What to expect from a First Oakville Toastmasters Meeting

So you’re interested in joining a Toastmasters club to improve your speaking and leadership skills. You have come to the right place!

First Oakville Toastmasters

Our club has been supporting great speakers and leaders for more than 60 years!

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We work to make each week’s meeting an engaging, supportive, friendly, and educational time for everyone. As a guest, you are welcome to visit up to three of our meetings to see if they are right for you. Like any new activity, a lot of guests aren’t sure what to expect from a Toastmasters meeting. Don’t worry though; we will be happy to show you how things work so you can get the most out of your visit.

When you arrive at a FOTM meeting, you’ll be greeted by a greeter and introduced to other club members before the formal meeting starts. The greeter will show you our agenda for the meeting and explain the things that people will be doing that evening. The greeters and other members will be happy to answer any questions you might have, so be sure to arrive a few minutes early to get comfortable.

Club members are assigned different roles on the agenda each week, and every member is expected to stay on schedule with it. This helps us practice for “real world” meetings and also respects each member’s time.

Our Meetings

Our meetings are split into two main sections, both of which are fun and interesting in their own way!

A two-hour meeting may seem long at first glance, but you will find each part of the evening has something to offer. The first half features our weekly Table Topics session, where people are asked to speak on a topic for about a minute with no preparation. It’s a fun way to practice improvised speaking, and anyone can join in, including guests!

The first half of the meeting also includes our club’s business session. This is a more organized time where members discuss club activities and make decisions on how our club will run. We use Robert’s Rules of Order to structure these sessions and keep decorum. Many people find this a much more formal and structured time, but we use this framework for a reason: to practice organizing well-run, civil and productive meetings with others.

After the business session, we have a short break, where you’re encouraged to socialize with other members and ask questions about the club.

Speech, Speech, Speech!

Each speaker for the night is paired with an evaluator

The second half of our meetings include the things that people think of most when they hear about Toastmasters: the speeches. Our club has a diverse group of members of various ages, backgrounds, and experience levels, and each week we invite three of them to present a rehearsed speech based on a Toastmasters speaking assignment. You will hear people share personal stories, interesting research topics, tall tales, humorous speeches, and much more.

Each speaker for the night is paired with an evaluator; another club member who provides constructive, helpful feedback for the speaker to improve. Other members and guests can also write comments for the speaker with their thoughts on the speech. Even the best speeches may have something to improve, and First Oakville Toastmasters aims to provide a supportive, safe space for people to learn and grow their experience continuously.

Meeting Adjourned

The Best Speaker Award Goes to...

At the end of each meeting, we vote for the best Table Topic, speaker, and evaluator of the evening. Finally, as our guest, you will be invited to share your thoughts on the meeting. Don’t be shy about sharing what you think!

After the meeting, club members often chat and socialize. You’re most welcome to stay and meet new people, and of course, ask any questions you have.

This is the basic structure of how a meeting at First Oakville Toastmasters runs. Of course, every meeting is different and interesting in its own way, not to mention the variety of speech contests and education sessions we offer during the year. We hope you’ll join us to see how it works for yourself.

Interested in becoming a member?

Contact our Vice President of Education, Samantha Tam, at vpedfotm@gmail.com

Roy Campbell