Sandgate Toastmasters Blog

Thursday, 26 February 2026

Meeting 1192 "A Whale of a Tale"

In honour of International Whale Day, Toastmaster Jill had chosen "A Whale of a Tale" as the theme for our meeting.

President Chris welcomed first time guest Tim and returning guest Steven.

Chris

Narelle told how she'd had problems with her computer which were fixed by an Internet Technician, then she proposed a toast to "I.T. helpers."

Word master Helen introduced the word "Yarn" which can be used to describe a long rambling tale or a type of thread used for knitting, weaving or sewing.

Helen

Helen also introduced the Round Robin, inviting everyone to tell of a memorable photo they had taken or had appeared in.

The first prepared speech was by Eoin. It was a second presentation of his previous speech "The New Industrial Revolution" in which he incorporated the feedback from his Evaluator. It was evaluated this time by Chris.

Eoin

Chris

Maddy presented the second speech, which was the Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring project. Maddy told about the mentors she'd had at different stages in her life. Her evaluator was Narelle.

Maddy

Peter used humour in his speech to demonstrate his communicate style. It was evaluated by John.

Peter

John

The Timekeeper was Narelle.

Helen presented the raffle - a lavender scented wax fondue set. It was won by Peter.

Helen

Supper was provided by Tracey and Chris.

Supper time

A Table Topic session was conducted by Maddy, who called on Chris, Eoin, Mali, Jonathon, Peter, Tracey and Helen to answer questions, that resulted in some wild imaginative stories. Most of them involved whales.

Evaluators were Marlene and John.

General Evaluator was Jonathon who commented on the entire meeting and suggestions for improvement.

Jonathon

Award winners for the evening were T.J. (Most Improved,) John (Best evaluation,) Jonathon (Best Table Topic,) and Peter (Best Speech.)

Award Winners 24 Feb 26

Next meeting Tuesday 10th March.

Area Conference Saturday 14 March at North Lakes.

Semi Annuals are due by end of March.

Thursday, 12 February 2026

Meeting 1191 "It's Complicated"

" It's Complicated" was an apt theme for the meeting, as many of the key participants were unable to attend and roles needed to be adjusted.

The meeting was called to order by Christiane, filling in for Sergeant -at- Arms T.J.

Helen stood in for President Chris and welcomed first time guests Lucy and Alex, returning guests Mali and Lisa, as well as Trish, who has been away from meetings for some months.

Jonathon was Toastmaster.

Helen

Jonathon

Erin proposed a toast to "Complicated outcomes" and John presented the word "Intricate" meaning very complicated or detailed.

John

Arun

Round Robin Master Arun asked everyone to speak briefly about something they had attempted which proved to be complicated.

The first prepared speech was by Marlene (who filled in with a repeat speech she had formerly presented) titled "The Speech I Didn't Hear." and was about getting the point across with personal stories.

Marlene

Jill demonstrated vocal variety and body language with an amusing speech, "Buckle Up" about teaching her daughter to drive.

Erin also demonstrated vocal variety and body language in her speech "Why Cats are better than Dogs."

Trish rose to the occasion and filled another vacant speech slot with her speech "Your Hidden Story," which coincidentally reinforced the message of the first speaker's speech.

Trish

Erin

Evaluators were Helen, Jonathon, Maddy and Marlene.

Jonathon

Maddy

Scarlett was Timekeeper.

Scarlett Timekeeper

Jonathon

Jonathon presented the raffle - Roses chocolates, etc. in a purple gift bag. It was won by purple loving Trish who appeared to be more excited about the purple bag than the contents.

Supper was provided by Helen - yummy cocktail sausages and cheese, crackers and savoury dip.

In the absence of a Table Topics Master, Christiane presented some fun Topics that she had on hand.

She called on Arun, Mali, John, Narelle, Lisa and Scarlett to answer some complicated questions about fictitious creatures.

1. What would you do if you came face to face with a grevlibon?

2. Two entroloupers met in a cave on a rainy day. What happened next?

3.Do the prickles on a venwip serve any useful purpose?

4, You recently ate a frimtortle. How did you cook it and how did it make you feel?

5.Were there any creftones on Noah's ark?

6. Why are clicktciks always green?

The Table Topics were evaluated by Arun.

Arun

Christiane

Christiane presented a comprehensive evaluation of the entire meeting, with some valuable suggestions on how it could be improved.

Award winners of the evening were Jill (not in photo) and Maddy (Most Improved,) John (Best Table Topic,) and Erin (Best Speech - tie,) and Jonathon (Best Evaluation.

Award Winners 10 Feb 2026

Next meeting Tuesday 24th February.

Area Conference Saturday 14 March at North Lakes.

Semi Annuals are due by end of March.

Friday, 30 January 2026

Meeting 1190 "New Beginnings"

Toastmaster Arun chose the theme "New Beginnings" for our first meeting in 2026.

Arun

We were thrilled to welcome two guests, Mali (a return visitor) and Peter's son Stephen.

President Chris welcomed everyone to the meeting and offered congratulations to Christiane on becoming an Australian citizen during the Australia Day celebrations.

Chris

Christiane

Christiane had brought a calendar for each person. Some struggled to read it before realising it was in German.

Tracey presented a toast to "Universal Reset."

Marlene

With a nod to the previous Australia Day, the word of the day chosen by Marlene was "Strine," a colloquial word for Australian slang. Rather than use the actual word "Strine" Marlene invited everyone to use some Australian slang words during the meeting. Some of the words & expressions used were G'day, bonzer, dead set, crack a cold one, Straya, flamin' cockatoo, Good on ya, Stone the crows, Mate, cobbers and cobra, rat up a drain pipe, drongo, and give it a go.

Round Robin Master John asked, "What is the latest new skill you have learned?"

John

There were three prepared speeches. Paul used plenty of body language to tell how he had run a marathon. He also conducted a question-and-answer session.

It was evaluated by Jonathon.

Paul

Jonathon

Audience

Christiane told about the process involved in becoming an Australian citizen. Many Australians would not have been able to answer some of the questions that Christiane was asked!

Josh evaluated Christiane's speech.

Christiane

Josh

Eoin's speech was about AI, particularly CHAT GPT. He explained it in an easy way to follow and understand, and he encouraged us to use it. "AI won't take your job, but somebody using it might."

Marlene evaluated Eoin's speech.

Eoin

Marlene

Peter presented the raffle, which was a voucher for the Round Table Coffee shop at Bracken Ridge, also a bottle of wine, and chocolate.

Timekeeper Narelle announced that we were running slightly ahead of time.

Supper was provided by Chris and Marlene.

The Table Topics session was run by Paul with theme related topics.

Paul

"If you could live in a different country, which would it be? " Peter.

"What new skill or talent would you like to have?" Christiane.

"If you could do over one day in your life, which would it be?" Tracey.

"What is the best advice when changing your career?" Narelle.

"What old habit would you like to break?" Chris.

The Table Topics were evaluated by John and Maddy.

John

Maddy

Erin mounted the Soapbox and deplored the wastage in the fashion industry. She urged us to shop at Thrift Shops.

Carmy presented a General Evaluation of the meeting.

Erin

Carmy

Award winners of the evening were Eoin and Erin (Most Improved - tie,) Narelle (Best Table Topic,) Jonathon (Best Evaluation,) and Paul (Best Speech.)

Eoin is not really a giant.