The Toastmaster is a meeting’s Chairperson and host. You won’t usually be assigned this role until you are thoroughly familiar with the club and its procedures. If your club’s customs vary from those described here, ask your mentor or the club’s Vice President for Education (VPE) for pointers well before the meeting.
Begin preparing for your role several days in advance. You can use the Swords Toastmaster Template to help you prepare. You’ll need to know who will fill the other meeting roles and if a theme is planned for the meeting. You’ll also need an up-to-date meeting agenda. Get this information from the VPE.
Next, contact the General Evaluator and make sure you’re both working from the same agenda. Ask the General Evaluator to call other members of the evaluation team – speech evaluators, Topicsmaster, Timer, Grammarian, Ah-Counter – and remind them of their responsibilities. Remember that as the Chairperson you’re responsible for ensuring that all of the meeting’s players know their parts and hit their marks.
To help the Topicsmaster, create a list of program participants already assigned a speaking role so he or she can call on others first.