What Is A Timer?

Katy Toastmasters uses a timer to keep the meeting as a whole and the individual elements of the meeting on time. ( Profound huh ?)

One of the roles that club members fill is the Timer. That person is charged with these duties:

"Timer records the time used by the speakers and evaluators. Most speeches are 5-7 minutes but vary based on the speech objective."

The sample below would be for a Table Topics question where the speaker is tasked to speak for a minimum time of 01:00, that is, one minute, to qualify as "complete". 

With a stopwatch in hand our Timer watches the clock and in progression will move the timing lights from blank to green.

The next progression is the yellow light. It will come on at one minute and thirty seconds. This lets the Table Topics Speaker know they have thirty seconds to wrap it up with a conclusion.

The third and final is the red light. This means you went overtime.


When you begin your presentation none of the lights are illuminated. When one minute has passed the green light comes on. Go for the Green !!

One Minute Gets The Green Light - You Have Fulfilled The Qualifying Time !

At One Minute And Thirty Seconds The Yellow Light Comes On. You Have Thirty Seconds To Wrap It Up.

At Two Minutes You Have Talked To Long. In A Contest You Would Have Been Disqualified.

You can try this it at home. At the bottom of this page there is a link to the timer that is illustrated above. In the fields "Set Duration" enter the number 1 in the first blank followed by a number 2 in the second field.

Oh. Table Topics teaches and trains us to give thoughtful  impromptu replies to questions. The answers you come up with could be almost anything. The recipe is to take the questions and add your life experiences, points of view, sense of humor and knowledge and form a one minute minimum reply.

Pick one of these Table Topic Questions and give it a try.

What is normal?
What is the difference between a mystery and the unknown?


 District 84 Timer