‘Changing Times’

Speak Easy Toastmasters meeting on November 11th 2010 was another in which guests and members both learned from, and enjoyed and enjoyed themselves.

Joining President Margaret O’ Regan at the top table was Angela Sheehan, Toastmaster who chaired the meeting and Ray Ryan who was Topicsmaster.

First to the lectern was Helen Buckley with a speech entitled ‘Changing Times’. Helen told us about the differences she has experienced in her life as a result of moving from living in the country to living in a town. While living in the Country Helen enjoyed listening to the birds as well as gazing at the stars at night. Living in a town now allows her to be in close proximity to shops and services as well as meeting people.

Following Helen was Jean Sayers with her reading of the poem ‘The Highwayman’ written by Alfred Noyes. The poem was tragic with the death of both the Highwayman and his lover Bess. Alfred Noyes was best known for his Ballads, ‘The Highwayman’ being his most famous.

Next it was the turn of Bill Martin with his speech entitled ‘From oil tankers to ice breakers’. Bill’s ice breaker speech provided the group with details on the significant areas of his life in a chronological order. It was very entertaining speech peppered with humor. A night which includes an icebreaker speech (the first speech a member gives to the group) is always an exciting the night for a Toastmaster Club.

Finally it was the turn of Ellen O’ Mahony with her speech entitled ‘Important matters of State, Philosophy and Chocolate. Ellen was invited by Speak Easy Toastmasters to give her speech to the Club prior to competing in the District Humorous Speech Contest Final to be held in Dublin on the 13th of November 2010. Ellen concluded her speech by advising the group that ‘arrogance and stereotyping can lead to an unforgivable waste of perfectly good chocolate’. It was an excellently structured speech with a chocolate image weaved throughout it.

The topic session for the evening was conducted by Topicsmaster Ray Ryan. Ray’s topics were both varied and topical and caused great amusement.

Timekeeper Sean Corcoran reminded speakers/people contributing to topics when their allocated times were up while grammarian/ah counter Jerry Mulcahy gave feedback at the end of the meeting on how the group performed regarding the use of ‘crutch words’ and ‘fillers’ e.g. um’s and ah’s.

Noel O’ Connor, conducted the General Evaluation Session and conducted the part of the meeting in which speakers received feedback from their assigned evaluators who were Pat Duggan, Bridget Breen, Anne Buckley and Pat Sexton. The Sergeants at Arms for the meeting were Liam Flynn and Jerry Mulcahy.

Speak Easy Toastmasters is hosting the ‘Public Speaking Schools Contest’ on the 18th of November 2010. To support the students speaking in public come along to the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow at 7.50pm.

Speak Easy Toastmasters will hold their next meeting at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow, November 25th at 7:50PM. Non-members are more than welcome to attend and will not be asked to speak. Further details about the Club are available on our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com