Every Toastmaster member was once a guest at a meeting. Your task as Sergeant at Arms is to welcome them to the meeting, introduce them to club members and to leave them with a positive impression of the club and of Toastmasters. The role has many facets but is crucial in ensuring that the meeting runs smoothly and efficiently.

Before the meeting

• Aim to arrive 15 minutes before the meeting starts so you can help prepare the meeting room.
• As new guests arrive, welcome them in, explain how the meeting will work, take their details if we don’t already have them and direct them to sit. Ideally guests should sit next to a club member so that they can ask questions.

During the meeting

• When the time comes to start the meeting, take the stage and enthusiastically welcome everyone to the meeting. Outline the general housekeeping rules such as reminding members to place their phones on silent, explaining where the toilets are and what to do in the event of a fire.
• Once done, hand over to the president for their opening remarks.
• After the halfway break, you will need to get people back to their seats and re-start the meeting.
• At this point you’ll also welcome the guests to the club. Follow this procedure for introducing guests:
  • Asks all the guests to stand-up.
  • Invite them to speak by asking why they came here today and what are they hoping to get out of Toastmasters. You can include other questions if you wish to, but try to keep it short as time is limited.
  • Lead the applause after each guest introduces theirself.
  • Ask the guest to sit down and move on to the next one.
  • After all the guests have introduced themselves lead a final round of applause.
• Another key aspect of the role is to collect and count the votes for speeches and evaluations. You’ll be collecting votes at the following points:
  • After the timekeepers report on prepared speeches – Best Speaker
  • After the timekeepers report on the evaluators – Best Evaluator
  • After the timekeepers report on table topics – Best Table Topic Speaker
• Count the votes and when you’re done discreetly pass on a note saying who won to the club President before they give their closing remarks.