Despite some late cancellations, meeting number 16 was a great success. Visiting Toastmaster Tom Hebel (Apple TM & Bishopstown TM & finalist in the District 71 International Speech Competition 2016) took the chair as Toastmaster for the evening and introduced two speeches.
The first speech was from the Competent Communicator manual by Eithne Buckley who is making great progress through the manual. Her speech was entitled "Childhood Summer Memories" and resonated well with her evaluator Theresa Lynch and with all of the audience.
The second speech was from our President Moira O'Brien from the Speaking to Inform manual, entitled "Polly the Parrot", where she introduced the audience to her Quadcopter, a Parrot Bebop 2 drone together with a slide show including two videos filmed with the drone. Her evaluator was Sharon O'Neill.
As the assigned Table Topics Master was unable to attend, we instituted a new idea. Each person in the room gave a topic to the person sitting next to him/her all around the room. This was judged to be a great success in making members think on their feet.
We were delighted to welcome our new member Ado Mazombe to the club. Following the public vote for the best table topic response which elicited a 6-way tie, the ribbon for best Tabe Topic was awarded to Ado for having the courage to join in at his very first meeting.
General Evaluator Ted Mellamphy gave us all a good evaluation ably supported by Timer Sharon O'Neill, and Grammarian Peter Nevile, with Moira O'Brien standing in as Sergeant at Arms.