Our first meeting of 2014 opened with gusto! Tony, who did a great job as Toastmaster for the evening, welcomed us all to the meeting, giving a particularly warm welcome to our new club members. Fiona Fahy, our lovely Topicsmaster, stated that her aim with the topics of the night, was to be ‘provocative and challenging’, she threw down the gauntlet to us to “argue passionately” for our topics. And do you know what? We did!
Paul shared with us his New Year’s resolution to do the Wicklow 200 km cycle this year.
Staying on the theme of striving for goals, Martin quoted the thought provoking African proverb ‘If you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far, go together ‘. In answer to the question ‘How do you measure the value of a life?’ Elaine shared with us her belief that ‘you can measure the value of a life but you won’t necessarily see that value unless you look for it’. Her poignant reflections on this topic earned her the prize for Best Topic of the night!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tomas took on the persona of Justin Timberlake and told us all why he had discouraged any further romantic interest from Madonna. Now that was interesting!
Fiona O’Meara cited the highly recommended book ‘ How to win friends and influence people’ by Dale Carnegie as evidence that the way you win people over is by being nice to them. We can all think of a few people who should read that book now can’t we? :)
Lionel confided in us that he wasn’t sure if he would get away with wearing a Onesie and a tie in his professional life. Lionel, we’re not sure we would either ! While Colette maintained that Onesies actually save lives, citing the example of a woman in the UK who gave birth to her baby inside her Onesie before she made it to the hospital. Good tip for all the expectant mothers out there :)
The speeches in the second half of the meeting were inspirational and captivated the audience from beginning to end. Well done to James, who delivered his Ice Breaker about his near death experience when he had an accident in 2005 on his bicycle. He clearly demonstrated courage in the face of adversity.
Martin gave us a Stage 3 speech entitled ‘Fresh look’ and shared with us how he went in search of new experiences, a new perspective and took up a new hobby, kite flying. He posed the question ‘Do you need to become a kid in order to feel alive again?’, and reminded us that ‘Innocence is bliss’.
Tomas gave us a delightful humorous speech from the Advanced manual entitled ‘Health is wealth’ about the different customers he has had to deal with in his business and how he has built a rapport with them over the years. He also shared with us the example of an unusual boss who gave his employee the option of taking his bonus in cash or in Prozac. Is this the shape of things to come?
The evaluations of the night were outstanding. Colette, commended James on his storytelling technique, and provided an animated and comprehensive evaluation.
Elaine gave a very thorough and upbeat evaluation, which was as humorous as Tomas’ speech! She complimented Tomas on his structure and the huge number of laughs he received for his speech.
As regards the remaining roles; Jeremy, gave a very comprehensive report as Ah counter, he also complimented Martin on his use of pause in his speech.
Jean Marie provided a detailed report on word usage throughout the meeting, highlighting the novel word usage by Vox members during the course of the meeting.
Andrea gave a very accurate report on the timings of the speeches, evaluations and topics of the meeting.
And finally, Paul, as General Evaluator, complimented Jean Marie who stepped in at the last minute as Grammarian, and Jeremy on doing Ah counter for the first time. He provided an excellent overview report on the whole meeting.
So that’s it Folks, first meeting of 2014 over, many more thrilling club meetings to come! If you haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions yet, make it your first one to come along to as many meetings as possible this year! See you soon :)
Next week: don’t miss out on Tomas’ workshop on Humorous Speeches, at 7pm in McGrattans on 15th January!
Gemma Shannon
Vice President Public Relations, Vox Populi