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!

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.

The meeting commenced with the President telling us about the mission of Toastmasters. It is useful to remind us from time to time about the function of the club and the organisation.

Toastmaster for the evening was Jean, who did a sterling job, with worthy introductions to the different roles and speakers.

Topics were dished out by Phil, largely off the cuff, as his intended role was General Evaluator. As it transpired, it proved to be entertaining enough, with some hilarious stories emerging from all quarters, combined with a little gossip, just for good measure. Shay was awarded best topic for his recollection of an unwanted ‘pet’ rat at home!

After the break, where we were tempted to make gluttons of ourselves with the extra rations of tea, coffee & choccy biccies, we were treated to two fine speeches.

The first, presented by Marg McInerney, concentrated on a current issue, that of saving the planet and energy conservation. This was accompanied by effective illustrations and was well received with its strong opening and summary. This speech was from the advanced manual ‘Speaking to Inform’.

Next was Orla, again from an advanced manual (‘The Entertaining Speaker’), recounting a personal experience combining humour, surprise, pathos and delight. Very dramatic, fulfilling the objectives very well.

Well done to all at this challenging but rewarding meeting.

The meeting opened with the President’s address, explaining how, in an article Shay recently read about speaking to strangers, how similar the concept was to Toastmasters. By participation, and exchanging information, and in so doing, learning the skills that improves our abilities for public speaking. He also stated how he had, somewhat unwittingly,  volunteered himself to be MC at a forthcoming charity fund raiser at a watering hole in the city. He’ll do a great job!

Jean was Topicsmaster at this meeting, once again demonstrating her mastery at finding a breadth of topics to challenge each of us, and considering the numbers present, we each had a turn.

In attendance were guests Vera and John. Congratulations to Vera for earning the award for Best Topic Reply.

Our president, Shay, gave an introduction to the evening by underlining how one can benefit from the skills learned in Toastmasters.

The topics for the evening were given by Marg, and what a weird & wonderful variety we had! They ranged from gambling & drinking to mountain climbing to aviatophobia. A high standard of reply, with no less than 19 of the 26 being two minutes or more.

After the network break, the prepared speeches recommenced the second half of the meeting.

First, Vera Murphy recounted her experiences visiting China, giving us a fascinating insight into the people, attitudes and culture of that vast nation.

Shay McInerney then gave a comprehensive and educational presentation on the do’s & don’ts of how to give a successful speech using PowerPoint. Sound advice with clear and concise examples abounded.

For the next meeting, there are some roles that require filling, so Phil will be contacting members to undertake these. The meetings are of a consistently high standard thanks to all the hard work from you, the members. Let’s keep it going!

See you at the next meeting!

The topics session was, as usual, varied and entertaining, with Jean the Topicsmaster adding her own spontaneous comments (incorporating some bluster it should be added). At times, it seemed at this was tantamount to inciting a riot!

The area final of the International Speech & Evaluation competition will take place on Tuesday 25th March at the Montenotte Hotel. Your support for Liam and Brendan would be very welcome. (Visit http://d71.org/portal.php?page=4&p=(51.904591,-8.447242),12&m=(51.904591,-8.447242)&n=Montenotte%20Hotel for map).

Sean Murphy kept the entertainment flowing with a nice variety of topics.

A very special ‘thank you’ to John Skeates, who was our guest speaker for the evening and on which the evaluations were based. Thanks to all those who participated in the evening, some even fulfilling two roles to ensure the high standard of meeting that we have all worked hard to attain in Carrigaline Toastmasters.Looking forward to seeing you on Monday 31st March. For anyone that hasn’t been able to make the last few meetings, don’t worry – it will seem as if you’ve never been away!

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. And I had completed about 20 minutes of talking time when I stopped, printed out what I had and stood in front of the mirror as I normally would to practice a speech. I started my timer and started speaking out loud. In the end I figured I had about 20 minutes completed so I needed to use the next 5 to bring it all together and then I’d be sorted.

It was then I realised what I had done. The speech was totally unconnected with Toastmasters but here I had automatically gone through the same process that I would have used for a Toastmasters speech. I had written a speech that had a START, a MIDDLE and hopefully soon it will have an END. I had timed it as it would be spoken and not as it would be read, and I had practiced it in front of a mirror to see how it would sound.It struck me that society out there must be daily benefiting from the skills of current and past Toastmasters. We all know that people join Toastmasters in order to learn to speak in public. We have all read the sometimes LAH DE DA testimonials advocating Toastmasters and how it saved somebody’s life when their public speaking skills stopped the rioting crowd from burning down the local GAA club.

Might I suggest that it benefits society in general in much more subtle ways.That simple rule of having a start, a middle, and an end to what we say, we learn from our second speech in Toastmasters. We use it in all speeches including topics, as Liam pointed out referring to Maria Kirks topic reply at our last meeting. Eventually it becomes ingrained and our brains structure our speech that way automatically.

So might I also suggest that you keep an eye, over the next days and weeks, on how you answer questions in your employment, when you are talking socially, even when it’s a question from the kids about homework. You might be surprised to find that you pause a little longer than you used to before answering. That you are probably speaking for about two minutes or so. That your answer has more structure than you thought and that when you finish you are greeted with a short silence.

The silence is because your answer has been so clear, so succinct and so authoritative that those around you need time to consider it before responding. You may even find that the subject changes entirely because, having answered so completely, there is simply no more to be said on that particular subject.

As a society we need better speakers. We need ordinary people to have opinions and to know how to voice them. We need ordinary people who can and will speak up for themselves. We need ordinary people willing and able to declare their interest in their particular religion, their particular politics, their particular interests.

Otherwise you leave the field free to those who would seek to manipulate you with advertising, to those who seek to confuse you with spin, to those who seek to bore you into submission while they get on with their particular version of life. As a result we loose diversity, we loose choice, we loose difference and there is just no point in going on holidays anymore because it’s McDonalds and Coca Cola all the way down.

Our Toastmaster for tonight is someone who I know will have no difficulty voicing her opinion and letting us know what is to happen next. Toastmaster: Celine McGrath

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.