Toastmaster Your Outside Meetings Up

by Carolina Little, CL


Yesterday, I was in a meeting which started late because the meeting before us ended late. Very late. The group inside the reserved conference room knew they were running over their allotted time and kept asking us to wait patiently as they finished up. We were asked to do so several times. In short, we were held up from our meeting by 20 minutes. This in turn made us run over in our meeting. We apologized to the group meeting after us because we wrapped up almost 10 minutes late, therefore making them begin their meeting late. Considering the weight of our business meeting, I think we did a pretty good job keeping close within that time frame, since we had a lot of action items that needed immediate attention and discussion on our agenda. After the meeting was over, I made the comment that this is why Toastmasters was beneficial: Toastmasters 101, start and end a meeting on time. To which one of the attendees stated: why do you need Toastmasters? You do these things all the time? I replied: To keep in practice. Good practice.

When people do not train themselves to conduct timely meetings, they risk the following:

• interrupting the attendees schedules and of  those waiting for the room
• not providing a concise and productive meeting
• perpetuating bad habits that promote negative feelings towards meetings

This is why  being timely with your speeches, roles, and evaluations is so important not only in Toastmasters Meetings, but in the outside meetings you participate in as well. Simply put;You going OVER on time COSTS others their time, which does not generate anything positive. Whether you are the organizer or attendee, you can help faciliate the meeting to keep things focused and on time! This will help others and be much appreciated by all. By setting the example, you can help meetings be productive, timely, and effective.

So go ahead and flaunt your Toastmasters skills off. In the end, it will help more than hurt!