Why Toastmasters?
Last week, I went to my first Toastmasters meeting.
Why would you go to a Toastmasters meeting in the digital era?
Why attend if you’re a sociable person, lucky enough to have many friends and social activities every week?
As a remote worker, I never stressed about public speaking. I presented countless times on Teams in meetings with more than thirty participants, but it’s not the same as presenting in person. Sitting at my desk talking about Azure architecture or microservices to one person who’s on mute and no camera on is the same as talking to thirty people virtually.
Now with the rise of AI, I’ve been thinking about my career outlook as a developer. I am lucky to have the charisma, social skills and experience in client work to be able to explain complex topics to technical and non-technical stakeholders but there’s always room to improve, especially if and when it comes to when I have to present person.
First Impressions
Before I showed up, my biggest concern was how boring, uninspiring or empty the meeting would be.
I showed up late, surprised, to a large room with around twenty five people sat in a U shape desk formation with a podium in the middle. The person closest to the door immediately saw that I was new, handed me a piece of paper and asked me to write my name and sit wherever I wanted. I sat at the opposite edge of the room, closest to the podium. As soon as I sat down, the Chairperson asked me to introduce myself, which I was already comfortable with doing. Not exactly what I came to Toastmasters for.
There was two different types of nametags at everyone’s desks, hand-written and printed. It was clear that the hand-written was for guests where as printed was for club members. At every guests’ introduction, everyone clapped. Across from me, a man had a large traffic light on his desk.
The room was culturually diverse. Well, this might be just a thing in Canada, but there were both newcomers and long timers in the room. I was one of the youngest in the room, and I would say the majority of the room was probably millenials or Gen X’ers. There was definitely one or two boomers.
Presenter Roles
I didn’t know this before, and I’m not sure if it’s a well-known fact, but there’s a bunch of different presenter roles at Toastmasters. I’m writing about the most interesting ones from my perspective below. Having lots of different roles for the club members is compelling and engaging because it forces a lot of the club members to have dynamic roles in which they’re speaking every single week. To help with the flow of the room, the meeting events are not guided by one person; it’s guided by everyone so you have a say and you have an immediate impact in the club.
To my knowledge I don’t think you can be any of these roles if you’re a guest.
Grammarian
The Grammarian was someone that picks the word of the day and on this day the word was “intent”. At the end of the meeting they point out a bunch of facts, like how many people use filler words like “um”, “like”, etc. I found that this role wasn’t as specific as I wanted it to be. At this meeting I was hoping for more specificity when it comes to what person said, such as which person said which filler word how many times. I know goes against the safe space concept of the meeting but I found that the Grammarian within this meeting was not as specific as I liked.
Jester
This role, as the name implies, tells a joke for the day. I would assume this is one of the harder roles because I can’t see how you’d be able to come up with a custom joke every week without being a stand-up comedian, unless you copy the joke from other people.
Timer
This role is the person that has the massive traffic light on their table, and as the name implies, this role times everyone speaking. Depending on the event, the presenter has to speak within a specific time period, and the timer times them.
You never actually interrupt the speaker, at least not what I’ve seen. It’s more to give a person a guideline about how long they’re talking so they know what it feels like. At the end of the session, they also call out that person and how long they went over the recorded time. Overall, I really enjoyed this because it’s engaging to see who goes over who goes under and it’s still an inclusive way of informing the presenter without interrupting them.
Table Topics Master
This person introduces Table Topics, probably one of my favorite sections of the meeting in which guests are also allowed to present.
Table Topics
I read the welcome guide ahead of time, so I knew that there was a “Table Topics” section, where you’re expected to practice impromptu speaking. I didn’t realize you had to do the speaking challenge in front of the whole room. At the front of the room they had a container with small sheets of paper. The headmaster asks for volunteers (guests included, but I didn’t go because I wanted to listen first… And I was honestly nervous). And whoever volunteers has to go pick up a sheet of paper. The sheet of paper has some kind of sentence or topic that you need to talk about for around two to three minutes, completely impromptu, in front of the whole room.
The first speaker who volunteered to go for Table Topics was actually also the Jester so I don’t know if it was just me but in my head I also just expected him to say something funny. Their topic was to talk about the present, past, and future and it’s honestly captivating to see what people come up with on the spot and be able to talk about it for three minutes. The second speaker’s topic was: talk about a time where you brought yourself out of a slump. The third person’s topic was to talk about something that drives you crazy. After hearing these three presenters, which went really well, I was honestly thinking the whole time about what I would be able to present. I intend on participating in this as a guest in the next meeting.
(Since writing this article I actually won the award for Best Table Topics - ironically talking about how to form better habits!)
Business Meeting
I don’t know if this actually happens every meeting but there was a “business meeting” in the middle. The topic for this business meeting is that they were voting a new member into the club. It was comedic; they asked all the guests to walk out of the room so that the club members can vote on whether or not this person can join their club. It made sense because when we were outside, obviously people start talking to each other and it turns into a little networking talking event. I wonder if there are ever situations where the person doesn’t join the club. I’d be interested to see that as well, depending on how competitive the club is.
Every single person in the club had to go around the U shaped table to shake the new members’ hand, including the guests.
Toastmasters
After a short break you get into the actual meat of the Club: there are two Toastmasters that do a presentation about a specific topic. I don’t know if they get to choose the topic or not, because the first Toastmaster had to talk about, or their topic at least was, a presentation on delivering a presentation with no notes for 7 to 10 minutes. The second person had to deliver a presentation on writing a speech with purpose for 5 to 7 minutes, all in all for both Toastmasters.
It was impressive how they were able to talk succinctly and cleverly for a room of 25 to 30 strangers. You can tell they were nervous but it was inspiring; it wasn’t boring; it was something you could actively listen to. I don’t know if I’m ready for a presentation like that yet.
Rating
So at the beginning of the meeting everyone is given sheets of paper where they can rate separate speakers from table topics as well as the Toastmasters. You can rate them; you can give them criticisms or feedback. At the end of the meeting you actually have to give them their feedback in person by handing it to them. It’s not secret. You write your name on the feedback you’re given. Again I think this is done on purpose to give you an opportunity to talk to the presenters.
Evaluation
After the main speakers go or the Toastmasters go, each Toastmaster is assigned an evaluator who actually introduces them and talks about them after they go up at the podium. They talk about what they thought was good or not good about their presentation. These evaluators get around two to three minutes of speaking time.
There’s also a general evaluator at the end, near the end of the meeting, who gives a three- to five-minute speech on how this meeting went.
Everything Else
One thing I thought was funny at the end was that the general evaluator said he docked points for the meeting because at some point someone left the podium completely empty and you’re not supposed to leave the podium completely empty. I did notice that whenever the speakers changed or whenever the person that was at the podium changed, they always shook hands while switching the podium. Again they didn’t mention it but I’m guessing it’s part of the members.
Conclusion
I will be going to my second Toastmasters meeting this week. As a guest I highly recommend everyone go to Toastmasters if you have any need for public speaking. If you’re a professional in 2026, you’re more likely than not to put yourself in a position of public speaking.
Especially in the world of AI, being as human as possible and being in person and being able to talk to a room of people confidently is a very valuable skill to have. Especially as a Gen Z’er, where we’re glued to our phones, we’re glued to our screens, we don’t have the opportunity to be able to practice our public speaking post-COVID. I think this is something that you take for granted. As someone that’s proud to be able to have multiple different friend groups and is sociable, I do still find it hard to speak into a large group of people in person. I’m looking forward to seeing how my skills progress as I go to more Toastmasters meeting.