A Signal You Can’t Miss
Few roles in Toastmasters chapter meetings are more thankless than that of the timer. Not only you lose the opportunity to just sit and enjoy the speeches the way you’d like, but you also have the responsibility of helping the speaker keep to the time limit. If the speech gets too interesting, and you lost track of time then you might miss to give the speaker the cue that he needs.
That is why you need to use the Speech Timer iPhone App when you are assigned the Toastmasters timekeeper role. The large, colored time indicator of the Speech Timer App allows the timer to listen to the speech while keeping an eye on the time. The large numbers enable the timer to check the time with his peripheral vision. The phone also vibrates with each color change, so you won’t forget to lift it so that the speaker can see the color. The device will also continue to time even if a phone call comes in or another app is running. You don’t have to worry about an untimely caller causing a disruption to the timing of your speeches.
No longer you have to make yet another set of temporary signal cards when someone forgets the green/yellow/red time signal cards or borrow someone's watch when the Sergeant-At-Arms forgot to take the official stopwatch with him.The Speech Timer App addresses both the inconvenience of the timer who would like to pay more attention to the speeches by allowing speeches to be timed without having to stare at a stopwatch and hoping that the Sergeant-At-Arms remembers to bring the special colored time signal cards. This application takes care of all of these by conveniently putting all of the duties of the timer in one place as an application on your iPhone, or iPod touch.
Speech Timer also allows you to use custom speech types. While the most popular speech types (table top, prepared speeches of different lengths, etc.) are already pre-defined, if you are doing a different type of speech than the preloaded ones, you can set the parameters yourself. The large, colored time indicators make the time easy to see at a glance. You can keep track of all of the speakers of the night by allowing you to input the name of the speaker so that the information of each speech can be exported via email in several forms. This feature alone saves the time it takes to record the information and organize it separately. It also makes it very easy to quickly communicate statistics to each of the members.
Another benefit of having the Speech Timer App in your possession at all times also enables you to practice at home, using the same timing mechanism that you will see during his actual speech. Having multiple members of your club with this App also helps you to have a backup at all times. From the speaker of the day’s perspective, having the same application being used by each timer also creates a sense of continuity, giving the speaker the ability to better anticipate what his time signals might look like, so that he will be better prepared.
We are all looking for ways to make our lives easier, and this app is a way to do that for your speeches. It is truly a must-have for any Toastmasters member or really anybody who does public speaking.