Thursday, February 26, 2004

26 Feb

Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow

Toastmasters meetings - a punishment?

Apparently some people come to Toastmasters meeting as a form of punishment – at least that was Ciara O’ Keefe’s reason for coming to her first meeting. In her first speech to the club, ‘The beginning of my downfall’, Ciara described how, as a result of behaviour at school (which was completely out of character!) she was required to attend Toastmasters meetings as a form of punishment. Fortunately, the prospect was appealing to her – after all it could have been much worse! Ciara’s speech was evaluated by Michael Cronin. We may have found a new means of increasing membership. John Dillon followed with a speech entitled ‘A man for all time’ in which gave he described the life and times of the great William Shakespeare. John painted a very eloquent picture of the exciting but dangerous times in which Shakespeare lived, and how this was reflected in the profound insights contained within his works, which are in fact relevant to all times, including our own. Brian McLoughlin evaluated John’s speech. The final speech of the evening came from Mary Buckley, entitled ‘Finding new members for your club’. New members are the most important members of any club and provide fresh new ideas, different personalities and different talents to the club. Welcoming and encouraging new members is the responsibility of every club member, and this can be done by a variety of means including talking about Toastmasters to friends and family and inviting them along to meetings. And we can’t forget the new method of recruitment introduced by Ciara tonight!

Note for your Diary: The club is hosting the Club International Speech contest at the next meeting on Thursday, 4th March. As usual, the meeting will start at 8:00 pm and we ask everyone to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.

Thursday, February 19, 2004

19 Feb

Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow

Topics and upcoming events

A lively and entertaining Topics session was held following five wonderful speeches on Thursday, 5th February, last. The man responsible for hosting the session was John Dillon whose topics were guaranteed a lively and spirited response. The Topics session allows people to ‘think on their feet’ by responding, unprepared, to topics delivered by the night’s Topic master. John asked first of all if picture messaging mobile phones should be banned from our schools. This was followed up by a brave choice of topic which was certain of a lively response – ‘are women, since Eve, always at fault?’ And then – ‘what do you suppose would be the conversation between Jackie Healey-Rae and the Queen if they were becalmed together off the Old Head of Kinsale?’ Topics became a little more serious when John asked if better use could have been made of the billions of dollars spent by the USA on the trip to mars, and, is the new book ‘PS I love you’, deserving of fame? Finally John got the farmers on their feet when he touched on the topic of allowing access onto farmland for walkers.

If you wish to learn more about what goes on at a Toastmaster meeting you can come along to the Community Celebration Day, being organised by Mallow’s RAPID group, on 21st February, to be held at the Hibernian hotel from 11:00. Speakeasy Toastmasters club members will be on hand to talk to any interested individuals about the club’s activities. In addition, club president Pat Duggan will give a talk about Toastmasters, at 4:30pm in Room 2, upstairs in the hotel.

Other dates for your diary;
The club will be hosting its annual Evaluation contest and along with the usual programme of terrific speeches we ask you to join us at our next meeting on Thursday, 19th February. The meeting will start at 8:00 pm and we ask everyone to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.

Following that there will be the Club International Speech contest on March 4th, and the Area 17 International Speech & Evaluation Contests on March 20th, which will be held in Charleville. The Club Tall Tales contest will be held on April 1st.

Thursday, February 12, 2004

12 Feb

Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow

Notes for 12th February, 2004

The meeting last Thursday evening began with a very entertaining speech by Michael Dineen entitled ‘Gone in 60 seconds’ which described how he left his ‘provisional’ behind and, with the help of a small blue ford tractor, managed to get a ‘full Irish’ driver’s licence. Now it might have been just an old small tractor but in many ways it showed the form of a true thoroughbred, especially in a runaway situation, where it was ‘gone in 60 seconds’. Michael’s speech was evaluated by Ray Ryan. Next up was Gerry Kelleher who shared with us the very heart-warming story of the life of ‘Kate Lynch’. Born in 1900, she experienced her fair share of loss and hard times early in life, but managed to maintain a very positive outlook on life and was wise enough to understand the important things in life. I think, last Thursday evening, we all could hear her hearty laugh, as it was described by Gerry. Eileen Corkery evaluated Gerry’s speech. Elizabeth O Brien used the wonderful words of the reading from scripture, which begins ‘Love is…’ to describe the patience, wisdom, kindness, thoughtfulness and unselfish nature of her late father. We heard about the love of her father for his family, for learning, for the land, and for life. Elizabeth’s speech was evaluated by Joan Lenihan. Michael Donegan gave a short speech in which he awarded a presentation. Now while the presentation was fictitious, Michael showed us how it should be done. This speech was evaluated by Pat Sexton. The final speech of the evening was delivered by Tony O’ Regan and was entitled, simply, ‘Helen’. This speech described another wonderful person, born in 1886, in North Cork this time. Helen suffered a series of very tragic losses before she finally immigrated to Chicago finding happiness and comfort there, having met and married a Limerick man. Helen lived to the great age of 99 but sadly she never returned to Ireland. Tony’s speech was evaluated by Vivienne Buckley.

Please join us at our next meeting on Thursday, 19th February. The meeting will start at 8:00 pm and we ask everyone to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.

Thursday, February 05, 2004

5 Feb

Speakeasy Toastmasters Mallow

Notes for 5th February, 2004

On Thursday night last, Jerry Mulcahy took us with him on a trip out into the beautiful Black valley countryside where he explained we could find peace and quiet away from the stresses of our day to day lives. In a speech entitled ‘Simplicity’, Jerry suggested that we all need to look at our lifestyles and stop, relax, and enjoy the simple things of life, such as a walk in the evening in a quiet country place. Jerry’s wonderful speech was evaluated by Jeremiah Ronayne. The final speech of the evening was delivered by Michael Sexton simply entitled ‘The Dance’. I think all of us present were taken back in our minds to the time when we went to our first few dances or discos, and we were able to sympathise with Michael on the horrors but sometimes joy of those occasions. We are waiting for Michael to return with a follow up speech to describe what happened after the walk home, after all he left us hanging with the final words of the speech ‘would you like to come in’….
Toastmaster Anne Buckley took charge of the Topics session which followed and we all enjoyed a very diverse range of topics which included the pros and cons of Irish speaking schools, favourite forms of exercise, images that shaped us, and things we shouldn’t do! The response as always was very interesting, informative and entertaining, and as Sister Bernadette from Charleville demonstrated, there is always room for a song to enhance a topic. Well done to Anne Buckley on a very successful Topics session.

Please join us at our next meeting, on Thursday, 5th February. The meeting will start at 8:00 pm and we ask everyone to be at The Hibernian Hotel (Chapel Lane) at 7:50 pm.

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