Last Wednesday night’s meeting saw us being challenged to ‘try out the things that terrify us’, consider the beauty of farming as a profession as well as reflect upon the joys of parenthood. There was only one problem with the theme of our most recent club meeting however – it made me very hungry! ‘Why was this?’ I hear you cry. Well for one thing, I am a certified Chocoholic and for another thing, I am not even considering giving up chocolate for Lent, so when our fabulous Toastmaster for the evening, Fiona O’Meara, posed the question ‘What’s your favourite chocolate bar?’, my mind immediately began to do wild leaps around the inside of a Cadburys factory, and the result quite frankly, left me salivating, LOL It didn’t help when we learned that when my Toastmaster buddies get the munchies, their favourite chocolate bars include Flake (Fiona), Kit Kat (Silvia), The Milky Bar (Maria), Twix (Ciaran) and Star Bar (Madeline) And that was before we even got to the evaluations when Mark informed us quite emphatically that his favourite ‘chocolate chew’ is Kit Kat Chunky Peanut and most definitely NOT a Kit Kat Crunchie Peanut. Does this latter even exist?
Madeline led a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining Topics Session, covering a range of topics that extended from the merits (or not) of Rag week (or ‘Green Week’ as they call it in Oz, as Merrilyn informed us), to rugby versus soccer, to the question of whether you are a cat or a dog person. Now that’s a tough question! Can you be both? The Vox members were witty as ever in their responses. Rosie announced that football is a game for gentleman played by hooligans; rugby is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen! Fiona informed us that finding a housemate is like dating, you think you’ve found ‘The One’ and that they’re right for you, but then it turns out they’re not really interested and they stop returning your calls. On the subject of cats versus dogs, Dan O’Neill informed us that we were a very ‘ruff’ audience, advised us to ‘paws’ for thought and to ponder on a certain ‘claws’ (clause) ! Where would we be without Dan’s fab one liners eh? And of course, Silvia gave us a warm and engaging topic on soccer versus rugby for which she won the prize for the Best Topic – congratulations Silvia!
Next up was Jacinta, who gave us a beautifully evocative rendition of ‘Postscript’ by Seamus Heaney, as Poetmaster, capturing the essence of the poem in the line ‘’Find the mortal world enough’.
The speeches were amazing on Wednesday night. Jeremy Emmett-Booth gave us a wonderful Icebreaker on his passion for farming. He gave us a warm and witty delivery on why he loves it so much, the cycles of nature, seeing the first swallows flying around, the physical work and the variety of farming. He remarked that he is a farmer without a milk quota or road frontage (!), but is currently pursuing his passion through a PHD in farming.
Conor encouraged us to embrace the things that terrify you with his CC10 speech, stating that if you do them often enough you’ll actually begin to enjoy them. He inspired us all with his account of his first- hand experience of representing Ireland in the Tour de France. What made this even more remarkable was the fact that Conor didn’t even own a bike at the time of applying to get involved!
Tomas gave us a heart-warming, Advanced speech on the adventures and joys of parenting, recounting funny stories of domestic life, nappies, overloaded washing machines, childhood illnesses, etc. He had us in stitches when he told us about the advice he was given to “name your child ‘Gotham’ so that when the baby wakes, your wife will lean over and whisper to you ‘Gotham needs you’ with the result that you get up willingly to tend to the child. Good tip! Should be in the Baby Name Books as a fringe benefit!
The evaluations were as outstanding as the speeches! Mark gave a confident and thorough evaluation of Jeremy’s Icebreaker, complimenting him on his use of imagery. Dan gave a warm and witty evaluation of Tomas Advanced Speech and complimented him on his great use of humour and touching references to his Uncle Joe. Rosie gave an animated and lively evaluation of Conor’s CC10 and praised his storytelling technique; an evaluation for which she was awarded the prize for the Best Evaluator – congratulations Rosie!
Maria gave an energetic and detailed report as Grammarian; Ciaran gave a clear and concise report as Ah Counter.
So that’s it for another AMAZING Vox Club meeting, I’ll conclude by borrowing the question that Conor asked of us when delivering his CC10: “ What’s your big leap? What’s your small leap? Get out of your comfort zone, you will conquer and you will win!” Congrats to Conor on completing his Competent Communicator programme! You’re an inspiration for the rest of us!
See you all at next week’s meeting (with your favourite chocolate bar)
Gemma Shannon, Vice President Public Relations