There was a lot done in a little time this week. Four brilliant speeches were heard and evaluated. There was a short but lively topic session and the club annual AGM was dealt with efficiently too in the second part of the meeting . Toastmaster clubs do put emphasis on time management and this skill was certainly to the fore at this meeting to the credit of Toastmaster for the evening, Kieran Butler who joined President Jerry Mulcahy and Topicsmaster Liam Flynn at the top table.
It was a special night for the club as a new member gave her first speech. She was Helsa Giles and she delighted the crowd with a very clever humorous and charming speech about herself. We all look forward to Helsa's participation in the club. Margaret O'Regan evaluated Helsa's speech.
Mary Buckley's speech from the Specialty Speeches Manual, drew many wry smiles from the audience. She delivered some telling information via Shane Ross and Nick Webb's book, "The Wasters",about the waste of public money engaged in by public representatives with access to tax payers money in the time of the boom. Jaws dropped around the room as details of trips to international sporting and cultural events were described, at the flagrancy of it all. Kylie Minogue's song " I should be so lucky" was mentioned and everyone related totally to that sentiment ! Rona Coghlan evaluated Mary's speech.
James Kelleher's inspirational speech was entitled "Never Give Up". It was about a young man who 10 years to the day was involved in a near fatal car crash and spent 5 months in Rehab with little hope of walking again. Miraculously he recovered and is now dedicating himself to being a paramedic and specialising in attending to people in road traffic accidents. James was in fact that young man and in telling his own story so effectively he reminded us of the preciousness of life. Marie Lynes evaluated James' speech.
Anne Buckley's speech was a hoot and about in essence a boot or 2. Frugality and Fashion was the title and Anne very humorously described her dilemna when faced with a very expensive pair of boots which she really really liked. She developed a condition she diagnosed as "shopping paralysis" The moral of the story was that often in shopping expense does not equal success but on the other hand sometimes it does. Anne's evaluator was Brendan Foley, who must have been thinking of all the ladies in the audience when his only recommendation to improve this speech would be if Anne brought that beautiful boot with her.
Liam Flynn provided a very entertaining topics session, with topics ranging from "Sell me Mallow" to "History is bunk".
The timing of all the contributions was closely observed by Timekeeper of the night, Mary Moynihan.
Michael Cronin was General Evaluator of the evening.
At the AGM, a new committee was elected for next season, under the leadership of President Elect, Noel O'Connor.
All were warmly welcomed to the meeting by Guest Greeters, Mary Moynihan and Marie Lynes.
Speak Easy Toastmasters meet on alternate Thursdays at 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow.
The next meeting is the last meeting of this season and really a bumper meeting to end the season with, as we will have 6 speeches, a real treat. Don't miss it on Thursday 30th May, 8pm at the Hibernian Hotel Mallow.
Non members are most welcome and never asked to speak.
Contact Jerry 0863752895,or Noel 0872427485.
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