Speakeasy Meeting

Speakeasy Toastmasters held a successful demonstration meeting on January 19th, and the 15 non-members in attendance were introduced to the world of Toastmasters. Toastmaster for the evening was a welcome visitor from Britain, Bob Ferguson, a long-standing member of Toastmaster and a well-known public speaker. Bob chaired the meeting, and explained all aspects of the Toastmaster organisation, with great energy and enthusiasm. The other officers for the meeting included Pat Duggan as Topicsmaster and Michael Cronin as General Evaluator.

The speakers for the meeting represented all levels of the Toastmaster program. The first speech was delivered by Kieran Butler, a Transition Year student from Kanturk. Completing the stage 1 speech from the basic manual, Kieran delivered a powerful account of the emotional and physical abuse suffered by some children. Following Kieran was Loretto Barry. Loretto described a humorous personal incident which fulfilled one of the stages of the Storytelling Manual. The next speaker was Brian McLoughlin, who completed the after-dinner speech project from the entertaining speaker manual. Brian delivered an after-dinner speech with a difference, describing the principals of alternative comedy, complete with two original sketches!

Following Brian was Helen O’ Sullivan, who surpassed her recent impressive debut as a speaker with an innovative stage 2 basic manual speech. Helen described the BEAR principal of coping with nervousness when one is speaking in public, BEAR being B(reathing slowly), E(njoy the experience), A(udience participation) and R(ehersal, plenty of). Helen demonstrated the BEAR principal with the assistance of a Teddy Bear! Finally Pat Sexton completed a stage from the
Entertaining Speaker Manual, delivering a speech which described how slogans and catch-phrases from Film and Television have entered everyday conservation.

While a demonstration meeting is specifically held for non-members in mind, all of our meetings are open to the public and non-members will not be asked to speak. Our next meeting will be held on February, at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow for 8:00PM. Further details about the club are available from the PRO at 086-3675706 and from our club website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com. You can also follow the Club’s activities over the past three years from our archive of press reports, available at www.speakeasytm.blogspot.com.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meeting

Speakeasy Toastmasters held their first meeting of 2006 on January 12th. John Dillon was Toastmaster while Mary Buckley acted as Topicsmaster. The first speaker was Noel O’ Connor who delivered the fact-finding report project from the Speaking to Inform Manual. Noel’s report concerned the problem of refuse disposal and possible solutions to this problem. Following Noel was Club President Angela Sheehan who described the mishaps she and her husband Denis experienced in moving to Canada over ten years ago, in a project from the storytelling manual.
Following Angela was Jerry Mulcahy, completing a project from the humorous speeches manual. Jerry described the difficulties experienced with his “friends”: his teeth. Then Loretto Barry delivered an education session concerned with speech organisation. The general evaluation session was conducted by Tim Ahern. Forthcoming events include:
Demonstration Meeting; Our next club meeting, to be held on January 19th 8:00 pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow, is a demonstration meeting , especially designed to explain the workings of Toastmasters to the general public. All are welcome to attend, and non-members will not be asked to speak.
Mallow Library; Club members will host a “Taste of Toastmasters” experience at the Mallow Library, Saturday 21st January, 2:30-4:30 pm. A typical speech will be delivered by a club member and club members will discuss the creative aspect of Toastmasters, in particular speech writing.
More information about the club is available from our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com.
Or from the Club PRO at 086-3675706.