Interesting topics at Nenagh Toastmasters
The break for refreshments and conversation is an important part of the meeting.
Toastmasters met at the Abbey Court Hotel on Tuesday, October 15, for their fourth meeting of the season, September 2024 to May 2025. Twenty members and three guests attended while two sent their apologies.
John Spillane opened the meeting. He mentioned some thought-provoking quotations from Oscar Wilde: ‘Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.’ ‘Experience is the best teacher,’ and ‘Women are meant to be loved, not understood’.
John Spillane read the minutes of the last meeting.
Toastmaster Margaret Maguire explained how we all change roles each meeting, to give everyone a chance to officiate if they want to. There are two halves to a meeting with speeches before and topics after the break. Margaret demonstrated an exercise on conscious breathing to help us relax before starting to speak, in which we all joined. Margaret considers that the break for refreshment and conversation halfway through the meeting is a welcome opportunity to socialise for 15 minutes.
Timekeeper Willie Grace explained the importance of keeping speeches to allotted timing. Speeches are five to seven minutes and topics should be under two minutes. An indicator light (red, amber, green) supports timing. In a competition, exceeding the time allotted would disqualify a speech, so we endeavor to compose each speech to deliver within the allotted time. Experience improves this skill.
Grammarian Emma McCarthy was on the lookout for crutch words (like erm, so, ah), as a pause is preferable to these and vocabulary; Emma proposed ‘content’ as the meeting's word to incorporate in speeches.
The first speech was given by Tony Spain. His title was ‘Books'. An interesting speech about two books in particular: ‘Man’s search for Meaning’ by Victor Frankl, a psychologist who proposed that we all have choices about everything, which helped him to survive Auschwitz, and ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ by James Herriot, illustrated by an engaging encounter between the vet and a farmer.
Marie O’Sullivan’s speech was entitled ‘A Woman of Substance’ with period photos of her mother, describing her richly eventful life and character.
NEXT MEETING
Toastmasters’ next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 29, in the Abbey Court Hotel at 8pm. Consider visiting a meeting to see if the Toastmasters’ group is of interest to you. Toastmasters are by definition open to discussion, gregarious and sociable. All are welcome.