GET CONNECTED!

Notes from Galway Toastmasters Meeting 18/03/2015

Yes, indeed! At Toastmasters it’s not only about communication and leadership skills, but also about getting connected with the people around you. Last night’s meeting provided another great opportunity to get connected with a bunch of lovely people.

The meeting started ahead of time at 8.29 pm. Paul our VP for Education stepped in for our president Margaret who unfortunately was not able to attend the meeting.  Paul, who was dressed very smart (as always), commenced the meeting by welcoming the fellow toastmasters and guests. Afterwards he handed over to Ruairí the Toastmaster of the evening. Ruairí showed once more his great leadership skills by making sure that the meeting ran very smoothly from beginning to end. First, he introduced all the officers as follows: Sergeant At Arms - Pat ‘C, Timekeeper - Jon, Grammarian – Thomas ‘L, Ah Counter - Astrid, Creative Corner - myself and General Evaluator – Margaret Sh.

He then handed over to the Topicsmaster of the evening - Ann O'M. Ann challenged our ad-hoc communication skills with topics such as losing a dear pet, going on a safari tour, the new political party Renua, a touching moment with your own mother and a cheque of 20,000 EUR for a charity of your choice. As you can imagine it was not always easy to reach the 2 min. finish line, but everyone gave their best.

After Ann’s nice warm-up, Ruairi introduced the main part of the evening – the speeches. He pointed out that we had four speeches at the same stage of speech – CC8. In China 8 is a lucky number and four times 8 (8888) means enormous luck! 

We are enormously fortunate/lucky having such fantastic fellow toastmasters like Ellen, Donal, Pat and Aisling. They all impressed us with their thoroughly prepared and excellently executed speeches. Well done to all of them!

Ellen kicked off the speech session. The title of her speech was “Under Pressure” and as already mentioned above the stage of her speech was CC8. The topic of Ellen’s speech was the only hyperbaric chamber in Ireland. She told us that the chamber, which is operated at the Galway University Hospital by a very dedicated team of medical staff and members of Galway Sub Aqua Club, is used for the treatment - amongst others - of scuba diving sickness.

The next speaker in the line up was Donal L. Donal talked about the difference between communicating and connecting and the title of his speech was “Connecting in this technology age”. The core message of his speech was that it’s not only about communication but also about making a connection. According to Donal’s presentation connection can be reached through active listening, emotional intelligence and empathy.

The third speech of the evening was given by Pat C and the title of his speech was “Changing everything”. Pat took us on a journey through the history of communication. He started with Jonathan Ive the designer of the iPhone and then went on to Samuel Morse the inventor of the Morse Code. After Samuel Morse he presented us with a picture of a woman who was unknown to us until then. Pat revealed that the woman on the picture was his mother who used to work as a telegraph operator. The highlight of his speech was the demonstration of a real telegraph.

Last but not least Aisling gave the final speech of the evening. The title of her speech was “Why 80% is better than 100%”. Aisling explained during her presentation that it is actually better to perform at an 80% level rather than at a 100% level, because it is - among others - better for our posture. Furthermore, it helps us to keep our stress levels low and to stay healthy in the long run.

After the speeches we had a short tea/coffee break, which we used to connect a little bit more with our fellow members and guests.

After the break Ruairi called on the evaluators to provide feedback to the speakers. Cathryn started the evaluation round followed by Jenny, Gary and Frank. They all complimented the superb presentation skills of the speakers and commented on how much they enjoyed the speeches.

The ah-counter, the timer and the grammarian all did a fantastic job and reported back to the Toastmaster.

I covered the creative corner by reading the poem “Mirror in February” by Thomas Kinsella.

After the reading Margaret provided a general evaluation of the meeting. During the evaluation she walked us through the key aspects of the meeting and concluded that the meeting was very enjoyable and a success.

Ruairi then handed over to Paul who closed the meeting by reminding us that the next meeting was competition night and that there were still roles which needed to be filled.

I am already looking forward to the competition night in two weeks’ time!

- Ivi

To find out more about Galway Toastmasters, visit http://galway.toastmastersclubs.org