Handling the Timer role at an online Toastmasters club meeting

On Wednesday evening I filled in as Timer at our online Zoom meeting for the Pioneer Toastmasters club. (Originally I was scheduled for that role next week, but this week’s timer couldn’t be there).

In a live club meeting the timer signals the speaker using “traffic light” timing cards, as shown above for a typical five to seven minute speech. But the speaker only gets their first feedback when they have reached the minimum time.

Instead I used my ‘progress bar’ cards, as are shown above. These provide feedback after every minute (more than twice as often). They were described in an April 17, 2017 blog post titled How the speech timer at Toastmasters club meetings could provide useful feedback rather than just warning signals – introducing the 21st Century Timing Cards. These cards also are used for Table Topics and Evaluations. Three progress cards can be shown at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4th of the minimum time. You could produce individual cards using a Paint or other photo editing program with a color printer.

At our previous online meetings the speech Timer instead has used green, yellow, and red virtual Zoom backgrounds, changed to signal the speaker. Toastmasters even has a set with their logo. At Wordpress for Toastmasters there was an article on November 29, 2017 titled New Online Timing Lights Tool.

It still is helpful for the speaker to keep track of their own time. They might use the Toastmasters App on a cell phone (propped up in a plastic container). They also could use a Stopwatch function on an iPod (as shown above), or even a kitchen timer.

How does your club handle the Timer role online?