Tips for Chair / Toastmaster on our FreeToastHost site

This posting lists suggested steps for a Chair / Toastmaster using our FreeToastHost site.  Please see other “Tips and Tricks” posts for more tips.

More than one week before the meeting

1. If you are signed up to fill  the Toastmaster role but are unable to do so, please find another member who can, and swap with them.

One week before the meeting

1. Send an email to the club describing the theme, and the questions (if any) for intros.  The Webmaster will post this email to our club Blog for members and guests to see.
2. If last week’s roster still appears on the Duty Roster page, contact the Toastmaster from that meeting to complete the steps below.  (Only the first Toastmaster appearing on the roster page has editing rights.)

TIP: If you put your message in the custom message section at the top of the roster, and click the “Send Roster” button, the roster and your message will be sent to all members.
TIP: If you’d like to customize the roster before sending, click the “Print Roster” button - this will not actually print the roster, instead it will open it in a separate browser window, and allow you to specify an ordering to the roles.  You can then cut&paste into Word or some other editor to further customize it, and email it using your regular email technique (rather than using the “Send Roster” button).
TIP: To send email to the club using your regular email technique, you will need to be ensure that the From address is the same as the email address listed on your member profile in our FreeToastHost site.

On the Tuesday before the meeting

1. You may at this point “volunteer” members for any remaining open roles.  Please check the meeting notes, so that you don’t volunteer someone who has already indicated they will not be able to attend the meeting.  Be sure to notify individually (by email or phone) the people whom you have volunteered.
2. Send out an updated roster to all members.

On the day of the meeting — Before the meeting

1. Print out a meeting agenda, and bring 10-20 copies of the meeting agenda to the meeting.  Feel free to cut&paste from the duty roster onto the agenda template posted on our blog (see other “Tips and Tricks“), or be creative and do your own thing.

On the day of the meeting — During the meeting

1. Keep track of who actually fills each role.  (For example, there may be substitutions or absences.)

On the day of the meeting — After the meeting

1. Go to the Duty Roster, and update the roles with the names of people who actually filled them.
2. Then delete the roster.  This will achieve two things - it will archive the duty roster into a historical record of who has filled what roles in the past, and it will change ownership of the duty roster to the Toastmaster for the next week’s meeting.
3. Send an email to the Toastmaster for the next week’s meeting, to let them know that they can now edit the duty roster.

And finally… Thank you for filling the Toastmaster role!  By preparing and chairing a fun, creative, and interesting meeting, you are not only helping develop your own speaking and leadership skills, you are helping the club and all of its members do the same!