At a Vets Town Hall, each speaker has up to ten minutes to speak about what it was like to serve their country. Keeping to a ten-minute time limit ensures that many veterans will have the opportunity to speak, and that each speaker will be allowed equal time. In order to keep speakers on schedule without making them feel rushed, it’s helpful to have a volunteer timekeeper at the event.

The timekeeper sits in the front row of attendees, across from the speaker’s podium, and uses three cards that say “five minutes remaining,” “two minutes remaining,” and “time’s up” to gently let the speaker know how much time is left before the ten-minute time limit is reached.

One set-up that works well is for the timekeeper to have a small table (e.g. a tv dinner table) and a book stand or something similar to set the cards on. If the timekeeper uses a phone to keep track of how much time is left, it’s important to make sure that the sound on the phone is off.

You can download a .pdf of the timekeeper’s cards below. They can be laminated for future years, or simply printed on cardstock and cut out.