Grand opening evening - and not impromptu!

What an opening evening for the first Galway Toastmasters meeting for the season! We were warmly greeted at the door by Shane. The meeting was opened by acting president Eugene who was encouraging and explained how much in a short time Toastmasters had helped him.

Toastmaster Frances then took over the meeting. She told how a recent survey on Galway Bay FM showed that women’s biggest fear is not spiders or the husband taking off with a young one, but public speaking!

Next came a lively Topics Session hosted by Shane.  We had a wide variety of topics and had such visual effects as Pat attending the “afters” of a dog funeral and going home to his tiny mutt with giant food and now looking for a buyer... Choice between dogs and cats.  Dogs being around longer the cats have to keep up. Times you should have complained and Jenny being obliged by her server to complain about her uneaten sandwich.  A lively and varied session with many add ons!

She then introduced the officers for the night who explained their roles. The word of the night was “Impromptu” and members were encouraged to use it. We were then treated to four excellent and varied speeches. Margaret for her first speech in the club gave a very touching personal story about finding her birth family.  Then Aisling gave her final speech in Pathways Stage 1 Innovative planning which involved research and presenting gave us a very in depth tour of the pluses and minuses of going to Columbia.  We will not forget the idea of pink dolphins roaming the woods at night to seduce maidens... 

Next came Pat’s speech from the Interpretive Reading manual “The Monodrama” Pat set the scene well and had a good prop the book Moby Dick as the scene presented was reminiscence of the speaker’s father reading it to him and changing it making it more real. Only now did he realize the value of it.  Played with his usual assurance. Next we were treated to a speech from Pathways Innovative Planning research and present by Shane.  He took us on a journey from his finding of Tango to the history of tango and its benefits.

After a short break for tea/coffee and buiskets and mingling Margaret took over for the second half of the meeting. She introduced the four evaluators Mike, Jennifer, Pat and Frank. They all gave positive feedback and good suggestions for improvement.  Mike patted himself for his timing while Frank timed himself at exactly at 2.30.  Then the officers were called on to give their reports.  The Ah counter gave a summary of the filler words including prolonged soooos. Jennifer said the word of the night was used four times and gave an account of wording that appealed to her. 

We then had creative corner by Eugene with a poem he had challenged himself with learning over the summer. The poem “McCavity the Mystery Cat” by T.S. Elliot was delivered with style.  Next Margaret handed over to Eugene who was double jobbing. As VP Education he filled most of the agenda for the next meeting on September 4^th. Then reverting to his role as president he closed a very enjoyable meeting. 

All are welcome, hope to see you there!