A Cut Above The Rest

Speak Easy Toastmaster’s meeting on February 10th 2011 was another in which guests and members enjoyed themselves.

Joining President Margaret O’ Regan at the top table was Joe Hassett, Toastmaster who chaired the meeting and Dave Clarke who was Topicsmaster.

First to the lectern was Angela Sheehan with a speech entitled ‘Select your topic’.
Angela was very enlightening on how to find topics from speeches. Ideas can come from personal experiences ie family events, professional encounters or interests. Ideas for speeches can also come from books and newspapers.

Following Angela was Jean Sayers who did a monodrama entitled ‘ A love song of J Alfred Prufrock’ by T S Eliot.

Jean was followed by Liam Flynn with a speech entitled ‘A cut above the rest’. Liam demonstrated to the audience how to prune roses. He advised on the types of tools and gloves to use when pruning. He concluded by informing the men in the audience to buy a rose bush this Valentine’s Day rather than a bunch of roses for their loved ones as they will have roses for the year.

Finally it was the turn of Jerry O’ Callaghan with his Folk Tale entitled ‘Three Wishes’. Jerry recounted a folk tale with a morale to the audience. Although the folk tale related to a time long ago the morale is as relevant today as it was back then- ‘be very careful what you wish for because you just might get it’.

The topic session for the evening was conducted by Topicsmaster Dave Clarke. Dave had a huge amount of topics which were varied and various.

Timekeeper Michael Cronin reminded speakers/people contributing to topics when their allocated times were up while grammarian/ah counter Mary Buckley 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. She encouraged the use of the word ‘propensity’ which means a natural propensity, disposition or inclination throughout the meeting.

Marie Fitzpatrick, conducted the General Evaluation Session and conducted the part of the meeting in which speakers received feedback from their assigned evaluators who were Sean Corcoran, Bridget Breen and Anne Buckley. Angela Sheehan’s presentation was not evaluated. The Sergeant at Arms for the meeting was Liam Flynn.

Speakeasy Toastmasters is hosting a night of Humour on February 24th 2011 at 7.50pm to give its members, as well as everyone who wishes to attend, a much needed tonic having being totally saturated with talk of recession and all that goes with it. The night will consist of ten humorous speeches from renowned toastmasters both from the Speakeasy Club as well as members from Toastmaster Clubs from much further a field.

Non members are welcome to attend. Further details about the Club are available on our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or why not become a Speak Easy Toastmaster Facebook.