Meeting 1208 "Snake Stories"

Our club president Jonathon proudly displayed the "Presidents Distinguished" ribbon presented to our club. 

Jonathon

Trish was presented with a Level 3 ribbon on her completion of that level in the Motivational Strategies path.

Trish and Jonathon

Trish also presented the toast and cleverly compared snake encounters with public speaking fear - encouraging us to overcome both. Her toast was three-fold: Shedding fears ...

Trish

Maddy presented the word of the evening and asked us to use the word "ubiquitous" ubiquitously during the meeting.

(It came to no surprise that Trish used it everywhere; but Helen and Narelle got honorable mentions for using it frequently.)

Maddy

The Round Robin presented by Gail had us sharing snake stories: there were unlimited snakes to go around - be it the colorful ones, the ones in the house (Argh!!) or under the car.

The four prepared speeches addressed varied paths, levels:

The first speech was presented by Chris and was his first speech in Level 5 - "Learning to Fly" in which he told us humorously how his son is on his way to his driving licence. It was evaluated by Paul.

Chris

Paul

Next, we heard John practice his contest speech "Too Much Noise". It was group evaluated, led by Maddy.

Peter gave us the third speech when he persuaded us that "Falling House Prices - a Good Thing" (Presentation Mastery pathway, Level 3). Mali evaluated his speech.

Peter

Mali

The fourth speech awed us into "Puppy Love" (Leadership Development, Level 1) when TJ recounted the naughty anecdotes of Teddy. The speech was evaluated by Christiane.

Arun presented the raffle (which was won by Peter).

Arun

Supper was provided by TJ and Mali - and offered us the chance to catch up with each other.

The second half included the infamous business session, chaired by Peter.

Although its infinite nature, we were able to move numerous motions and organise our Christmas break-up (information to come via email shortly).

Paul

Helen gave us very succinct timing reports during the night - keeping us on time (if it hadn't been for the ubiquitous comments during the business meeting.)

Mali, Carmy & Helen (Time Keeper)

During the Table Topics segment, Paul was able to call on Mali, Carmy and Jill to answer snake encounter questions. The answers were expertly evaluated by Arun.

Carmy

President Jonathon awarded:

• Best Speech - Chris
• Best Evaluator - Paul
• Best Table Topic - Jill
• Most Improved - TJ

Paul & Chris

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 10th November. See you then.

Meeting 1207 International Speech and Evaluation Contests

 

Our last meeting was a contest night. Thank you to all who took part or assisted in any way.

Contest Participants
Christiane, Mali, Peter Paul, Narelle

 Evaluation Contest Place getters
First: Christiane
Second: Paul
Third: Mali

International Speech Contest
First: John
Second: Christiane

Club President with Contest Judges

Chris's Raffle
(also included a folding umbrella)

Next meeting:  Tuesday 27th October.

Area 8 Conference: Saturday 28th November. 

Club Officer Training: Club Officer Training Round 2 dates are now available!

Make your plans to complete the minimum required 3-hour full COT round 2 for this year.

The sessions are:

Session 1 - Tuesday 10 November 2026 6pm-9pm 

Register here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/T9XZBoaBQk2PyLc3IU1djg

Session 2 - Saturday 21 November 2026 1pm-5pm

Register here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/0DYzRrPbT7aKHiYisfQHbg

Session 3 - Sunday 13 December 2026 1pm-5pm

Register here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/jr9PrUaNRlqf9_DzO6069g

Session 4 - Sunday 7 February 2027 1pm-5pm

Register here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/QAgWrs7yQCKC8y0Ftm0PxA

Session 5 - Thursday 11 February 2027 6pm-9pm

Register here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/n8859ZymSRGRjqM1gfEh8A

All club members are invited. 

Meeting 1206 "The Power of Curiosity."

We were delighted to welcome return guests Helen & Bob, Aiden. Also Agi who is joining our club.

Our Club president Jonathon presented Erin with a ribbon for completing Level One in her Pathways Path.

Jonathon and Erin

Paul was Toastmaster for the meeting.

Paul

Helen presented a Toast "To participation." 

Helen

Arun introduced the word "Resilient." It was used the most times by Helen, with Erin a close second.

Arun

John Introduced the Round Robin, "Are you curious?" 

Arun's speech was titled "Networking. Learning from Mistakes." It was evaluated by Jill.

Arun

John presented his Humorous contest speech and received feedback which was led by Christiane.

John

Narelle's speech "Equipment Proposal" was evaluated by Maddy.

Maddy

Chris was Timekeeper.

Jill's raffle, a bag of pizza ingredients and wine was won by Gail.

Jill's raffle prize

Christiane and John provided a delicious supper.

