A Melbourne Toastmasters Club - Beaumaris, Mentone & Surrounds

The Round Robin Surprise Master: presents a topic or a rolling story. The difference between an ordinary Round Robin and a Round Robin Surprise is that you pick people at random from the audience rather than going round the room in turn. Visitors may choose to pass.

• You start the story and the next person picks up from where you stopped. You have a total of 6 mins for everyone to respond. The RRS story goes from person to person as selected by you; you bang the gavel at will and pick the next person to speak.
• Make sure your introduction is short (15-20 seconds); you don’t need to embellish the story that’s for your audience to do.
• Keep the story moving by banging the gavel and remember the pace of the story is in your hands.
• Hint: To prevent the “pregnant pause” as you chose the next speaker; before you get up try to think of a pattern to select speakers such as go 3 left then 4 right or pick your next speaker as the person chosen gets up to speak.
• Watch the time and speed it up if you need to.
• Remind the guests they can pass if they choose.
• Focus first on people who didn’t have a major role on the night – i.e. don’t pick speakers, the Toastmaster or those who have done a lot of speaking already.