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".