Meeting 1184 "Nature"

 Maddy handled her first time role of Toastmaster with great aplomb. She had chosen the theme for the meeting, "Nature."

President Chris welcomed everyone, including our guests Karen and Josh. Chris also proposed a toast to "Our waterways."

Maddy 

Chris

Word Master Narelle gave us the word "Brown." It was used many times during the evening.

Trish presented the Round Robin asking for our thoughts on "wisdom and nature."

Jonathon, Trish and Paul

Jonathon gave an explanation and helpful tips on the Evaluation contest which will be held next meeting.

Jonathon

Erin's moving Icebreaker speech "The Power of the Voice." was evaluated by Chris.

Erin

Helen presented a Level 3 speech "A Work in Progress." in the Presentation Mastery path. It was evaluated by Christiane.

  

Helen

The Timer was Trish.

Jill provided a raffle consisting of a Lego set, tic-tacs, car freshener, & voucher for a car wash.  It was won by Trish.

Jill's Raffle

Supper was provided by Narelle and Trish.

Chatting over supper

As well as being a member of our club, Gail is also our Area Director. She had some information about the forthcoming Area Conference and other matters.

Chris followed up with a talk about our succession plan for the next Toastmaster year and called for volunteers for the (non binding) future executive roles.

 

Gail- Area Director

Chris

Table Topics Master Helen called on Narelle, Josh, Jill, Karen, TJ. and Paul to give a 2-minute impromptu speech on the topics she had chosen.

Helen

 

The topics (paraphrased) were:

What can animals teach us about humans?

How much do you love Camping?

Nature best therapist

Should humans rewild themselves?

If nature could speak, what would it say to us?

Birds - majestic creatures or feathered jerks?

Paul took longer than his allotted 2 minutes to tell his very funny story about being attacked by a Butcher bird.

The table topics were evaluated by Marlene and Gail.

Marlene

Gail

Chris gave a General Evaluation of all that had not already been evaluated. 

The award winners of the evening were Karen (Best Table Topic,) Erin (Best Speech and Most Improved) and Chris (Best Evaluation.)

Karen, Erin and Chris

Since there are 5 Tuesdays in September, it will be 3 weeks until our next meeting on the 14th October. (No meeting on the 5th week this time.)

Next meeting will be our International Speech and Evaluation Contest. (There is still room for more contestants!) Winners will go on to compete at the Area Conference at North Lakes on the 1st November.

Word Warriors Take the Stage: A Night of Competition and Confidence

Toastmasters International Sandgate - Competition Night Meeting Recap 1183

9th Sept 2025

There was a buzz of anticipation and preparation before the meeting.

Before the meeting

Sergeant at Arms T.J.  called the meeting to order and handed control to Peter, who was acting as President as well as Contest Chair. 

Peter

The Table Topics contest was first, with eight Toastmasters competing. They were Scarlett, Arun, Erin, Christiane, Paul, Narelle, Helen and Eoin.

Gail and John were Timekeepers.

The Table Topic Contestants had been briefed and were escorted outside by Contest S.A.A. Marlene so that they couldn't hear the topic, then ushered inside individually by T.J. when it was their turn to compete. 

T. T. Contestants outside - an opportunity to chat.

The Table Topic was "What does the world need most right now?"

When all 8 contestants had competed, they were interviewed by Peter and given a Participation Certificate. 

Marlene and Jill collected the judges' ballots and assisted Chief Judge Jenny with the counting.

Table Topics participants

And the winners were Helen - First Place, Christiane - Second Place and Narelle Third place.

 Narelle-3,  Helen-1,  Christiane -2.

T.J. presented a raffle - which consisted of a puzzle book and a bag of tempting goodies to eat. She was kept busy selling raffle tickets during the break. The lucky winner was Jill.

Arun and Scarlett provided a delicious supper. 

Supper

Supper

Chatting over supper

Next was the Humorous Speech Contest, with Paul acting as Contest Chair. Helen and Scarlett were timekeepers. Erin and Eoin were Ballot Counters.

There were three contestants - John who came first, Christiane second and Narelle third.

Narelle-3, John-1, Christiane- 2.

Our contest winners will compete against other Toastmasters Clubs at the Area 8 Contest in November.

Thanks to our Chief Judge Jenny, Suresh, David, Mark, Nev and Chris for giving their valuable time and expertise.

It was lovely to have Erin's friend Amelia at our meeting.

Our next meeting on the 23 September will be a "normal" meeting followed by an International Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest on the 16th October.