The meeting was opened by our President Pat who gave an overview of the Toastmasters mission. This was very helpful as there were a lot of new members and guests. He then handed control to our Toastmaster for the night Liam who brought his own style and good humour to the role. He introduced the officers of the night who explained their roles. Donal was double jobbing as Ah counter and Grammarian. He explained both roles and gave the word of the night RESPLENDANT. Mike explained that he could do whatever he liked for creative corner.
We were then treated to a very comprehensive educational speech on mentoring by Donal... Donal went to the trouble of having a handout of names of potential mentors and mentees for people to fill in and return. He linked success of a club and its members to mentorship.
The followed a lively topics session led by Astrid. The topics ranged from habits which led Pat to an amusing tale of all his lists. Sarah had a nice story about her mother and Nutella. Mike talking on fashion seems to have a fixation about men and sun-glasses and pop socks. We continued with the choice between a planned trip of a last minute getaway. Which TV reality show had us kayaking around the rivers of Ireland. Valentine’s Day elicited a lovely low key romantic plan for the occasion.
We then moved on to the four prepared speeches.
Dara’s Icebreaker posed the question Do We Ever Change. We were brought on journey which brought us from Inish Mann and things hated as a teenager and the longing to leave to full circle enjoying those hated things and choosing a place to live not unlike Inish Maan in its nature, closeness to water and quietness.
Gearoid’s Stage 2 speech focusing on structure was titled Social Influence and I. It gave a great insight on how difficult it is to ignore the opinions of others and not be influenced by them.
A technical hitch brought Pat’s ACS Interpretive Reading speech forward. Despite the screen being lilt and movement around the front Pat performed with aplomb. He gave a rendering of Lady Gregory’s Play “The Rising of the Moon” with great skill. It involved changing character by voice. He even took the singing parts and sang them.
Technical problems sorted we then had Padraig’s CC7 speech focusing on Research. The title was Tell Me About Yourself. Referring to the job interview question used in the title Padraig using a very nice series of slides gave us insight into himself and also illustrated how to make it unique which would be useful in an interview.
After a pleasant break and a chance to socialise we returned to our seats.
Liam then handed the meeting over to our General Evaluator Pat who called on the Speech Evaluators to evaluate the speeches. The all gave good positive evaluations and gave useful ideas for enhancing future speeches.
Pat evaluated the evaluators and then received reports from the officers. Donal reported on the word of the night which was well used. He also quoted his favourite sayings of the night. He then
gave a comprehensive overview of the ahs, ums etc. He pointed out that it was a help to improvement rather than a criticism.
Mike then supplied the Creative Corner which gave us Van the Man and a quiet visit to Cong with a special lady.
Pat commented positively on the meeting and filled rolls for the next meeting. He then handed back to our President Pat. Pat explained that we mark achievement of the Icebreaker Speech and CC’s with a pin. He then gave a pin to Dara to mark the completion of his first speech.
Pat then closed a very enjoyable meeting.
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