Something New At Every Meeting

Galway Toastmasters Meeting: Wednesday 4^th February 2015 

I always look forward to our meetings, which are so interesting and you learn something new at every one.  Tonight,  I was not disappointed after another evening of very interesting facts and speeches.

Margaret, our President, commenced the meeting punctualy at 8.30 pm. She read a thank you note from Tom, one of the club’s long standing members, who retired before Christmas. We will all remember Tom fondly with his immensely entertaining, humorous speeches. As Tom said “every little frog has its bog”. 

Our grammarian, Ann, introduced the word of the night as “protraction” and it was used several times.

The Topics session was hosted by Patsy and we were listening to stories from Pat about emu eggs on his way to Roscommon to John talking about the need to own a house/apartment in his native China. From “Operation Transformation” which Jenny likes for the tips on snacks and exercise videos to Emer’s opinion on girls & boys subjects in school it was a good session. The final topic was “Has Ireland turned the corner?” well, that proved a difficult question.

The speeches started with an amazing icebreaker speech by Martin, who introduced us to his life and career. Stephen followed with a Stage 3 speech about his hobby as a coach for Salthill- Devon and we learnt about Leeds United and David O’Leary too.  He has now started Golf. 

The third speech, which was a Stage 4 was conducted by Aonghus on the very unusual subject of Astro-theology and we were shown a superb slideshow with photos of St.Peter’s Basilica in Rome to the planets and astrology signs and their connection to religion.  A mesmerising topic which I knew very little about; you always expand your scope of knowledge attending the Toastmasters meetings.

The last speech was by Donal and it was a Stage 7 project. This was another outstanding speech titled “the power of nature”. Donal also used a slide show with photos to accompany his talk. He asked this audience if we had watched programmes by the Wink Planet/Earth watch, which we declined, as toastmasters don’t seem to bother much with TV programmes. Nobody had ever heard of this show but Donal continued confidently and spoke about Paul McGinley, who was the captain of the European Ryder Cup team and who adapted some “instincts from the animal world”. Donal showed us a photo of geese flying in a V-shape formation and how the geese support each other, if one gets sick or tired. Most enjoyable and fascinating.

A short tea & coffee break followed after the speeches with some delicious chocolate chip cookies and Mikado biscuits.

The evaluators gave their report and recommendations on the speeches.

The officers of the night reported back to the experienced Majella, who was Toastmaster at the meeting. The creative corner was hosted by John, who filled us in on the Chinese New year, which will start on 19^th February and other Chinese traditions. Jenny was General Evaluator and noted that the room was a little small for the meeting and she made a recommendation on it.

I am looking forward to the next meeting already.