Meeting 1142 "Honouring Our Veterans"

 The RSL hall was a fitting place for our meeting with the theme "Honouring Our Veterans." The theme was chosen by Helen, who kept the evening running smoothly. 

Helen

Gail presented some new members JP, Shaun and Paul with their membership badges and welcomed our guests Ben, who is joining our club (Yippee!) and George.  It was good to see Chris back and recovering from his accident.

A badge for Paul (and Shaun & J.P.)

Carmy

Arun

Carmy told us about her father's and grandfather's participation in the Armed Forces and proposed a
toast to our veterans.  She also gave us the word for the evening, "Respect."

The Round Robin warm up session was conducted by Arun  who asked  us what attribute we live by.

Some of the answers were "Integrity," "Honesty," "Others first" etc. (Toastmasters are nice people!)

Some Round Robin Participants

Round Robin

The first prepared speech was new member J.P.'s Icebreaker.  He gave us an interesting insight into what his job entails. His evaluator Trish commented on the outstanding structure of his speech.

J.P.

Trish

John's speech was also an Icebreaker - but not his first one! John is an accomplished speaker beginning a new path in the Pathways programme that we use. His entertaining speech "You're Only Young Twice" was evaluated by Gokul who had some helpful comments.

John

Gokul

Raffle Master Gail had brought some useful items from the "Be Uplifted" charity which she supports, as well as a box of Variety chocolates.   It was won by Marlene. (Yay!)

Time Keeper Paul informed us that we were running slightly ahead of time which allowed us to take a slightly longer supper break. Food was provided by Paul and Gokul.

Gail

Paul B (and Ben)

Gail selling raffle tickets

Supper provided by Paul and Gokul

Arun with Shaun , J.P. & George in background.

Gokul & Ben

Marlene had some challenging Table Topics for Carmy, Gail, Chris, Trish, Gokul, Ben, J.P., Shaun, who all managed to deliver an impromptu 1-2 minute speech.

Carmy

Chris

Gail

Ben

Shaun

J.P.

Gokul

    

Trish

The topics were wartime song titles:

1.Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye
2.Kiss Me Goodnight Sergeant Major
3. Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag
4. The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
5. Ma, I Miss your Apple Pie
6. Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
7. It’s a Long Way to Tipperary
8. It’s a Lovely Day Tomorrow

Evaluator Arun gave some tips on answering Table Topics and Shaun had some commendations and points for improvement.

Arun

Shaun

Carmy reported that Trish had skilfully used the word "Respect" 31 times during the meeting. (But she didn't get Helen's joke about the soldier who wasn't seen at camouflage training!)

General Evaluator Paul H summed up the meeting with a detailed report and some suggestions.

Paul H

The evenings awards went to Carmy (Best Table Topic,) Trish (Best Evaluation) and J.P. (Best Speech and Most Improved.

Award winners 28 Nov 2023

This was the last meeting before our Break Up Dinner at a different venue. Please contact us if you want details of the Break Up. Replies and Payment for the dinner need to be received by the 4th December. And don't forget to bring a Secret Santa gift and an item for our Christmas hamper raffle.

Our meetings will resume on Tuesday, 23rd January 2024.

Meeting 1141 "The meeting with no Theme!"

There always needs to be a first and this time we had two: it was the first time that Will was Toastmaster of the evening as well as our meeting having no theme - which did not stop us of having fun! Will did an amazing job of keeping us on track with the next segments as well as summarising the previous segment, you would have never known he was only assigned the role on the day.

Sergeant at Arms Helen called the meeting to order, repeated the safety instructions to the two returning guests George and Daniel and read us the mission statement.

President Gail H had two pleasurable duties after she opened the meeting:

1. She congratulated John, Christiane and Gail W for representing Sandgate Toastmasters at the Area 8 conference. She was also very proud that Sandgate had brought along its banner (as the only club) as well as that our timing lights were used to help the contestants.

