Galway Toastmasters - 23rd July 2025 - Discussing the good the bad and the not so pleasant!

 Warren, Toastmaster’s President welcomed all in attendance to the second meeting of the Summer (the first time that Galway Toastmasters have held summer meetings) and gave a brief outline of the nights activities and encouraged all to ask questions.

In his opening presentation Martin spoke about the Club Website and gave all present an opportunity to look at Galway Toastmasters website and at the Toastmasters International website. This was a valuable speech for all and was followed by an introduction the role holders.

The grammarian introduced the word of the evening which was ‘intuition’.

The following topics were discussed under the watchful eye of our Topics master. Topics discussed tonight were.

-        What is next on your bucket list? A topic that brought many down memory lane and reminded them of what they really would like to do.

-        Our views were sought on what the UK labour party is reflecting on giving the right to vote to 16-year-old plus. Views were diverse and interesting

-        Assisted dying Bill has been passed in the UK what were our thoughts on this

-        What is a live skill everyone should learn? Dancing and Cooking were popular with a suggestion that to listen is one of the most important skills as toastmasters we should all learn.

The one speech this evening was from Frances from the presentation mastery – a level 3 speech entitled ‘Heros’. This speech gave us an insight into the work of the RNLI and it was a plea to all to support all their work. It drove home the importance of their work but again a reminder to us all to respect and make good use of this vital service.

The second part of the meeting was chaired by the General Evaluator. Brian evaluated Frances’s speech, and his comprehensive feedback focused on what we all can learn from such an exemplary speaker. The challenge for the next speech focused on the eye contact with the audience.

The Ah counter was disappointed with how redundant he was as there were very little crutch and praised all who spoke so eloquently. The grammarian was pleased with the use of the word of the evening and outlined turns of phrase that appealed to her.

Creative corner was introduced by Warren with a twist – all members were allotted numbers, and a question posed and align it with a number selected to speak. What a wine glass would say? What flag would you ware if you had to? If your mobile phone could talk, what would it say about you? Imagine if you were a straw what would you share at the end of the week?