Galway Toastmasters - 5th March 2025 - Contest Night

 

Last night’s Galway Toastmasters International Speech and Evaluation Contests meeting was a delightful mix of inspiration, encouragement and fun.  Acting President Brian warmly welcomed everyone, including our guests, setting the tone for a fantastic evening.

The speech contest featured two outstanding speeches: The Strange Little Boy by Cormac and Ask by Frances. Both delivered heartfelt messages that truly resonated with the audience. Whether thought-provoking or deeply moving, these speeches were winners in every sense.

In the evaluation contest, Kathy captivated us with her passionate speech, A Place to Be. By the end, we were all rooting for her vision to become reality. Our brave contestants-Pat, Brian, Shahd, Cormac, and Stephen-stepped up to the challenge, delivering insightful and encouraging feedback. Their evaluations were not only constructive but also showcased their confidence and keen listening skills.

Adding to the evening’s energy, Topics master Amelia kept everyone engaged with stimulating and thought-provoking impromptu topics. Laughter, curiosity, and enthusiasm filled the room as participants shared their experiences.

Overall, it was a night of skillful speeches, supportive evaluations, and lively conversations-a true reflection of what makes Toastmasters so special!

Galway Toastmasters 05 February 2025 - Storms, Life Support and Struggle

 It was the first Galway Toastmaster meeting after storm Eowyn. While some of the regular attendees were absent there were a few new faces.  Club President Rob spoke highly of the support East Galway Toastmasters offered to each other in clearing storm debris.  It had been a time of no electricity, water or internet and damage to many people’s homes.

He also asked if the Club would hold an evaluation contest which was voted on and approved later in the meeting. Martin Foran was elected as Vice President Public Relations.

Frances ran an entertaining Topics session.

Peter spoke about how a kind poem his uncle wrote for him during his childhood had great meaning. Mike spoke about how he would include forks, a tribute to his parent’s life of subsistence farming, in his family crest if he were designing it. For Maud the fairy tale of childhood prepared children of a life of bumps and scares as did Peter Rabbit(Bea) and Gangsta Granny(Jarlath). Christine talked of St Brigid and the changing seasons and Rob, the vegetarian, gave his thoughts on hunting.

There were two speeches.

Peter gave an icebreaker speech, which outlined a program he had developed call Le Cheile which through a four-step program hoped to lessen the impact of loneliness and develop resilience when living in life’s ‘dark forest’. The program steps are:

1 Holothropic Breathing

2 Talking

3 Search for meaning

4 Ice bath

Rob gave a well-prepared speech which he was also delivering to a larger audience in the UK the following week. It was a tale of his struggle to gain acceptance for his life as a gay man. Rob told of how from family, to society, to social media, to government obstacles to coping with your sexuality exist. Particularly worrying are decisions by social media platforms for reduced responsibility of social media content. The unforeseen consequences of Section 28 of the UK local governments act which sought to ’limit’ the awareness of homosexual development was also mentioned.

The tea-room was not available for a break which somewhat diminished the social aspect of the evening. Following a short break the were two evaluations:

Rob evaluated Peter’s seeing it as a competently delivered speech, far above the standard one would expect of an icebreaker speech and suggested possible improvements in the physical interaction with the audience.

Michael evaluated Rob’s speech. He commented on Rob’s flawless delivery and admired Rob’s honesty in talking about his sexuality in a life lived in the present time.

Concluding the evening Warren used creative corner to read out ‘well known’ speech fragments and ask us if we could name who made them.

Galway Toastmasters - 30th October 2024 - Joy, Winter and Learning

 

Despite a delayed start, our Toastmasters meeting began on a high note with Maud’s warm welcome and encouraging words. Role holders efficiently outlined their responsibilities, and Shahd introduced the word of the day, Ritual encouraging members to incorporate it into their speaking to elevate their use of language.

Eoin, our Topics Master, delivered a set of impromptu topics that were both varied and engaging. His selection kept with the season’s themes, inspiring lively and entertaining Table Topics discussions.

Three diverse speeches followed: Michael’s Joy, Steven’s Winter is Coming, and Kathy’s Time to Learn as part of Level 2 of the Effective Coaching Pathway.

