Speak Easy Toastmasters Cordially invite.....

………our club members and all their friends to the next meeting on Thursday l4th December, 2006. It is our Christmas Party. We will kick off with mulled wine to loosen all the tongues and then Michael Walsh will take the podium and conduct an entertaining and light hearted Topics Session. So take your Santa Hats down from the attic, shake out the mothballs and have the ‘hata dearg’ ready to help you enter the Spirit of the Season and the night. I still believe in Santa and fair dues to him I am never disappointed.

Do you recall – last week I promised you a bird’s eye view of the various speech stages in Toastmasters, and the requirements for each stage. This week is stage Two for those of you who are not paying attention. Have you got your butterflies flying in formation. If so, off we go. Sure, I suppose if they can try to tell us that there were aliens flying over Dublin last Friday night, we can put our energies to a more constructive use in the other capital Mallow and keep those butterflies flying in formation, and to our advantage.

Stage Two requires the speaker to organise his/her speech into an introduction; a body; and a conclusion. Well organised speeches have several benefits. They are :-

• Easier to understand

• Easier to remember

• More credible - Speakers who organise their presentations are perceived as more knowledgeable and believable than those who waffle.

• More enjoyable – audiences appreciate presentations that are thoughtfully crafted

Planning also helps the speaker to give an effective presentation. The first step in creating a speech is to choose what you want to speak about. You have inspiration all around you. The sky is your limit. You can speak about anything - from the sublime to the ridiculous. There are great possibilities and mountains of material available in Libraries and on the Web. However, always remember the simplest speech ever written and delivered and remembered to this day was Getteysburg Address given by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Despite being President of the United States his trade mark was always simplicity.

Another thing – if you know what you are talking about – you are halfway there. When you are constructing a speech think of a CIRCLE. Start with a strong opening to grab the attention of the person who has nodded off in the back row. (back rows should be banned really !! everyone up to the front !!) Build up the body of the speech and then select a memorable conclusion which should link up to the introduction. There you have it - a full circle which comes to a logical end. Otherwise you will be like the train track to Galway – going on and on and on for ever.

Now I will take a drop of my own medicine (i.e advice – incase you might think I am on the bottle) and I will draw this sermon to it’s conclusion, bearing in mind the three important S’s in every speech –

STAND UP SPEAK UP SHUT UP

Slan libh. Contact our PRO Loretto at 087/4118132 or log on to our up to date web page at speakeasytoastmasters.com. You don’t have to R.S.V.P. my ‘invite’ to our next meeting Dec l4th. Just come along – Your valuable presence is all we require and don’t forget Guests are NOT asked to speak.