Mulled Wine and the Christmas Spirit

“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way” , Not only was there bells a-jingling at Speak Easy Toastmasters meeting last Thursday night in the Hibernian Hotel but the sound of glasses a-tinkling as members and guests were met by a combination of the delicious aroma of mulled wine, mince pies, sweets and Christmas crackers during the evening.

President, Ray Ryan welcomed us all to the meeting and then left us in the capable hands of Marie Fitzpatrick for the remainder of the evening.
Maire introduced the officers of the meeting and their roles for the evening and then introduced the
speakers.

First to the lectern was Grant March who was presenting his second speech to the club with the title “Look Behind You” and after Grant was Joe Hassett with an Interpretive Reading Project entitled “Christmas Carroll”
This was the first of the Interpretive Reading Projects of the evening as following Joe was Pat Sexton with “The Selfish Giant”.
Next came Mary Buckley with, “The Christmas Bear” and Jerry Mulcahy with, Eamon Kelly’s ,
“After Hours”.

After the break it was the turn of Liam Flynn who was Topicsmaster for the evening.
Liam kept us on our toes with both seasonal and up to date topics. The topics session is the part of the meeting in which the members are given a topic to speak on, without any preparation, and must try to speak for two minutes.

Gerry Kelleher was out General Evaluator and conducted the “Evaluation” part of the meeting.
This is where the speakers receive feedback from assigned members, the purpose of which is to encourage the speaker and suggest any areas where the he/she could improve.
It is also an exercise in listening for the person evaluating, as all speakers have objectives to their speech projects and the evaluator must listen carefully in order to give a proper evaluation.

Other officers for the meeting were, Sean Corcoran as Grammarian, Angela Sheehan, Ah-Counter, Timekeeper, Jean Sayers and Sgt at Arms was Cáit Murray.

Last Thursday night’s meeting was also the last meeting of the year for Speak Easy Toastmasters as we break for Christmas time.

Meetings again on Thursday, January 11th at the usual time of 8pm sharp.

If you are wondering what “resolution” you will make for the new year, let me make a suggestion.
Forget about giving up anything, in 2009, take up something instead.

If you feel like making new friends and learning a skill that will benefit you wherever you go.
A skill that does not require you to be a certain standard beforehand, a skill that will make you stand out in the crowd, a skill that you can learn no matter who or what you are, why not consider Toastmasters?

Speak Easy Toastmasters are one of 11,500 clubs in 92 countries with a membership of 235,000.
There are over 5000 members of Toastmasters Clubs in Ireland and the UK, with 500 members in Cork, Kerry and West Limerick.

If you get a few minutes over the Christmas period, look us up on the internet at www.speakeasytoastmasters.com. and call to see us in The Hibernian Hotel, Mallow on January 11th at 8pm.

From Speak Easy Toastmasters, A Happy and Peaceful Christmas to you and yours.