda
*The changes the toastmaster may need to make to the meeting agenda are explained in the following sections.
**If the anyone turns down a role more than a week in advance of the meeting then the VPE will reassign someone. If it's within the week leading up to the meeting the Toastmaster should manage this.
During the meeting, as Toastmaster, you:
- Arrive early, organise the room and put out the toastmasters meeting sign.
- Make sure someone is at the door to welcome guests and members, take down the name of any guests and who will be introducing them to other members. Guests should wear name tags and sign the club's Visitor Book.
- Check that all people with roles have arrived. If not you will need to arrange ‘cover’ in case they do not arrive
- Start the meeting on time with a welcome and notification of any agenda changes
- Follow the meeting agenda
- Introduce speakers during the club meeting (other than project speakers who are introduced by their evaluator), lead the clapping, remain standing until they take the speaking position and shake their hand before sitting down.
- Ensure smooth transitions between speakers during the club meeting by adding a word or two to bridge the gap before the next event. You could use jokes, quotes, stories, or reflections on the last speech.
- Ask if there is any club business for the club business part of the agenda
- Confirm the toastmaster for next week
- Finish on time and close the meeting
- Help tidy up the meeting room and put away all equipment and resources.
- Leave the room clean and tidy
1.2 Meeting Theme
The toastmaster should assign a meeting theme. The meeting theme is important as it makes our meetings varied and interesting. Ideally the theme should be assigned a week in advance so the other presenters can link the theme to their presentations. Instructions for adding the theme are below. You can also add notes to the top of the agenda which all members will see when they view the meeting online and they will appear at the top of the printed agenda. These instructions could include things to bring to the meeting to engage with the theme or any special events at the meeting. Club officers may also add information in this area about upcoming events at future meetings or events in the wider toastmaster community.
1.3 Remove a presenter
If someone has confirmed to you they cannot attend/present, but they have not declined on EasySpeak you can decline on their behalf by clicking the red cross of the far right. When you hover over the red cross a screen tip states ‘reassign this role’. See screenshot below.
1.4 Assigning a presenter
There is a dropdown menu for assigning a presenter. People who have confirmed they are not attending will not be listed. This menu is generally organised from the person you are most likely to select for the role to the member you are least likely to select. The exception being that members who have not done a role before will be at the top and you need to consider if that role is the next progression level for that person. If you are unsure contact the VPE. After people who have done a role, the people are listed in order of how long ago they did a role. The safest option is to select the person with the longest number of days ago.
1.5 Assigning a speaker
If the assigned speaker pulls out in the week leading up to the meeting you should attempt to replace them. You could send out a mass club email, speak to VPE and contact any individuals you think may be ready to speak.
If the person has already requested a speech or it has been requested by the VPE then their name will appear in the speaker dropdown box. See screenshot below. If there name is not in the list then click the portrait icon to the left to request a speech.
You then need to select their name from the dropdown box and click ‘Go’.
After this you need to select the workbook. This is generally the competent communication manual, unless they are an advanced speaker.
You then click the project they are completing
And finally click ‘save’ in the top right to add the speech to the agenda.
1.6 Attendance
You can manage / view meeting attendance via the panel shown in screenshot below
1.7 Edit Agenda
If you need to edit the roles for the meeting, you can do this my clicking ‘agenda’ in the header – see screenshot below. The most common reasons for this is because the meeting has changed from 2 speakers to 1 speaker.
The edit agenda screen looks like the image below. The red cross on the right removes an item from the agenda. The arrows allow you to reorganise agenda items. The dropdown menu allows you to change the meeting template.
[Please note if you use another meeting template some roles may be unassigned and you’ll need to reassign them. We have contacted the creators of EasySpeak but there is no fix for this issue.]
Clicking the edit an event button allows you to change timings. You may need to reduce the time for table topics or the general evaluation to keep to 55mins if some of the speeches are longer. The elements you can change are explained in the screenshot below.
If you insert a new agenda item the options are the same as for editing an agenda item.
1.8 Printing Agenda
The toastmaster should print the agenda. The number you should print is generally the number of attendees plus allowance for a few guests. To print click on the button. The button will also print an agenda but may be missing some of the event start times.
1.9 Adding an Educational
To add an educational to the agenda first follow the instructions under 1.7 to add a new agenda item. For the role select educatational. Type the assisgnment in to the Event box.
Note: EasySpeak does not have worboooks set up for diferrent Educational projects.
Follow the instructions under 1.5 for assigning a speaker, workbook and asssignment. The workbook should be "competition and other speeches". The assignment should be "educational presentation" of the length requried.
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