We knew we could anticipate for a great meeting since we had a great bunch of members lined up.
Stunning Sergeant at Arms Helen called the meeting to order and read us the mission statement.
Phenomenal President Gail H opened the meeting and welcomed our returning guests Amy, Russell, Tracey and George.
Gail H presented Elizabeth with her membership badge. She also shared some news events including:
- Our Vice President Education was returning from England and will be present at our next meeting
- Club Officer Training this coming Saturday February 17
- Moreton District Conference on March 10 (Suzanne was looking for grid volunteers as well as garden raffle prizes - John offered his unbelievable weeds)
- 50th anniversary dinner invitation for April 30
- District Conference on the first weekend in May
She called on prodigious Peter to give us the toast for the evening which went to "Realistic Expectations" after he spoke about some personal experiences.
With Shaun as the wonderful Word Master, we could envisage a challenging word, but wouldn't have dreamed about "amazeballs". Such a positive word encouraged us all to make the meeting tots amazeballs.
Members and guests had the perfect opportunity during Round Robin to use
the word of the evening when Round Robin Master Chris asked us to share "our amazeballs expectations for
2024".
As timer, he was in a great position to keep this segment flowing fabulously.
Answers ranged from
- Jonathon sharing about his understandable happiness of his daughter changing TAFE course
- travelling more (including Japan and South America trip)
- seeing family more
- four people mentioning seeing their fascinating house reno (and a shed fits in there too) finally coming to its finish
- finishing university thesis
- less doctor appointments
- birthday parties
- running experience
- awesome Valentines Day tomorrow
- changes (?) in politics
- Shaun finishing the round with his startling plan to going back to uni (and resigning from his job for some time off).
It was time for the remarkable speeches to be presented:
- Elizabeth gave her Icebreaker speech "Great Expectations" (Persuasive Influence path, Level 1, project 1) in which she encouraged all of us to celebrate micro achievements every day and being grateful. Evaluator Paul had forecasted a marvelous speech and wasn't disappointed. He reminded us though to get straight into our speech without preamble.
- Trish' speech titled "Are you wandering into the wilderness?" was of educational nature encouraging us to always have a call to action regardless if our speech is to inspire, inform or instruct. It was evaluated briefly by Jonathon during the general evaluation at the end of the meeting.
- Narelle defined mentor and mentee as well as how a Toastmaster mentor is appointed in her speech aptly titled "Mentors" (Presentation Mastery path, Level 2, project 3). The speech was evaluated by Trevor who was dumb-founded on Narelle's improvement in presenting starting off with questions to get the audience engagement from the start, but also with such a clear structured speech.
- Christiane finished her series of her job experience with "The Countdown" reliving the last 17 hours in the office. Her compelling evaluator Gail gave a word of caution not to overdo the humour/ voices in a more serious speech, but provided a long list of strong points.
Spellbinding Raffle Master Narelle sold us all on the idea to provide for our significant other at the upcoming Valentine's Day by supplying a full package: red rose, corny mug, dinner setting (including toothpicks), a packet of more Roses (chocolate) and a variety of alcohol to cover all our likings. She was kept busy in the subsequent supper break selling raffle tickets.
The second half started with contemplating Table topics presented by ravishing John. He called the following members to speak of the cuff:
Carmy with "What are your expectations for 2024 and beyond?" animatedly discussed her survival swimming classes.
Shaun with "Valentine's Day: an important occasion for romance or a commercial rip-off?" strongly favoured the rip-off since he is dreading the day, even though he doesn't spent $50 (or more) on presents.
Trevor with "Is there such a thing as love at first sight?" explained why it could work; however his feelings were never returned.
Helen with "Has your life turned out the way you expected?" reflected that she hadn't expected it this way, but made it the way it is now for good reasons.
Jonathon with "What is the most romantic thing you have ever done or experienced?" dived into his kindergarten memories to recount picking a bouquet for his love of his life aka 5-year-old Fiona. Although the flowers were not appreciated, he has since received many romantic moments with his wife.
Peter with "When didn't the reality match the expectations?" spoke about his trip to an animal shelter in Fiji and how his volunteering involved walking the dogs, but also long hours of standing around.
The Table topics were brilliantly evaluated by Marlene and Paul, pointing out that making the audience laugh is the best plan to answer a Table Topic as well as to give lots of examples.
While Sergeant at Arms Helen selected the votes, Gail W gave us some dad jokes as well as some more quotes about expectations.
Word Master Shaun held our attention by revealing that the second place was a very close spot (with Narelle using amazeballs once more than Helen), however it was forecasted that Trish would win hands down (doubling second place).
Jonathon pointed out three highlights to take away: how to frame a successful raffle with a theme, how to pop an evaluation by pointing out the (achieved) purpose of a speech and how brilliantly the little snippets of introductions of the next speaker was delivered by our Toastmaster Gail W.
As speech evaluator, he commended Trish for selecting such a fitting title since it engages with the content from the get-go.
Chris' final dazzling timers report revealed that we were running behind from the Table Topic segment (after all the topics were too good and had members speaking at length).
Enticing Narelle had our guest Tracey pick the winner of the raffle. Trevor can celebrate Valentine's Day in style - although it might be hard with his wife in Thailand.
Best Evaluation - Paul
Best Speech - Narelle
Most Improved - Elizabeth
Best Table Topic - Jonathon
In closing, we received very positive feedback since three guests intend to join our club.
It was a great finish to a tots amazeballs meeting.
We are looking forward to more laughter, learning and life lessons on February 27.
Thank you to Marlene and George for helping me with the photos.
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