The following is not meant to define the meeting roles. Those definitions can be found on the meeting roles web page. Instead, this page covers the club's various policies regarding many aspects of the meeting, as determined by club vote from time to time.

Meeting Attendance: Concord Breakfast Toastmasters meets every Tuesday morning at 7:00 A.M. (except one or two meetings around Christmas and New Years, as the club decides). Members commit to attending every meeting, unless work, illness or planned vacation makes attendance impossible. Not being assigned a meeting role is not a valid reason for missing a meeting. Every member's feedback is important to each speaker, and attendance is needed for a well-run meeting.

Missed Meetings:

• If a member's schedule precludes attendance, that member should notify the Vice President of Education immediately. Schedules are made up four-weeks in advance, and it is much easier to not schedule someone in, than to change the schedule once it has been made.
• If a member has been scheduled for a meeting role, and learns with less than a week's time before the meeting that he/she can not attend, that member must also notify either the Toastmaster (if the role is General Evaluator, TopicMaster, Greeter or Speaker), or General Evaluator (if any other role) as soon as this member became aware that he/she would not be able to attend.
• Speaker Cancellation: Wherever possible, assigned speakers need to follow through on their speaking commitments. In addition to notification of VP Education and Toastmaster above, speakers who find they cannot attend when scheduled to speak should find a substitute speaker whenever possible. (10-14-03)

Make-up Speeches: A Speaker who is absent for a scheduled speech will, at the Toastmaster's discretion, give the missed speech on the next meeting day, time permitting.

Monthly Membership Dues: Membership dues are due the first week of each month. Dues were lowered to $10/month for active members, and $6/month for inactive members on 5/27/03. Dues include all dues due to both the club, and to Toastmasters International.

Inactive Members: If a member knows he or she will be unavailable for an extended period of time, he or she should notify the Vice President of Education to take him or her off the schedule, and notify the Treasurer of member's wish to be placed on "inactive" status.

Reinstatement Fee: was changed to $10.00 (up from $0) by club vote on (5/27/03). If a member feels it necessary to drop his membership for a period of time, then reinstate their membership later, the fee will be $10.00.

Mentors: Each new member should have an experienced member as a mentor. Mentors help new members through their first speeches, and each new meeting role. All members who have completed their first ten speeches and received their Competent Toastmaster (CTM) designation are available to mentor new members. We print the Toastmaster designations on the back of the four-week schedule available at each meeting. Look under the column labeled "Level". Any member with "CTM", "ATM" or "DTM" have completed their first ten speeches and are qualified to mentor new members. A new member should ask a qualified member to mentor him/her within their first three weeks. That way, the mentor is able to help with new meeting roles as they are assigned to the new member.

Toastmaster and General Evaluator Confirmation Calls: Toastmaster and General Evaluator are expected to make confirmation calls on all assigned roles. Results of these calls should be conveyed to Vice President of Education, and substitutions, if any, should be agreed to by all three. Sunday evenings are an ideal time to make these calls, as it is 2 days before the regular meeting. Phone calls, not e-mails, are the best way to make contact.

Presiding Officer: The presiding officer of the day is the highest ranking club officer present. Officer ranking, as set forth by Toastmasters International, are as follows: 1) President; 2) Vice President of Educationi; 3) Vice President of Membership; 4) Vice President of Public Relations; 5) Secretary; 6) Treasurer; and 7) Sergeant at Arms.

No Empty Lecterns: It is club policy to never leave the lecturn until control of the meeting has been passed on or returned to the next one to speak.

Flag Salute and Opening Thought: The club will stand for flag salute and opening thought, both delivered by the General Evaluator.

Themes of the Day: While the Toastmaster for a meeting has the final say over his or her meeting's theme, one is usually suggested by the Vice President of Education when making up the four-week schedule. When you are scheduled to be the Toastmaster, you may replace the theme with one of your own choosing. As a courtesy, try to let the club know a week or more in advance. You may also suggest and coordinate a theme with Toastmaster when you are Topicmaster.

