Our first meeting in October and the evenings are noticeably cooler. However our Toastmaster Richard opened with a warm welcome to all, members and guests and our 3 new members since last meeting. Welcome Damian, John and Shay!
This evening I had the honour of being the Topicsmaster, and what an enjoyable role it was, which I highly recommend anyone to try out! It was great that everybody in the audience gladly got up to speak, members and guests alike. Well done to guest Wendy who spoke on her first ever topic, speaking about her love of music. Gemma was nonplussed about the arrival of Krispy Kreme doughnuts to Dublin. There was a mixed response to hoarding, with Conor W calling for it to be reframed in a positive way as “collecting”. Meanwhile Conor S introduced us to the Minimalist Challenge, where you throw out one additional item per day during a calendar month. Just take care not to lose all your stuff!
In the role play, presidential candidate Dan endured a grilling from Jill’s no-nonsense Claire Byrne. Richard reminisced about his teenage MySpace account. Shay would be reluctant to run a marathon (I don’t blame you!) but may consider walking it. Meanwhile Michael O’Leary was offered some interesting future career suggestions including SVP charity worker, car clamper and traffic warden. Patrick recommends carrying a good book like Moby Dick in case of being stranded on a desert island, but Gerry suggested a having a mirror to signal for help. Practical advice aplenty.
There were 2 speeches. First Mark gave us an informative insight into the world of science and evolution with his discussion of the discovery of ape fossil Lucy in Africa in the 1970’s. Next up Damian gave his icebreaker speech describing an idyllic rural childhood in Roscommon, fishing like Huckleberry Finn. Later he recounted his nerve racking experience before a best man speech. The audience was agog hearing about how he accidentally burned his suit jacket. Fortunately all was OK!
Visiting Area Director Mairead Murphy complimented the friendly and fabulous people of our club Vox Populi, calling us “a funny funny bunch”. I couldn’t agree more!
The next meeting is 7pm Wednesday 17th October in the Harcourt Hotel, Dublin 2. See you then.
Deirdre McCabe
VP PR Vox Populi Toastmasters