Warm-Up Leader

The main role of the Warm-Up Leader is to get everyone at the meeting to say something.

At the meeting

The structure is:

• Explain that we're about to do a warm-up to get everyone into the swing of things.
• Explain how it's going to work and what the question is. Answer the question yourself as an example.
• Get someone in one corner of the room to go next, then the person next to them. Zig-zag along each row and back again until done.
• Thank everyone and hand back to the Toastmaster (saying 'Madam Toastmaster' and looking towards her can be a good way to signal you're done)

Bonus tips:

• Get people to be brief. 5 seconds or so each is perfect. Asking a fairly closed question and encouraging people to keep it really short can help.
• Choose a question that is extremely easy to answer so it's not scary for guests, for example, 'Where did you travel from this evening?' rather than 'Tell us a one-line joke?'.
• If you can, start off with an experienced member rather than a guest.