Meeting 1187 - St Martin's Day

Remembrance, Reflection & a Little Mystery: Sandgate Toastmasters, 11 November 2025

Meeting 1187

2024 Execs — officially President’s Distinguished!

Our St Martin's Day/Remembrance Day meeting was one to remember — equal parts warmth, wit, and wonderful speeches. With six guests in attendance, the room was alive with energy as we honoured both Remembrance Day and St Martin’s Day, celebrating generosity and community in true Sandgate spirit.

Word Master - Carmy

President Helen and the executive team were congratulated for achieving the President’s Distinguished Award in 2024, and we proudly welcomed returning member Josh back to the club.

Our Toastmaster for the evening, Christiane, guided the night seamlessly. Jonathon’s toast—a touching tribute to his grandfather’s generosity—set the tone beautifully, proposing a heartfelt “toast to generosity.” The Word of the Evening, chosen by Carmy, was Memorial, reminding us of the significance of remembrance.

During the Round Robin, members reflected on whether Remembrance Day remains important today — and it was clear from the thoughtful responses that it truly does.

Prepared Speeches

1. Jillian opened with "The Art of Insights" (and how she became a gamer) — a witty, self-reflective piece exploring creativity and learning through play. (Evaluator: Arun)

2. Maddy followed with First Impressions, a fresh and relatable look at perception and authenticity. (Evaluator: Marlene)

3. Helen, joined by Peter and John, closed the session with the delightfully dramatic "The Mysterious Case of the Missing Easyspeak" — complete with theme music, quick wit, and a dose of 'it’s not a crime, it’s a strategy'. (Evaluator: Paul)

Marlene and Maddy

Helen, Peter and John T

Business & Table Topics

Carmy chaired the business meeting, keeping it short and sweet, Sandgate style, before Jonathon took the stage for a creative Table Topics session:

• When has someone’s kindness surprised you? — Josh

• Who or what do you want to remember with gratitude? — Scarlett

• In honour of Singles Day, how would you treat yourself? — TJ

• Have you ever been unexpectedly asked to lead? — Chris

• If you were to invent a patron saint of Sandgate, who would it be? — Peter

Returning member Josh evaluated the even table topics, while John T acted as General Evaluator, praising the team for their confident delivery and constructive feedback.

Awards & Highlights

Award Recipients: Helen, Chris (President), Peter, & Paul

🏆 Best Speech: Jillian and Helen (& Co.)
🌟 Most Improved: Jillian
💬 Best Table Topic: Peter
📝 Best Evaluator: Paul
🎉 Word of the Evening Winner: Christiane
🎟️ Raffle Winner: Carmy

Raffle Master - Chris

Special thanks to Eoin for keeping perfect time and to Chris for providing the raffle and closing the meeting with warmth and enthusiasm, as well as to all our guests for making the night extra special.

We’ll be back on 25 November for our next gathering — and if this meeting was any indication, it’s sure to be another night of laughter, learning, and community.

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Area 8 Conference 2025

 

Thanks to Area Director Gail and everyone else who contributed, the Area Conference was a great success.

Area 8 Director Gail

Conference MC Chris

Area 8 consists of four Toastmasters Clubs, North Lakes, Peninsula, Redcliffe and Sandgate.

Trophies

Sandgate Banner

10 members of our Sandgate Toastmasters club attended the conference. Paul, Christiane, Gail, John, Chris, Liz, Marlene, Helen as well as TJ and Eoin (not in photo.) It was good to have Liz back from the UK.

Sandgate TM members

Sandgate Toasmasters
Gail, Liz, John, Eoin, TJ, Marlene, Christiane, Chris,Paul, Helen.

After an Area Council meeting, the first contest was Evaluation. Test Speaker Kate presented a speech, then all the contestants were ushered out of the room and brought in one by one to deliver their evaluation of the speech.

Test Speaker Kate

Evaluation Contestants

The winner was Allan from Redcliffe Toastmasters with Helen second and Christiane third. (Both from Sandgate Toastmasters.)

Evaluation Place Getters
1st Allan, 2nd Helen, 3rd Christiane

Morning tea followed- a great opportunity to meet and greet old and new friends.

And to buy raffle tickets.

Raffle Prizes

There were 4 contestants in the Humorous Speech Contest, hosted by Chris. 

Humorous Speech Contestants

The winner was Christiane (Sandgate,) with Monica (Redcliffe) second and John (Sandgate) third.

Humorous Speech Place Getters
1st Christiane, 2nd Monica, 3rd John.

There were 8 participants in the Table Topics Contest. The topic was "If I could change one thing in my life."

Table Topics Contestants

The winner was Helen (Sandgate,) with Christiane (Sandgate) 2nd and Penny (Redcliffe) 3rd.

