Meeting Structure
A typical meeting at Lucan Toastmasters is divided in two parts of approximately 1 hour each, with a 15 minute break in between.
First part – Business Section and Topics
(8pm to 8.45pm)
The Sergeant At Arms opens the meeting and the Secretary reads the minutes of the previous meeting
The President introduces the Toastmaster for the evening
The Toastmaster explains the meeting and introduces the Topics Master for the evening
Topics Section – The Topics Master poses questions on a range of subjects and invites fellow members to speak for up to 2 minutes on each topic. Guests are welcome to join in this section but will not be forced to speak if they don’t want to. The aim of the Topics Session is for members to learn and practise how to “think on their feet” in front of audience members.
The Toastmaster concludes the first half of the meeting and adjurnes for tea, coffee and biscuits, and lots of chat.
Second part – Prepared Speeches and Evaluations
(9.00pm to 10.15pm)
The Toastmaster introduces the speakers for the prepared speeches. Most meetings will consist of four speakers who will talk on a subject of their choice for approximately 7 minutes from a range of different Toastmaster levels.
Once all the prepared speeches are complete, the Toastmaster introduces the Evaluators for the prepared speeches. Each Evaluator takes approximately 3 minutes to give a review of their assigned speaker, focusing on the strengths of the speech and offering constructive suggestions for improvements (members and guests are also encouraged to fill out the evaluation slips provided on the night to offer to each speaker at the end of the evening).
The General Evaluator who makes an evaluation of the meeting, with special emphasis on the performances of the Evaluators.
Prizes are awarded for best answer to a topic (from the first half of the meeting), best prepared speech, best evaluation, and any other prizes deemed worthy of award.
The President closes the meeting.
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