Meeting 1151 "Brothers and Sisters"

 We have had a slight change of venue. The RSL Sub Branch Hall is being renovated, so the RSL have kindly allowed us to use their main hall next door.

RSL Hall (on left) next to Sub Branch Hall
12 Burnett Place, Sandgate

We had no trouble finding our new temporary meeting place this week. Seating arrangements were a challenge, resulting in a poor vantage point for the photographer, but we will improve next time.

President Gail inducted our two newest members, Tracey and George.

Tracey & George inducted

Gail also presented John T with a Triple Crown badge for completing 3 education awards in a single year. ( I think this is his third Triple Crown!)

Another Triple Crown for John T

Peter

Toastmaster Peter had chosen the meeting theme "Brothers and Sisters" and had some entertaining stories for us.

Gail W

Tracey

Gail W proposed a toast to "Brothers and Sisters."

New member Tracey presented the word for the evening - "Kinship" and explained its meaning and origin.

In Amy's absence Gail H introduced the Round Robin Warm Up session with Amy's suggested topic, "Share a fond or forgettable memory you share of your brother or sister growing up." There were some amusing anecdotes.

There were 2 prepared speeches. In Shaun's speech "Chasing the Dream" he spoke about about his passion for storm chasing. His voice and emphatic gestures portrayed his enthusiasm.

It was evaluated by Chris.

Shaun's speech

Evaluator Chris

Jonathon's speech "HELP" was about mentoring.  One of his points was that as well as the mentor offering and giving advice, the mentee needs to ask and be willing to receive it.

  

Jonathon

Evaluator Arun

Marlene provided a raffle which consisted of  a boxed set of body lotion & handcream, 2 paperback books and a tea towel. It was won by Will.

President Gail surprised Marlene by making a presentation of a plaque to commemorate her 30 years in Toastmasters.

Gail presented Marlene with 30 year plaque

This was followed by supper supplied by Will and George - and  a most delicious cake made by Christiane to commemorate Marlene's 30 year membership.

Cake made by Christiane

A business session was chaired by Gail H. The main business was the election of Club Officers for the coming Toastmaster year. (1st July 2024 - 31st June 2025) The following nominations had been received.

President - Still vacant

Vice President Education - Christiane

Vice President Membership - John T

Vice President Public Relations - Marlene

Secretary - Gail H

Treasurer - Will

Sergeant-at-Arms - Narelle

As there were not quite enough members present for a quorum, the positions will be ratified at our next meeting.

Chris conducted a lively session of Table Topics, all related to the theme of the meeting.

1. Do you have a nickname for a brother or sister? - Arun

2. My family is crazy.- Narelle

3. Do you have a brother or sister who is smarter than you? - Marlene.

4. When and where you proud of your family? -Tracey.

5. What was the longest trip you took with your family? - Carmy.

6. How did you rebel against your parents? - Gail H

7. Which family member would you choose to be with on a deserted island? - Shaun.

8. If you made a movie about your family what genre would it be and who would you choose to play your part? Gail W.

Table Topics Evaluators were Marlene and John T. 

Will gave a report on the times.

John T

Will

Carmy gave an evaluation of the entire meeting. (Her first time as General Evaluator.)

Carmy

Winners for the evening were Jonathon (Best Speech,) John T (Best Evaluation,) Tracey (Most Improved,) and Narelle (Best Table Topic.)

Award winners 14 May 2024

Next meeting will be on Tuesday, 28th May.

District 69 Conference - "Grow by Design"

Four Sandgate Toastmasters attended the District 69 Conference: John T on Saturday, Gail H, Liz and Christiane for both Saturday and Sunday. (Neither attended the Friday night or Monday breakfast and excursion.)

Gail took on judging one contest, whereas the other three members were able to relax and observe.

Congratulations to Sandgate Toastmasters for making it onto the shortlist of finalists for "Best Club Website & Social Media". We were up against Dalby, Lockyer Valley and Waterloo Bay with latter taking the title. (Next year we will even further improve!)

 

Of course, we had the four contests (more below), but the team around Kate had also given us plenty of opportunity to learn and witness great speaking skills.

