Thursday, February 26, 2009

St Valentine and Tsunami's

Maybe it’s the fact that spring has come at last, or maybe it was because St. Valentines day was just gone. Whatever it was, if you were not at the meeting of Speak Easy Toastmasters last Thursday night you missed it, because members and guests alike were treated to a marvellous meeting (another one, of course).

President, Ray Ryan invited us all to forget about economic woes, bad news and anything negative and to enjoy the following two hours and boy, did we what!.

Jerry Mulcahy was our Toastmaster for the evening and Loretto Barry as Topicsmaster.

Our first speaker was Josephine O’Sullivan Lenihan who was delivering her first speech to the club. As I have mentioned before, when a member delivers his/her “Icebreaker” speech, it is special to both the new member and existing club members. The title of Josephine’s speech was, “My Experience Of Growing Up In Life”.

Following Josephine was Mary Moynahan with her speech, “St Valentine” which was a history of St Valentines day right from the time of St Valentine to the present day including various customs and fascinating facts.

Liam Flynn followed with a speech entitled, “Tsunami” which was a well researched and critical look at local government. This speech was also special for Liam as it was his 10th speech before the club which means that he as achieved his Competent Communicator Award.
Liam was presented with a certificate from Ray Ryan in recognition of this milestone.

Next was Pat Duggan with a project from the Speciality Speeches Programme. Pat prepared five separate speeches and one of these was chosen (immediately before he spoke) by the Toastmaster for Pat to deliver. Pat then spoke without notes on the chosen subject which was on the travel book called, “The Lost Continent” by Bill Bryson.

Finally Pat Sexton delivered an educational workshop on the skills and importance of members being able to give effective, constructive and genuine evaluations of other member’s speeches.
He explained that this was the most beneficial way for members to learn from their from each speech project and to become even better speakers.

After the coffee break (where members and guests alike were able to relax and chat), Topicsmaster, Loretto Barry conducted the topics session. This is the part of the meeting where we practice our speaking “off the cuff” skills an such was the atmosphere generated that even all the guests joined in.

General evaluator was Tony O’Regan and evaluators were Noel O’Connor, Mary McCarthy, Gerry Kelleher, Angela Sheehan and Ray Ryan,
Timekeeper was Declan Curtis and “Ah Counter” Michael Cronin.
Sgt at Arms, Liam Flynn, Cáit Murray and Jean Sauers.

Speak Easy members are busy organizing a “Theme Meeting” for April 2nd which has the title “Rakes and Rebels”. Put this date in your diaries as it is going to be great.

To the many guests on the night, we were delighted to meet you and are looking forward to your company in the very near future.

Our next meeting is on March 5th which will be our Speech Contest night.

Speak Easy Toastmasters meet fortnightly and you are most welcome to come along and join us.
Further information from our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or contact our Club PRO, Sean on 086 6054784

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