Chapter Meeting

Chapter Meeting is at the core of all toastmasters activities held at the club level. This is where each toastmaster is given the opportunity to practice public speaking and leadership roles at the minimal level of participation by taking up meeting roles.

Chapter Meetings are usually not just attended by a club’s own toastmasters. There are usually a good mix of toastmasters from other clubs too. Some are specially invited while some are toastmasters who voluntarily requested to visit the club’s Chapter Meeting. Thus, speakers and appointment holders are a mixture of toastmasters from different clubs, but primarily they should consist mainly of toastmasters of the club itself. 

Besides toastmasters, non-toastmasters are also welcomed to visit any club’s Chapter Meeting. They could be members from the general public who are interested in finding out more about Toastmasters and want to find out how Toastmasters could benefit them in public speaking and their personal development. They could also be personal friends of toastmasters who have been invited to attend the Chapter Meeting. These non-toastmaster visitors are people who have the potential to join Toastmasters eventually.

There is a necessity to have toastmasters from other clubs to take up different meeting roles particularly as Speech Evaluators, Language Evaluator and General Evaluator. It is beneficial for toastmasters who are delivering Prepared Speech Projects to receive feedback from toastmasters with a diversity of strengths and backgrounds instead of being evaluated repeatedly by the same group of toastmasters from their own club. Language Evaluator requires someone who has a reasonable proficiency in the English language while General Evaluator requires someone who is a very experienced toastmaster who has held different district officer roles. A toastmasters club that has constant exchange with other toastmasters club is a healthy club and not one that stands in isolation on its own.

Chapter Meeting Roles

Toastmasters of the Day

The title Toastmaster of the Day or Toastmaster of the Evening will be used depending whether the meeting is held during the day (morning/afternoon) or during the evening. He/she is the emcee of the meeting, introducing each speaker who comes up front to speak with the exception of the Table Topic speakers where the Table Topic session will be taken over by the Table Topic Master.

Timer

The Timer will record the duration of each speaker during the Prepared Speech, Evaluation Speech and Table Topic. There is a minimum and maximum time duration for these speeches in order for the speaker to be qualified to be voted as the Best Speaker of these respective sessions.

The Timer also keeps track of the time spent for each session of the Chapter Meeting to prevent the meeting from exceeding the time planned for the meeting.

Other Roles

The roles of Language Evaluator, General Evaluator, Prepared Speech Project Speakers, Speech Evaluators, Table Topic Master will be elaborated in the following section of the Chapter Meeting format.

Chapter Meeting Format

Introduction

Sergeant-At-Arms calls the meeting to order and will ask each meeting attendee (both toastmasters and non-toastmaster visitors) to introduce themselves. Sometimes each meeting attendee is also requested to speak a little about a certain topic along the theme of the meeting such as, “How do you celebrate Chinese New Year”, if the theme of the meeting is “Chinese New Year”.

Chapter Meeting Agenda

Toastmasters of the Day (Evening) will welcome and introduce the appointment holders, and go through the agenda of the Chapter Meeting as well as inform the meeting attendees of any amendment to be made to the programme sheet.

President’s Opening Address

The President will speak on a topic or issue he/she chooses that seek to inspire the Chapter Meeting attendees.

Each speaker of the prepared speeches is allocated an evaluator who will evaluate on his/her performance. The number of prepared speeches in a Chapter Meeting will depend on the time allocated to the Chapter Meeting and the availability of the club’s toastmasters to deliver their Prepared Speech Projects.

Toastmasters from other clubs may request for speaking slots to deliver their Prepared Speech Projects by making arrangement with the Vice President Education of the club that is hosting the Chapter Meeting. As a rule of thumb, priority to deliver Prepared Speech Projects are reserved for the club’s own toastmasters.

The Table Topic session could be held in place of the Prepared Speeches and the Prepared Speeches could be arranged to be held later during the Chapter Meeting depending on the club’s preference. Sometimes the Table Topic Session is held earlier because some of the toastmasters delivering the Prepared Speech Projects and/or the evaluators who are evaluating the Prepared Speech Speakers are arriving late.

Refreshment Break

The Chapter Meeting will take a 10 to 15 minutes break for refreshment as well as for toastmasters and visitors to intermingle and interact with each other.

The refreshment break can be scheduled flexibly at any point of the meeting but it is preferable to be introduced after the Prepared Speeches because the project evaluators will need time to reflect on the Prepared Speeches that they are evaluating and to prepare their Evaluation Speeches.

Table Topics

As the word implies, Table Topics are topics that people chat randomly about while sitting at a table sipping on tea and coffee or dining together. They could be talking about whether North Korea will fire their nuclear missiles at the United States or will there be a recession this year.

The Table Topic Master will prepare a list of “Table Topics” known only to himself/herself. Toastmasters and visitors either volunteer or are volunteered to speak on one of the topics that they will select blindly. The duration of a Table Topic Speech is one to two minutes.

Project Evaluation

Those toastmasters that were assigned to evaluate the performance of the Prepared Speech Speakers will now carry out 2 to 3 minutes speech to provide feedback to their allocated speakers on what are the areas that they have performed well in and what are the areas where they can improve on and how to do so.

General Evaluator Report

The General Evaluator is usually a senior toastmaster with a wealth of experience. He/she will give his/her feedback on how the Chapter Meeting has been conducted, on what are the areas that they can improve on, how some parts of the meeting are not conducted in proper accordance to the Toastmasters protocol, etc.

Ah-Counter Report

At this point of the Chapter Meeting, the meeting has almost come to an end. The Ah-Counter will report on the number of pause-fillers uttered by everyone who has spoken during the Chapter Meeting.

Prize Presentation And Appreciation

The President will now announce the Best Speakers for the Table Topics, Evaluation Speeches and Prepared Speeches. Best Speaker ribbons will be awarded to the best speakers of respective sessions.

Tokens of appreciation will also be given to toastmasters who have helped out at the Chapter Meeting as appointment holders.

Announcement

Attendees are informed of various upcoming Toastmaster events and updates.

President’s Closing Address

Similar to the President’s Opening Address, the President will once again address the toastmasters but the closing address can be less elaborate than the opening address.

Usually it can be based on what the President’s reflection of the Chapter Meeting that has just transpired and some words of encouragement he/she has for everyone. The President will give everyone some well wishes and declare the meeting closes.