What happens at a Podium Toastmaster meeting?

Lots of neat stuff related to feeling confident and comfortable speaking in public. Lots of learn-by-doing agenda items and roles where everyone gets a chance to work on their speaking, organizing, evaluating, and leadership skills..  Roles rotate every week.  New members start with simpler roles.

Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

The Chairperson opens the meeting, presents their theme of the evening with opening remarks and then presents the agenda.  They introduce the meeting officers and guests.  Some themes are serious, and some are …well..a little offbeat, making every meeting quite interesting.

Toast

We always have a toast to this wonderful country Canada in a creative way and to the Queen.  Good practice for those formal dinner events.

As I See it…

Everyone has a perspective on something, and so do all Podium Toastmasters.  As an As I See It presenter develops a point of view on their subject of choice – and tries to convince all of us creatively to adopt their point of view.

Table Topics

Impromptu speaking at it’s absolute finest.  How many times have you been called upon to speak at a moment’s notice?  Table Topics gives at least five Toastmasters every week a chance to prepare a one minute speech with just one minute of preparation.  Speaking off the the cuff is always interesting, and often quite funny.

Prepared Speeches

While all other roles are important – prepared speeches are the heart of Toastmaster personal development. There are usually three prepared speeches of about 5-7 minutes in length at every meeting.  Based on the designation a Toastmaster is working towards, they develop their speeches according to the specific project goals and criteria.

Speech Evaluations

There are an equal number of evaluations as there are prepared speeches.  Toastmasters learn to give effective feedback to speakers based on the goals and criteria of the speech projects.

General Evaluation

The General Evaluator provides an overall evaluation of the meeting – what went well, what could have been improved.  Helps us all do better next time.

Reports

The Quizmaster tests our listening skills by asking a number of questions about what we heard that evening

The Grammarian provides a report on the use of interesting language, word of the day – and how many ums, ahs, and fillers we used – always focused on helping us become more articulate.

Awards

Every meeting culminates in key awards.  Best Table Topics, Best Speaker, Best Evaluator and Spark Plug of the meeting (you’ll have to visit us to find out what that award is for) – you get to choose / vote for these.  Always fun.  Always motivating.

It’s a packed two hours every week.  It’s also the best two hours of learning related to public speaking and taking leadership every week.  Way better than what you’ll find at work.