2. Gail H had the honour to induct our new members: Paul B and Jean-Paul. Their mentors are Jonathon and Paul H, respectively.

Toastmaster Will welcome us all with a brief history how he became our Toastmaster for the evening (Vice President of Education Liz had a tough job with last minute apologies). He then introduced Will for the toast - himself - which brought more laughter to the meeting.

Will toasted to "the individual Toastmasters", i.e. the members of Sandgate Toastmasters.

Word Master Jean-Paul gave us the word of the evening: Coriaceous, meaning of or like leather. Tough word (see what I did there).

Round Robin Master Paul B introduced the segment with "Remember, remember, the 5th of November" - Guy Fawkes Day. He then asked the members to share an annual celebration we enjoy the most and why. The responses went from Christmas, birthday (even of family members), Diwali, Easter, peak storm season, Chinese New Year back to Guy Fawkes Day (and childhood memories of fireworks).

We had four prepared speeches on the night:

1. Helen put the thinking cap on our head with "Using Critical Thinking in the Workplace" (Presentation Mastery path, Level 2, project 2: Understanding Your Communication Style) with an acronym of RISK as well as new terminology of chunking up/ chunking down. (She announced it was going to be a series of speeches - more to come and learn from.) The speech was evaluated by Gail H.

2. Gokul's speech "My Recent Adventure" (Engaging Humour path, Level 2, project 2: Connect With Your Audience) shared his not so great, good and amazing aspects of his 100 km Cooloola Great Walk. It was evaluated by Jonathon.

3. Arun challenged us in his speech "Why Would I listen to You?" (Strategic Relationships path, Level 1, project 2: Writing a Speech with Purpose) to think about exercising power or authority as well as our active listening skills. John had the delightful task to evaluate the speech.

4. Christiane gave her first speech in her High Performance Leadership project (Persuasive Influence path, Level 5, project 1) which was her vision of the 50 years since chartering Sandgate Toastmasters celebration and how we would "Celebrate in style". As evaluator Gail H rightly picked up, it was a call to action for all members to get involved in the planning of this event.

Raffle Master Helen had a treat for us (in absence of member Dan) and brought us not one, but two alcoholic packages (ice bucket with prosecco and two bottles of wine).

Timer Michael reported that we were running slightly behind for our first half of the meeting.

 

In the supper break, we were able to purchase tickets for the two raffle prizes, sample the big spread of goodies provided by Shaun and Michael and catch up on the news of apologised members as well as find out more information of the speeches.

The second half started with two quick jokes by Sergeant at Arms Helen after she called the meeting back to order.

Table Topic Master Shaun gave us a nice introduction why Table Topics are important and how we could answer them, before he called on:

1. Michael with "If only I knew" that the night in Santorini would lead me to become a father.
2. Jean-Paul with "I want to" present to an audience (and get a better response than my talk to prisoners).
3. Daniel with "The perfect day looks like": getting lots of things done, mum not being angry as well as having a smooth public transport journey.
4. Paul B with "I remember when" I saw the advertisement for coming to Australia and that's why I ended up here.
5. Jonathon with "The world is better off since" I was able to have work, rest and play today.

The topics were evaluated by Paul H.

While Helen collected our votes, Will was able to recite

In his second report as Word Master, Jean-Paul congratulated us of using the word nine times during the evening with Helen and Jonathon tying for first place.

Marlene presented the general evaluation and reminded us all that we should never leave the lectern unattended.

In his final timing report, Michael humorously blamed himself for running slightly behind.

Raffle Master Helen asked guest Daniel to pick the two winners: Gail H and Will were able to take a package home each.

In closing, Gail reminded us of the District Conference on 3-5 May 2024 and early bird registration being open as well as the date for the Division Conference being 10 March 2024.

She then presented awards to:

• Best Speech - Arun

• Best Evaluation - Jonathon

• Best Table Topic - Jonathon

• Most Improved - Will

Come and join us for our next meeting on November 28 with the theme "Honouring our Veterans".

