A Little Bit of History

On February 7^th 1964 the Beatles landed in New York to be greeted by 3000 fans and a piece of history made. On Thursday February 7^th 2008 members of Speak Easy Toastmasters gathered in The Hibernian Hotel, Mallow for their fortnightly meeting where we had our little bit of history, fun and enjoyment.

We had our usual attendance of, approx.30 members and guests who were greeted and made welcome by our President, Anne Buckley who then introduced the top table of Toastmaster for the evening, Margaret O’Regan and Topicsmaster, Sean Corcoran.

Margaret, guided us though the meeting in her efficient, amiable and humorous style and the first speaker she called to the lectern was Liam Flynn.

Liam, was completing his stage 6 speech which was entitled, “May Day” and was a well researched history of the Lifeboat Service interspersed with anecdotes both humorous and sad and made all the more interesting by Liam’s personal experiences.

Following Liam was Joe Hassett with a speech entitled, “We Couldn’t do that”. Joe delivered this speech with out notes (which was one of the aims of his project) and challenged us to look at the drug problem in Ireland in a different light. A well researched speech backed up by statistics to enhance his viewpoint.

Then it was the turn of Anne Buckley who was doing a Storytelling project. Anne had us enthralled for the duration of her speech as she told us of memories of her Grandmother and stories from the War of Independence, emigration and life in the early part of the century.

Next to the lectern was Pat Duggan. Pat is a past president of Speak Easy Toastmasters and is at present Toastmasters Area 17 Governor (North Cork) and he was doing an Interpretive Reading project. He choose to read and interpret two of Nelson Mandella’s speeches, “I am the first accused” and “Free at Last”

Our last speaker of the evening was Michael Cronin with a speech entitled “Car Trouble” in which he took a hillarious look at his experience with his car, the NCT and general maintenance.

President Anne Buckley also congratulated Michael on his nomination for the Mallow Sports and Leisure Awards which will be held in Springfort Hall on Friday 22^nd of February.

After the tea break it was the turn of our Topicsmaster for the evening, Sean Corcoran who had members practicing their “off the cuff” speaking skills with topics such as, “ Dustin the Turkey and Eurosong 2008”, “little white lies”, “most useless gadget” “3 person murder mystery” and “lucky dip”.

This “Topics” section of a Toastmasters meeting usually lasts for twenty minutes after which it is the turn of the General Evaluator to conduct the Evaluation session.

This is the part of the meeting that feedback is given to those members who presented speeches, good points praised, encouragement and recommendations for improvement made.

Members who evaluate are also practicing their speaking and listening skills.

Ray Ryan Jnr. Was our General Evaluator and gave his view on how the meeting was ran, made observations on how the evaluators performed and offered suggestions on improvements.

Evaluators were, John Dillon, Tony O’Regan, Pat Sexton, Angela Sheehan and Marie Fitzpatrick.

Mary Buckley was our “Ah Counter”. This is a relatively new position in Speak Easy Toastmasters and is designed to help members improve on their speaking by reducing their use of “crutch words” like “um”, “ah”, “like” etc.

Gerry Mulcahy was timekeeper and Joe Hassett and Mary Moynahan were Sgt at Arms.

Speak Easy Toastmasters next meeting is on February 21^st in the Hibernian Hotel and you are invited to come along as our guest for the evening. Don’t worry, guests are never asked to speak at a Toastmasters meeting.

Toastmaster meetings start at 8pm sharp and finish and 10pm with an optional 3^rd part of the meeting in the bar afterwards for a chat.

Toastmasters is a great way to brush up on, or learn speaking skills and indeed listening skills and best of all, the skills are learned in a workshop type environment where the emphasis is on fun and friendship.

Why not give us a call and see for yourself? You won’t be disappointed.

For further information on Speak Easy Toastmasters, visit our continuously updated website at www. Speakeasytoastmasters.com or give our PRO, Sean a ring on 086 6054784

Laughter is the best....

As you look around you, now that we are into February you can see the signs that spring is here. The daffodils are well above ground and indeed in some sheltered places they are even flowering. New growth can be seen on plants and hedging and

There is a notable stretch in the evenings. It makes one feel good.

Of course there is another way to feel good whether it is in spring, or the dead of winter. “Really, and how is that, I hear you ask” and the answer is of course to join Speak Easy Toastmasters.

You see, in Toastmasters we have fun at every meeting and indeed some of us even specialise in fun and good humour.

The Toastmasters International Program is structured in such a way that when a member has mastered the basics of public speaking we then go on to complete more advanced projects and this week we have a look at the Toastmasters Humorous Speech Program.

People like to laugh, right? Of course they do because laughter is a release and an escape from problems and situations that people encounter daily. Laughter has even been found to have positive physical benefits. It relieves stress and tension and relaxes us.

The purpose of the Toastmasters Humorous Speech Program is not to make one into a comedian but to simply help one to use humour in speeches and presentations and indeed when one is talking among a group of friends or one to one.

Using humour in the above situations will help establish a bond with ones audience.

It certainly helps win over a hostile audience and keep them interested.

It will certainly make people remember you.

The Humorous Speech Program is divided up into five separate modules,

A, how to use a short humorous story to open a speech or presentation.

B. to start a speech with a humorous story and to use one to emphasize the main point of the speech when closing the speech.

C. this module requires one to use jokes to emphasize the presentation’s main points.

D. teaches one how to tell an opening joke and string together several jokes in the presentation.

E. this project allows you to use your creativity to tell a long humorous story.

All the material to master using humour is contained in the Toastmasters Humorous Speech Manual and remember that the skills learned in this program are just as valid for someone telling a humorous story at a party, family gathering or, yes, even in the pub.

Many people in Toastmasters used to be of the opinion that they couldn’t “do humour” but after completing this program found out that not only could they “do humour” but were extremely good at it and even went on to take part in and win humorous speech contests.

Don’t just take my word for it, come along to any meeting of Speak Easy Toastmasters and see for yourself. We will be delighted to welcome you as our guest for the night and don’t worry, guests at a Toastmasters meeting are never asked to speak so come along, relax and enjoy yourself.

If you are reading this on Thursday 7^th come along tonight to the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow at 7.50 for and 8pm start. If you read this too late, don’t worry we meet again on February 21. Put it in your diary.

On our program tonight we have Margaret O’Regan as Toastmaster for the evening with Bridie O’Connell as Topicsmaster and Ray Ryan Jnr. as General Evaluator.

Speakers on the program are Joe Hassett, Liam Flynn, Anne Buckley, Pat Duggan and Michael Cronin.

Don’t forget, The Hibernian Hotel. Mallow, tonight. Looking forward to meeting you.

Further information on Speak Easy Toastmasters can be had by visiting your website at www.speakeasytoastmasters.com or contact club PRO Sean at 086 6054784