The meeting structure can be summarised as follows:

• a business section,
  
• speaking exercises,
  
• plus an evaluation of the meeting by an accredited Rostrum Coach.
  

The Business section:

This helps you practise running a meeting via the agenda, being a friendly host and seeing that the will of the meeting is completed. These skills are invaluable when chairing meetings in the broader community.

The speaking program:

This section offers the opportunity to work on communication skills and includes prepared speeches of generally between 3 and 10 minutes. New members give shorter speeches and receive much easier topics than the veterans. Our meetings also often include readings and short notice or impromptu speeches of usually between 2 and 4 minutes (but we don't spring these on novices). As well, there are often variations to keep the meeting interesting.

The Coach’s evaluation:

This is an important segment - the Club Coach provides encouragement and constructive criticism, offering helpful suggestions as to how future exercises may be improved. Our Critics have undertaken special training, have usually served elsewhere as a club Critic and are very approachable.