Special Occasion Speeches – Project 4

Presenting An Award

This project has a time of three to four minutes and this final version came in at 3min 55sec but that was only after pretty severe last minute cutting. As I practiced it and got the the pace and pausing right I kept going over time. Hence the cutting.

The evaluator raised a number of issues:

• Failure to liaise properly with the Toastmaster on the night. This arose because my follow-on speaker was doing project 5 and accepting the award. We hadn’t organised how we intended to handle that with the Toastmaster: where people would stand and so on.
• The two speeches were not properly adapted, one to the other. This was due to emails going astray more then anything else but I should really have made sure my opposite number had my speech well in advance.
• Signs of nervousness that may be due to lack of confidence which I should address. Not sure what I could do about this.
• Take more control of the room. Again I’ll have to speak to my evaluator to see what exactly he means.
• He also raised one other useful point about the difference between writing for speaking and writing for reading. He considered many of my sentences to be too long and complicated making them difficult to recall when speaking. This results in over use of notes. This is very good advice. I love language and especially well constructed phrasing but that does make remembering the exact phrasing hard and that causes me to panic a little. So this is one I’ll be taking to heart for my next speech.

While these may seem rather petty/severe by normal meeting standards, the speech was delivered at a club formed specially for speakers doing advanced manuals and wishing to progress to a high standard. The assumption is that we know the basics and want to address the small things. So if we can’t handle the heat, we need to vacate the kitchen.

—————————————-The Speech————————-

When people retire from community work wonderful things are often said about them which they wish they had heard before they had retired and which would have being of massive encouragement when things got that little bit tough.

So each year we recognise the contribution made to community over an extended period of years by a single individual who is still active in their community by presenting a lifetimes contribution award in order to recognise the excellent work they do.

This man’s involvement with the GAA started as it does for most people, as a participant.He himself was at the receiving end of a previous generations contribution to their communities. As a football player he won both Club and Junior titles.

While we were chatting earlier he told me he played both full back and centre back but while his playing position may have been defensive, his subsequent career and contribution to the GAA in West Cork has been to lead from the front.

I’d say he’s held every administrative position his club had to offer, Secretary, Treasurer, PRO and now Chairperson.

He has even found time to be a selector for teams from under 10’s all the way up to Senior club level.

As always with people who give so much of their time and who put so much effort into what they do, they end up being asked to shoulder additional responsibility on a broader stage.

Tonight’s recipient has served on the County Board, chaired the Beara Division Committee and has been on the General Purposes Committee without which, as many of you will know, the games would not take place.

Now Beara has some of the mildest weather this country has to offer, but you just can’t do GAA without getting very familiar with mud, and wind and rain.

You also need to like driving along some very poor country roads, eating sandwiches of various degrees of quality, endless cups of tea.

Here we have the quintessential community volunteer without whom community cannot and could not exist.

Volunteers like tonight’s recipient give not because of any high ideals or lofty convictions but because it comes natural to them. They enjoy what they do.

They might not admit it to your face but for me this level of commitment, this level of selfless giving can only be maintained if you really enjoy it.

In recognition of the many dark winter nights he has spent in the mud, the wind and the rain.

In recognition of the endless meetings he has attended and which make the GAA the wonderful organisation it is.

In recognition of the millions of miles he’s driven often, I’m sure, into the early hours of the morning.

But most importantly in recognition of a lifetimes contribution to the people of both his own community, to the wider community at large and in particular to the youth members of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

It is my great pleasure to present this award to Mr ???????.