A typical meeting:

All arrive by 7:00 pm for a prompt 7:30 pm start.

President opens the meeting and welcomes visitors and guests.

President introduces the Toastmaster for the evening.

Toastmaster starts the meeting with a summary of the evening and an explanation of the roles that people play.

Timekeeper explains the timing of each participant.

Grammarian presents the word for the evening.

Table Topics Master introduces subjects for the evening’s impromptu 2-minute talks.

5 or 6 Members (and willing visitors) each, in turn, speak ‘off-the-cuff’

Votes for best Table Topic speaker.

10 min break
The break is a good time to chat with members, ask questions or sign up as a new member.
Proceedings resume with introductions by evaluators of each speaker in turn.

There may be up to four speakers scheduled for the evening.

Speakers give their prepared speeches as set out the Toastmasters manuals, towards qualification of their TM goals.

The audience gives short written feedback to each speaker after each one has spoken and then vote on the best speaker overall.

After the speeches and voting, each speaker then receives verbal and written feedback from the allocated evaluator.

The audience then votes for the best evaluator.

The grammarian reports on the use of the evening’s word and language usage in general.

A general evaluator gives feedback on the evening’s proceedings.

The evening’s Toastmaster then hands over to the club president.

The president then announces the winners of the votes and hands out the prize ribbons for: First speeches, Best Table Topics speaker, Best Evaluator and Best Speaker.

The evening is then completed with general announcements and an invitation to everyone to have a post-meeting libation.

The meeting usually concludes by 9:30 pm.

Everything ‘flows smoothly’ through the evening and there is a wide range of interesting and amusing content to be enjoyed.

Visitors may be asked if they wish to contribute to parts of the evening, but this is entirely voluntary.

You really have to attend to see just how good a Toastmasters evening can be.