How does a Toastmasters meeting work? A Toastmasters meeting is split into two halves; a 'Prepared Speeches' and 'Topics Session'. At our club, the Prepared Speeches is in the first half. The first half of our meeting features prepared speeches. Generally speaking we have three speeches a night, most often 5-7 minutes long. Members will have put their names forward a few weeks prior, and will now
be delivering a prepared speech. After a member conducts a speech, all members and guests write their opinion on the evaluation slips provided, which will be given to the speaker at the end of the meeting. These evaluation slips are invaluable to the speaker as they tend to be encouraging yet also highlight areas that need improvement. In addition to the individual evaluation slips, the prepared speeches will be evaluated by three pre-selected evaluators who will deliver a 2-3 minute evaluation on each speech. This allows the speakers to receive feedback from an experienced member, and the audience can learn from this too. Our second half, The Topics Session gives people a chance to practice thinking on their feet. A topic is pulled out at random from a jar, followed by a members name. The member responds to the topic, for a duration of up to two minutes, and then sits down. Guests are welcome to simply sit and observe, but if they would like to respond, they may raise their hand and speak. Other members may also respond for a period of up to one minute. The whole purpose of this section is to make people feel more comfortable communicating their thoughts on the spot. Generally, people find that while they may have felt nervous and experienced difficulty communicating their ideas the first few weeks, after practice they become much more comfortable and eventually they can enjoy communicating their ideas with ease and with great effect.
