Meeting Role Descriptions
 
Each meeting is a group effort of over 15 people, with each performing a role to help make the meeting a fun, educational event. A description of each role filled at every meeting follows:

Invocator
Inspires, motivates, or touches us with a brief quotation. Starts the meeting with an inspirational, humorous or thought-provoking quote.

Toastmaster
Helps us learn to run an effective meeting within time constraints. Plans the meeting and ensures all participants are ready. Leads the meeting, manages the flow and timing of the meeting, and introduces Table Topics Master, prepared speakers, and General Evaluator.

Table Topics Master
Helps us learn to "think on our feet" and speak accordingly. Prepares a series of questions and then selects members without other roles to answer one of the questions in 1-2 minutes.

Prepared Speaker
Provides us with the greatest opportunity to practice and improve our public speaking skills. Prepares and presents a speech on a topic of the speaker's choice. Speeches are usually 5-7 minutes, but may be longer.

General Evaluator
Helps us learn to conduct more professional meetings, and improve our evaluations. Leads the speech evaluation portion of the meeting and presents a 2-to-3 minute evaluation of the quality of the overall meeting, the speech evaluations, and other major roles.

Evaluator
Helps us improve our public speaking by providing immediate feedback. Observes a prepared speech, analyzes content and delivery for areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, and presents a 2-to-3-minute speech evaluation.

Grammarian
Helps us expand vocabulary and awareness of language usage. Presents a "word of the week" which we try to use in any speaking role. Observes language usage throughout the night and presents a report on errors members make in grammar, pronunciation or word usage.

Ah Counter
Helps us eliminate those distracting, unprofessional "ahs," "errs," and "ums." Counts utterances of any type throughout the night and reports totals for each member at the end of the meeting.

Vote Counter
Conducts voting process for Best Table Topic Speaker, Best Speaker, and Best Evaluator. Collects and counts votes submitted by members and guests for the three "best-of-category" contests at each meeting.

Time Keeper
Helps us learn to create and deliver speeches that meet a time specification. Records the time duration of all table topics, prepared speeches and evaluations, and reports if the presentation was within the allotted time.

Videographer
Helps us improve speech delivery by providing an accurate portrayal of ourselves during presentations. Videotapes prepared speeches (and related evaluations) for any member who wants his/her speech recorded.