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. 

  

Toastmasters: A Safe Place to Fail

Our second meeting of 2015, held on 21st January,  opened with our banner and award ribbons prominently and professionally on display in their new location, and our timing light hovering enigmatically at the back of the room, a credit to our handyman/SAA. The meeting, of 23 members and 4 guests, was kicked off warmly by the besuited VPE Paul, deputising for the President. Toastmaster Kathryn, who was battling a cold, ran a very entertaining meeting with some well selected and amusing quotes throughout to help the meeting flow.

Next was the TableTopics session, which is the part of the meeting we all fear most, and guests find most intimidating. A Topicsmaster presents club members a random topic and the member is to try and speak on that topic for up to 2 minutes. [Topics tonight ranged from; What would you use an intelligent robot for? (it's sad that most of us would get it to do the housework - rather than solve work peace or something!); What makes you rate a restaurant well? (desserts obviously!); Where to buy a holiday home?; Recommend a good walk; amongst others].  The idea of Tabletopics is to train ourselves to organise our thoughts more quickly and be able to present them in a clear and organised manner. It may be tough sometimes, but the first time you make it to the 2 minute bell is a very rewarding feeling. As Toastmasters is 'a safe place to fail' we are in good company when we don't make the bell, sometimes getting up to speak for 10 seconds is huge achievement, it’s the effort that leads to improvement and we are all in the same boat, as they say.

We had 4 excellent formal speeches. Mary gave a fantastic Icebreaker (first) speech, using the quote 'feel the fear and do it anyway', which sums up what Toastmasters is all about! Patsy spoke about the dumbbells he reluctantly received for Christmas and his conversion to their benefits. Pat spoke of faking identities to infiltrate subversive groups and finally Paul simplified and demystified the Tarot for us.  

They were all very well presented speeches and the speakers were analysed and commended on the things they did well be their evaluators in the second half of the meeting. Each speaker also got some suggestion on an area for improvement from their evaluator. Along with the learning by doing approach, this is the key route for improvement in the Toastmasters system.

It was a classic meeting with fun and learning in equal balance. Our next meeting is on February 4^th at 8:15 in the Menlo Park hotel. Visitors are always welcome so feel free to pop in and see what happens; it might just change your life!

galway.toastmastersclubs.org

An Evening of Firsts

Notes from Galway Toastmasters Meeting of 07/01/2015

The First Meeting of the Year - An Evening of Firsts

This was our first meeting of the new year and got off to a good start, a well attended meeting with several guests in attendance.  Our president Margaret opened the meeting and introduced our Toastmaster for the evening - Aisling who took on the role for the first time and did an excellent job of managing the meeting.  

Our Topicsmaster, Patsy also taking on the role for the first time introduced a varied range of topics.  These varied from discussion about unwanted Christmas gifts, New Years resolutions, new political parties and Imelda May's song "OMG Its good to be alive".  These led to a lively and humorous discussion and we even heard that a member managed to loose weight over Christmas.  

Aisling introduces 4 speeches for the evening.  The first was an Ice breaker from Trevor using interesting visual description in delivering his speech. This was followed by a stage 6 speech from Joseph where we learned about the course course of true love.  Frank followed with an entertaining ATM Bronze  speech entitled Foxes Glassier Mints - The Cool Clear Mint.  We were then taken on a journey of the various  customs of Christmas around the world, by Margaret delivering her ATM Silver speech.   

After our break the meeting resumed again with constructive evaluations offered by Ann, Jenny, Catherine and Garry.  Frances was the General Evaluator for the evening.  We had an interesting creative corner from Donal who read a number of quotes from W.B. Yates. 

Our next Toastmasters meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 21st January 2015 at 8.30pm in the Menlo Park Hotel.  Guests are always welcome.

galway.toastmastersclubs.org

Try Galway Toastmasters

Is Toastmasters for you?

Built around local clubs, Toastmasters is an non-profit, international organisation dedicated to helping its members develop their public speaking, communication and leadership skills.

The Galway Toastmasters club meets every second Wednesday at The Menlo Park Hotel.  Our meetings are always light-hearted, supportive and welcoming. 

We had a vibrant meeting on the 13th November.  Our Table Topics session, led by Frances, was filled with laughter with topics ranging from missing roundabouts, the story of a snowman, to a two minute play between members about arguing neighbours.

In every meeting, members give speeches they have prepared as part of the Toastmasters programme. We had four speeches this week including one Icebreaker (a member’s first speech). The topics ranged from growing up in Ireland, to Bob Dylan, LinkedIn and even a scene from Jaws.

Is Toastmasters for you? Please visit us at our next meetings on Wednesday the 27th November and 11th December at 8.30pm in the Menlo Park Hotel, Galway. The door charge at each meeting is €7.  

Visit us online at galway.toastmastersclubs.org