Bay Street Breakfast Club

Details for Each Role

The Bay Street Breakfast Club has assembled the following library of material to help our members fulfill the roles they are assigned for a meeting.

Your role is to organize and chair the meeting. To use the theatre analogy, you're the director and producer. The difference is that after you do the work behind the scenes, you have to go onstage, too. You can download a Toastmaster's guideline to help you with the role. In the meantime, the information below gives you a summary.

Three weeks before the meeting

1. E-mail everyone on the agenda to remind them that they are scheduled to participate. Remind them that if they cannot fill the role they have been assigned, it is their responsibility to find their own replacement and to let you know who is replacing them.
2. If you have chosen the theme for the meeting, let the participants know what it is - it helps the Table Topics Master and Grammarian prepare for their roles. It may also help people who are giving formal speeches.

Two weeks before the meeting

One week before the meeting

1. E-mail or phone the General Evaluator to confirm that each speaker has an evaluator.
2. E-mail or phone the speakers and ask them to send you the following information:
   
   • The title of their speech
   • The manual they're using
   • The number of the speech
   • The minimum and maximum times for the speech
   • A brief introduction for their speech
3. Begin preparing the agenda and your introduction for the meeting.

Monday before the meeting

1. Confirm with the speakers that they can attend the meeting. If there is a last-minute substitution, get the information you need from the new speaker and adjust the agenda.
2. Review the introductions for the speakers. Each introduction should answer the questions
   
   • Why this subject?
   • Why this speaker?
   • Why now?
3. Put the finishing touches on your introduction for the meeting.

Morning of the meeting

1. Arrive early - at least by 7:15.
2. Distribute the agenda.
3. Verify that all members who are on the agenda have arrived. If a member who has a role has not arrived five minutes before the meeting, ask someone else to volunteer to watch for the person and to fill in if they don't show up.
4. Give a two-minute warning before the meeting starts.

The meeting

1. Start the meeting on time.
2. Announce any changes to the agenda.
3. Keep control of the meeting. If you notice that the meeting is falling behind schedule, remind everyone that time is getting tight.
4. Provide an appropriate introduction for each formal speech.
5. After each speech, remind members to fill out an evaluation form for the speaker. Allow one minute after each speech for the written evaluations.
6. At the end of the meeting, if time permits, ask guests for their comments. Ask the question generally. Do not single out a guest for a comment - the person may not feel comfortable speaking.
7. Remind people to help the Sergeant-at-Arms tidy the room and put things back where they belong.
8. Adjourn the meeting at 8:30.

Sergeant-at-Arms

The Bay Street Breakfast Club has two Sergents-at-Arms at each meeting. The Sergeant-at-Arms role is a combination of stage manager and usher. Your role is to prepare the room for the meeting and ensure that the room is left as it was before the meeting. It is also your responsibility to greet guests and see that any unescorted guests are paired with a member of the club to help them feel welcome. You are also responsible for seeing that the meeting room is left in the same state that it was at the beginning of the meeting.

A few days before the meeting

1. Find out where the meeting will be held. The Scotia contact person will usually e-mail you to tell you whether the meeting will be in the cafeteria or the Schooner Room. The cafeteria usually requires more preparation. If you haven't heard from this person by Monday, contact him to find out where the meeting will be held.
2. Ask the Toastmaster if any of the speakers need special equipment such as a projector and screen.

The morning of the meeting

1. Arrive by 7am.
2. Retrieve the boxes of material from the vestibule of the Schooner Room.
3. Get the timing lights from the cupboard in the reception area on the mezzanine level.
4. If the meeting is in the cafeteria, arrange the tables and chairs.
5. As people arrive, ask for their help with the following:
   • posting signs in the hallway by the elevators,
   • distributing the evaluation forms,
   • hanging the club's Toastmaster banner,
   • setting out the guest book and pen,
   • placing equipment where it's needed, and
   • putting the name tags on the table near the entrance to the meeting.
6. Greet guests as they arrive.
7. Ask guests a few questions to prepare an introduction for them.
8. If a guest arrives alone, ask a member to sit with them during the meeting.

During the meeting

1. When the Toastmaster asks you to introduce any guests at the meeting, either introduce them yourself or refer to members who have agreed to introduce them.
2. When the introductions are over, ask people to turn their cell phones to mute.
3. Watch for guests who arrive after the meeting starts and find an opportunity during the meeting to introduce them.

After the meeting

1. Ask for help tidying the room.
2. Arrange chairs and tables the way they were before the meeting.
3. Collect unused evaluation forms and return them to the box.
4. Put away the name tags, banner, lights and any other equipment.
5. Return the boxes of supplies to the storage areas.

General Evaluator

Your role is to give the Toastmaster feedback on how well the meeting was prepared and conducted. Before the meeting, you are responsible for assigning an evaluator to each person who is giving a formal speech. During the meeting, you chair the evaluation session. You can download a general evaluator's guideline to help you with the role, but the information below gives you a summary.

Two weeks before the meeting

1. Contact the people who are scheduled to be evaluators and confirm that they plan to attend the meeting.
2. Ask the evaluators if they have evaluated any of the speakers recently. Try to assign them to speakers they haven't evaluated.

One week before the meeting

1. Be prepared for any changes in speakers and evaluators and be ready to make adjustments. The Toastmaster should keep you up to date.
2. Reassign evaluators as needed.

The morning of the meeting

1. Arrive by 7:15 a.m. at the latest.
2. Observe the Toastmaster preparing for the meeting.
3. If an evaluator hasn't arrived five minutes before the meeting, ask someone who doesn't have a role to evaluate the speaker. Ask this person to talk to the speaker to review the objectives of their speech.

