Gold Award for founder of Tallaght Toastmasters
By Aideen O'Flaherty
ONE of the founding members of Tallaght Toastmasters received a Gold Award from Toastmasters International in St Kevin’s Resource Centre in Kilnamanagh on Monday evening, in recognition of him making more than 40 speeches.
John Conroy was one of the four founding members of Tallaght Toastmasters, along with Gareth Coghlan, Mary McHugh, Marie Grange, and had more than five years’ experience in Toastmaster before he helped to set up the Tallaght club.
John Conroy and Gareth Coghlan
Toastmasters focus on developing your public speaking skills and helps people to grow their confidence when they have to give presentations.
Speaking about receiving the Gold Award, John told The Echo: “The award is to recognise that you have done a certain amount of work – you have to do 40 speeches to get the Gold Award.
“It’s an acknowledgement of achieving a certain amount of expertise and competence [in public speaking].”
There are currently 20 members in the club, which is now one year old, and its members are seeing success – Tallaght Toastmasters member Jamie Kelly also received a Competent Communicator Award on Monday from Gareth Coghlan, the group’s Vice President of Education.
John added: “I believe that a good leader needs to be a good communicator as well and a good communicator needs to have good leadership skills. Our programs promote this ethos to great effect.
“Even though we are a new and voluntary organisation we have lots of experienced members who are very generous with their time and all members can learn from them.
“We would also like to hear from businesses in the area and surrounds who would like to know more about Toastmasters and what we have to offer.
“If you are giving a speech now or in the future, we can help.”
Tallaght Toastmasters meet on the second and fourth Monday of every month in St Kevin’s Resource Centre, and it costs €5 per attendance.
For more details, follow Tallaght Toastmasters-Dublin 24 on Facebook.