Area 8 Conference - "Journey Together"

It was a rainy Sunday, when eight Sandgate Toastmasters joined many other Toastmasters to celebrate the club's bests to compete with each other. Area 8 comprises of 6 clubs: Bracken Ridge (BR), Healthy Chatterers (HC), North Lakes (NL), Peninsula (Pe), Powerlink (Po) and Sandgate (S). There were 4 contests and 12 trophies up for grabs.

The registration and raffle table were manned by North Lakes Club who were kept busy.

Before the actual contests went on their way, there was a few procedures beforehand: Sue called the meeting to order as our Sergeant At Arms, before handing to James who was our Conference MC for the day.

It was Suzanne's job as Area 8 Director to open the Conference and honour all the dignities in the room. She then went on to the Area Council Meeting where she was supported by Parliamentarian Trish (our member) and Secretary Barbara.

Our first contest was the Evaluation Contest, hosted by Peninsula Club, chaired by Nick. We first heard a test speech by Ian titled "Design Matters". It was evaluated by the five contestants which were Kris (NL), Cheyenne (HC), Monica (Pe), Heidi (BR) and Christiane (S).

 

 

 

 

 

For the awards (with sadly one time disqualification), Nick announced:

1. Heidi
2. Christiane
3. Cheyenne

 

 

 

 

Next on the agenda was our guest speaker Jock Elliott who gave as some very good pointers how to win the World Championship of Public Speaking.

We then had our first break: morning tea, which we took to catch up between the clubs and the news.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next contest was hosted by Healthy Chatterers Club and chaired by Barbara. In the Table Topic Contest, she called on Monica (HC), John (S), Allan (Pe), Heidi (BR) and Hope (NL) with the topic: "If I could try again...".

 

With no time disqualifications, Barbara awarded:

1. John
2. Allan
3. Heidi

 

 

 

 

Next, we heard from Moreton Division (which Area 8 is a part of) Director Suresh who invited us to three upcoming events: Club Officer Training on February 17, Moreton Division Conference (where the winners of the four contest are going to next) on March 10 as well as District 69 Conference on May 3-5 (with registration being open now here).

District 69 (which Moreton Division and as such Area 8 are a part of) Director Denise thanked all members for District 69 receiving Distinguished District last year and being on a very good projection to do so this year as well.

It was time for our lunch break and more catching up time.

After our bellies were full, Conference MC drew the (first and not the last) raffle prize and it was won by Denise.

The Humorous Speech Contest was hosted by Sandgate Toastmasters and chaired by Jonathon. This also meant, he had to brief the contestants. The contestants' speeches were timed by Gail H and Trevor. The Sergeant At Arms was Christiane and the Ballot Counters were John and Marlene.

Jonathon called on Monica (HC) with "Fit For Nothing", Gail W (S) with "Puppy Love", Jonathan (NL) with "Have Kids They Said", Heidi (BR) with "A Bird In The Bush" and Kris (Pe) with "Let It Go". 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, Jonathon had to announce a time disqualification before placing the winners:

1. Heidi
2. Monica
3. Jonathan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a short afternoon tea break before the final contest: International Speech. It was hosted by Bracken Ridge and chaired by David.

David called on John (S) with "Lessons From a Small Nation With Big Ideas", Allan (Pe) with "The Candle Of Love", Heidi (BR) with "A Steep Lesson" and Jenny (HC) with "Something About Mary".

With no disqualification, he awarded:

1. Heidi
2. Allan
3. Jenny
   

Before closing the conference, Barbara had a plug for Persuasive Toastmasters Club (in formation), Suzanne had various helpers drawing the remaining raffle prizes and thanking the judges and other helpers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sandgate Toastmasters would like to congratulate the two people going on to Moreton Division Conference next year [Allan (in place of John) and Heidi] and wish them good luck in a tough competition.