King Lear and Nature

Last Thursday night at the Hibernian Hotel saw the members of Speak Easy Toastmasters and guests return for the first meeting of 2009 and what a meeting it was.
Yes, every meeting of Speak Easy Toastmasters is special but last Thursday night saw was just that little bit extra special as we had the privilege of having members of other Toastmasters clubs on the program.

The evening started off with President, Ray Ryan welcoming members and guests and wishing us all a happy new year.
Máire Corbett from the Galtees Club in Mitchelstown and also Area 17 Governor, was our Toastmaster for the evening and Noel O’Connor was out Topicsmaster.

First to speak was Marian Harnett who is a dual member of both Killarney and Newcastlewest Toastmasters Clubs. Marian was receiving and award for her services to Toastmasters, which was presented by Michael Cronin, and her project was to give an acceptance speech.
Marian told us of life before toastmasters and what a difference toastmasters made her.

Then it was the turn of Ray Ryan who gave us a presentation entitled, “Right to know” in which he gave us a detailed account of the Freedom of Information Act and what it means to us.

Ray was followed to the lectern by Michael Buckley from The Crusaders Toastmasters Club in Cork. Michael was doing a speech project from Interpretive Reading in which he choose to recite a work written by Seán Fada O’Driscoil entitled, “King Lear” which was a hilarious look at Shakespeare’s famous play.

Finally it was the turn of Michael Broderick from the Nice and Easy Toastmasters club, with a speech entitled, “Nature”, in which he told us of his observation of fascinating nature all around him.

Following the break, in which members and guests mingled and chatted for 20 minutes, it was the turn of Topicsmaster, Noel O’Connor in which he helped us hone our “speaking off the cuff” skills with a well researched bunch of table topics.
This of course is the part of the meeting in which the members get to speak for two minutes on a subject in which they have no time to prepare.

Tim Ahern conducted the evaluation session in which the speakers received feedback from designated members on how they performed, and how they may improve, which is what every toastmaster aims to do.

Speak Easy Toastmasters return to the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow on Thursday, January 22nd at 8.00pm and also on February 5th.

If you would like to be comfortable speaking before an audience, be it a work situation, a school presentation, community meeting, reading off the altar etc, or you would just like to make some good friends why not com along and see what we are about?

As a guest, you will not be asked to speak and you may come along as a guest as often as you want.

Further information can be had from our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or contact our club PRO Sean on 086 6054784