Toastmasters have lots to talk about
Nenagh St Patrick’s Day parade among topics
The latest meeting of Nenagh Toastmasters on Tuesday, April 8, was in the Abbey Court Hotel.
We were welcomed by our president, Eileen Kennedy and the Toastmaster for the night was Sean Butler. Sean’s first task was to introduce the other members, who in their respective roles would contribute to the running of the meeting. David Healy was performing the role of Topicsmaster and he provided the meeting with many varied topics such as, who would be your favourite sporting legend, to the recent public meeting with the local authority planners to what could be done to improve the magnificent attendance at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Nenagh, and many other interesting topics. A great start for his first role as Topicsmaster.
Topics are a way to teach us how to speak off the cuff for two minutes on a subject on which we have no prior knowledge of and it is a great way to build confidence.
Brendan O’Brien in his role as the grammarian emphasised the importance of the correct use of pauses instead of inserting crutch words that do not add to the content of the sentence.
Conor Boland explained his role as Timer, pointing out that keeping within the permitted times was a way of disciplining a speaker when preparing a speech and maintaining the interest of the audience. The final member of the team was Rose Walsh, performing the role of General Evaluator, tasked with providing feedback on how the meeting was run, identifying the positive points and making appropriate recommendations for any improvements for the future.
The other part of the meeting consisted of a number of prepared speeches, the first speech by Margaret Cullinan delivering a very enthusiastic and well prepared speech on self improvement, a speech very well evaluated by John Spillane.
Joanne Callinan gave us the next part of her extensive and interesting world travels, delivered with humour and great gusto, and very ably evaluated by Aksana Sidarchuk, this role providing Aksana with her first opportunity to perform as a speech evaluator.
Between the topics and the speeches was a tea/coffee break, frequently considered as being of equal importance to the first and second half of the meeting.
Our next meeting is a little unusual as it is our poetry and tall tales night, so if you want a great night out, meet new friends and improve your personal skills, then come along to the Abbey Court Hotel on Tuesday, April 22, at 8pm.
Guests are always welcome and free of charge.