Word-of-the-Day: The Grammerian selects the Word-of-the-Day, which must be used CORRECTLY in table topics for the speaker to be considered for "Best Table Topics Speaker." Words open to general usage (not strange or unusual words) should be chosen. Any proper derivation of a word may be used.

Every Member Speaks at Every Meeting: It is our policy that every member has an opportunity to speak at every meeting. The Toastmaster is in charge of the time available for every segment of the meeting, and adjusts that time to accomodate this goal.

• If speeches are longer than the usual 5-7 minutes, Table Topics may be truncated to allow more members to participate in Table Topics.
• Toastmaster may have the General Evaluator refer to the role descriptions on the back of the day's agenda instead of having each member of his/her team describe their roles verbally.
• TopicMaster should call upon all members and guests with no role assignments first, followed by members with little to say about their roles (e.g. videographer, vote counter, etc.), in order to achieve this goal.

Table Topics: Table Topics participants do not need to come to the lectern when called upon. They may, instead, stand at their chair.

• It is OK to pause for up to 30 seconds before beginning to speak. Timing won't begin until the Topics participant gives his or her first verbal or non-verbal communication with the audience.
• It is OK to talk around subject. That is, if the Table Topics participant has no knowledge of the topic given, he or she may employ a transitioning phrase to change the topic to one more to his or her liking.
• It is OK to prepare in advnce. Since the theme of the day is listed on the four-week schedule provided at each meeting, and posted on the website, it is perfectly acceptable for Table Topics participants to think of the topic in advance of the meeting, and even come up with a story, a quote -- whatever they want -- as preparation for Table Topics.

Counting "Ahs": The "Ah Counter" should count every "Ah", along with every other sound or pause used as a "time filler" by every person who speaks. The clicking of "Ahs" is required for all "Ahs" counted, with the exception of prepared speeched, unless the speaker so requests. Clicking is very important. Therefore, "Ah Counters" may request an unassigned member to be an "assistant Ah Counter" if counting and clicking are difficult to handle simultaneously.

Introductions: Each person being welcomed to the lectern should be introduced.

• Speakers should provide an introduction to the Toastmaster before the meeting, which should answer the following four questions: Why this speech, by this speaker, at this time, to this audience; as well as the speech objectives and title. The Toastmaster should include a transitional phrase to carry the club from the last activity to this speaker. The Toastmaster should also review the member's profile the evening before the meeting in order to include any biographical information or Toastmaster achievements that should be included in the introduction.
• Toastmasters: time permitting, the meeting's Toastmaster should prepare a brief introduction for every member he/she will be introducing, including the Jokemaster, the General Evaluator, Table Topics Master and Speakers.
• General Evaluators: time permitting, the meeting's General Evaluator should prepare brief introductions for each member of his or her evaluation team, including the Vidoegrapher, Timekeeper, Grammarian, Ah Counter, Vote Counter, and each speech evaluator.

Speech Time Limits:

• Manual Speeches: The maximum time limits of manual speeches may not be changed by the speaker. Motion was approved yea: 10, nay: 7 on 4/15/03
• Non-Manual Speeches: Time limits on non-manual speeches must be arranged with the meeting Toastmaster in advance and may not be lengthened after such agreement. Motion approved yea: 17, nay: 1 on 4/15/03

Speech Objectives: Whether or not a speaker met his or her speech objectives is entirely up to the speaker. In general, speakers learn the objectives through feedback from the evaluation and comment slips, and may consider the objectives learned through those, even if they were not all demonstrated in the speech given. However, it is always up to the speaker whether or not to repeat a speech project.

Offensive Material: When quoted material is likely to cause offense, it is preferable to edit the material to make it less offensive.

Jokemaster: The Jokemaster should memorize and rehearse a joke before delivering it to the club. Giving a joke is an opportunity to give a very special prepared speech -- one that involves correct timing and pauses in order to make it most effective.

