What happens at our club meetings
Before the meeting startsWe start promptly at 7:00pm on the second and fourth Thursday of every month between September and May of each year.
Before the meeting proper starts, club members chat informally and meet and greet other members, new members and guests.
OpeningAt 7:00pm, the President calls the meeting to order. He will open the meeting with some topical comments and introduce the Toastmaster for the evening.
The Toastmaster will take the gavel from the President and chair the meeting for the remainder of the night, introducing the speakers and participants as required.
Prepared speechesIn the early part of the meeting, members (who had previously agreed to be on the programme) will be invited by the Toastmaster to deliver their prepared speech. Speeches are typically of 5-7 minutes duration and a meeting will usually consist of 3-4 prepared speeches.
Speeches are typically written to fulfill objectives of a Toastmaster manual and each members decides what their own speech will be about.
These speeches are then evaluated later in the meeting.
BreakAt about 8.00 or 8:10 those in attendance will go for a 10/15 minute tea/coffee break.
After the break, the Toastmaster will call the meeting to order again and introduce the Topics Master.
TopicsThe Topics Master is delegated to compose a list of topics (before the meeting) and ask members to stand and respond extemporaneously/off-the-cuff to the topic that has been given to them.
Guests are never asked to partake in this section and members may opt out until they wish to partake - but it is usually more fun and a great challenge to have a go!
The topics section provides a real opportunity for members to learn to 'think and respond on their feet'. Members will speak for a minute or so on a topic.
After the topics session has ended, the Toastmaster will introduce the General Evaluator (GE).
EvaluationsThe GE is delegated to evaluate all that has happened throughout the evening and express his/her comments on what has been done well and on what might be improved.
The GE invites evaluators to come forward and present a 2-3 minute evaluation of a speech that had been delivered earlier in the night. There will be a separate evaluator for each speech. A typical evaluation will offer constructive evaluation and supportive comments about the speech that a member delivers.
The GE concludes his/her evaluation and hands control of the gavel back to the Toastmaster.
ClosingThe Toastmaster offers his/her closing comments and passes the gavel back to the President.
At 8:55 PM the President closes the meeting. Typically, members go to a nearby hotel/pub for a drink and a chat.
The wider Toastmasters organisationEach Toastmasters club relates to other clubs in its ‘Area’. Each ‘Area’ exists within a ‘Division’. Each ‘Division’ is affiliated to a ‘District’ (Ireland & GB) and all the Districts together make up the Toastmasters organisation throughout the world.
Every Autumn the club holds a club ‘Humourous Speech Contest’ and a ‘Topics’ contest.
Every Spring it holds a ‘Speech Contest’ and an ‘Evaluation Contest’.
The winners of these contests advance to represent the club at ‘Area’ level and perhaps subsequently at ‘Division’ and ‘District’ levels before the ultimate stage – the Toastmasters International contests that are held in the United States each year. It is essentially a world championship of public speaking.
Significant events in our calendarHumourous Speech and Topics Contests (September23rd)
New Members night (October)
Mulled wine and mince pies night (December)
Christmas Dinner and Tall Tales (January)
Theme night (February/March)
Speech and Evaluation Contests (April)
AwardsMembers follow programmes laid out in the Speech and Leadership manuals to achieve the certified awards described in the graphic:
2010/11 CommitteeThe club is run by a committee under the guidance of the Club President as follows:
President: Patrick Devaney
