31st August 2022 - Philosophy, Pathways, and Dark Humour

 

The first meeting of the new season of Galway Toastmasters was held on Wednesday, 31^st of August. 

The meeting began when our club President, Pat, welcomed all to the meeting in his usual lively and entertaining manner. He introduced the nights Toastmaster, Maria who give her welcome and started the evening's various role introductions. 

Rob took the stage with his explanation of his role as Ah-counter where his aim was to count the amount of crutch words such as "ah", "um", and "so" that were used throughout the meeting. Next up was the Grammarian, Aisling, with her word of the evening "Empirical". She also had to keep a record of how many times the word was used by the various speakers. Following on, the meeting's Timekeeper, Jenny, explained her role which involved timing the topics session, prepared speeches and evaluations. The role of Scribe was filled by Christine who was tasked with taking notes of the evenings activities. The General Evaluator was Pat and finally, Avril gave an introduction to her role as Creative Corner.

The only role left to be introduced was that of the Topicsmaster. Maria welcomed Luke to the podium to begin the evenings Table Topics session. He greeted the audience and outlined his unique approach to the topics - by proposing prompts rather than questions. He gave a brief background to each topic and then began a sentence which the speaker called-upon had to finish, encouraging creativity and storytelling practice. His topics were varied and exciting, ranging from matters such as philosophy on life, the war in Ukraine, funny experiences, and something people may not know about you. 

The first of the prepared speeches was Frances with her speech entitled "Pathways: Stay or Go?". Frances gave a very humorous and confident speech which included some advice for fellow Toastmasters. She chronicled the ups and downs of her Toastmasters journey and navigating the new Pathways platform. Her speech concluded with some sage and inspiring advice - "You learn most when you're having fun!"

The second prepared speech of the evening was delivered by Mark. His speech was entitled "Dark Humour" which he began by describing a scene from the film "Blazing Saddles". He skillfully drew the audience's attention as he acted out the short interaction between the characters before transitioning into the true story of his personal life for which his dark sense of humour was a welcome blessing. Quite the twist!

The break time was enjoyed as attendees mingled and chatted over tea and coffee.

Afterwards, it was time for the speech evaluations. Brian evaluated Frances’ speech and Martin evaluated Mark’s speech. Both included what they enjoyed about the speeches and what the speakers could possibly work on before concluding on a positive note. 

Finally, Avril delivered a touching poem as part of her role as Creative Corner.

The officers reports were brief but Rob still managed to get a laugh from the audience as he expertly presented his data from the course of the evening, highlighting the crutch words of all the speakers. Aisling listed who and how many times her word of the day had been used and noted it was a difficult word to incorporate but congratulated those who managed it! 

Pat concluded the evening following his general evaluation of the meeting and passed the spotlight to Martin who filled the roles for the next meeting. As such, drawing the session
to a close. 

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 14th, online only via Zoom.