Mullingar Toastmasters host open evening
The second Mullingar Toastmasters meeting of the year, on September 22, was an open night and around 10 guests and 30 toastmasters were present when club president, Lorraine Murphy, opened and handed over to Toastmaster of the night, Pat Cavanagh.
Pat’s relaxed style put everyone at ease as he welcomed all and explained to visitors the format of the evening. He introduced the role players, who explained their task, and fáilte officers Rosemarie Elliot and Pauline McCabe welcomed all.
Grammarian was Brian McLoughlin, whose witty approach to all roles is entertaining and his monologue was humorous and philosophical. Tony Viney and Mags Healy Donoghue teamed up on the clock as the timers.
There were four speakers; first was the new PR Damien Rooney, who spoke about the importance of social media to the club and gave words of wisdom on making the algorithm work for them.
Next, Anke Von Bunau, a master Toastmaster, h gave a masterclass on mentoring. She pointed out the wealth of knowledge and experience in the room, some members having been at the first meeting 25 years ago.
The third speaker, Pat Kenny, gave a humorous speech where one gag followed the next and if you laughed too long at the previous gag you might have missed the next!
The final speech was by division director Toastmaster Dolores Brady, who travelled from Westport for the meeting and those present were delighted and honoured to have such an experienced and knowledgeable guest speaker.
Evaluations on the evening were by Lorraine Murphy, Derek Walsh, Joan Heduan and John Waldron.
During the break, Lorraine was presented with a birthday cake, and she had other reasons to celebrate after a huge success of the release of her new novel ‘Into the Woods’, which at one stage showed as sold out in paperback on Amazon. She is inspirational and the Toastmasters wish her success in her literary career.
Table Topics, the part of the evening where members are given a subject to speak on for two minutes, was presented by Linda Gavigan. Some brave guests got involved in this impromptu segment.
If you are going to have an evaluator, you might as well have an award winning evaluator. Philip Howlin, the general evaluator, went though the night’s proceedings like only a prize winner could. Nothing passed his trained observation and he offered tips and encouragement to all club members, while acknowledging all the work that is done behind the scenes to make meetings the amazing success they have become.
The next meeting for Mullingar Toastmasters, on Thursday October 13, is a Humorous Speech and Table Topics Club Contest Night.
Come along and check it out – new members are always welcome.
Maybe you have a best man’s speech coming up, an interview, want to challenge yourself or face your fear of public speaking.
Why not let our creative and supportive learning environment of Mullingar Toastmasters help you? You won’t regret it!