Special Summer Meeting 21st June 2008

A very enjoyable evening was had by all, including our guests, Eileen Twomey, Celine Slattery (Orla’s mum) and Pam (Phil’s beloved). The venue was both unusual and most interesting, being the Masonic Lodge, Tuckey St., Cork. The interior was bedecked with artefacts, medals, documents, finery and regalia. Something reminiscent of Hogwarts perhaps? We are indebted to Liam Cunningham for facilitating Carrigaline Toastmasters at this fine establishment.

The meeting commenced with Shay stimulating and challenging our grey matter with topics, including sweet potatoes, celeriac, hammers and other mind-boggling subject matter.

 

Liam gave a fascinating insight into the history, tradition and myth that surrounds the Freemasons. Whilst not betraying any of the secrets, it did help to reassure the audience as to the noble aspirations of this oft misunderstood organisation.

 

Celine Slattery was persuaded to give a speech instead of Orla, who was originally earmarked for this slot, and highly entertaining it was too, giving an account of how she went from housewife to modelling goddess until final succumbing to the temptation of an affair with Mr. Kipling!

 

Phil concluded with a brief history of brewing in Cork and of the ever-popular product that is synonymous with the Beamish & Crawford and Murphy breweries – stout.

 

For those who were particularly inquisitive about the Freemasons, Liam partook in a Q & A session after the meeting.

 

From there, we took a short walk in the cool, somewhat damp evening air to the Captain’s Table restaurant (Flying Enterprise), where feasting and merry-making took place. A fine feed was had by all, each of us leaving contentedly, whilst a little fatter of body and thinner of wallet.

 

Now we must look forward to the new Toastmasters season after the summer, embark on training of incoming officers and plan for another successful year.

 

See you soon and have a great summer!

Meeting report for Monday 9th June 2008.

At this, our Annual General Meeting, the meeting started with the President’s address, where Shay looked forward to the year ahead and also reflected on the roles he has performed to date, including that of VPE and Sergeant at Arms. Now he’s looking forward to a break from serving on the committee, but at the same time, will be able to concentrate on future speeches. Our thanks to Shay for his contribution to the club over the past year, and to all the other members who have also added in no small measure to the high standard our club enjoys.

 

Tim, our genial Toastmaster for the evening, introduced Orla, who gave a variety of topics to challenge us all. For example: ‘Do birds have eyebrows?’ They certainly removed us from that so-called ‘comfort zone’.

 

After the refreshment break, we were treated to two fine speeches, the first of which was a childhood tale by Andy Kirk, recalling how he and his brother ended up in hospital after consuming copious amounts of chocolate and port!

This was followed by Sean Murphy’s ‘The Ascent of Man’, with the aid of PowerPoint, depicting our evolution from primitive beings into a sophisticated creature known as Homo Sapiens (‘wise human’), although some may dispute that latter term!

 

The culmination of the meeting was the election of the incoming officers, and these are as follows:

 

Sergeant at Arms: Catherine McCague.

Secretary & Treasurer: Jean Cunningham.

Membership & PRO: Sean Murphy.

VPE: Sean Doherty.

President: Phil Soltan.

 

That’s it until next season, but we are having a special summer meeting on 21^st June – details by separate mail.

Presidents Address – Meeting 25th Feb 2008

Fellow toastmasters, welcome guests and especially our area governor Eamonn Murphy who is joining us here tonight for his second official visit of the year.

A few weeks ago I received an email from the Ukheadquarters of an organisation I’ve been involved with for a long time now. Much longer than I’ve been involved with Toastmasters. I was being invited to speak at our annual conference next June and once I got over the initial shock, I answered “of course, no problem, love to”. Then I sat down to do an initial draft of the 20 to 25 minute talk I’m supposed to give.The initial draft went surprisingly well.

Spring Conference

I received a brochure re the Spring Conference to be held in Killarney on May 9th -11th next and which is hosted by Killarney Toastmasters Club.

There are a wide range of attendance options from accommodation for the whole weekend to one for day visitors only. The day only package may be of interest to Carrigaline members.

