6 FEb

The Speakeasy Toastmasters meeting of the 6’th of February was a different format than the usual meetings. It was a workshop meeting and was opened by President Mr. Pat Sexton who explained the format of the meeting and introduced the Toastmaster for the evening, Kieran Buckley. Kieran then explained his role for the evening and then introduced the Sergeant at Arms, Ann Buckley and Kay Quirke and Timekeeper, John Murphy. Kieran introduced Elizabeth O’Brien ATM (Advanced Toastmaster) who tonight was doing an Educational Module in The Art of Effective Evaluation.
Elizabeth began by telling us that what makes Toastmasters such an enjoyable learning experience was is our system of evaluation. The attendance were each given a workbook to help participate in the seminar and to assist with note taking, feedback and to provide us with a summary of the evening which we could use for future reference. The seminar came under various headings such as, Why Do We Evaluate? Why People Want To Learn To Speak, How We Improve As Speakers etc.
As part of the seminar there were speeches from three Toastmasters, Angela Sheehan (Stage 6) Michael Donegan (Advanced) and Barry Mc’Carthy (Advanced) and Evaluations from Jerry Mulcahy, Margret O’Regan and Michael Cronin. The Evaluations would form part of Elizabeth’s seminar.

The first speech was by Angela Sheehan and was a Stage 6 and the objectives were, “To select precicely the right words required to communicate your ideas clearly and vividly. To avoid lengthy words and sentences and jargon” Time allowed, five to Seven minutes.
The title of Angela’s speech was “Céad Míle Fáilte?” “I am left alone on my own in this world” began Angela quoting from an article in a Sunday Newspaper shortly before Christmas recalling the tragic story of a family of Turkish Kurds who died in a container and were discovered in an industrial estate in Wexford. She asked the question “what kind of a céad míle fáilte” are people from different races getting in Ireland and cited various incidents to prove that they are not.
Jerry Muclahy evaluated Angela’s speech.

The next speech of the evening was from Michael Donegan who was completing an advanced speech from “The Special Occasions Manual”
“I wish to propose a toast to you, yes you, ladies and gentlemen members of Speakeasy Toastmasters Club on the occasion of the Club’s tenth anniversary” said Michael as he recalled the beginning of the club and how in those days we had to rely on members of other clubs to fill our programmes. The progress and achievements of the club in those ten years.
Margaret O’Regan evaluated Michael’s speech.

Our final speaker of the night was Barry Mc’Carthy who was completing an advanced speech from the Speaking To Inform Manual (Demonstration Talk), entitled “Relax And Enjoy” Barry, complete with massage couch, towels and Michael Cronin explained the art of massage and demonstrated how a back massage is done and he described the muscles that he was working on.
A refreshed Michael Cronin evaluated Barry’s speech.

Speakeasy Toastmasters meet again on February 20’th. Toastmaster for this meeting is Michael Walsh and Topicsmaster is Tim Casey.
There will be speeches by John Dillon, Jeremiah Roynane and Margret O’Regan.
This meeting is also the Club’s Evaluation Contest. The winner and runner up will represent the Club in the Area Final.
As always Guests/Non-Members are very welcome.
For further information on the Club contact Sean on 086 6054784 or Pat 087 2364240 or visit the Club’s Website at www.clix.to/speakeasy. Email, speakeasymallow@eircom.net

30 Jan

Thursday 24’th of January saw the Speakeasy Toastmasters Club at the midway point of their meetings for 2002/03. President, Pat Sexton who welcomed the 34 members and guests, opened the meeting and congratulated Club Members, Micháel Dineen and Ellen Broderick who recently got engaged. Pat introduced the Toastmaster for the night, Michael Cronin who was himself completing a Toastmasters, Advanced Manual Project on Chairing a meeting. Topics Master for the evening was Joan Lenihan and Timekeeper was John Holmes.
The speeches got underway with new member, Ann Buckley giving her Icebreaker Speech. The Icebreaker is the the first speech that a member gives in a Toastmasters Club. The title of Ann’s speech was “Lifelong Learning”. “To state that Irish Society is changing rapidly is to state the obvious” said Ann. “We are surrounded by change” “Years ago children could learn from their grandparents all the knowledge and skill that they needed to live their own lives successfully”. She pointed out that no matter what our former skills and training were, we need to constantly update our skills. Ann herself took a career break and updated her skills by learning computer skills and is now in Toastmasters learning speaking skills.
Sean Corcoran evaluated Ann’s speech.
Following Ann was Michael Buckley from the Crusaders Club in Cork City with a speech entitled “Retirement”. Michael pointed out that when most people retire they settle down to life without taking part in any physical activity. He then told the story of Mary Harker who single handed sailed from Newfoundland in 21 days in a 30’ft boat and landed in Crookhaven on the 11’th of August 1994. Waiting for her was her family, reporters from various newspapers and local people. Mary wasn’t the first person to sail across the Atlatnic single handed but what set her apart from the rest was that she was 79 yrs old.
Micheal’s speech was evaluated by Micháel Dineen.
The third speaker was Louise Bourke, a Transition Year Student from Schoil Mhuire in Kanturk who is at present participating in a public speaking course and has recently participated in the Cork Mental Health Public Speaking Competition.
The title of Louise’s speech was “It is easier to build a child than to repair an adult”.
Louise began her speech by giving two examples of children being pressurised by their parents for not living up to their (parents) expectations. For wasting their lives even thought they were happy at what they were doing. “Four out of every ten people who attend their family doctor have a physiological aspect to their complaint”, said Louise, pointing out that people must have good mental health as children and children should be encouraged to be positive.
Kathleen Ganey from the Crusaders Club evaluated Louise’s speech.
Pat Duggan EVP, reminded members that the Club Evaluation Contest will take place on 20’th of February and that the Club heat of the International Speech Contest will take place on March 6’th.
Please note that our next meeting will be held in Conference Room No.2 in the Hibernian Hotel.
For further information on the Club contact Sean on 086 6054784 or Pat 087 2364240 or visit the Club’s Website at www.clix.to/speakeasy. Email, speakeasymallow@eircom.net