Club Competitions Spring 2011

The focus in Nenagh Toastmasters is for individuals to gain confidence and improve their communications and leadership skills.  In other words it is about self improvement not comparison.

However, twice a year there are competitions for those who wish to further challenge themselves.  This Spring the contest categories were International Speech and Evaluation.

 On the 1st March 2011 the club competitions took place.  The whole meeting was devoted to this.  The contests took place in a specified format with a number of people given specific roles to ensure that the competiton was ensure an efficient , enjoyable but most importantly a fair event. The key roles were the Contest Chairperson (Rose Walsh) who chaired the meeting and ensured everything was well organised.  The Chief Judge (Siobhan O'Leary)  managed the judges, timers and tellers. These roles were great experience and were brilliantly done on the night.  That ensured an enjoyable evening for all.

Nenagh Toastmasters awards a perpetual trophy to each of the winners of our club competitions.  The photos below show 2011 awards with the Club President , Jim McGuire presenting the J.P McGuire Perpetual Trophy to John Brooks and the nnnnnnnnnnnnn trophy to Brigid Hanley.  

There were three speeches presented.  The speakers were John Spillane, Sean Kelly and John Brooks.  Competition was strong.  The judges declared John Brooks to be the winner. Well done to each of the speakers and congratulations to John Brooks who then went forward to the Area finals representing our club.

The next step for Brigid Hanley and John Brooks was to compete in the Area Finals .  These took place at the Castletroy Carlton Hotel, Limerick on the 25th March 2011.  Both did extremely well.  Brigid won the Evaluation Contest and progressed to the Division F Finals.

There were two contestants in the Evaluation Contest.  The contest itself consisted of a sample speech being delivered and the evaluators then gave their assessment of the speech .  The quality of each evaluation was then judged.  The two contestants were John Brooks and Brigid Hanley.  Brigid was deemed to be the winner.  Congratulations to both John and Brigid. 

The photo above shows the contestants for both competitions with the Contest Chairperson, Chief Judge and Club President. The order is

BACK:   John Spillane, Jim McGuire, John Brooks, Sean Kelly

FRONT:   Siobhan O'Leary, Brigid Hanley, Rose Walsh

 The Division Competitions took place in Athlone on the 9th April 2011 and Nenagh was proud to have Brigid Hanley represent us.   Brigis did very well but unfortunately, she did not progress further on this occasion.  Well done , Brigid Hanley.