How far does the apple fall from the tree?

Report from the meeting of Galway Toastmasters for Wednesday 3rd May.

Our President Pat opened the meeting and then introduced our Toastmaster for the night, Frances. Frances invited the various officers to describe their roles.

Our word of the night from the Donal, our Grammarian was "uplifting".

To begin the meeting, we heard an educational speech from Martin, about ways to create a positive and enjoyable club environment.

Next, we had a fun and challenging Topics session from Doireann.

We had two speeches from the Competent Communicator manual.  The first was from Gearóid, telling us about his experiences working for a peat company.  His speech was evaluated by Padraig.  The second was from Tara telling us about the importance of taking life's opportunities as they come. Her speech was evaluated by Sarah.

Our third speech of the night was from Pat. It was an advanced speech from the Technical Speeches manual. This speech was to be at least 15 minutes long and required that he emailed the club before and after with web links to support his material.  The speech was about using internet sources to research ancestral history through having his DNA tested.

After the break, the meeting was chaired by our General Evaluator Frank. In the creative corner, Tim read us two inspiring poems about continuing on even when life is hard.  Frank read his evaluation of the meeting as a whole, before handing control of the meeting back to our President, Pat.

We had two special awards tonight. Pat completed his Advanced Communicator Silver, and Martin received his triple crown (a very rare occurrence) for completing his Competent Communicator, Competent Leadership and Advanced Leader Bronze awards in one club year.

Pat told us about our upcoming AGM and roles available on the committee for the coming club year.

Our next meeting will be held at 8.30pm on Wednesday 17th May in the Menlo Park Hotel.