On Saturday, there was one educational breakout session, whereas on Sunday there were even two to select from three different sessions each:

Educational Breakout Session 1

• Vaughan Paynter - Identify and Engage with Your Unique Voice
• Christiane's feedback: Vaughan had changed the title of his presentation to: "Finding Your Voice - and having the guts to use it". He encouraged us not be happy with vanilla - especially when it comes to the four areas humour, formality, respect and enthusiasm. In those, we should not be in No-man's land since we won't stand out.
• Vaughan reminded us that discomfort is required to grow, because we didn't want to end up as white as rice in milk on a paper plate in a snow storm. He spoke about authority, integrity and simplicity leading to clarity and therefore confidence.
   
• Michelle Priem - Living Intentionally - Prioritising the Things that Matter Most
• Gail H's feedback: Michelle shared with us her experiences of letting go of the 'busyness' of the modern world to live more simple with intent.
• While wearing so many hats in her life, Michelle has found her 'why' that has allowed her to now live life with deliberation.
• It is important to keep in mind when setting goals and making decisions that you are being true to your authentic self.
   
• Jock Elliot - Top Ten Tips For Contest Speaking

Educational Breakout Session 2

• Amanda Rosazza - Creating A Purposeful Culture
• Gail H's feedback: Amanda led an interactive session on club culture and how it can be changed. Participants were encouraged to share the ups and downs of their club experiences.
• Ideas were exchanged on ways that changes can be made. For example: After a club meeting or event or even an executive meeting, ask the questions:
• 1. Name two things that worked well
  2. Name two things we need to improve on.
• The takehome is:
• CLUB CULTURE SHOULD BE BY DESIGN, NOT BY DEFAULT.
  
   
• Lisa Dodis - Cultivating Growth and Flourishing

• Katrina Roberts - Stage Presence - Demystifying The "It" Factor
•  Christiane's feedback: Katrina demonstrated three different circles in life of how we present/ are received. We should strive towards circle number two, where we live authentic. Katrina found that circle number three is a played confidence which can easily be called out.
• Second circle is vulnerable since no-one trusts arrogance.
  

Educational Breakout Session 3

• 
  Kevin Ryan - The Path To Professional Speaker
• Christiane's feedback: You learn everything you need on the journey, but it helps to have passion, expertise and experience in the field you will be speaking about.
• Don't use the phrase "Public Speaking" since people will think, you will deliver for free.
• Take opportunities now to speak outside of your club to build confidence. You might start off with payment/ reward, but don't confuse with being able to get a full-time income.
   
• Luke Meacle - Persona Play: Discovering Your True Self Through Improv
• Lewis Jones - Crash Course in 'Theatricality'
• Gail H's feedback: Lewis gave a session on having a Public Conversation, not a Public Speaking Engagement. You should focus on how you want to connect with an audience about your topic.
• Participants took part in exercises in connecting their body and voice. We dabbed, glided, puncted and floated our way in controlling our bodies.
• Lewis was a vibrant and entertaining presenter who provided an opportunity to 'get physical'.

On top of the educational breakout sessions, there were two keynote speakers on Saturday:

• Rana Saini - The Inner Game of Growth
• Christiane's feedback: Rana stressed that our identity is just a story which can be re-written. He mentioned the three drivers, the four lenses (with Health being the top priority) as well as the 5 resistances.
• He reminded us that if we focus on the weeds, we will surely miss the flowers all along.
• Rana also mentioned that without a plan, we end up where we didn't want to go.
  
• He made some polls when he gave us the lenses and resistances to see how Toastmasters feel.

• Kevin Humphreys - Noble self-leadership
• Christiane's feedback: Kevin told us about his mental illness and the toxic culture. He was down to earth and humbly spoke about his realisation: My mind got me into this, my mind will get me out of it.
• It is important that we show compassion (especially when we are engineers - who don't have empathy) as well as tell ourselves encouraging stories. We should put everything into perspective.
• He encouraged us that a diagnosis doesn't determine.
  
• Kevin concluded with a story about his influence he had on a comrad and only being made aware several years later.

The conference started with Annette and Candice as MCs introducing themselves as well giving us some housekeeping. Annette challenged herself to go reverse alphabetic and called on members to make a ruckus if they were from Western Division (W), Southern Division (S), Pacific Division (P), Northern Division (N), Moreton Division (M), Eastern Division (E), Central Division (C) and Brisbane Division (B).