After a short coffee break, evaluators gave constructive and supportive feedback on the speeches.

Frances then transformed the Creative Corner into a serene, candle-lit setting, reading a beautiful piece in keeping with the season.

Our General Evaluator, Mark, delivered a thorough and uplifting evaluation of the meeting. He acknowledged that, despite the initial delay, we managed to catch up smoothly, and the evening never felt rushed. He also commended Eoin’s well-chosen Table Topics, which culminated in a thought-provoking question: “What are you grateful for?” — a fitting and reflective end that felt like a true blessing. Overall, the evening was marked by wonderful cooperation, inspiring speeches, and a sense of community and gratitude.

Photo (Unchanged): Felix Wong felixwong.com under creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

New Committee

15^th May 2024 – New Committee

Our Annual General Meeting was held on this beautiful summer evening to elect a new committee for the upcoming year commencing on July 1^st. Our President Kathy opened up the meeting, greeting members and guests. Martin then chaired the AGM, calling on the ongoing committee to read their reports on how the club did overall during the year, and what they learned and accomplished from their roles. Afterwards, a short election was held to determine the new committee which are as follows and congratulations to everyone:

 President – Rob

·         Past-President - Kathy

·         Vice President of Education – Brian

·         Vice President of Membership – Warren

·         Vice President of PR – Mona

·         Treasurer – Pat

·         Sergeant at Arms – Christine

·         Secretary – Husnain

Motions were then put forward by club members such as:

1.    All contests to be over and done by the end of November.

2.    Perform a dance with each report.

3.    Continue to use café for main meetings.

4.    Summer party to be held at our venue for meetings.

We then moved to the usual meeting. Pat did a great job as ToastMaster, calling on the various officers to come up and explain their roles. The Grammarian was Mark, who gave the word of the day Temerity, which means the quality of being confident and unafraid of danger or punishment. Stephen put a unique twist on the Table Topics session by handing out lollipop sticks with numbers written on them to member.

There were two speakers for this evening, Mona and Connie. Mona presented her speech on her time as secretary for the club, including what she had and what ideas she brought to the committee. She especially emphasises that without the committee and the work they do, the club would simply not function. Connie’s speech was on different learning styles that people use to learn, and they are different for each person. Even though the projector wasn’t working, and she couldn’t show the presentation she had made, it was a great speech because she knew exactly what she wanted to say.

After the break, Frances gave her general evaluation on how the meeting when, including what went very well and could be improved upon. The officers read out each of their reports and the evaluators gave their feedback on how each of the speakers did. Bea read out a beautiful poem entitled “Hokusai Says” by Roger Keyes for her Creative Corner piece. Kathy then closed the meeting and the roles for the next meeting were filled.

Another Engaging Evening

 

Another engaging evening meeting, with toastmaster Christine guiding the structure of the meeting clearly and eloquently.  The word of the day was “Flourish” and this meeting a lot of people to stand up and flourish with their tales and humour. Topics presented by Paul were varied and captured attention of many .It was noted that almost every person in the room had their say. The nature of mistakes was discussed and how sometimes the fear of making mistakes can limit our actions. Kathy suggested we should play instead as our children do, allow falls , not mistakes, and get up again. Paul then asked us to describe our favourite sandwich. To which confessions of diets , Tayto sandwiches and hidden jars of Nutella all gave us a good laugh. Positive vibes continued as we were asked what we were most excited about today, how to spend our ideal day and describe what we would like to try but have been afraid to. It was summed up well by Cormac, as the best things in life are on the other side of fear.

The speeches this evening were meaningful . They made us feel and reflect. Michael brought us on a level 3 pathway speech, where we were lead into a supermarket to pick what religion we wanted to buy . This developed into a personal speech on how religion helps Michael live life daily, challenges him to do better and treat people better – ended with lovely concept of passing heaven to those people around us.

Ivi then presented his speech the gift of dyslexia . He began to tell his story of his son ,whom he loves more than anything in the world.  His love and the challenges associated with developmental delays in children was very emotive and touched all our hearts, We heard from Ivi again at the end of the night, with a welcome note that this was indeed happy tale.  These speeches were evaluated thoughtfully by Stephen and Connie . Stephen noted that Michael not only gave an excellent speech, and with his tome and mannerisms kept us comfortable throughout.  Connie thanked Ivi for the value of what he brought to us this evening.

