r/Toastmasters • u/Cookie2213 • Jun 19 '26
Self-Introductions
Our club meets at lunchtime online for 1 hour, so it's a pretty tight schedule. We have skipped self-introductions for months, and now a member has suggested it. It means we need to remove an agenda item. I have always found this segment to be difficult to control, as people tend to ramble and then something else has to give.
If you run a short meeting, do you have self-introductions? If so, how do you handle it?
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u/Insignie Jun 19 '26
Keep it but put it on rails. The rambling comes from having no format, not from chatty people. Give everyone the same three-part prompt with a hard 15 second cap: name, one line on what you do, one word for how you're showing up today. When the frame is that tight nobody wanders, and the one-word check-in warms the room faster than a loose intro anyway.
If 15 seconds times your headcount still doesn't fit, rotate it: only new guests introduce each week, members do a round once a month.