Save the date! Division D contest next Sunday looks like it's going to be a great day. Come along to support our club members- Lorraine & Maureen representing Kildare Toastmasters and dual member David representing Athy. Details below.

We are not sure if this has ever been done before, but we, Kildare Toastmasters, pulled off a unique result in the Area 28 Table Topics competition hosted by Maynooth Toastmasters on Monday 09th October 2017. Members finished First, Second and Third in the Topics competition! How can that happen when each club can only enter one contestant? We hear you ask. No we weren't bending the rules and it is all legal and above board and the official result will read 1st Athy, 2nd Kildare and 3rd Naas Toastmasters. It all happened due to the 'dual member' rule. In Toastmasters if you can enter a competition for any club you are a paid up member for, though from Area final level up you have to declare for one club only. In Kildare we have 3 members who are dual members of other clubs. What happened was our Area Tall Tales and 2nd in Division champion David Clinton was abroad for our club competitions so he entered for his second club, Athy Toastmasters and won both Humorous Speech and Table Topics so competed for them. He won the Area Table Topics. Our own former president Maureen McCowen, Topics champion in our club competition was second at Area and our club's founding member Eileen Loughman, came third at Area in Topics for her other club Naas. Not to be left out from the competitive stage, our other member of two clubs, Adrian Melia, had competed the previous Friday night in the Division M, Area 7 Humorous Speech competition for his 2nd club, Uncensored Speakers in Dublin. While Adrian didn't make the single qualifier cut that Area 7 had, his efforts were quite amazing considering he was discharged from Naas hospital at 5pm and was ready to compete in Dublin at 7pm. But back to our Area 28 finals in Division D, we were not finished yet as our Humorous Speech winner Lorraine Howard came second to Maynooth's Ann Patterson and as in Division D, Area 28, two contestants go forward to the division finals, both Lorraine and Maureen go forward as Kildare's official contestants to the finals in Clonmel while our David Clinton competed too, though officially for Athy. It was a super night, very well hosted by Maynooth and president Paul Duffy, with our new division director Jane Mooney, past president of Maynooth and immediate past Area Director who has just taken over the job from Gearoid Murphy. Thanks to members Eilis, David, Eileen, Maureen, Lorraine, Paul, president Mary and Adrian who travelled to Maynooth. Lets hope for even more at the Division finals. We wish them all success at the Division D finals in Clonmel on Sunday 22nd October.

An interesting article from Toastmasters magazine

Thanks to everyone who came to the Humorous Speech & Table Topics contests at Maynooth last night! Great night with lots of fun and surprises!

Nervous about work presentations? Would you like to improve your speaking skills? Kildare Toastmasters can help! Come along to our Open Night tomorrow, Tuesday 10 October, upstairs in the Silken Thomas, Kildare town, from 7:45 for an 8pm start. Guests always welcome!

Best of luck to all the Kildare Toastmasters competing in Area 28 finals hosted by Maynooth Toastmasters Club in Glenroyal Maynooth tomorrow (Monday) evening. Lorraine and Maureen will be representing Kildare club in Humorous speech & Table Topics respectively. Dual member Eileen will represent Naas Toastmasters in Table Topics, and dual member David will represent Athy Toastmasters in both contests. Come along and give your support! It's going to be a great evening!

One for the diary!!

Congratulations to Kildare Toastmasters dual member Eileen!

David Clinton with Liza, Matt(best speaker on the night), Daniel, Ed and Chris at Mercury Toastmasters Berlin on 27th Sept!

Always worth a visit to Toastmasters club's whenever you travel to another country! as member David Clinton did last night in Berlin where he was made most welcome and gave a speech at Mercury Toastmasters, one of Berlin's English speaking clubs! This follows on a speech David gave earlier in the year in Warsaw, Poland. Join Toastmasters and you are welcome to visit clubs all over the world. Well done David!

Can you believe it but Kildare Toastmasters will have 5 members competing in the area finals of the Humorous Speech & Table Topics. That seems impossible as each club normally only has 2 and after our contest on Tuesday 26th Lorraine and Maureen will be our representatives in the Area Final in Maynooth. But we have 3 members who are dual members of other clubs. David Clinton, who was abroad for our contest, competed for his other club Athy and won both Humorous Speech and Table Topics there, Eileen Loughman won Topics in Naas while Adrian Melia will represent his Dublin club Uncensored in their Area final which is hosted in Uncensored. With Adrian in Division M and the rest in Division D, there is a possibility, with a lot of luck and hard work of having members compete against each other at the District conference in Sheffield. Now wouldn't that be something? But lets not count chickens yet and good luck to all our members as no matter what club they are officially competing, all 5 are Kildare Toastmasters true and true. :-)

Lorraine Howard and Maureen McCowen came out winners of Kildare Toastmasters Humorous Speech and Table Topics competition at the Silken Thomas on Tuesday 26th September. A very high standard from everyone and there were loads of laughs throughout the night. In the Humorous speech contest Adrian Melia felt he was a bit like Charles Darwin in discovering a new sub species of human, namely a type of driver who will not pass out no matter how slowly the car in front is going. Maureen McCowen took to the air for her transport tale and wanted a complete ban on FECKERS where each letter stood for a particularly annoying type of traveller she would like to see banned from flights. Finally our winner Lorraine Howard gave a hilarious account of encountering and dealing with one of her big fears in her house. Lots of belly laughs all around. In the Topics competition "Ignorance is bliss" teacher Maureen (double jobbing in both contests) said as a teacher, she could never agree that ignorance was bliss. Mick Conlon answered in a similar vein while Anthony Casey suggested we all join Toastmasters and we would have the bliss without the ignorance. Paul Kellett was first time contest chair as was chief judge Mandy Connolly and timer Aoife O Dwyer, Eilis and Ryan did counter. We wish Lorraine and Maureen all the best in the Area final in Maynooth. We are back in the Silken Thomas on October 10th 7.45 to 10pm