General Evaluator

Purpose		You are to review and assess the evening's proceedings and all the assignments that do not receive specific evaluations, from the time the meeting opens to the time of your evaluation speech.
		Your assignment is in 2 parts. One towards the end of the first half where you review the meeting up to that point; and second, after the Toastmaster hands back to the Chairman, where you continue your review and introduce the evaluators and other meeting helpers (timer, quizmaster etc).
		This is a detailed and challenging task and to cover it in the scheduled time you have to be concise and precise in what you report. Too many General Evaluators are guilty of exceeding the time imposed.
		It is important that you actually evaluate assignments. Do not fall into the trap of just summarising what has happened during the meeting to date.
		Do not evaluate or comment on any presentation by a guest to the club or someone making an official or educational presentation.
		If you are an inexperienced General Evaluator, prior preparation is essential. Use this website to print out and study the guide sheets for the assignments you will be evaluating. These will give you plenty of information on what is required in those roles and help you find worthwhile recommendations.

In the early part of the meeting		Note any program changes so you know who is doing each role.

What to do during your assignment - part 1		You evaluate all assignments from the meeting opening to the table topics evaluators. You do not comment on the table topics themselves as that has been done by the Table Topic Evaluators.
		You are also at liberty to discuss general aspects of the meeting such as starting on time, room layout, meeting organisation etc.
		You do not comment on the performance of Chairman 2 in running the business session if there is a Parliamentarian to fill that role.
		5 minutes is not long to discuss the several small assignments. This is long enough to give a 30 second overview of trends or common issues, and about 20-30 seconds per speaker.
		As with all evaluations, your presentation should be positive, upbeat, instructive and basically congratulatory.
		In evaluating each speaker, do not comment on the content of what was said. Rather, evaluate how well each speaker met the objectives and carried out the duties of each assignment.
		If there is a parliamentarian, you should introduce him/her.
		You then hand back to Chairman 2.
		That is the end of the first part of your assignment.

What to do during your assignment - part 2		You continue your evaluation in the same vein as in part 1. You evaluate all assignments in the second half except of course the speakers. It is advisable towards the end of the evening to keep the proceedings running swiftly and efficiently.
		You introduce each of the speech evaluators, and remind the audience who they will be evaluating.
		If appropriate and instructive, make a brief comment on the evaluator's performance or style. If we are running out of time, keep the comments brief between each evaluator and ensure that evaluators are waiting in the wings to present. Ideally, the first evaluator should present just on 9.00pm.
		Once the speech evaluations are finished, thank the evaluators, and remind people to fill in their voting slips and hand them to the Sergeant at Arms. You should also remind the speakers to mark up the wall charts and to have the VPE sign their speech manuals.
		You now introduce the other roles whose nature is to give an overview of the meeting. These may include timer, um-ah counter and quizmaster, but not the awards.
		When finished, hand back to Chairman 2.

Back to Assignment Guide Index

Back to Parramatta Toastmasters Home Page

Print this page