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Wednesday 25 April 2018

Meeting 1011 "Anzac Day" Reverse Meeting


 What a crazy meeting it was - but such fun! The entire meeting was backwards, beginning with president Annette's closing remarks and Christiane's General Evaluation of the entire meeting.

Marlene and Leesa even wore their clothes backwards!

Marlene

Leesa


Trish was Toastmaster and because Christiane had said in her evaluation that Trish had told stories about her grandfather, Trish made frequent references to her grandfather.

Christiane
Trish


Word Master Gail informed us that the word of the day had been used over 30 times during the meeting. She couldn't reveal what the word was, but gave a not so subtle hint that it was "Valour" so it was used many time during the evening - well over 30 times.

Gail
John
General Evaluator Christiane had told us that all Listening Quiz questions had been answered correctly, so Quiz master John  ensured that with just a little bit of help, no one gave an incorrect answer.

Carmy's quote was "The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." by Malcolm X.

Carmy

Monica
Grammarian Monica commented on the word pictures used, including "snow capped mountains" and "the incessant ringing of the phone." She said that no "ums" and "ahs" had been used all evening. Surprisingly, no one, not even the queen of "ums" who shall remain nameless, uttered a single "um."

The Table Topics evaluators provided a challenge for the speakers. Annette spoke about the structure that each speaker had used. Leesa told us that Marlene had fainted when blood was mentioned and had to be revived by having water thrown on her face. This was acted out during the table topics, though luckily the water was not needed. 

Carmy's Table Topics were challenging scenarios for each participant, all with Anzac related themes. 

Some of the Table Topics participants
Speeches were evaluated before the speeches were presented, with the evaluators Paul, John, Marlene and Blake. providing challenges for the speakers. Peter "tripped" on his way to the lectern as his evaluator had mentioned and Steve walked backwards to the lectern as predicted.

Paul

Blake
In his humorous speech "Second Place" Peter told us he had never aspired to become famous.
Steve spoke about Saving the "City of Adelaide." No, not the city, it is the name of a ship.

Peter

Steve

 Eileen's Icebreaker speech was titled "I don't take Coffee, I take Tea."
Stephen's speech was a fascinating look at Personality.


Eileen

Stephen
The speakers were introduced after they had presented their speeches.

Annette gave some tips on how to manage the role of Toastmaster.

Casey presented a review on the book, "Religion for Atheists."

Annette
Casey
A soapbox segment was delivered by Paul. He spoke about the Commonwealth Games and their history and asked "However did walking become an event? "

Gail presented her word of the day. Yes, It was "Valour" and had been used many times. She also proposed a toast to "Mateship".

Carmy's raffle, which consisted of wine, chocolate, a game and colouring book was won by Eileen.  A second prize, a bottle of wine donated by Steve was won by Christiane.

Carmy
The evenings awards were won by Peter (Best Speech,) John (Best Table Topic,) Marlene and Blake (Best Evaluator- tie) and Eileen (Most Improved.)

Award winners 24th April 2018

It was good to see our guests Trevor from Clayfield Toastmasters and a first time visitor John A. 

Club Officer Elections will be held next meeting on the 8th May. Contact Steve if you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for a position.

Best wishes to those attending the District Conference at Ipswich this weekend.





Thursday 12 April 2018

Meeting 1010 "Sports and Games"

 Some of our members were attending the Commonwealth Games and were absent from our last meeting. The rest of us celebrated with our own "Sports and Games" meeting night.

Toastmaster of the evening, John provided a vibrant atmosphere and kept the meeting moving.

John T

Blake proposed a tongue in cheek toast , "To cricket, cheating and getting away with it."  (Just joking, of course!)

Casey chose the word "Gold" as word of the evening.  It was used often during the evening.


Blake
Casey

Jonathon conducted a Round Robin with a sporting theme.


Jonathon

There were four prepared speeches. Gail presented her Pathways Icebreaker with her speech "Country Dances," and told about growing up in the country and going to dances with her family and friends.

Peter surprised us by stating that he loves paying taxes and told us how our taxes contribute to society.

Gail

Peter
Chris's speech "End to End" was about the decline of bowling clubs. Kirsty delivered an entertaining  impromptu speech about her hectic week which hadn't left her time to write a speech.

Chris

Kirsty
The speech evaluators were Annette, Leesa, Trish and Christiane.

Annette

Leesa

Trish

Christiane
After Blake's Timers report, we broke for supper which was provided by Jonathon.

During the break, Trevor (a visitor from Clayfield Toastmasters) took a photo of of everyone.



Carmy conducted the business session. She was well prepared for her first time in that role.

Carmy

The main items for discussion were subsidies for members attending the District Conference,
Our Changeover Dinner on the 26th June, and our information stall at the Einbunpin Festival in July.


Table Topics were presented by Marlene, who called on Annette, Casey, Leesa and Carmy.

Annette
Lessons learned from sport.

Casey
Greyhound racing is cruel.

Leesa
Would rather play board games

Carmy
Parents too involved in children's sport
The Table Topics were evaluated by Steve.

Steve

Grammarian Jonathon commented on word usage, and filler words. He said the most unusual string of words during the evening was Peter's statement "I love paying tax." He also commended a phrase that Chris had used, "Fuddy duddy volvo drivers."

General Evaluator Monica pointed out the high points of the evening and what could be improved.

Jonathon

Monica
Kirsty's raffle, a bag of  goodies including a jigsaw puzzle, colouring book and wine was won by Peter.

President Annette closed the meeting and presented the evening's awards.

Gail (Best Speaker,) Carmy (Most Improved,) Annette (Best Table Topic,) and Steve (Best Evaluation.)

Award Winners 10 April 2018

Our next meeting on the 24th April will be a backwards meeting, beginning with the General Evaluation and working backward to the opening of the meeting. We are expecting it to be a challenging but fun night.