The flag parade followed.

District Director Denise opened the District Conference.

We then had a "Get to know your table neighbours" by trying to find a common thing. (Ours were "We all have been to the beach", whereas it seemed very popular to have been on a nudist cruise - you learn of new things all the time).

And we were ready for our first contest: Table Topics. It was chaired by last year's winner Thomas.

Contestant were asked to speak impromptu on "The next step". Contestants were Tally (S), Burt (N), Tara (C), Graham (B), Eden (P), Steve (E), Dudley (W) and Kate (M).

Unfortunately, there was one time disqualification.

The awards went to:

1. Steve
2. Tally
3. Graham

 

 

After morning tea, we heard from Rana (see above) followed by the first educational breakout session (see above) followed by lunch. After lunch, we heard from Kevin (see above), before we were ready for contest number two.

The International Speech Contest was chaired by last year's winner Michael.

He called on the following participants:

• Nathalie (W) - "Jump"
• Heidi (M) - "The Little Engine Within"
• Barbara (C) - "Lift Where You Stand"
• Tom (S) - "The Cover"
• Trevor (E) - "A Teddy Moment"
• Colin (B) - "Sunshine"
• Julius (N) - "The Only Way"

There was one time disqualification again.

We were able to congratulate:

1. Colin
2. Tom
3. Julius
   

 

Afterwards, we were able to chat a bit more over afternoon tea and stretch our legs before the gala dinner.

The evening saw us dressed in blue/green or Under the "C" themes: from sea creatures, pirates to Undercover agents.

Gala Dinner saw us having a two-course, alternative served meal as well as celebratory cake: The octopus round cake was organised (and decorated) by Heidi with the square carrot cake being provided by Lisa.

During dinner, we also had several rounds of trivia questions - with some tables being able to score 10 out of 10 in a few rounds.

Afterwards, there was a lot of dancing and singing until late at night.

On Sunday, Candice and Annette were again our MCs.

The District Celebration segment started by District Director Denise acknowledging the officers.

You can find more information on District 69's website: https://www.toastmastersd69.org/district-executive-2023-2024/

 

 

Afterwards, incoming District Director Lou called the incoming Top Table and Division Directors onto stage.

 

Public Relations Manager Thomas presented the Club PR Awards, first by giving us the shortlist/ finalist, then announcing the winner.

• Best Club Newsletter - Lockyer Valley
• Best Club Website - Mount Gravatt
• Best Club Social Media Campaign - Darling Downs
• Best Club Website & Social Media - Waterloo Bay

Thomas also awarded Dalby with the overall PR award since it made three times the shortlist, but never won.

Afterwards, we had the second educational breakout session (see above) before morning tea.

 

For the Evaluation Contest, chaired by last year's winner Kate, we first listened to Clyde presenting a speech titled "The Simple Answer".

Afterwards, Kate called on Franny (M), Robert (B), Kellie (P), Sue (N), Melanie (E), Megan (C), Tia (W) and Gerli (S) to give their evaluation.

Unfortunately, there was one time disqualification.

The placegetters were:

1. Sue
2. Gerli
3. Robert
   

 

After the contest, we had the third educational breakout session (see above) followed by lunch.

Then it was time for the Humorous Speech Contest which was chaired by last year's winner Marilyn.

Marilyn introduced:

• Dudley (W) - "A Happy Vegemite"
• Robert (B) - "Military Birds"
• Eva (N) - "The Sister Act"
• Chris (M) - "Love Is Not Enough"
• Graham (E) - "On-Air Adventure"
• Hillary (C) - "I Wish I Was Perfect"
• Colin (S) - "Wizards"
• Killie (P) - "What Would the World be Without Kids"

For the last contest, there were no timing disqualifications.

The awards went to:

1. Colin
2. Hillary
3. Graham
   

In the Conference Close, Lou awarded the Travelling Gavel (which was relocated) as well as the Adventurous Trophy. The former is calculated on the club with the most kilometres travelled (Supa) whereas the latter is the club with the most members attending (Murphy's Motivators).

Lou then thanked Chief Judge Lennard before calling the organising committee onto the stage. Kate gave a heartfelt closing speech thanking her team and graciously accepting some unwise decisions along the way.

