General Evaluator

• Confirm your attendance with the Toastmaster.
• Contact the assigned Evaluators and confirm their attendance with the Chair/TM.
• If a member cannot be reached or is unable to attend the meeting or cannot find a replacement themselves, you are responsible for finding a replacement. Refer to the Role Replacement Policy section on the website.
• Advise the Toastmaster of the final Evaluators at least the day before the meeting. General rule of thumb is to assign the more senior club member to evaluate the more senior speakers, however, you may want to challenge an intermediate club member by assigning the member to evaluate a senior speaker.
• Use the General Evaluation Form to jot down your thoughts throughout the meeting.  To download a copy of the General Evaluation Form please click here: GE Form.pdf

Before the Meeting:

• Make sure the Evaluators know which speaker they are going to evaluate.
• If there are not enough Evaluators, ask members attending the meeting to volunteer for the role.
• Be sure to arrive five to ten minutes early to ensure the Evaluators are in place and have connected with their Speakers.
• Try to sit close to the lectern in order to call upon the Evaluators more expeditiously.

During the Meeting:

• Take control of the lectern from the Toastmaster after the prepared speeches.
• Briefly describe your role and the portion of the meeting you will be controlling.
• Specify the length of the evaluations is 2 minutes; only in exceptional circumstances may they be less than 2 minutes. Explain how the timing device works - green light will go on at 1min, amber light will go on at 1.30s and red light will go on at 2min. Be sure to announce that if any of the Evaluators go over time they will be politely clapped down.
• Remind attendees to vote for the best Evaluator using the ballot on the evaluation form and to return them to you.
• Call each Evaluator to the lectern, shake hands and return to your seat.
• After all the speech evaluations are complete, proceed to evaluate the meeting and the performance of the members who filled the roles; try to comment on something over and above the routine requirements of the role and find one area for improvement.
• Keep in mind that any evaluation should contain at least twice as much positive as negative feedback.
• Keep your general evaluation of the meeting down to three minutes.
• Turn control of the lectern over to the Chair.
• Collect and count the ballots for the best evaluator; announce the winner at the end of the meeting; give the best evaluator ribbon to the winner.

Things to Think About When Preparing Your General Evaluation

The following questions are only suggestions to get you started. You will not have time to cover all these points so focus only on items that contributed to, or took away, from the effectiveness of the meeting; recommend improvements where required. Look for areas for growth in delivery. 

Chair Role

• Did the meeting start on time and guests warmly welcomed?
• How was the theme of the day introduced?
• Were changes to the agenda announced?
• Were introductions appropriate and engaging?

Grace and Toast (1 minute)

• Was the Grace and Toast reflective and inspired to the theme of the day?
• Was there a clear distinction between the end of the Grace and the start of the Toast (a pause)?
• Was the Grace and Toast too long, too short or just right?

Word of the Day (1 minute)

• Was the word challenging and well defined?
• Was there a visual reminder of the word on each table and at the front of the room?

Humour of the Day (1 minute)

• Was the humour in good taste?
• Was it brief? Too long?

Tip of the Day (1 minute)

• Was the tip useful?  Did it relate to public speaking?
• Was it brief? Too long?

Toastmaster (2 - 3 minutes)

• Was the Toastmaster’s role well described?
• Did the Toastmaster preside with sincerity and energy?
• Was the theme of the day well elaborated?
• Were introductions informative and appropriate?

Table Topics Master

• Was the purpose of the table topics session explained?
• How was the setup of the session?
• Were members encouraged to use the word of the day?
• Were the topics both challenging and entertaining?

Evaluator

• Were the speech evaluations upbeat and encouraging?