Table Topics

 


   One of the activities in a Toastmaster meeting is called Table Topics. It's an exercise designed to practice extemporaneous speaking.  The Table Topics Master (always Master, never Mistress) prepares questions or a question and calls on volunteers or selects people at the meeting to answer them. The person answering the question needs to speak for at least 30 seconds and not more than two minutes 29 seconds. The goal is to put together an understandable response with as few filler words as possible.

   I love table Topics. It's my favourite part of Toastmasters and the main reason why I joined. The ability to speak off the cuff is valuable to someone who has a job that involves answering all kinds of questions. I also enjoy being the table Topics Master. I like coming up with questions that are difficult enough to require thought but not so difficult as to make them unanswerable.

   Sometimes when we have a meeting where no one has signed up to speak, we have an all Table Topics meeting. That happened today. As luck would have it, I was the TT master. I was prepared. I had a selection of five questions that a TT participant could choose from. 

   The questions were; what is something you are doing now that you didn't expect to do? What is a skill you would like to have? What is something you'd like to try, but haven't? What is one thing you would never wear? What is one things you like that others would consider strange?

   The answers were varied and interesting. Two people talked about their careers in the area of substance abuse treatment. One member told us about being a meet coordinator for a swim team. Another member talked about his love of bugs. One woman said she would never wear high heels again. Helen talked about her coin collection and the fact that this collection something her daughters have no  interest in inheriting. Sandy talked about how she has grown to love getting up at 3 AM to go to work. (Her afternoons are now free to spend with her daughter.) C talked about attempting to wear some swim trunks that were too tight.

   I loved all the answers people gave. It seemed like they were actually enjoying themselves which is what I'd hoped. Many members tend to dread TT and I think that's a shame. It can be a lot of fun. I was happy to help get everyone's day started off on a happy note.

  

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