Is Santa Legal?

On Wednesday the 8^th of December a dedicated bunch of Toastmasters from two Galway based clubs managed to come together during a break in the rain to celebrate their 8^th annual Christmas joint meeting. Oranmore and Galway Toastmasters have a shared history typical of the kind fostered in toastmasters amongst those who put themselves out there to public speak(in a supportive environment). 

The Galway clubs president Paul  promptly kicked off the meeting with bit humours and tit for tat with the Toastmaster of the night Oranmore 

Rob and also introduced the supportive positive vision that is the toastmaster ethos. Rob our toastmaster for the night took to floor with a succinct introduction of his own successes in Toastmasters and the way he followed through in this meeting is testament to his experience in Toastmasters. He eased the tensions with both a firm command of the room coupled with witty summaries basically showing what artful facilitation of a meeting looks like. Pat jumped in and explained how his job as sergeant of arms was logistical in nature including the preparation of 3 Christmas trees (which may or may not be true) and also the most important provision of teas and biscuits for the interval break.

Pat C was up next up and showed the subtle of his educational speaking prowess with a precise yet vivid explanation of his role as general evaluation of the meeting and his expectations for the night. Lofty expectation indeed I’m just hoping we can deliver! Our Ah counter was up to warn us about oh and ahs and other crutches (not smoking and drinking - just words that betray a speakers nerves) with need to get rid of. Marie gave the word of the day concept in polished yet jovial fashion and yes that is the word we got! Ruairi was up next and matter of factly explained that timing is everything in speeches … who is timing Ruairi? I was up then I was jovial to the max to explain my scribe role.

Dorreen was then up to explain the creative corner something that always gets the interest of the masses and Doreen assured us she had a surprise in store. Later, (I realise I have moved away from the chronological nature of my writing to date) she would wow is with night before Christmas using legalise which made Santa sound like a criminal. People would be suing him if Lapland had extradition processes in place.

It was then time for the customary table topics where subjects to discuss are thrown at toastmasters unrehearsed which can drive fear into most of us yet has the potential to inspire the truly gifted. Gary’s topics were varied and mixed with a Santa being offered up as a topic and Donald Trump was offered as a sexy santa by a Oranmore toastmaster who’s blushes will be spared. Paul got in a reply on the Santa sneakily (a seasoned move to avoid being asked a new topic directly) in with how Santa can bring joy in mundane days in the classroom.  A toastmasters hospital pass was delivered to the scribe who mumbled his way through a life full of failure in 2 mins (aren’t we all our worst critics). Pat or sergeant of arms got in another funny point with a concrete description of how the Mayo team crumble under engineered failure testing. Gerry introduced himself as a bit mad and as he was speaking later madness is clearly a line in the sand of good speaking. Rob got in with a timely witty summary of the topics session which was a nice touch.

We had a first time speech maker up first. Paddy has being pushing himself into the fray as a skilled of the cuff speaker since he arrived on the scene at toastmasters and finally owned up to being a gaelgoir in his first speech. A gift for language and speech in general was evident as he took us on a journey full of humour and pathos on his passion for an Irish language in decline and managed to introduce and remind us of its beauty and richness in capturing our culture and imagination.

Meabh was up next and had a nice transition from the previous theme with a vivid interpretation of the fabric of society. This was a multilayer speech with props of a plane grey single thread torn fabric and a multi-coloured tightly woven fabric to explain the impact of migration. I love the pro-immigration message that it delivers new richness to Irish society.  It’s rare to see a rich metaphorical speech and they are the type of speeches usually reserved for the vaunted international speech competitions (hint hint).

Jenny was up next for her stage 10 (I love a stage 10 and breakthrough moment for most speakers) and we were in for a treat with another metaphorical speech about a Doyles cafe divined on Jenny’s enthusiasm for toastmaster’s concepts and leadership passion for making things tick in her coffee shop / role at toastmasters. The audience was in no doubt about jenny’s real passion of getting stuck into everything and making it happen. Jenny motivational approach summed up how creative the night was getting with stretch concepts. Her team / fellow Toastmasters message was a call to arms on how it’s the team that realises potential. Leadership and involvement is the reward.

Next up was the aforementioned Gerry. A seasoned toastmaster Gerry was tasked with as sometimes tricky storytelling speech and folks stories was the guiding theme. Gerry took us on whistle-stop tour of Mourne mountains folklore in a fast paced entertaining re-enactment ‘in this very place’ of stories from Queen Meabh attempts to capture Tain Bó Cualigne to the battle of Finn MacCoul and Ruiscaire to the love story of Lorcan and the Long woman and a grand finale was  a nice Segway into a short singsong of the lovely mountains of Mourne .

We should really have to pay for nights like this.  

The rest of the meeting is where we evaluate speeches and feedback on speaking and leaderships skills shown at Toastmasters meeting and to find out happens here you have come and meet us! We are always happy to see new faces with new ideas who want to learn, listen, contribute and speak!

Is Santa Legal