General Ballot Counting Procedure Ballot Collection Ballot counters should spread around room; wait for judges to hold up folded ballot slips and collect them. The judge should only provide the torn-off bottom slip; if they provide the entire sheet, tear off the large top part (the scoring rubric) and hand it back to them. Indicate to the chief judge how many ballots...

The final contestant for a speech event finishes speaking. Everyone waits in silence, allowing as much time as necessary for the quasi-anonymous judges to finish filling out their ballots and energetic ballot counters to run around and collect them. The ballot counters and chief judge leave the room. Then the Contest Toastmaster says “once the ballot counters...

One of the greatest challenges in setting up a new club is selecting a place to meet. Sometimes you have to find a new location for an existing club for several reasons. Managing Facilities Technically, the sergeant at arms is in charge of managing facilities, but that usually refers to simple logistical duties for existing meeting spaces. For some clubs, especially...

To liven things up, clubs are encouraged to set unusual and fun themes for their meetings. Note that this is completely different from the Vice President Education’s responsibility to occasionally schedule a special type of meeting: focusing on impromptu speaking, bringing in guest speakers, holding a backwards meeting, and so on. That relates to different...

The treasurer should have a budget for buying new club supplies through the course of the year as appropriate. The sergeant at arms should monitor the club supplies; if something needs to be replaced, or resupplied, she should work with the treasurer to make the purchase, hopefully before it is needed. But what supplies should a club have? Your club should decide...

Moments of Truth Moments of Truth is a Toastmasters International club quality checklist of sorts. 36 points address what they feel makes a big difference in how successful a club is, the “moments of truth” that can cause a member to join/stick with a club or leave. In the winter of 2013-2014, I delivered this workshop at two officer training events...

Some Toastmasters are concerned that speaking order makes a huge difference in who wins or loses a contest—more so than actual skill. Unfortunately, they are right. Mike Raffety has numbers to show that speaking order makes a difference in Toastmasters contests. If you are a contestant, this is just one of many unintentional judging biases you will face. There...