Posts Tagged ‘toastmaster’

Last month, I had the opportunity to take the Toastmaster role at Leeds City, for the third month in a row.

That means that out of the last six meetings Leeds City has held, I’ve been Toastmaster three times, I’ve taken two best speaker ribbons (one each time I gave a prepared speech) and done a timekeeper role to ensure we were finished in time for the Christmas party (that I organised).

So what was my theme for the evening? You get out what you put in!

As I pointed out – most of the other members of the club are currently subsidising my education. We all pay the same monthly dues whether you don’t turn up at all – or whether you turn up every meeting and work your way round all the roles. Toastmasters is about getting stuck in, and if you don’t embrace that, you’re never going to get your full value.

Last Thursday, I took on the role of Toastmaster for the first time.

As well as speakers, each Toastmasters meeting is run by a series of roles, including the Ah Counter and Grammarian, but arguably the toughest role is that of Toastmaster – the host who begins by introducing the club and what we’re about, and goes on to introduce everyone else as well. It provides more stage time than any other role as you’re constantly up and down throughout the meeting.

I was reasonably satisfied with how it went. It certainly wasn’t without issue – we had to move to a different hotel just hours before the meeting, which meant we weren’t totally prepared with voting slips, and that threw me a little.

Also, despite my system of crossing everything off on the agenda as we went, I still forgot to include one of the feedback sessions until someone reminded me. But overall, it went reasonably smoothly, and I seemed like a nice way to round off my Toastmasters anniversary.