Business Meetings: Some club business has to be attended to by the members. We generally reserve time at the end of the meeting for club announcements, policy discussions, etc. However, when we have a new member joining the club, we vote for that new membership before the presiding officer turns control of the meeting over to the Toastmaster.

Minutes of each Meeting: A summary of the main points of each meeting (members present, presiding officer, major meeting roles, word-of-the-day, speech participants, projects, titles and evaluators, topics participants, award winners), as well as minutes of the business meeting are recorded by the club's Secretary, emailed and posted to the club's Yahoo Group.

Voting in Members: All new members of the club must be voted in by the club's membership.

Standing Committees: Club Members are encouraged and expected to join one of our six "Standing Committees", eash chaired by a club officer:

1. Education Committee: Chaired by the Vice President of Education, the Education Committee plans the club's educational schedule and events.
2. Membership Committee: Chaired by the Vice President of Membership, the Membership Committee helps guests determine if membership in our club will serve their interests and goals.
3. Public Relations Committee: Chaired by the Vice President of Public Relations, the Public Relations Committee seeks publicity opportunities to invite members of the community to attend a club meeting.
4. Finance Committee: Chaired by the Treasurer, the Finance Committee keeps the finances and budget responsibilities for the club.
5. Records Committee: Chaired by the Secretary, the Records Committee keeps records of each club meeting and Executive Committee meeting.
6. Welcoming Committee: Chaired by the Sergeant at Arms, the Welcoming Committee sees to it that meeting rooms are prepared for meetings, and coordinates "outside" events such as pot lucks.

Greeter: The Greeter is a temporary, rotating, one-day member of the Welcoming Committee who assists the Sergeant at Arms by arriving early and welcoming members and guests so that the Sergeant at Arms is free to continue preparing the room for the meeting.

Tips: The club pays a "Meeting Room Fee" every week that is given by the restaurant to our server as a tip. For this reason, club members should not leave a tip at the table, or add one to their bill.

Coffee: By arrangement with the restaurant, we are on an honor system regarding paying for coffee. To reduce interuptions, coffee pots are distributed around the meeting room. If you want coffee, help yourself, but don't forget to let the server or cashier know you had coffee so that you can pay for it.

Balloting: All members are to vote for the "Best Speaker", "Best Evaluator" and "Best Table Topics" who met the time, objectives and/or "Word-of-the-Day" requirements, as the case may be. Guest and new member status, not withstanding.

Comment Slips: The top portion of the "ballot" forms are for comments to each speaker. Please use these even if you are new. Speakers need feedback from every member of the audience on how well his/her message was conveyed. Please don't feel that you are too new or too inexperienced for your feedback to be of value. Also, please sign or initial the form so that the speaker knows who wrote it. The reason for this is it helps the speaker to clarify the comment. Please use as much space as you need. Your comments may take one, two or more portions of the comment slip for one speaker.

Best Table Topics: In order to be eligible to win the "Best Table Topics" award, a member must speak within the specified time (including grace period) AND must properly use the "Word-of-the-Day".

Best Speaker: Voting for "Best Speaker" is based on the speaker who best met his or her objectives -- not necessarily the one who gave the best speech. In order for this to occur, the objectives of each speech needs to be known to the audience.

• For members doing Communication and Leadership Manual speeches, we have an enlargement of each of the ten speech objectives that will be displayed and read by the Toastmaster of each meeting, and again by the speaker's Speech Evaluator when called upon to explain his or her duties by the General Evaluator.
• For Advanced Manual speeches, the speaker should include the objectives in the speech introduction he or she supplied to the Toastmaster. As above, the Speech Evaluator should also state the objectives when called upon to explain his or her duties by the General Evaluator.
• For Non-Manual Speeches, although we discourage the giving of non-manual speeches, sometimes a "pocket speech" is given when an assigned speaker is unable to attend the meeting at the last minute due to car trouble, sudden illness, etc. In these cases, the speaker should still give the Toastmaster and Speech Evaluator his or her speech objectives.