Package F:
Saturday: Workshops, Council Meeting and International Speech Contest (Cost: €35 + €15 for the option of lunch)
Sunday: Workshops, Evaluation Contest and Closing ceremony (Cost: €20)

Other packages include the Fancy Dress dinner on Friday evening and the Banquet on Saturday evening.
It’s an excellent opportunity to meet TM’ers from all over Ireland and the UK, to hear the best competition speakers and test the waters for future conferences further afield. Anyone interested in stepping outside the local comfort zone and sharing a car for one or both days might let me know.

Jean and Liam have attended conferences before (maybe others too) so have a word with them. No idea about the workshop contents. On behalf of the organisers, it really helps if they know numbers well in advance, so decide to go, pay the few bobs and assume the best.

Meeting – Feb 11th – Presidents address

 At an earlier meeting I mentioned attending the Area 23 training night in January. While I was there I got speaking to some of the officers from Powdermills club based out in Ballincollig              

I have always been fascinated by Powdermills because of the number of formal speeches they have on their meeting agendas. They normally schedule six speeches in a two hour meeting. Naturally something has to give. It takes time to do six speeches and six evaluations. And for Powdermills it’s the topics that takes the hit and as a result they only have about ten minutes of topics.               

The potential importance of topics was brought home to me this afternoon when I saw someone I knew on the afternoon news. It was Catherine Murphy who lives here in Carrigaline and she was being interviewed in relation to a campaign to highlight the dangers of Cocaine use. Catherine is in a senior position in the HSE and she certainly came across as competent and knowledgeable about her subject.                

but when I knew her when she was a nurse and the mother of one of Marg’s guides. So she wasn’t always doing Tv interviews. I am always impressed when people I know appear in interviews and do well because it confirms my belief that such skills can be learned and if practiced can be perfected.                

We sometimes compare the skills learned at topics sessions to politicians trying to say nothing. This is probably not the best advertisement for topics replies as a competency to be learned. Maybe a better comparison is with learning how to answer questions about stuff you do know – but to do it brilliantly, safe in the knowledge that everything that could go wrong has probably already gone wrong in the supportive environment that is Toastmasters.               

The reason Powdersmills do the six speeches is because of the demand. They get a lot of new members who want to speak. But what they find is that lots of their members will leave having completed five or six speeches. It seems they have got whatever they wanted from Toastmasters by that stage and move on.               

I think many people join Toastmasters these days because of a very specific need. They are not joining a club in order to learn and practice the art of public speaking to a high standard. They are accessing a service because they know they will have to speak to groups of people within a few weeks or months or because they have to make a presentation or because there is a wedding or some other celebration coming up. They have a particular need, maybe it’s fear of getting up and speaking and once that need is satisfied, the motivation is no longer present.                

This poses both a challenge and an opportunity for clubs. Can we facilitate members who have legitimate short term goals? Maybe we should ask potential members what they want from Toastmasters and facilitate them in our programmes. Maybe we can facilitate members who want to give speeches or presentations for very specific reasons associated with their careers. The programme manuals are specific enough to build competency step by step but they are also general enough to allow members to speak about almost everything.                

As members we may have to sit through the odd speech that goes way over our heads and force ourselves to concentrate on the delivery rather than the content. As evaluators we may have to put a bit more preparation into our evaluations prior to the meeting – maybe even read the speech in advance and really concentrate on particular aspects of the delivery, if that’s what the speaker needs.               

So if you have a specific requirement that means you would benefit from a fast track approach – do let the EVP know. If you want a particular member to act as your mentor – again let the EVP know. We might even think of it as providing a service to the community. In order to continue to provide that service we need you to pay your dues and even if you don’t intend to stay the full year, you might consider paying the full years dues. There is something about the mutual scratching of backs that comes to mind here.                                        

So topics builds confidence and speeches build competency. So Participate, experience, educate and learn with our toastmaster for tonight…..  

Powerpoint presentations gone mad

You have been told so no excuses in future. Very funny.

Creating an online presence

This weblog is just another way of keeping in touch with club members and maintaining an online presence for Carrigaline Toastmasters Club. It has a number of advantages over a website in that it allows for feedback from those visiting the blog and it is more dynamic.