A Year Like No Other – Dublin South Toastmasters 2020/21
Toastmasters in the 2020/21 year has been a year like no other at Dublin South Toastmasters, a year defined by online meetings. We may be apart but we have definitely not been alone, and for many of our members, it has been a shining beacon in the toughest of years. We have been very lucky that none of our members have had any repercussions as a result of the pandemic.
Club Contests
Of our five club contests, Colette Ainscough (CC, CL IP2, PM1) managed to win Tall Tales, Humorous and International Speech contests, going on to represent Area 54 at the Division Level no less for the International Speech Contest. This makes it the third consecutive year that Dublin South has had a competitor at that level. This means we have been represented at Evaluation, Humorous, International and Table Topics contests at Division Level at least once during that time.
Stuart Parkinson (ACB, ALB) managed to win the Evaluation Contest and joined Colette at the Division Level in April, and Michael Kenny (ACG, ALB) continued his fine form in Table Topics making it to Area level before coming up against stiff competition.
Dublin South Toastmasters 10 Year Anniversary
This year, Dublin South Toastmasters achieved a big milestone, the 10 year anniversary, with many Past Presidents and Club Founders including John Kelly (DTM), John Joyce (DTM) and Colin Byford (DTM) joining in for an exceptional evening. Stuart Parkinson (ACB, ALB) took on the Toastmaster role and rose splendidly to the occasion.
We had exceptional speeches by club VPE Garvan Gallagher (CC, ALB), Michael Kenny (ACG, ALB) and Chris Werner (DTM) and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Awards and Achievements
The members who have achieved awards this year have done so in Presentation Mastery (PM), Innovative Planning (IP), Leadership Development (LD) paths, across 4 different levels.
- Colette Ainscough, IP1, IP2, PM1
- Susan Brown, IP1, IP2
- Adrienne Burke Ringrose, PM3
- Graham Dungan, IP2, IP3
- Ruairi Farrelly, DL2
- Peter Golden, PM3, PM4
- Stephen Harper, DL1
- Derek O’Brien, PM1
- Shantha Perera, LD1
- Christopher Werner, IP1
A huge congratulations to everyone who has achieved Pathways awards this year. We are looking forward to your continued success over the course of the coming year. We also wish the continuing success of our newer members who are closing in on their Level 1 awards.
Our more coveted prizes however, the awards for Most Improved Toastmaster of the Year and Toastmaster of the Year couldn’t have been given to two more worthy recipients, Eilish Cashman and Colette Ainscough, who, despite everything showed up at nearly every meeting throughout the year and more importantly than that, kept everyone else’s spirits up.
A Look Forward to the Year Ahead 2021/22
Garvan Gallagher will lead a strong new committee into the new Toastmasters year, welcoming three new committee members. Colette Ainscough will take over Logistics Manager, Eilish Cashman as Secretary and Stephen Harper as VP Membership. We will continue to stay online, but hopefully we will be back in person before too long. Regardless of the setting, it will be busy when we result in September. Our first contest of the year, the Tall Tales contest will on Tuesday 21st September.
In the meantime however, our first meeting back will be held on Tuesday September 7th, starting at 20:00. We look forward to welcoming you all back then, or maybe even for your first Toastmasters meeting! Have a safe and enjoyable summer!
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