Love, aliens and plastic...not just for Christmas! - 7 December 2016

With Christmas now well and truly on the horizon our last meeting before our Club Christmas Party was opened warmly by our President who promptly handed over to our Toastmaster for the evening, Pat. He introduced the officers for the evening who explained their roles. It was great to see so many new members involved this week. Pat introduced Martin who presented an educational speech called “Delegate to Empower”. This provided insights into delegation, the barriers to and benefits of it. It is good to know it is central to our Toastmasters Club also.

Paddy then provided a wide and varied topics session that covered subjects such as love conquers all, is there alien life out there, when was the last time we felt violent, what is the most boring thing in the world, is Toastmasters too formal and are you afraid of the dark?

We then proceeded to the formal speeches. Our first by Tara was an Icebreaker speech entitled “Everything happens for a reason” dealing with an injury she sustained that held up her running and helped us to get to know her. Next, Greg introduced the idea of beginning our speeches like a James Bond film - grab the audience’s attention. He also advised us to accept each small victory that comes in our speeches. Our final speech was a topical one by Ann called “What can we do” looking at the use and consequences of plastics in daily lives. Over Christmas there is sure to be plenty plastic around but she suggested ways we can break our dependence on it.

We had lively conversation during our break before Jenny, our General Evaluator, began the evaluation section. Ellen, Ruairi and Pat provided excellent feedback on the speeches giving praise for the obvious effort and work that went into the delivery and making recommendations for future speeches. In Toastmasters evaluation is a vital part of our meetings if we are to grow and challenge ourselves.

After the evaluations, we had reports from our Ah-counter Padraig and Grammarian Patricia. This was followed by a wonderful creative corner from Astrid who demonstrated making seafood chowder, cookies and truffles. Quite possibly the most delicious Creative Corner ever! 

Shortly after, Martin announced further details of our Christmas Party. Finally, he handed back to our President who thanked members and guests for attending and closed the meeting.