[shakes Toastmaster’s hand]
Mister/Madam Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and most welcome guests.
One of the important lessons to be learned on the path to becoming a competent speaker is to be able to express a thought within a specific amount of time. To this end, every Toastmasters meeting has an official Timekeeper who records time for all of the participants and provides timing reports at various points throughout the meeting.
Today it’s my pleasure to be your Timekeeper.
[show a copy of the agenda]
If you look at your printed agenda, you will see three numbers next to each of the speaking slots with three corresponding colours – green, yellow and red.
The number in green is the minimum expected duration in minutes for that slot. At this point I will show the speaker the green light. Like this…
[assistant operates the green light]
The number in yellow is in the middle of the timing range and at this point I will show the speaker the yellow – or amber – light.
[assistant operates the amber light]
When the speaker sees the amber light they should start thinking about wrapping up their speech.
Finally, the number in red is the maximum expected duration for the slot. At this point I will show the red light.
[assistant operates the red light]
When a speaker sees the red light they must wrap up their speech as quickly as possible. Anyone still speaking thirty seconds after the red light has appeared will hear the gavel.
Like this.
[assistant bangs the gavel]
In a contest this would be an automatic disqualification. But even in a normal meeting like this one I would urge the speakers to hand back to the Toastmaster as quickly as possible after the red light otherwise they risk limiting the opportunity for others to speak later in the meeting.
[optional additional few words from the Timekeeper – time allowing]
I see I’m still on the amber light, so I would just like to take this opportunity to say to any of our new members, if you haven’t booked your first functionary role yet, the Timekeeper is a great one to start with.
It’s very straightforward, but it’s an important role and it does get you some experience up here in front of an audience. So if you’re interested, why not shadow the timekeeper at the next meeting?
Thank you Mister/Madam Toastmaster…
[shakes hands]
