What an evening we had to kick start the Vox Year! As we settled into our new home of McGrattans, we had the vivacious Nora Duggan at the helm who revved up the evening's meeting with plenty of warmth peppered with spice - including memorable descriptions of the bootylicious nature of flamenco!!!!
What a wonder it was to stand up and welcome so many familiar current faces, a throng of new guests, and returning Vox old-timers! This sets us up for yet another wondrous year!
Our Topicsmaster Mark continued the cordial tone with a fantastically balanced set of topics with a real back to school flavour. These led to a string of confessions and inspirational ideas from our participants! The stand outs for me were when we heard of the ritual sharing of celebrity news, the " RIP Race" that exists between two of our former presidents! Or the newly named " Bertie Bridge" contribution from Fergal, the fantastic call to arms for the Gathering from our lovely Gemma and the lucky dip education initiative that Rosie informed us of that has backfired and has sick kids begging to go to school to get their prize!!!!!
Neither did the second half of our evening disappoint with three superb speeches balanced in their variety and delivery styles. Stephen gave us a provoking argument that knocked holes in the Moon landing and led us believe he " truly" is a conspiracy theorist... Wonders will never cease!
Next up Ahmad gave us a passionate plea in how importance education really is and the biases that exist in how we view further level education! No-one in the audience was left unstirred after this powerful plea.
And last but by no least Tomas delivered a superb " Monodrama" from the interpretive reading manual, a day in the life of a chemist. We were introduced to an array of characters, several predicaments delivered with phenomenal comic timing and personality. There was nothing "tufty" about this performance.....
I can't but mention the lovely tribute made by our poetmaster Dan to the late Seamus Heaney. The poems were selected by our lovely VPM Jacinta and Dan's delivery gave the reverence and lyricism required for both, a really engaging testament to a wonderful poet.
The electric energy that could be felt in the room for the entire meeting bodes well for the rest of the year. A year that has begun with so many changes.... a new home, weekly meetings and the introduction of our new roles; the "Blogmaster", the "Open Mic" section that will encompass and replace the poetmaster role and our very own "Vox Box" .This new suggestion box will ensure we live up to our name as the Voice of the People and meet our members' needs.
There's an exciting year ahead Voxers, let's enjoy and make the most of every minute, we only have one shot at life so let's give it our best!
Your Vox President
Maria