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.

Meeting 1184 "Nature"

 Maddy handled her first time role of Toastmaster with great aplomb. She had chosen the theme for the meeting, "Nature."

President Chris welcomed everyone, including our guests Karen and Josh. Chris also proposed a toast to "Our waterways."

Maddy 

Chris

Word Master Narelle gave us the word "Brown." It was used many times during the evening.

Trish presented the Round Robin asking for our thoughts on "wisdom and nature."

Jonathon, Trish and Paul

Jonathon gave an explanation and helpful tips on the Evaluation contest which will be held next meeting.

Jonathon

Erin's moving Icebreaker speech "The Power of the Voice." was evaluated by Chris.

Erin

Helen presented a Level 3 speech "A Work in Progress." in the Presentation Mastery path. It was evaluated by Christiane.

  

Helen

The Timer was Trish.

Jill provided a raffle consisting of a Lego set, tic-tacs, car freshener, & voucher for a car wash.  It was won by Trish.

Jill's Raffle

Supper was provided by Narelle and Trish.

Chatting over supper

As well as being a member of our club, Gail is also our Area Director. She had some information about the forthcoming Area Conference and other matters.

Chris followed up with a talk about our succession plan for the next Toastmaster year and called for volunteers for the (non binding) future executive roles.

 

Gail- Area Director

Chris

Table Topics Master Helen called on Narelle, Josh, Jill, Karen, TJ. and Paul to give a 2-minute impromptu speech on the topics she had chosen.

Helen

 

The topics (paraphrased) were:

What can animals teach us about humans?

How much do you love Camping?

Nature best therapist

Should humans rewild themselves?

If nature could speak, what would it say to us?

Birds - majestic creatures or feathered jerks?

Paul took longer than his allotted 2 minutes to tell his very funny story about being attacked by a Butcher bird.

The table topics were evaluated by Marlene and Gail.

Marlene

Gail

Chris gave a General Evaluation of all that had not already been evaluated. 

The award winners of the evening were Karen (Best Table Topic,) Erin (Best Speech and Most Improved) and Chris (Best Evaluation.)

Karen, Erin and Chris

Since there are 5 Tuesdays in September, it will be 3 weeks until our next meeting on the 14th October. (No meeting on the 5th week this time.)

Next meeting will be our International Speech and Evaluation Contest. (There is still room for more contestants!) Winners will go on to compete at the Area Conference at North Lakes on the 1st November.

Word Warriors Take the Stage: A Night of Competition and Confidence

Toastmasters International Sandgate - Competition Night Meeting Recap 1183

9th Sept 2025

There was a buzz of anticipation and preparation before the meeting.

Before the meeting

Sergeant at Arms T.J.  called the meeting to order and handed control to Peter, who was acting as President as well as Contest Chair. 

Peter

The Table Topics contest was first, with eight Toastmasters competing. They were Scarlett, Arun, Erin, Christiane, Paul, Narelle, Helen and Eoin.

Gail and John were Timekeepers.

The Table Topic Contestants had been briefed and were escorted outside by Contest S.A.A. Marlene so that they couldn't hear the topic, then ushered inside individually by T.J. when it was their turn to compete. 

T. T. Contestants outside - an opportunity to chat.

The Table Topic was "What does the world need most right now?"

When all 8 contestants had competed, they were interviewed by Peter and given a Participation Certificate. 

Marlene and Jill collected the judges' ballots and assisted Chief Judge Jenny with the counting.

Table Topics participants

And the winners were Helen - First Place, Christiane - Second Place and Narelle Third place.

 Narelle-3,  Helen-1,  Christiane -2.

T.J. presented a raffle - which consisted of a puzzle book and a bag of tempting goodies to eat. She was kept busy selling raffle tickets during the break. The lucky winner was Jill.

Arun and Scarlett provided a delicious supper. 

Supper

Supper

Chatting over supper

Next was the Humorous Speech Contest, with Paul acting as Contest Chair. Helen and Scarlett were timekeepers. Erin and Eoin were Ballot Counters.

There were three contestants - John who came first, Christiane second and Narelle third.

Narelle-3, John-1, Christiane- 2.

Our contest winners will compete against other Toastmasters Clubs at the Area 8 Contest in November.

Thanks to our Chief Judge Jenny, Suresh, David, Mark, Nev and Chris for giving their valuable time and expertise.

It was lovely to have Erin's friend Amelia at our meeting.

Our next meeting on the 23 September will be a "normal" meeting followed by an International Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest on the 16th October.

Meeting 1182 "Screentime"

 

A Toastmasters meeting is much more fun than screen timing!

We were pleased to welcome our guests Mali and Peter.

T J called the meeting to order and handed control to President Chris, who introduced Gail in her role of Area Director.

President Chris and Gail Area Director

Gail presented the trophy for the District Best Club Newsletter (our blog) to the club. Our blog which has been in existence since 2009, has had various authors including Marlene and Christiane. Our latest blog writer Scarlett was not present at the meeting.

Gail, Marlene and Christiane

Gail also presented Carmy and Chris with ribbons for completing levels in Pathways.

Carmy, Chris and Gail

Toastmaster Peter called on John to present the Toast, which was "To Screentime."

Peter

John

Christiane gave us the word "Addiction." Helen managed to use it the most times, even during her speech.

Christiane

Helen

Helen presented the Round Robin inviting everyone to give 3 words to describe their relationship with their mobile phone. 

Peter was multi-tasking and presented an off the cuff speech on "Interstate Relations."

Evaluator Helen congratulated him on his use of "3D descriptions"

Peter

Helen

John presented a humorous acceptance speech titled "William Shakespeare Accepts the Golden Quill."  It was evaluated by Amy.

John

Amy

Jill presented her Icebreaker speech and told why she had joined Toastmasters.
It was evaluated by Gail.

Timekeeper TJ kept the meeting running on time.

Marlene explained what the judges will be looking for in the forthcoming Table Topics contest and suggested using the P.R.E.P. (Point, Reason, Example, Point) method, or Past, Present, Future.

(more explanation in our blog online handbook.)

Marlene 

Carmy's raffle was a tempting array of goodies including the bag from which she brought out coffee, tea, a coffee mug, chocolates and wine. The lucky winner was Jill.

Carmy's raffle

A delicious supper was provided by Chris and TJ.

Supper time

Yummy food

 Narelle had some challenging Table Topics - all screentime related - for Carmy, Helen Chris, Christiane, Amy and John.

Carmy

Helen

Chris

Christiane

Amy

John

TT Evaluator Eoin (evaluating for the first time) had some commendations and recommendations for the participants.

Eoin

Chris gave a General Evaluator of the meeting and presented the evening's awards to Helen (Best Evaluator,) Christiane (Best Table Topic) and Jill (Best Speech and Most Improved.)

Award winners 26bAug

Next Meeting Tuesday, 9th September will be a Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contest.