Meeting 1163 "Have Fun but Tell the Truth."

 Sometimes when there are 5 Tuesdays in a month, we have an extra meeting on the fifth Tuesday. This time, instead of our usual meeting format, VPE Christiane decided to try out a miscellany of small roles so we could decide which were most worthwhile. 

President Helen opened the meeting and welcomed our special guest Area Director David.

Helen

A.D. David

Toastmaster Trevor was kept busy introducing the many short meeting segments and had something to say about each one.

Trevor

TJ proposed a toast to "Sandgate and the beautiful weather we are having."

Word Master Gail H introduced the word "Exaggerate" meaning overstating things, heaping up, increasing in significance. John managed to use the word the most times during the evening.

Madeline presented the Round Robin (Warm Up) and asked, "Who is the most famous person you have met?" 

Gail H

Madeline

Joke Master John earned some laughs with his joke, "A frog walks into a bank...."

Christiane gave a book review on "Who Moved my Cheese?" about accepting change.

"Two Truths and a Lie" was conducted by Chris. All his statements were about cars, with the first one being a lie. He didn't buy a Landau.

TJ made a convincing News Commentator as she announced the visit to Australia by skaters Torville and Dean.

Helen reviewed the Movie "The Martian."

Chris

Helen

A Biography on Edward Bulwer Lytton was presented by Marlene.  She explained that the phrase "It was a Dark and Stormy Night" used by cartoon character Snoopy is actually a plagiarism of the opening line in a book by Edward Bulwer Lytton.

Aarun conducted a "Who Am I?" segment, giving facts until someone guessed that it was the Russian boxer, Koysta Tsyzu.

Arun

Gail H chose a Strauss Waltz "The Blue Danube," for her music review. She played some of it on her mobile phone and told us some amusing stories about dances she had attended in her youth.

Narelle presented a poem by Robert Frost "Nothing but Gold Can Stay."

Some Australiana information was presented by Liz, mentioning some of our famous athletes.

This was followed by a Quote from Helen. (Sorry, I forgot to write it down.)

Arun presented a quiz about the items already presented and Trevor conducted a Round Robin evaluation of the presentations.

Narelle offered a Raffle prize of assorted drinks - wine, fruit juice, tea, coffee etc. It was won by Trevor.

Timekeeper Gail reported that the meeting was running behind time, so the Supper Break was reduced to 10 minutes.

Timekeeper Gail with Chris

Supper was provided by Madeline and Liz.

John enjoying supper.

On her Soapbox, Narelle complained about people who don't merge properly in traffic.

In his Did You Know? segment, Arun told us (among other things) that there are more stars in the galaxy than there are grains of sand on the earth.

Marlene presented a review of the book "The Poisonwood Bible."

John presented a Biography of Ralph Chestnut Smedley, the founder of Toastmasters.

Christiane kept us guessing with her "I've Got a Secret" finally revealing that she is to be test speaker for a conference in a different Area.

Madeline played Chopin's Nocturne No 9 in E flat on her phone while she told what she loves about the music.

Chris, acting as a News Commentator presented a clever satire. (I might remember later what it was!) 😀

TJ reviewed an article from the Toastmasters Magazine "Must You Tell a Story?"

Because we were running late, Marlene shortened her Australiana presentation of the story behind the song "Waltzing Matilda."

Area Director David reminded us of the Area 8 Conference to be held next Sunday 3rd November and the Hall of Fame.

A brief discussion was led by Christiane on what had worked well and what could be improved. The general consensus was, it was a fun meeting but would have been better with the small roles for only half the meeting and to include Table Topics.

The meeting surprisingly ended right on time. 

Next meeting Tuesday 12th November will be a Backwards meeting.