Last Wednesday, September 7th 2022, Vox Populi Toastmasters made its enthusiastic return after the summer break. Our new club president Irene Ayala was the accomplished Toastmaster of the night, starting off the 2022-2023 year making all feel very welcome. She skilfully introduced the meeting’s theme of memories of our parents, which generated some lovely recollections from the meetings participants.
Amongst the returning Vox Populi members there were three guests. Some guests admitted it was their first time back to an in-person Toastmasters meeting since before the pandemic, and we were very glad to see them. The newly appointed Area Director Aedeen Lane also joined us as TopicsMaster for the night. She treated us to a lively yet challenging table topics session which covered subjects ranging from sports, reality TV shows, the newsworthy Garth Brooks concerts, advice for our younger selves, and suggestions for how best to greet visiting aliens, presuming the alien is visible as Richard Pilgrim so thoughtfully pointed out! This writer was somewhat alarmed that Christmas was mentioned twice. As the evenings are rapidly getting darker, I suppose it is drawing closer!
After the table topics session, we heard a lovely poem from Seamus Costello, entitled ‘Nirvana’ by Charles Bukowski.
During the prepared speeches section, Susie Kelly brilliantly delivered an insightful and personal speech about overcoming writer’s block. There was a list of practical advice which no doubt will be helpful to us all. It could be the encouragement us returning Toastmasters need to start composing out speeches for the new term ahead. I am certainly looking forward to hearing them. I am excited about the next Vox Populi Toastmasters meeting on Wednesday September 21st 7pm at the Harcourt Hotel.
Written by Deirdre McCabe.