Jonathon presented the Table Topics that Marlene had prepared, calling on John, Maddy, Aiden (guest), Peter, Helen (Guest) and Erin.

The Table Topic questions were:

1. "Has someone ever given you bad advice?"

2. "The last time you tried something new."

3. "Has your greatest fear ever come true?"

4. "How do you define success?"

5. "Which activities make you lose track of time?"

6. "Most beloved childhood memory."

They were evaluated by Chris and Paul.

Chris

Paul

Christiane conducted a "Who am I?" quiz. No one guessed it was Chris Walker, although they guessed it was from the TV show, "Sale of the Century."

Christiane

 Narelle presented a General Evaluation of the meeting with some helpful suggestions for improvement.

The evening's awards went to John (Best Speaker,) Jill (Best Evaluator - not in photo,) Erin (Best Table Topic,) Arun, Erin and Jill (Tied for Most Improved.)

Award winners 22nd Sept 2026

Next Meeting: Tuesday, 13th October. (Second Tuesday in October) There will be an extra week between meetings because there were 5 Tuesdays in September.

Meeting 1205 Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests

 Our Contestants were well supported by an enthusiastic audience, including guests Agi, Aaron, Aiden, Helen and Bob.  

Toastmaster Jonathon briefed the contestants to ensure that they were well prepared 

Table Topics Briefing.

Table Topics contestants were John, Peter, Helen, Arun, Christiane and Narelle. They were ushered outside and brought into the room one at a time to answer the topic. "What is the one simple thing that makes life better."

The place getters were: 

First Place: John 

Second Place: Narelle 

Third Place : Christiane

Narelle 2nd, John 1st, Christiane 3rd.

After a break for a delicious supper provided by Chris and Christiane, the Humorous Speech contest took place. Contestants were Christiane, Peter, John and Helen.

 Place getters were:

 First Place: John

Second Place: Christiane

Third Place: Peter

Peter 3rd, John 2nd, Christiane 2nd.

All the contestants with Toastmaster Jonathon

A big thankyou to the judges from other Toastmasters Clubs who gave their time and expertise to make our contest possible. Chief Judge Jenny, Chris, Area Director Mary, Maria and Mark.

Judges

Our club members who acted as Timers, Sergeant at Arms and Ballot Counters were Maddy, Carmy, Trish, Chris, Liz, and Marlene.

Maddy supplied a popular raffle, a $50 voucher for a meal at a local cafe. It was won by Chris.

Our next meeting will be a "normal" meeting on Tuesday 22nd September followed by an Evaluation and International Speech contest on the 13th October.

Don't forget, Semi Annual fees are due this month to be paid before our next meeting. If you can't find   Arun's email that he sent with the bank details, send a message to our club's email address for information. toastmasters.int.sandgate@gmail.com

Meeting 1204 "Number Plates"

Christiane

Toastmaster Christiane had chosen the theme "Number Plates." She admitted that she couldn't remember the numbers on her own number plate.   

President Jonathon congratulated Jill on completing Level One in Pathways.

Mali proposed a toast to "The People behind the number plates."

Jill chose the word "Distinctive" as word of the evening.

Round Robin Master Gail prompted some comments on personalised number plates.

Jonathon presented a helpful educational session on how to answer a Table Topic.  Some suggestions were:

P. point: make a point or statement.

R. reason: give a reason why you made that point.

E. give an example.

P. Sum it up by repeating the point.

Past: What happened or how it was done in the past. 

Present: As it is now. 

Future: How it will be in the future.

Family: How the topic affects your inner circle.

Friends: How it affects your social network.

Strangers: How it applies to a broader society.

Jonathon

Helen

Helen had some suggestions on how to choose a speech topic. 

The speeches were evaluated by Arun and Paul.

Arun

  

Paul

Jill was Timekeeper.

Peter presented the raffle, which was some quirky gadgets that he had bought from a craft shop in Samford. They included a firtle, a scottish utensil for stirring oatmeal. It was won by Jill.

Peter

Gail and Mali had provided a delicious supper.

Carmy had prepared some Table Topics with a theme of number plates. She called on Mali, Gail, Jill Paul, Arun and Peter to reply.

Carmy

They were evaluated by Helen and Marlene.

Peter presented a General Evaluation of the roles that had not already been evaluated. 

The evenings awards went to Jonathon (Best Speech,) Mali (Best Table Topic and Most Improved,) and Paul (Best Evaluation.)

Jonathon, Mali, Paul

Next meeting on 8th September will be a Table Topics and Humorous Speech contest.

Let Helen know if you wish to be a contestant.

Meeting 1203 "Social Cohesion"

 

Trish Educational Session

 

Gail and John Table Topics

Eoin Raffle Master

Paul  Evaluator

Carmy Round Robin

Jonathon Timer and Paul

Mali Speech