Thursday, 11 February 2021

27th January 2021 - Conflict Resolution, Mentoring and History under Your Nose

 

Our meeting this fortnight was interesting and enjoyable. Our President, Martin, began the meeting by welcoming everyone.

He reflected on the historical events that took place on this date. This included the tragic accident on Apollo 1 that killed the astronauts. They were brave and curious as they attempted to travel into the unknown.

Our Toastmaster, Frances did a fantastic job introducing the officers and speakers.

We were reminded that going out of our comfort zones is often a positive experience and attending our Toastmasters meetings can enable us to do so. Mentors are always available in Toastmasters too and this provides support and experience.

Christoffer explained the housekeeping rules, including some tips on speaking during our zoom meeting.

Our grammarian, Bronagh, selected ‘esoteric’ as our word of the day and it was used several times throughout the meeting. ‘Esoteric’ means ‘requiring or exhibiting knowledge that is restricted to a small group’.

Our ‘Ah’ counter, Mรกire, was very accurate and noted lots of ‘aaa’s and ‘ahs’.

Our timekeeper Maria used a coloured background to show the green, orange and red lights. This was very effective and it worked well throughout the meeting.

Aisling Nestor told an interesting story for the creative corner this evening, with lots of fibs!

Our topics section was very successful with a number of add-ons. Aisling Courtney selected excellent topics including our progress with our New Year’s Resolutions and Veganism for January (also known as Veganuary!)

We had four speeches this evening:

Cormac gave a fantastic speech based on ‘Understanding Conflict Resolution’.

Christoffer completed his excellent second speech based on ‘The 12 Week Year’.

Eugene’s speech entitled ‘The History Beneath your Nose’ explained the interesting influences languages have on each other.

Martin gave an inspiring speech on the importance of mentoring and how positive and encouraging it can be.

After the break Pat, our general evaluator, introduced the evaluators (Aisling C, Molly, Jenny and Aisling N). Our evaluators did a great job highlighting the positives of each speech.

Pat pointed out that a more constructive approach may be more beneficial for speakers as recommendations are important.

Our officers gave their reports and our meeting concluded at 10pm.

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