When you attend your first few meetings it will be helpful to know the cast of characters. Other than the Presiding Officer, people volunteering at a previous meeting fill all the positions. The first half are the positions that are filled in all meetings, while the second half includes those positions that are filled at the discretion of the Toastmaster.
Sergeant at Arms: Opens the meeting, leads the pledge of allegiance and introduces the Toastmaster of the Day.
Presiding Officer: The most senior ranking officer present conducts the business meeting at the end.
Toastmaster of the Day: The Master Of Ceremonies; The Toastmaster introduces the various participants in the meeting and leads the meeting. This position is also called Toastmaster of the Evening or just Toastmaster. It is frequently abbreviated to TMOD or TMOE.
Table Topics Master: The table topic master helps members practice thinking on their feet. He selects topics of general interest and asks questions of those in the audience (You may be asked to participate).
Speakers: Typically there are three speakers. Each one gives a prepared manual speech, usually 5 to 7 minutes. Each speech has specific objectives that are listed in the Basic Manual (that's why it's called a manual speech).
Evaluators: The purpose of the evaluator is to motivate the speaker to both continue speaking and to improve. The evaluator lets the speaker know what areas he has excelled in, and also offers a few constructive suggestions to help the speaker improve.
Time Keeper: Because one of the purposes of Toastmasters is to ensure our members learn how to express a thought within a specific time, the time keeper times, records and reports the time used by each table topic speaker, speaker, and evaluator.
General Evaluator: Provides constructive feedback
on the meeting in general. He is in charge of the individual evaluators
and the grammarian.
The following positions are optional. Each one is not in every meeting, but is included if someone wants to do it and the toastmaster of the day wants it in the particular meeting.
Educator: Presents an educational program of general interest to members (for example a 10 minute program on how to open a speech).
Inspirator: Presents an inspiring thought or story near the beginning of the meeting.
Jokemaster: Presents a humorous story or joke near the beginning of the meeting.
Grammarian: Presents a word of the day, gives the definition and uses it in a sentence asking the audience to use it; also checks participants grammar and counts audible pauses such as "ah", "uh" and "and". Also praises participants for using words that evoke good mental images and for using the word of the day.
Listener: Listens to what is said during the meeting then asks questions to see how well we listened.
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