What makes a nervous Speaker an Orator? Courage.

How? Join Speakeasy Toastmasters Club, Mallow. Remember achieving starts with believing, and then in the immortal words of Tiger Woods – practise. The more you practise the better you will get. Don’t get caught with your foot in your mouth, and talking of feet – take small steps to start with. The next time the ‘Huggies add’ comes on the TV – don’t change channels. Study those infants progress from crawling to walking with aid, to galloping. An unusual analogy you may say, but stop right there - it makes perfect sense. Make haste slowly. Follow the infant’s good example. We have all had to do it in Toastmasters.

Let’s delve into those small steps a little further.

• Step 1 Come to a meeting

• Step 2 Become a member at your own pace in your own time

• Step 3 Volunteer to do simple tasks at the Club Meetings.

As you are only too well aware every meeting, gathering or performance of any kind, is usually constricted by time. You either have to attain a certain time or you have to keep within the constraints of a time limit. This is a skill all speakers should learn, and to teach us, in Toastmasters we have a timekeeper, complete with stop watch, lights and a bell, who records the time of every happening at the meeting and reports on the times at the end of the meeting . At this stage I am an expert at using stop watches and shutting up when the bell rings!

• Step four – take the plunge and ask the Topics Master to give you a topic.

You will only have to speak for two minutes. Or, if you wish, you can ‘add on’ to someone’s topic for one minute. Topics are the lighter side of the meeting. You do not have to give 100% accurate or honest answers. You can ‘lead them all on’ by being factious. Stating a point of view does not mean that you have to aspire to that point of view. It is all in the fun of the night, and variety is the spice of the Topic Session. Sex, religion and politics are still out of bounds to the best of my knowledge; however you could always chance your arm. You may get a red card though or at least be accused of being ‘politically incorrect’, because at the end of the meeting we have what is known as an evaluation of the meeting from the appointed General Evaluator for that meeting. You have got a birds eye view of three aspects of learning – ‘timing;’ ‘thinking on your feet’ and ‘constructive feedback’. Come and you will get the larger picture. All the officers change at each meeting, which gives variety, and gives an opportunity to all members to assume any of the positions. Being an Evaluator is a job which gives one an opportunity to hone one’s skills in giving constructive and structured feed back. A most necessary tool or skill to have in everyday life and in the work place if one wants to be successful. I have personally benefited greatly and learned much from the objective evaluation of my performances by experienced Toastmasters. One does not have to be Einstein to complete any of the above tasks. As I keep telling you ‘it is a learning by doing’ Club. And each time you complete any of these tasks you will feel that little bit more confident. I have another snippet of wisdom which I always apply to myself, and it works every time. I do not make mistakes. If I forget a line or make a faux-pas, I regard it as a ‘learning curve’ and employ different strategies to avoid the same thing happening again. When I get totally befuddled I just tell myself that the man or woman who never made a mistake never made anything. I have made it all appear so simple, and it is simple with practise, so take the plunge and come to Speakeasy Toastmasters Club Meeting at the Hibernian Hotel on Thursday 25^th January 2007. Our first meeting of 2007 took of with a bang.

We had four very entertaining and enlightening speeches from Bríd O’Keeffee; Anne Buckley; Joe Hassett; and Sean Corcoran. Our topics master Pat Duggan kept us on our toes with a variety of topics from the sublime to the ridiculous. He was very well received, as I am sure Noel O’Connor will be at our next meeting. He will pull some great topics out of the hat as he always does.

Should you require further details phone our PRO Loretto at 087/4118132. She will be only too happy to answer any query you may have. Or log on to our extensive up to date web page. ‘FAQ’ covers any question you may need to clarify. The address is www.speakeasytoastmasters.com

See you on 25^th Jan. at 7.50 sharp. You won’t regret it. It will be almost as exhilarating as swimming in the Blackwater on Christmas Morning!