About Our Meetings
"People learn best in moments of pleasure."
Dr. Ralph Smedley, Toastmaster's founder
All Capital City Toastmaster meetings exemplify this simple philosophy. Although we only take an hour, our meetings are packed with high energy, support, and fun. It's a great place to network and meet new friends while improving your public speaking and presentation skills!
Meeting Time and Location
Capital City Toastmasters meets Thursday mornings at 7:00 a.m SHARP.
Visitors/guests always welcome. We meet at:
BB&T Building
434 Fayetteville Street Mall - Ste. 2320
Raleigh, NC
Free parking is available until 8am across the street in the Sheraton parking deck (on the corner of Salisbury and Cabarrus, beside the new convention center). When you enter the building, go up the escalator to your right. When you reach the top, ask the security guard to let you up to the 23rd floor for the Toastmasters meeting.
Meeting Structure
Every club has its own flavor, but all follow a similar format. This provides the meeting with structure and helps get everyone involved. All Capital City meetings start promptly at 7:00 a.m. and end promptly at 8:00 a.m. Here's the schedule of a typical meeting:
TIME FUNCTION PERSON 7:00 am Call to order Sgt. at Arms Toastmaster Introduction Sgt. at Arms Introduce meeting Toastmaster Meeting Invocation Invocator Today's Joke Jokemaster Word for the Day Wordmaster Timing for Speeches Timekeeper Speech Introductions - Evaluators provide speech title, time and objectives. Evaluators Prepared Speech 1 Speaker Prepared Speech 2 Speaker Prepared Speech 3 Speaker Timer's report Timekeeper Table Topics Topics Master Evaluator 1 Evaluator Evaluator 2 Evaluator Evaluator 3 Evaluator Timer's report Timekeeper Grammarian's Report Grammarian General Evaluation General Evaluator Meeting Awards Toastmaster Club Business President/Officers 8:00 am Meeting Adjourns
Meeting Roles
Each Capital City Toastmasters meeting features participants acting in one of many different roles. This provides members with many public speaking opportunities in addition to planned speeches. The roles are as follows:
The Role of Toastmaster
The Toastmaster gains tremendous experience in leadership and organization. The Toastmaster creates the meeting's flow, establishes a theme if desired, and introduces the prepared speakers and evaluators.
Before the meeting - Contact members on the schedule who are assigned for Invocation, Joke Master, Word Master, Grammarian, Table Topics Master, General Evaluator, Speakers, and Evaluators. For speakers, note the speech project, any introductory material and title of speech. Prepare the agenda for the meeting.
Assigning Evaluators to Speakers - Early speeches, such as an Ice Breaker, should be assigned to veteran members so that the new member can benefit from the experience.
At the meeting - Verifying the projects and titles of the speeches. Check to see that members in your area of responsibility are present. Be prepared to replace absentees.
The Role of Invocator
Prepare a meditation or a prayer. Each person prays in his/her own way. In Toastmasters, we accept each other's faith. Please be sensitive to political correctness. No offense is intended and none should be taken.
The invocator also serves as vote counter. Votes will be summed for Best Speaker, Best Table Topics, and Best Evaluator. In the case of a tie, the vote counter will break the tie. Write the winners names on the ribbons and give them to the toastmaster during the Master Evaluator's Presentation.
The Role of Wordmaster
The Wordmaster will introduce the word of the day, encourage members to use this word in their speaking, and check usage of the word in Table Topics.
The Role of Joke Master
Humor adds a great touch to the meeting - we all like to share a laugh. The Joke Master gets things going early. Avoid "blue" language.
The Topics Master
The Topics Master selects topics and asks members for extemporaneous responses for the purpose of practicing 'thinking and speaking on their feet'. Responses are evaluated for length (1-2 minutes), as well as for inclusion of the Word of the Day. The Topics Master typically calls on club members who do not have an assigned meeting role.
The Role of Speaker
Speakers perform three roles in a Toastmaster’s meeting. One, they inspire and inform the group about a wide range of topics from their choosing. Experts in computers, food, investing, etc. give their best information weekly to the other members in their speeches.
Secondly, a speaker is preparing himself for his real speaking duties. This environment is safe to practice talks that will be given in church, at work, or with other clubs. It is a speaker’s job to push themselves to use all the information that they have learned in toastmaster’s publications and by watching others.
And this brings us to the third role of a speaker, teaching others. As a speaker you can expect that the other members are looking for ideas on what works and what doesn’t work in front of the room. So they will learn from your example. There are usually three or four speakers in a meeting and their performance is graded by an Evaluator
Ice Breaker Speech - There is a 30 second deviation (3:30 - 6:30) qualifies.Green Light4:00 min.Amber Light 5:00 min.Red Light6:00 min.Polite Applause6:40 min
General Speech Time - There is a 30 second deviation (4:30 - 7:30) qualifies.Green Light5:00 min.Amber Light 6:00 min.Red Light7:00 min.Polite Applause7:40 min
The Role of Evaluator
The obvious role of an evaluator is to critique the performance of one to the speakers. Both the fine points and the areas for improvement should be mentioned with special emphasis given to the particular skill that the speech was centered around, ie. Vocal variety or gestures.
A new addition to our meeting is having each evaluator provide the speakers speech title, time, and objectives. This will allow the audience to provide more accurate voting on speeches.
But just as important as the evaluation is the chance to give an impromptu speech that you have only worked on for a few minutes. You can work on thinking on your feet, nervousness and other skills. You don’t have to be a veteran member to be an evaluator because much of the criticism is subjective, and you know what works for you, or what you like and dislike about someone giving a speech.
Speaking TimeGreen Light1:30 min.Amber Light 2:00 min.Red Light2:30 min.Polite Applause2:40 min
The Role of Grammarian
The Grammarian will listen for general word usage, grammar and language and will give a brief oral report of the meeting. In addition, the Grammarian will also function as AH COUNTER. The AH COUNTER will count the "Ahs", "Umm", "Errs", "You Knows", "likes", and double starts. During an Ice breaker speech, Ahs will be counted but not reported.
Speaking TimeGreen Light1:00 min.Amber Light 1:30 min.Red Light2:00 min.Polite Applause2:10 min
The Role of General Evaluator
At the end of the meeting, the general evaluator gives their thoughts on how the toastmaster handled the meeting. This critique is not centered on the speeches, but can talk about the evaluations. Main points to consider as a general evaluator are timing issues, transitions, applause and completeness of the meeting. Special touches or enhancements to the meetings that are made by the toastmaster, such as props or music, should be commented in the General Evaluators remarks.
Speaking TimeGreen Light1:00 min.Amber Light 2:00 min.Red Light3:00 min.Polite Applause3:10 min