The VPEd (Vice President for Education if you want the full OTT title) is one of the busier members of the committee responsible for organising agendas for meetings, ensuring that we have speakers, evaluators and someone to fill each of the other roles – toastmaster, topicsmaster, grammarian, timer, general evaluator.

Most of the VPEd jobs are done with the help of the www.d71.org website, accepting of course that there will always be some people who chose not to use the internet and prefer to be contacted by phone.  

The VPEd sets up new members on the website so they get a username and password and can then log on and sign up for roles.

For speeches it is a two stage process. The member requests the speech and gives preferred dates. I can then put the speech on the next appropriate agenda taking into account the need for a varied programme, the number of other speech requests, the length of the speech etc. Then I assign an evaluator to each speaker.  

Once all the roles are filled, the d71.org website generates an agenda which I email to the members and to the hotel for printing.

All fairly straight forward but there can be quite a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with members particularly when people change their minds about speeches, are not able to take up roles, or if members need reminding (or encouragement) to sign up for roles. That is where the arm twisting comes in.

The VPEd is meant to encourage members to progress through the communication and leadership manuals and then to submit the details to Toastmasters International when a member has qualified for an award.

Some members are strongly motivated to achieve their Competent Communicator award as soon as possible. Others go at a much more leisurely pace. Some members make a couple of speeches and then seem happy just to come along to meetings, take part in topics and watch others. I think it is important to make it clear that there is a place for everyone. Not everyone wants to be on stage and all speakers need an appreciative and supportive audience.

What attributes should the VPEd possess? Apart from access to a computer and a certain amount of time, particularly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the main thing is probably to be encouraging, fair and unflappable. I have enjoyed doing the job because I got to know everyone in the club and also gained a much better understanding of the whole Toastmasters system.