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.