Meeting 1123 - "Travel"

A mouse which travels, a bear which startles and a cockroach which scares were all part of the wandering coddiwomple.

Our Toastmaster of the evening John led us through the program with many sayings, anecdotes and statistics about travelling. He also explained the difference of being a tourist and being a traveller.

Our stand-in Sergeant At Arms Chris read the mission statement and followed in the footsteps by giving us a joke in a riddle: What is grey, has 4 legs and a trunk? (Answer see above)

President Paul opened the meeting and welcomed our returning guests Helen and Gail. He then handed control to Toastmaster John.

John firstly listed the benefits of travel (of which there are many), then called on Gail for the program changes. Gail handled the changes sailing smoothly.

(In the following, you don't see double - or triple) Marlene was called for the toast and she proposed it to a "Safe Journey". She then went on as our Word Master and presented us with Coddiwomple which is the purposeful travel towards a vague destination.

Marlene was then able to encourage us using the word of the evening in the Round Robin she led which Peter D had passed on to her. We shared experiences of recent travels which involved a lot of coddiwompling around. This roaming around involved a description being startled by a bear and caught with your pants down.

It was time for the prepared speeches of the evening:

1. Chris developed a strong connection with the audience by giving helpful tips how to sleep smarter in his speech titled "The Magic of 8" (Innovative Planning path, Level 3, project 1: Present a proposal). The speech was evaluated by Narelle.
2. Hazel's speech titled "Fear, Phobias, Consequences" (Innovative Planning path, Level 2, project 2: Connect with your audience) had the audience squirm in their seat while they thought about how they deal with fear. We learnt that Hazel's irrational fear leads her to wishful thinking of all cockroaches being terminated. Paul evaluated Hazel's speech.

 

Afterwards, Christiane presented the raffle which was filled with items to help us on travelling: being identified by being Australian, learning to eat with chopsticks as well as being kept occupied by playing Sudoku.

 

 

In Paul's timers report we learnt that we were running a few minutes ahead and therefore could have a longer supper break to enjoy the snacks provided by Christiane, exchange more news and buy raffles.

The second half of the meeting started with Table Topics presented by Carmy. She called on:

1. Marlene - You have won a 7 day All Expenses Paid Trip Around The World. Who would you take and why? Also where will you go? After some debating with herself, she would take her daughter-in-law (to England).
2. Paul - When you travel for work or pleasure, what mode of transport do you like to use? If it is for pleasure a plane to somewhere overseas, so his SIM card doesn't work.
   
3. Helen - What city or country do you want to travel to and why? Since there are too many on her list to explore new cultures, she will be just happy with anywhere where the pin drops. As long as she is touring, she is happy...
4. John - Describe a holiday from hell that you have been on. Although there were challenges with globetrotting with his backpack in his youth, he recently enjoyed a river cruise in Europe.
   
5. Gail - If you had unlimited funds who would you take on holidays? Gail was certain that trips would involve Canada (to see her granddaughter) and she would take her son and family to Canada as well as bring her daughter and family from Canada out to Australia.
6. Christiane - Tell us about an interesting holiday you have taken with your husband, using 3 modes of transport. All members knew where this one was going: Plane to Germany, train to visit family and get to the Netherlands, riding a push bike through the Netherlands. As an extra (for those planning inter-generational holidays), she mentioned her boat tour through the Netherlands with her grandfather (89) and niece (8).
   

The Table Topics were expertly evaluated by Jonathon and Hazel who looked at the various structures used by the participants and analysed why the structure of comparing, redefining or "flagpoling" the answer worked.

Gail followed with an update on the Distinguished Club Program which is a way of Toastmasters to track how successful the clubs are. There are 10 goals each year (July - June) and we currently sit on 6 - making us "Distinguished".

Marlene's report on "Coddiwomple" was very encouraging: Nearly all members and both guests had utilised the touring word. To noone's surprise, Trish was named the winner.

Trish was called up to give us the evaluation of the whole meeting. She started by calling our President and Vice President of Education forward to present them with the "President Distinguished" (reaching 9 out of 10 goals, see above).

Trish congratulated us on a really organised meeting with really great segments and learning opportunities.

Paul followed with the final timer's report before John was asked to draw the winning raffle (the raffle went to Carmy) and President Paul was closing the meeting. He was elated to learn that both our guests had decided to join.

Paul then presented the awards to:

Best Speech - Hazel

Best Evaluation - Jonathon

Best Table Topic - Christiane

Most Improved - Hazel