Each meeting gives different members the opportunity to take on roles as soon as they are ready to do so. The schedule is prepared by the VP Education who offers, arranges or persuades you to take on a role as appropriate, and will support you when it is your first time. Here are the roles: click on any one to find full details of how to do it.
The toastmaster chairs the meeting. He or she arranges the agenda ahead of the meeting making sure there is enough time allocated for each speaker; introduces speakers and other roles at the meeting and creates a welcoming atmosphere.
The timer uses a stopwatch to time each speech and several other parts of the meeting accurately.
The speakers prepare a speech in advance and deliver it at the meeting. There are usually three or four speakers at Chiltern Speakers meetings, one of which may be on an education topic of interest to members.
The evaluators give spoken and written feedback to the speakers – one evaluator for each speaker.
The General Evaluator sums up the whole meeting and gives an overall evaluation of everyone’s performance including the evaluators.
The table topics master thinks up a theme for the impromptu two-minute speeches and chooses people at random to give them.
The grammarian pays attention to skilful use of language, listens out for hesitations and reports at the end of the evening.