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Saturday 31 March 2018

Meeting 1009 Quirky Country Music Song Day

There is one way to get everyone's attention - with a theme containing the word "Quirky" our inner quirks could be let loose.
An added quirk was that many roles for the evening were selected upon arrival by drawing your assignment from a cup.

Annette
Welcome back to our President Annette, who then welcomed guests Kevin and Trevor. Badges were then presented to new Members Casey, Eileen and Lee-Anne.

Jonathon
The Toastmasters role was drawn by Jonathon, who called on Christiane to "fill in the gaps" on the program with the names of Members. A Toast was presented by Steve, to "Johnny Cash".


Lee-Anne was Wordmaster and gave "Genius" and it's definition. Throughout the night each Member who stood in front of the lectern was labelled "Genius". The word was used often.

Two Ice Breakers by Casey and Steve were evaluated by Liz and Monica.


Casey and Steve 

Evaluators Liz and Nikki 




Third Speech was by Paul and evaluated by Monica.
Monica and Paul

The Raffle presented by Leesa was not non-alcoholic (after Leesa read the label) but a delightful mixer drink.
Leesa
 Stephen drew the Table Topics assignment and provided Country Music related topics to 9 lucky Toastmasters.
Stephen
Paul explained "Ring of Fire", Trevor described how "he became a genius", John relived his brush with fame and Troy Cassar-Daley, Liz described her win of a Line Dancing contest, Nikki got the wrong party theme (Country, not Zombie), Steve told us of his music lessons in Tamworth, Christaine confessed her failed song writing attempts, Leesa tried to impersonate Chad Morgan but was lost for words (and voice), and Peter gave a Vote of Thanks for the Gympie Muster.
Well done all.

Evaluators Carmy, Annette and Kirsty provided good points for all Table Topics Speakers.

Carmy, Annette and Kirsty
 In Kirsty's book review she explained how she was enjoying reading one of her text books as it was not the usual stuffy read but quite quirky.

Leesa gave some helpful tips.

Leesa
Show and Tell was an interesting segment by Peter. He brought along a motor made by his neighbor out of bits and pieces. After lighting a candle, the apparatus came to life. Note to Peter: candles can make metal HOT!

Peter
John was on his Soap Box about the ethics and cheating of the Australian Cricket Team.


John
 Joke presenter was visiting Toastmaster Trevor. Marlene corrected and congratulated us on grammar usage, followed by Peter with a quote. Peter was also the lucky raffle winner.

Trevor, Marlene and Peter
Eileen conducted the Listening Quiz with confidence.
       
Eileen
Keeping time throughout the night was Sharyn with Lights, Bells but no Whistles.

Sharyn
 General Evaluator by Christiane provided helpful suggestions for improvement and comments to assist at future meetings.

Christiane

Awards:   Best Speech - a tie by Casey and Paul
                 Best Evaluator - Annette
                 Best Table Topic - John
                 Most Improved - a tie by Casey and Eileen

Award winners
John, Paul, Casey, Eileen, Annette



Sunday 18 March 2018

Moreton Division Conference 2018

Darryl, Liz, Kirsty, Christiane, Leanne, Monica, Annette & Marlene

Eight of our club members attended the Best Ever (So far) Moreton Division Conference . It was the first conference held by the newly formed Moreton Division and was very competently organised by Division Director Annette Mayfield and her team.

Council Meeting chaired by Div Director Annette M.

The quality of participants in all the contests was high and it must have been difficult for the judges to pick the winners.

We are proud of all three contestants from our club. Congratulations to Christiane, who came second in the Table Topic Contest. Liz and Darryl also performed brilliantly.

Our contestants, Liz, Christiane and Darryl.

Leanne was an excellent choice as Contest Toastmaster for the Humorous Speech contest.

Leanne
Div Director Annette with Table Topics  placegetters

International Speech Contestants


Table Topics Contestants


Refreshment time

We all agreed it was the best Moreton Division Conference ever. (So far.)

Saturday 17 March 2018

Meeting 1008 - Waste not Want not

The Meeting was opened by Sergeant at Arms Chris who read the Mission Statement. Acting President Christiane then had the pleasure of inducting two new Members, Lee-Anne and Casey.

Also welcomed were guests Annette (Moreton Division Director), Mahia and Steven from Bunya Club, Trevor from Clayfield Club and Sara.


Induction of Lee-Anne and Casey by Christiane
Toastmaster Gail, Guest Speaker Steven
Gail took on the role at the last minute of Toastmaster for the night and did an admirable job with interesting snippets of her parents "waste not want not" life on a farm in Kingaroy.

Stephen presented his Contest Speech entitled "Lessons from a Rickshaw Driver" which was evaluated in a Round Robin scenario led by Christiane. I am sure he received some very helpful suggestions and advice.

Toast by Casey was to "Preserving resources for future generations".


