Table Topic Master

The objective of Table Topics is to give everyone an opportunity to speak at every meeting. Table Topics teaches you to respond quickly and organize your thoughts in a logical order using an opening, body, and conclusion. Participants can practice impromptu speaking, and hone their skills (such as vocal variety, eye contact, and hand gestures). The participants should be encouraged to incorporate a strong beginning, a consistent middle, and a conclusion to their Table Topic. A limit of 2 minutes is given.

Your role as the Table Topics Master is to:

• Have a list of at least 10 topics, based on the theme, ready to be used;
• Take control of the meeting from the Toastmaster;
• Briefly explain the purpose of Table Topics;
• Introduce your Topic(s) and ways in which you wish the speakers to participate;
• Announce the speaker’s name before they speak;
• Sit down when the speaker is speaking;
• Lead the applause when the speaker is finished;
• If the bell is rung, join the timer in leading the applause.

You are welcome to make brief comments at this point. Positive humour is always encouraged. The program usually allows enough time for 6-8 speakers. Particularly ask people who don’t have other roles in the program to speak. Invite guests to speak, but assure them that they do not have to. Try to keep your theme consistent throughout Table Topics, and try to match it to the theme of the evening. At the conclusion of Table Topics, make a brief encouraging comment on everyone’s effort, and pass control back to the Toastmaster.

Tips and Suggestions:

Keep the session moving quickly. The introduction of your topics should take less than 1 minute. As the Table Topics Master, you should direct the speakers to come up to the lectern. Be enthusiastic, speak audibly, and add humour to lessen the tension of Table Topics. Try to keep your topics creative, yet not complicated. Simple, easy yet challenging topics ensure successful Table Topic sessions.

Try these ideas:

• Select topics from community affairs or the news.
• Discuss dreams, ambitions, goals, nightmares, favorite things, what ifs.
• Have speakers discuss objects or topics randomly picked from a bag.
• Create scenarios between two Toastmasters (role playing).
• Start a continuous story (from speaker to speaker, each adding on).

Remember to have fun, but keep the meeting under control. Don’t forget that the objective of Table Topics is to allow everyone to speak.

More tips from toastmasters.org: Tips for the Topicsmaster

Table Topic Speaker

Table Topics gives you a chance to speak at every meeting. The Table Topics Master will ask you to give an impromptu speech of 2 minutes on a given subject. You learn speaking skills more quickly by meeting this challenge. You benefit by speaking each time that you are called, even if you don’t address the topic directly. Table Topics teaches you to respond quickly, and to organize your thoughts in a logical order using an opening, body, and conclusion. It also develops your self-confidence.

Here are some suggestions on how to talk without preparation on virtually any subject. Review these outlines and select the most appropriate one for each time you are asked a question:

• Give an opinion, and then justify it with two or three specific reasons. For example, talk about your favorite film and give some reasons you like it.
• State a problem and show its causes. For instance, you might explain how traffic became a problem in your city.
• Offer a viewpoint – yours or someone else’s – and elaborate on it. Did your city council ban smoking in government offices? What arguments were given by the ban’s supporters?
• State a goal or problem and then tell what must be done to achieve the goal or solve the problem. If you recently found a new job, tell about the steps you took to reach your goal.
• Describe a process, such as how to plant a tree.
• Break a problem, situation or object into its components and discuss them. For example, describe the branches of your country’s government.

By participating in Table Topics, you become more fluent. You learn to listen carefully and to create a mini-speech, with a beginning, middle and end.

More tips on toastmasters.org: Tackling TABLE TOPICS