Next year's District Conference will take place in the Gold Coast region.

Sandgate Toastmasters would like to acknowledge all contestants for making it to the District level, congratulate all the winners and extend best wishes to Colin since he is going on to the Regional finals with his International Speech "Sunshine".

Sandgate Toastmasters 50th Anniversary Dinner

Sandgate Toastmasters celebrated its 50th anniversary!

It was an evening filled with reflections, memories and, of course, laughter.

Just look how a room can be transformed by guests and decorations. Gail H had organised the latter and many helping hands put them into the right place.

John T and Liz Wo manned the sign-in desk, welcomed each guest and handed out drink vouchers, dietary cards and name tags.

Soon, the entry hall was swarming with guests - all to catch up with each other.

Raffle Master Narelle was kept busy selling raffle tickets for seven raffle prizes.

Marlene had prepared a photo presentation reflecting on the many (!) different dress-up themes, change-over dinners, conferences and awards - we bet she had a hard time selecting the best photo from 50 years of those.

Caterer Con and his team were all well-prepared, ready to serve us with yummy main and dessert (as always, the photographer was too excited about food, so the main went without photo)

Catching up continues...

Catching up continues...

The bar was kept busy with drink orders.

Sergeant At Arms Helen gave us a 5 minutes warning, which enabled everyone to find a seat at the tables.

Sergeant At Arms Helen called the meeting to order, read the apologies for the evening and gave us the mission statement.

President Gail welcomed the guests and expressed her awe when she summed up the combined years of Toastmasters' experience in the room.

Toastmaster of the evening Jonathon led us through the evening with personal reflections on his IceBreaker and other speech evaluations.

Narelle gave us the invocation and mentioned all the contributors and contributions of the event.

Peter toasted to Toastmasters International and told of his hilarious encounter with his tax accountant. (As our treasurer, he surely knows how much money we are sending to headquarters)

Chris led the Round Robin which gave everybody the opportunity to speak on the proposed topic "The personal highlight of Toastmasters". It was hard to stick to those 20 seconds allocated per speaker.

Shaun recounted his journey through different home clubs (due to work movements) and toasted to "Sandgate Toastmasters and all the Toastmasters clubs in the area making us all stronger".

In his reflection speech, charter member John S did a brilliant job of combining history, highlights and personal achievements.

Area Director Suzanne told us of the many highlights of visiting and interacting with Sandgate Toastmasters.

The recollection segment was led by Marlene. When she mentioned "the incident" (on September 9, xxxx), John T gave us first a clean-up version of the event. Since this didn't cut it for Marlene and Jonathon, Marlene recounted her memories which included an open beer bottle being inserted where it didn't belong. Unfortunately, there exists no photo evidence of the "incident" since all members present were too dumb-founded to take photos of each other.

Christiane took the opportunity to tell us of her funniest Table Topic response a past member gave, before past member Peter V entertained us with a song.

Division Director Suresh retold his first encounter with Sandgate Toastmasters as then Area Director and the many visits thereafter. He was proud to award Sandgate Toastmasters with the 50 years award certificate.

President Gail presented charter member John S with a clock to show Sandgate Toastmaster's appreciation of his involvement over all the 50 years.

Following this, they both cut our celebratory cake.

District Director Denise spoke about the centenary celebration of Toastmasters International before presenting awards to John Scouller: a 50 year badge as well as a plaque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since there can't be a Toastmasters event without Table Topics, Table Topics Master Christiane called on:

• Liz Wo with "What was your best speech ever?" 

Her humorous speech about her imaginary magazine "Lizzie" - and how some audience members inquired after the speech where they could buy the magazine.

• Liz We with "What is your least favourite segment of a Toastmasters meeting?"

Grammarian since she is from the UK. However, she also was adamant to remind us how important the segment was to improve our speaking skills.

 

Raffle Master Narelle and John T called on various dignities to draw the winning raffles. Ben, Blake, Sandra, Leonie, Colin, John T, Trevor and Merv could take a raffle prize home (yes, you are right, there are eight names - Toastmaster Jonathon decided to split a big prize in two).

Caterer Con had prepared take-home packs for the cake. Everybody could take home a piece of cake, a placemat and the memories of a fun-filled evening.