Ahh counter and grammarian gave their feedback, followed by a Creative Corner story . It was a beautiful story of horses and fountains where the moral of this story was  : with every story there is always a little truth . Mark was the General Evaluator , whom evaluated the meeting in a positive light , and the meeting concluded with Martin . He gave us an outline of all the elected officer roles and encouraged all members with great enthusiasm to have a go and volunteer for a role!

All kinds of Everything

 

Galway Toastmasters Meeting

Wednesday 3 April 2024

All kinds of Everything

This evening’s meetings ran smoothly despite many unavoidable changes in personal in charge at the last moment.

A thoroughly enjoyable meeting is best described by the following adjectives – serious, thought provoking, humorous, colourful, emotional, informative, and educational.

Kathy, our President welcomed members and guests and placed great emphasis on her admiration of all the people who each week stands up to contribute to the meeting. Mark, (toast master), also acknowledged the courage it takes to take the first step and participates but assured it is always a rewarding experience. All role holders were introduced, and each gave an outline of their roles. This evening’s work from our Grammarian, Christine, was ‘Aficionado’.

Warren (topics master) challenged all assembled with six different topics beginning with a reflection on our Favourite time of Year to our experience of working from home, from our use of Chat GPD to our thoughts on motivation and how we deal with it. We were asked to speak or reflect on Ireland as a welcoming state and again on Irish music and its role in our culture. To ensure that participants have to speak ‘off the cuff” the toastmaster insisted on only one addition to each topic which kept this section lively and energetic.

We had three speeches, which included one icebreaker. Ali’s emotive icebreaker paid homage to his deceased father in a speech entitled ‘Two years on’. Frances gave us an insight into her long involvement with Toastmasters in Galway in her speech entitled ‘Now and Then’ where we learned how this group has evolved and developed over the years, some aspects for the better and others not. Kathy, focusing on the Effective Coaching Pathway, spoke about Affirming Learning, a project and company idea which has the potential to affirm learning for so many students with four simple interventions.

Each of the three evaluations, following the tea break, were comprehensive and forwarded worthwhile advice to all speakers and all speakers and evaluators gave their presentations within acceptable times.  Each role holder reported on their observations of the meeting with some interesting points made. Michael, as part of the creative corner, gave a rendition of WB Yeats’s The Ballad of Fr Gilligan giving a context to the poem before he read it. Jenny (General Evaluator) gave a comprehensive summary of her views on how the meeting was organised. The President brought the meeting to a close with what has become customary at this stage – an opportunity for anyone who did not speak to do so now. It became evident that only one person had not spoken which all were delighted with.

Roles for the next meeting were filled.

Every day is a school day

Our president Kathy opened the meeting punctually with a talk on how beneficial Toastmasters is to our public speaking skills.

This evening’s toastmaster, Warren, introduced the various rolls after giving us a brief history of Toastmasters International.

Roll holders gave a comprehensive outline of their roles and this evening’s word by the Grammarian was ‘Mettle.’

The topics master, Ali, kept all in attendance both challenged and entertained with topics ranging from ‘What would you do as Taoiseach of this country’ which was discussed with quite seriously while the topic on ‘a reflection on your first car or bike’ brought many back on memory lane.  Interesting insights into members’ perceptions on where they saw themselves in 5 years’ time also entertained us.

There were three speeches which brought diverse topics ranging from ‘Selling a Castle’ to ‘Feeling the Fear and do it anyway’ to an interesting insight into the work of the Cadettes Achievements in the Order of Malta.

Following the atmospheric Coffee Break the meeting continued with evaluators feedback on the speeches which were complementary but also constructive in nature. The General Evaluator, Frances,  was happy with the proceedings with some noteworthy suggestions for good practice.  Attendees were brought through a challenging and enjoyable Creative Corner by Paul where he challenged us to find the hidden messages in famous Logos. A lesson for us all.

Another enjoyable and successful meeting, with a few new people joining,  which is always welcomed and who also contributed to the evenings discussions.