Table Topics Place Getters
1st Helen, 2nd Christiane, Penny 3rd.

The final contest was the International Speech Contest. Christiane came first, Di (from Redcliffe) 2nd and Helen 3rd.

International Speech Contestants

International Speech Place Getters (with Barbara & Gail)
1st Christiane, 2nd Di, 3rd Helen

Christiane 

Congratulations to all contestants. Thank you to Area Director Gail for organising a successful Conference, the Contest MCs, the judges especially Chief Judge Jenny and to the Timers, Sergeant at Arms, Ballot Counters, kitchen helpers and anyone else who should have been mentioned.

Chief Judge Jenny with Karla (Inside Edge TM)

Special mention to Emma Comer - Federal member for Petrie, Chris Whiting State member for Bancroft and Anika Wells Federal Member for Lilley for their generous donations.

Meeting 1186 "Superstitions"

 The meeting theme was "Superstitions."  Eoin, with his Irish background was the perfect choice to act as Toastmaster for the evening. He had a supply of Irish myths and superstitions to segue through the segments of the meeting.

Peter, substituting for President Chris, welcomed first time guest Lisa and returning guest Karen as well as Josh (a former member who is rejoining our club.)

Eoin

Peter

Josh

Jonathon

Jonathon proposed a toast "Good Luck" and also introduced the word for the evening, "Auspicious"

This was followed by Round Robin led by Amy with the topic, "Tell us your favourite/least favourite superstition." Everyone including guests took part.

Peter. Josh. Christiane, Paul.

As Christiane, John and Helen will be competing in the speech contests at the Area 8 Conference on Saturday, Christiane and John delivered their speeches as a practice run and received feedback from everyone. (Helen was not present at the meeting.)

Narelle introduced Christiane's International Speech and led everyone in a Round Robin Evaluation.

Christiane

Paul introduced John's Humorous speech and led the evaluation session.  Everyone had some good suggestions.

Paul

John

Marlene Introduced Christiane's Humorous speech and invited all to comment.

Christiane

Marlene

The Timekeeper was Arun.

Arun

Gail presented a raffle which consisted of a book of Australian Ghost Stories, a spooky mug that changes when hot water is added and a box of Roses chocolates. The lucky winner was Arun.

Raffle

A generous supper was provided by Christiane and Jill.

Amy had some superstition themed table topic questions for Christiane, Karen and Jill.

Amy

Karen

Christiane

The Table Topics were evaluated by TJ.

Narelle presented a "Who am I?" quiz. Jill was quick to guess it was Kermit the frog.

Paul conducted a General Evaluation of the entire meeting.

Award winners were Paul (Best Evaluation,) John (Best Speech,) Eoin (Most Improved,) and Jill (Best Table Topic - not in photo.)

 

Award winners 28 Nov 2025

Our next meeting will be on the 11th November.

Area 8 Conference Saturday 1st November at the Corso, North Lakes.  Contact Gail if you want to attend. 

Meeting 1185 Evaluation & International Speech Contests

 Contest nights are always exciting. President Chris opened the meeting and handed control to Contest Toastmaster Jonathon.

President Chris

Contest TM Jonathon

There were 7 contestants in the Evaluation Contest - Christiane, Helen, Maddy, Peter, Paul, Narelle and TJ.    

Evaluation Contestants

Test speaker Sue from Bracken Ridge presented a speech, then all contestants except the first one were escorted outside and brought in one by one to evaluate Sue's speech.

And the winner was Christiane with Helen second and Narelle third.

Helen (2nd) Christiane (1st) Narelle (3rd)

Maddy introduced her raffle - which was a $30 voucher that can be used in various places. She was kept busy during the supper break, selling tickets.

Madeline - Raffle

Sue - Test Speaker

Maria & Sue

 

A delicious supper was provided by Helen and Eoin. It was a good time to chat.

Supper time 

Sergeant at Arms TJ called the meeting to reconvene and Jonathon introduced the International Speech Contest. The three contestants were Helen, Christiane and Chris.

Contest TM Jonathon

And the winner was Christiane with Helen 2nd and Chris 3rd.

Helen (2nd) Christiane (1st) Chris (3rd)

Trish delivered a farewell speech, advising us that this was her final Toastmasters meeting. She told how she had joined Sandgate Toastmasters over 30 years ago as a shy introvert and now has a thriving business and has written 22 books. But she has decided the time is right for her to leave Toastmasters. She received plenty of hugs and well wishes.

Trish

Helen and Trish

Special thanks to our judges, Chief Judge Jenny, Suresh, Chris, David, Mark, and Maria and to our test speaker Sue who gave their time and talent to make our contest possible. 

Our first and 2nd place getters in the contests will compete against other clubs at the Area Conference in North Lakes on the 1st November. 

Next meeting will be held on the 28th October.