 

 The dinner wouldn't have been such a success without the following:

• Planning committee - Daniel Abey,  Narelle H., Marlene Hatton, Chris Horne, Gail Horne, Christiane Pedler, Arun Tanwar, John Topping, Gokul Vijayakumar;

• Treasurer Peter Dooley; 

• Invitation design Paul Horton; 

• Grants: Councillor Jared Cassidy & Hon Stirling Hinchliffe;

• Venue: Michelle from Brighton Bowls Club;

• Catering: Con Papamitros from My Catering Club;

• Printing: Andrew Pearson from Appello Media;

• Raffle prize donations: 

  • Bracken Ridge Tavern 
  • Round Table Coffee, Bracken Ridge 
  • Full Moon Hotel  
  • Myrtle and Bloom, Sandgate

• Plus the many unnamed people who helped in the background.

 

Sandgate Toastmasters' next meeting is on May 14.

Meeting 1149 "My Precious Treasure"

 President Gail opened the meeting and presented  Amy, Russell and Ben with their new member badges before handing control to Toastmaster of the evening, Arun.

Gail

Arun

Amy spoke about her precious treasure - her daughter, and presented a toast to "Our precious treasures - and Toastmasters."

Russell presented the word for the evening- "Perseverence."

Amy

                                     

Russell

 Round Robin Master Carmy introduced something we haven't done for a while - a continuing story, beginning with (not the exact words)"It was a sunny day and I decided to go for a walk at the beach and found.....

As members added to the story it grew more and more unbelievable and included finding an historical coin in the sand, hitch hiking to Cash Converters, winning money in a poker machine, hitch hiking with an axe, convincing police that it was a rubber axe.... etc. 

 There were 3 prepared speeches.

Gail W

Gail H

Gail W's amusing speech titled "Let Me Spell That For You" was about the trial's of growing up with an unusual surname. 

Evaluator Gail H commended her on her use of stage and gestures and gave some constructive  feedback.

Helen

  Helen used body language and vocal variety in her speech "The World in Your  Palm" as she explained that gestures in one language could mean something  totally different in another. eg. Don't use the OK signal in Japan!

Evaluator Narelle commended Helen on her closing summary  "Be aware.  Check if your message is clear." 

 

Jonathon

Shaun

  In his speech "The Golden Rule is Really Poo   Brown" Jonathon explained that the Golden Rule of "Treat others as you would be treated" is not as good  as the Platinum Rule - "Treat others as they would be   treated."
              

  As Evaluator Shaun said "we were better  off from   hearing it."                    

Ben was timekeeper.

Ben

 

How do you like Ben's socks?

  

Amy provided the raffle - which consisted of Australian and New Zealand alcohol, Anzac biscuits, home made candles and a toy donated by Amy's daughter.  It was later won by Gail H.

Amy

 

Raffle

  Supper was provided by Ben and Marlene.

Table Topics Master Marlene brought a box of small items and invited Liz, Russell, Amy, Narelle, Carmy, Gail H, Ben and Shaun to select one and tell why it is their "precious treasure."

Table Topic items

Liz, Russell, Amy and Narelle all chose the cat & spoke about a beloved pet (although Liz called it a dog) and Narelle cleverly took a photo of it with her mobile phone and spoke about her antique phone. 

Carmy chose the New Zealand power shell , Gail chose the frog (she loves frogs) Ben chose the mouse and Shaun told a fantastic tale about the lizard, which he swore was a true story.

Liz

The Table Topics were evaluated by Liz. She even had to evaluate herself! (The TT Master forgot that Liz was evaluating) 

 

 

President Gail H gave an evaluation of the entire meeting and reminded us that we should remain at the lectern and hand control back to the Toastmaster when we finish speaking. 

The evening's awards went to Jonathon (Best speech,) Narelle (Best Evaluation and Table Topic) Amy and Ben (Tie - Most Improved.)

Award winners 23 April 2024

Next meeting will be on Tuesday14th May. Remember, it will be 3 weeks till the next meeting, because there are 5 Tuesdays in April. 

Club Officer elections are coming up, so please consider taking on a role. You will find it a rewarding growth experience. 

For those who have registered for our Anniversary Dinner, we'll see you next Tuesday!