Sergeant at Arms

You are in charge of the Zoom meetings (aka the “Zoommaster”). Among other things, the Sergeant at Arms greets members and guests as they arrive, helps ensure the meeting starts on time, and chats out sections of the agenda during the meeting. You also manage Zoom screensharing, breakout rooms, and polls. Stay current on all new developments via the Leader Letter and the announcements published on the Toastmasters website.

Plan Quality Meetings

  • You generally serve as the Presiding Officer who opens and closes club meetings.
  • Make sure the weekly agenda is filled out completely:
    • If announcements are missing or several meeting roles are not filled, contact the President and Vice President of Education.
    • Once it is filled out completely, you can convert it to a Zoom format by copying and pasting the names for each role into this plain-text Zoom format (right-click, choose “Save as,” and update the filename with a date like “agenda-2022-03-31.txt”).
  • A few days before the meeting, email the agenda to all attendees (including all club members and guests) to ask if anyone needs any special Zoom features, such as screensharing, breakout rooms, and/or polls. If anyone responds, ask them to meet with you before the meeting to set up and test those features.

Manage Quality Meetings

  • Arrive 10-15 minutes early. The importance of doing so cannot be overstated, especially when guests are expected. Being greeted by the Sergeant of Arms is so much better than an empty Zoom room.
  • Set up any special Zoom features, such as screensharing, breakout rooms, and/or polls. Proactively make the following roles co-hosts because they often need to share their screens:
    • Toastmaster
    • Table Topicsmaster
    • Humorist/Inspirationist
    • Presenter(s)
  • Make sure the meeting starts and ends on time.
  • Chat out sections of the agenda in plain-text Zoom format throughout the meeting. Paste each section (e.g., OPENING, MEETING ROLES, etc.) one by one during that portion of the meeting.
  • Mute participants who forget to mute themselves and have distracting background noise.
  • Be ready for any Zoom-related questions via private chat message.
  • Identify your successor and help that person become the next Sergeant at Arms.

Our current Sergeant at Arms is Mary Ellen Pataro, PM5, EH1. You can email Mary Ellen at tragicomedy-saa@toastmost.org.