History
The Rhinoceros Business Toastmasters Club is one of the first Toastmasters clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to business topics. In addition to improving confidence and communication skills, we also strive to educate on various business values, practices and philosophies; provide insight from local business leaders; and enhance networking opportunities.

The “Rhinoceros Business Club” was founded in 1997 by Jinsoo Terry, who immigrated to the United States from South Korea in 1985. Undaunted by the challenges of navigating a foreign landscape, Jinsoo forged ahead. Today, she is an acclaimed motivational speaker and founder of the Jinsoo Terry Global Leadership training program. She continues to be an active member in the club and serves as an inspiration.

Mission
The mission of The Rhinoceros Business Toastmasters Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop stronger communication and leadership skills.

Meeting Roles

The success of our weekly meetings depends on our members’ participation. Members sign-up in advance of the meeting to fill all the meeting positions. Here’s a list of roles so you care familiar with them when you attend your first few meetings at Rhino

Sergeant at Arms: Calls the meeting in session, and introduces the Toastmaster of the Day

Toastmaster of the Day: The Master/Mistress Of Ceremonies and Meeting Organizer; The Toastmaster introduces the various participants in the meeting and leads the meeting.

Daren Bishop Rhino Moment: Shares a motivational or positive thought. It’s our club’s way of honoring Daren Bishop, a dedicated past club President, who passed away on August 15, 2009.

Timer: Because one of the purposes of Toastmasters is to ensure our members learn how to express a thought within a specific time, the Timer operates the timing device, records and reports the time used by each table topic speaker, speaker, and evaluator. Serving as Timer is an excellent opportunity to practice giving instructions and time management.

Grammarian: Presents a word of the week, gives the definition, uses it in a sentence and encourages meeting participants to use the word in their speech; also checks participants grammar. This person also praises participants for using the word of the day. The Grammarian role is an excellent opportunity to practice your listening skills.

Ah-Counter: Tracks and reports distractions, such as audible pauses, filler words (e.g. “ah”, “uh”, “like”, etc.), and filler sounds (e.g. lip smacking) used by meeting particpants. The Ah-Counter role is an excellent opportunity to practice your listening skills.

Table Topics Master: Helps members practice thinking on their feet. S/He selects topics related to business or of general interest and asks questions of members at random (as a guest, you may op-out, but we encourage you to participate). At Rhino, we strive to make sure all members have an opportunity to speak.

Speakers: Typically there are three speakers. Each one gives a prepared manual speech, usually 5 to 7 minutes. Each speech has specific objectives that are listed in the Competent Communication (CC) Manual (that’s why it’s called a manual speech). Advanced manual speeches in the Advanced Communication Series (ACS) range from 8-15+ minutes.

General Evaluator: Provides constructive feedback on the meeting as a whole, as well as on the Evaluators’ speeches. S/He is in charge of the individual evaluators, the Timer and the Grammarian.

Evaluators: The purpose of the evaluator is to motivate the speaker to both continue speaking and to improve. The evaluator lets the speaker know what areas s/he has excelled in, and also offers a few constructive suggestions to help the speaker improve.

Jokester : A member presents a humorous story or joke near the end of the meeting.

Videographer:  An important non-speaking role. A member records all prepared speeches and speech evaluations.

Food & Drink Master(s): An important non-speaking role. A Member or two volunteer to order/bring food and beverages for the meeting. There is a weekly meeting budget for food & drinks.

Presiding Officer: The most senior ranking officer present conducts the club business portion at the end.

About Speaking Within Your Time

All speaking roles at our meetings are timed. The purpose of being time is to learn how to communicate your thoughts clearly within a specific time frame. The chart below will help you understand the timing of various roles.

In general, the green light comes on at the minimum time, the red light comes on at the maximum time, and the yellow comes on halfway in between.

Going over time at a club meeting simply means you’ve exceeded your allotted speaking time, and you should wrap up your speech immediately. In a competitive speech contest setting, such as at the Club, Area, District, Division, or International levels, the speaker would be considered ineligible.  The speech still counts towards their educational or leadership goals.

Note that on all speaking assignments (other than Table Topics), you are given 30 seconds leeway in either direction before you are considered overtime. Since Table Topics is so short, you are only given 30 seconds leeway on the maximum time limit.