So it’s finally happened. You joined your Toastmasters Club 13 months ago and are giving your 10th and final speech for your Competent Communicator award today. It’s a day of celebration and congratulations are perfectly in order. In a few minutes you will actually get up and deliver your speech. You are feeling pretty good about yourself and rightfully so. You accomplished your goal. Then the long term schedule comes around and a look of shock comes over you. “Why is my name down as the Toastmaster of the Day (TOTD) in three weeks?,” you ask yourself. Maybe the Vice President Education (VPE)made a mistake. You ask her about it after the meeting. It is no mistake.
The occasion of the 10th and final speech from the Competent Communicator (CC) manual can be likened to graduating from college. Now what is the word used to refer to a college graduation? It’s “Commencement,” isn’t it. Commencement means beginning not ending. Presenting your 10th speech is a call for celebration for sure, but what are you going to do from here. There is a subtle expectation, but an expectation just the same, when you become a CC, that in addition to giving speeches from the advanced manuals, you will also take on some of the more challenging meeting roles. One of those roles is TOTD.
In my 19+ years in Toastmasters, I have seen TOTD duties fulfilled in a variety of ways. However, just as in learning to play basketball you need to learn the fundamentals of how to shoot, dribble and rebound in a certain way rather than performing those parts of the game the way your favorite NBA player does it, there are some simple guidelines you should follow as TOTD. The watchword is to not get fancy off the bat. You will get many opportunities to improvise and “spice things up” in your Toastmasters career. For right now, just knowing the steps to follow will provide you a tremendous “leg up” and a satisfying and fulfilling experience. So what are the steps to being the TOTD? Read on.
First, you must realize that time is your best friend and your worst enemy. If you have time to plan, you will do well. If left until the last minute, even the most seasoned Toastmaster will be “quaking in their boots” and will have a tough time “pulling off” this meeting role. So here goes. Below are the steps that I have used repeatedly over many years. They work and right now when you are starting out, that is all you need. Below are the guidelines to prepare for a meeting.
a. One day before the meeting before you are going to be TOTD, confirm the speakers, evaluators, general evaluator, and table topics master. So why do you do this at the meeting before your meeting? There’s a simple answer. Some of the roles will be vacant and you will need to fill them. Also, if anyone drops out of a role, you can ask for volunteers at this previous meeting. There is no faster way to fill roles for your meeting than at the previous meeting. Inevitably. there will be members at the meeting who are not assigned a role at the meeting where you will be the TOTD. However, even asking for volunteers at the previous meeting does not assure you all the roles will be filled. What it does do is greatly increase the chances of the major roles being filled.
b. So the previous meeting has been held and you still don’t have all the roles filled. What do you do? Number one, don’t panic. You are still way ahead of schedule. It is time to break out the old TASC Toastmasters contact list with phone numbers and e-mail addresses. You don’t have one? Just see any club officer and we will get you one ASAP. ASAP means the same day, because as the TOTD for the next meeting, you really cannot wait. Given you have the club contact list, you start contacting others to fill the roles. Give some thought to this. If you are missing a Table Topics Master, don’t call someone new in the club. Call an experienced TASC Toastmaster. Experienced is defined as anyone in the club who is a CC or possibly someone who has 7 – 9 speeches done. It is very important you “flesh out” the role lineup before the weekend is out. The reason this is important is people are hard to find on the weekend. When Monday comes, you only have two days to finalize everything. This is not much time.
c. So you have the lineup set. You ask yourself, “Is there anything else to do?” You would be mistaken if you answered “No” to your question. What you have done so far is the bare minimum. You have the lineup, but you know nothing about the speakers. You all have seen emcees introduce speakers. Some do a fair job. Others do a poor job. Very few do a great job. For speech introduction purposes, there are a few things you should find out about the speakers. They are:
(1) Speech Information: (a) Manual, (b) Project # and Title, (c) Project timing, (d) Project Objectives, (e) Speech Title, and (f) any special things you need to say to set up the speech. Advanced manual speeches usually require this.
(2) Speaker Background: (a) speaker’s occupation and who they work for, (b) how long the speaker has been a Toastmaster, (c) what goals the speaker is working to achieve and how this speech will help them achieve their goals, (d) speaker’s hobbies, and (e) any family information the speaker wishes to share.
d. So what have you done so far? You have filled in the lineup, you have a draft agenda, and you have some background information on your speakers. You are in pretty good shape. The final preparation steps are to print out 15 – 20 copies of the agenda on Tuesday night and show up to the meeting place at least 10 minutes before the start time. Before the meeting starts, distribute the agenda at people’s places and be ready to start at the meeting start time exactly.
You have prepared for the meeting and all you need to do right now is to hold the meeting. There are guidelines during the meeting you need to observe. First of all, the purpose of the meeting is to highlight the prepared and table topics speakers. These speakers plus the speech evaluators have exact time constraints on their time. Everyone else does not. Be careful that you or someone else does not give a speech or several speeches during the meeting. It is amazing how we fall in love with the sound of our voice once we get up there and get positive feedback from the audience. Keep your comments and everyone else’s except the speakers and evaluators to the bare minimum. This is tough sometimes because you don’t want to cut off someone from speaking. If a non-speaker/non-evaluator is a little long winded, stand up to the side. They will get the message. This is not a bad idea either for prepared speakers and evaluators who are way over time.
Nominally, speeches should be done around the 30 minute mark in the meeting. Table Topics must be done absolutely no later than the 45 minute meeting mark. With three speakers, it takes at least 15 min for the evaluation portion of the meeting. In some ways, the evaluation session of the meeting is the most important. This is where the learning comes in for us to improve. We must strive as TOTDs to allow the maximum time for evaluations.
Well, that’s it. As a wise person once said, “That’s all I know.” If you follow the preceding preparation and during meeting guidelines you can’t go wrong. There will be plenty of opportunities to modify what I have said above, but, if you are starting out, I would follow these guidelines.
Over my 19 years in Toastmasters, I have seen many a meeting where the TOTD was unprepared, or, believe or not, did not show up. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would say TASC Toastmasters’ TOTDs are an 8+. Preparation counts. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. If you have never been the TOTD before, don’t despair.
So when the VPE asks for a TOTD, raise your hand. You’ll be glad you did!