Casey
Word Master Stephen gave an intriguing lead up to his double meaning word "Refuse". It was used extensively throughout the night, with Blake achieving top score.


Stephen
The set Speeches were from the new Pathways module and were presented by Marlene, as an Ice Breaker, which was evaluated by Carmy. Trish Springsteen also gave an Ice Breaker which was evaluated by Liz.
Carmy, Marlene, Trish, Liz
Jonathon presented an interactive speech "What is your Choice" which was evaluated by Mahia and described as Motivational, Educational and Inspirational.


Jonathon and Mahia
Blake was Raffle Master and what a selection of chocolates and assorted goodies was on offer including a fluoride-free bottle of water!



The Business Session must be a record for shortest time ever, very ably chaired by Kirsty.


Kirsty
Table Topics conducted by Chris were very interesting and varied. All participants spoke on the topic (well, except one who shall remain nameless). Peter did however deliver a very humorous topic of his own choosing.


Chris


John, Casey, Christiane and Kirsty
Lee-Anne, Blake, Peter and Stephen
Evaluations were ably conducted by Annette M and Nikki.


Annette and Nikki
Grammarian John was impressed with the small number of ums and ahs, and commended many on good grammar, alliteration, graphic word pictures and quality word usage.


John
Timer Peter kept such good time that we finished early. Well done Peter.


Peter
Finally General Evaluator Paul gave a valuable wrap up of the entire Meeting with lots of praise and good humour.


Paul
Awards were presented by Christiane:
Best Speech: Jonathon
Best Evaluator: Liz
Best Table Topic: John
Most Improved: Carmy




Friday 2 March 2018

Meeting 1007 "Books"


Who doesn't love books! That was the theme of the Meeting and many stories were told about favourite books, books from childhood and even books Members wished to publish.

Stand in Sergeant at Arms Monica opened the meeting and handed over to stand in President Steve.
It was his honour to induct new member Eileen into the Club. Steve informed members that Annette is progressing well after her surgery. Guests Andrea, Judy, Lee Anne and Trevor were welcomed. Tonight Lee Anne has signed up as a Member, so welcome to Sandgate Club.





Control was then handed to Toastmaster Liz who provided throughout the night the history of books over the past centuries. After a few program changes by stand in Education Vice President Nikki, the meeting continued. Nikki also took the role of Timekeeper.



Toastmaster Liz and Timekeeper Nikki


Marlene
A toast by Trish was followed by Word Master Eileen with the word NOVEL. It lent itself well to be used throughout the night, with both meanings.





Eileen

Round Robin was conducted by Marlene - "If you could publish a book what would it be about?"
Everyone had a contribution of weird or wonderful ideas, which brought out their inner writer.

Prepared Speeches included Carmy with her Ice Breaker, evaluated by Monica.

Carmy and Evaluator Monica



Sharyn was introduced by Steve and she gave an informative presentation on how to write a speech.

Sharyn

Darryl presented his Contest Speech as a practice run, and all agreed it was very well polished. Jonathon mediated a group evaluation with tips or suggestions to tweak the speech to perfection.

Darryl's Speech "Cool, Calm and Collected" evaluated by Jonathon


Nikki provided the times for the speeches, then the Evaluations took place. A raffle of Books and Candles (to read when the power goes out) was sold to all by Trish

Supper was provided by Gail, and fellowship was all encompassing.

Stephen based his Table Topics on books, and the session was enthusiastically embraced by the 8 participants. Trish with a Fairytale which describes her life, Trevor with a psychological disorder book, Gail with a limited edition from Lifeline Bookfest, Marlene had to find a book for men to read. Kirsty had to describe a book about her life, and Nikki a book about her passion. John had no problem suggesting a book which put him to sleep, and finally Jonathon had to add a saying to a book, it would be "Treat others how THEY would like to be treated".

Gail, Stephen and Trevor

Evaluators for this session were Paul and for the first time in this role Blake.

A Book Review segment was delivered by John about a thriller called "Thirteen."




John's Book Review                                                     Trish's Tips                           



Trish gave tips for writing an introduction to yourself.

Show and Tell always throws up something different, and Jonathon delivered with 2 items bought in a Souk, against his better judgement. They were copper kettles - just what you need to carry in your backpack across the Middle East. Ah, the folly of youth.

Jonathon's Show and Tell
Kirsty
Grammarian Kirsty praised great word usage, word pictures, alliteration and captive phrases by all speakers, with a reminder also to avoid ums and ahs.

Gail continued with the Listening Quiz and had some very in depth questions for members.



General Evaluation had to be hurried as we were well behind in time. Karen reminded us that the first three seconds either capture your audience or loose your audience. It is called "the blink". She asked us all to think about our three second "blink".

Karen
Awards: Best Speech - Darryl, Best Evaluator - Blake, Best Table Topic - Jonathon, Most Improved -Carmy.