The Role of Toastmaster

The role of Toastmaster is perhaps the most important role in the weekly meeting. The Toastmaster’s role is to create an atmosphere of interest and expectation of the theme of the day, act as a genial host, keep the meeting on schedule, and provide meaningful introductions to the Speakers, Table Topic Master and General Evaluator.

But the Toastmaster also has important duties prior to the meeting. In the week before the meeting the Toastmaster should contact the Table Topics Master, General Evaluator, and Speakers to confirm their attendance at the meeting; ask the Speakers to provide you with the title of the speech, # of the manual speech, its objectives and timing and pass along that information to the meeting Chair.

The Toastmaster should also prepare a brief explanation of the theme of the day and what it means to you and this should be no longer than 2 - 3 minutes. And of course the most important part of the role of the Toastmaster is to prepare and practice your introductions of the speakers. The speaker introductions should be no longer than 35 - 40 seconds and should contain the necessary information about the speech to be delivered (manual, objective, title, timing, etc.) but also some interesting tidbits about the speakers to help introduce the speaker to the audience prior to his or her speech.

The Toastmaster is also the one who leads in the clapping for the speaker once he or she is finished speaking and should shake the hand of the speaker both before and after they speak.

We have numerous resources on our website for when you are the Toastmaster, including the agenda template, timing sheets and helpful hints of what to do leading up to and during the meeting. By taking the time to familiarize yourself with the role and the available resources you will ensure that you are prepared and confident in your role when you are the Toastmaster.