During the meeting

1. Observe the way the Toastmaster runs the meeting.
2. Keep notes on the following:
   • the explanation for the theme of the meeting;
   • smooth transitions from one part of the meeting to the next;
   • the introductions for each of the speakers;
   • comments that supplement the remarks of other participants;
   • anything the Toastmaster does especially well.

During the evaluation session

1. Take the gavel from the Toastmaster.
2. Ask the timekeeper for the times of the formal speeches.
3. Ask each evaluator to give their evaluation of the speech they've been assigned to evaluate. Add your own brief comment to the evaluation, especially if you want to mention something that impressed you.
4. Ask for the grammarian's report.
5. Give your evaluation of the Toastmaster. Include comments on the Toastmaster's preparation in the weeks leading up to the meeting, such as emailing everyone scheduled to participate and updates informing participants of changes to the agenda.
6. Hand the gavel to the Toastmaster. 

Grammarian

Your role is to choose the Word of the Day for the meeting and keep track of filler sounds and creative uses of the English language.

Near the beginning of the meeting, the Toastmaster asks you to present the Word of the Day. Give the definition of the word, its source, and use it in a sentence. Your presentation should be about two minutes. During the meeting, you are responsible for keeping track of "filler" sounds such as ums and ahs and listening for imaginative uses of the English language.

During the evaluation session, the General Evaluator asks you to give a report giving a tally of the number of times we used the Word of the Day, a comment about our use of filler words, and examples of creative uses of the English language.

Before the meeting

1. Respond to the e-mail that the Toastmaster sends asking if people scheduled to be on the agenda will be able to attend the meeting.
2. If you can't attend the meeting, find someone to take the role for you, and inform the Toastmaster and General Evaluator of the substitution.

One week before the meeting

1. Start thinking about the Word of the Day.
2. If you don't know the theme of the meeting, contact the Toastmaster to find out what it is.
3. Try to find a word that fits in with the theme of the meeting. Your resources are a thesaurus or synonym dictionary, the Internet, and friends who may be able to help you if you're stumped.

Morning of the meeting

1. Arrive at least by 7:20. Otherwise, the Toastmaster and General Evaluator will have to take the time to find a volunteer to watch for you and fill your role if you don't arrive.
2. Write the word on the flipchart.
3. Look at the agenda to see when you are scheduled to present the Word of the Day.

Presenting the word of the day

1. Point to the word on the flipchart and explain the origin or history of the word.
2. Use the word in a sentence.
3. Remind everyone that during the meeting you will be listening not only for this word but also for ums and ahs and imaginative or unusual uses of the English language.

The grammarian's report

1. Report the number of times members used the Word of the Day, and acknowledge the individuals who used it.
2. Give a tactful report regarding the ums and ahs you heard during the meeting.
3. Be sure to acknowledge imaginative or unusual uses of the English language.

Table Topics Master

Table Topics is the impromptu part of the meeting. It involves the Table Topics Master and the Table Topics participants. Each participant has one minute to prepare a one-minute speech on a topic the Topics Master gives them.

As Table Topics Master your role is to decide on the theme of the table topics session and think of the table topics that you're going to assign to the participants.

The role of the each participant is to give a one-minute speech on the topic the Table Topics Master has provided. Participants have one minute to prepare their speech and each speech should have an opening, a body, and a conclusion.

One week before the meeting

1. Keep the theme of the meeting in mind when creating the table topics.
2. Write each table topic on a piece of paper, fold it, and write a number on it.
3. Create extra table topics. If one of the formal speeches is cancelled, the Toastmaster may ask you to extend the Table Topics session to give more people an opportunity to speak.
4. Prepare your introduction for the Table Topics session.

The morning of the meeting

1. As the table topics participants arrive, give them their topics and tell them the order in which you will ask them to speak.
2. If a table topics participant hasn't arrived by 7:25, ask someone who doesn't have a speaking role if they would like to participate.

During the meeting

1. Take the gavel from the Toastmaster when you are introduced.
2. Give a brief introduction to Table Topics.
3. Give the full name of each participant when you ask them to come to the front of the room, and lead the applause until they get to the front.
4. Shake hands with each participant before and after their speeches.
5. Comment briefly on each participant's speech.
6. When wrapping up, thank the participants.
7. Hand the gavel back to the Toastmaster.

It's in the evaluation area that the theatre analogy kind of breaks down. Evaluators are nothing like theatre critics; they're more like counsellors who want you to do well.

One or two weeks before the meeting

The General Evaluator assigns you to one of the speakers. Your job is to give the speaker feedback to help them improve their speechmaking skills. Keep the objectives of the speech in mind when giving the feedback.

A few days before the meeting

The morning of the meeting

1. Arrive early so that you have time to talk to the person you are evaluating.
2. Ask the person if they want you to look for aspects of their speech that are not included in the objectives. For example, the person may be concerned that they make good eye contact or that their nervousness is all too evident.
3. Review their manual to remind yourself of the objectives of the speech.

During the evaluation session

1. When you evaluate the speaker, concentrate on the strong points that the speaker demonstrated during their speech. It's important to reinforce what the speaker did well, especially in view of the objectives of the speech. For example, in the speech in which the objective is to use props, let the speaker know how well they used the props.
2. Make one or two suggestions regarding how the speaker could have improved the speech.
3. End on an encouraging and positive note. Comment on one of the speaker's strengths such as vocal variety or their enthusiasm or sincerity.