Frequently Asked Questions:

About a meeting

Why are meetings run the way they are?
Toastmasters clubs utilize parliamentary preceedings. There are multiple reasons for this. One reason is that it gives meetings an air of professionalism which appeals to many, particularly businessmen and women. Also, knowlege of parliamentary preceedings can help these businessmen and women conduct more effective business meetings at work. And another reason is that each person knows their job and this allows for smoothly conducted meetings.

How does everyone know what they're supposed to be doing?
One of the most important individuals to a Toastmasters Club is the Vice President of Education (VPE). This individual prepares a schedule in advance of meetings by assigning roles to various people. When a person joins a Toastmaster Club, s/he is added to the club roster and the VPE will begin including that person as soon as possible. Gilbert has the tradition of scheduling new members for their first speech, called the Icebreaker (just what it sounds like - a speech where we get the chance to know the new member), as soon as possible. After that they are scheduled for minor functions first, then progressively more important functions. At any time the member may inform the VPE if s/he feels that the pace is either too quick or too slow and the VPE can adjust accordingly.
At any point, a member may choose to have an assigned mentor. All new members are encouraged to acquire a mentor. Mentors are more experienced Toastmasters who are able to give guidance. If a member ever has a question of any kind, the mentor should be able to answer it, as should any of the officers.
View the current schedule. Read up on functionaries.

What's the difference between a functionary and an officer?
Functionaries are positions that need to be filled on a weekly basis and are assigned by the Vice President of Education. They are based on a rotating schedule (click here to view current schedule) to allow members to have as many different speaking experiences as possible. Each function has specific goals. For a description of these functions, click here.
Officers are elected by a quorum of the membership on a semi-annual basis and they serve six-month terms which begin January 1st and July 1st. There are seven officers: President, Vice President of Education (VPE), Vice President of Membership (VPM), Vice President of Public Relations (VPPR), Treasurer, Secretary and Sergeat-at-arms. Additionally, the Immediate Past President serves as mentor to the current president and chairs the nominating committee for the next elections. Each office has its own specific set of goals and responsibilities. Members are encouraged to run for an office at any time to get to know fellow members as well as to promote personal leadership skills.

How come you always shake hands and address each other as Mister/Madam functionary?
Toastmasters clubs are run using formal introductions and greetings to promote professionalism during our meetings, which easily rubs off into our professional lives.

What are the awards (Best Tabletopics, Evaluator, Speaker and Vicki Treciak Spirit Award) for?
Toastmasters clubs strive to acknowledge excellence and accomplishment and our weekly awards reflect that. The Best Tabletopics award goes to the tabletopics participant who best answers his/her question in an interesting and coherent way. The Best Evaluator award goes to the individual who provides the most constructive evaluation containing both positive attributes of the speech and a couple challenges for improvement on the speaker's next presentation. The Best Speaker award goes to the individual who best achieves his/her project goals. The Vicki Treciak Spirit Award recipient is selected by the General Evaluator of the evening and goes to the individual whom the GE feels added an extra "spark" to the meeting and otherwise displays club spirit.

Why did a beginning speaker get more votes for Best Speaker than a more experienced, better speaker?
The Best Speaker award criteria is designed to allow for this. The award, as mentioned above, is given to the individual who best meets his/her project goals. Because of this, the award is not necessarily given to an individual many may consider to be the "better speaker" or to a more experienced speaker.

Why did one speaker receive a standing ovation and not the others?
Gilbert Toastmasters has a tradition of giving a standing ovation to individuals who accomplish milestones. We define milestones as significant events including induction of new members into the club, completion of the initial "Icebreaker" speech, and the attaining of Toastmaster designations (CC, AC, DTM, CL, AL - see "Toastmasters Love Acronyms" for more details).

What is a Speech-a-Thon and why do you have them?
Gilbert Toastmasters began holding monthly Speech-a-Thons just recently as a response to our growth. While a large membership base definitely has its benefits, the one draw-back was that our members did not have as many opportunities to speak as most of them would have liked. Our Speech-a-Thon offered four additional speaking opportunites each month. For those meetings (the third meeting of each month), we do away with all of our functionary reports and all functionary positions with the exception of evaluators for each speaker, the timer, and of course, the Toastmaster to emcee it all. Additionally, we have extended our meetings on these weeks by up to fifteen minutes (we will adjourn as soon as we get through our program, even if that happens earlier than 8:45). As our growth stabilizes, we may not need to hold Speech-a-Thons on a monthly basis, but only as needed to keep up with our members' needs.

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