Have you got a friend who is never on time? Well, we all have one like him. Introduce him to your club by referring him in your next Timer’s speech like this.
We all have that one friend who is never on time, be it college, a party or even a movie. Every time he says “am arriving in 5 minutes” you knew he was still at home in his pajamas and you will have to wait for another 30 minutes.
That is the worst reputation a public speaker can have. If your audience knew you have a tendency to pay no regard to the time limit allotted to you, they may decide to abandon your session altogether. Worse – you may stop receiving invitations from organisers to speak at events.
We here in Toastmasters try to instill this sense of timeliness amongst our members which is why we have a pre-defined time limit set for each session.
For the prepared speech section, the time allotted is 5 to 7 minutes. At 5 minutes I will flash the green card, at 6 the yellow and at 7 the red card.
For the Table Topic session the time allotted is 1 to 2 minutes. At 1 minute, I will flash the green card, at 1.5 the yellow and at 2 the red card.
And for the speech evaluations, the time limit is 2 to 3 minutes. At 2 minutes, I will flash the green card, at 2.5 the yellow and at 3 minutes the red card.
There is a grace period of 30 seconds after the red card is flashed each time to wrap up your speech.
I hope all the speakers strive to be within their allotted time limit. I will be back with my report towards the end of the meeting.
Thank You
If your friend is not already a Toastmaster, than invite him over and pay him a tribute.
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