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Thursday, 30 October 2025

Meeting 1186 "Superstitions"

 The meeting theme was "Superstitions."  Eoin, with his Irish background was the perfect choice to act as Toastmaster for the evening. He had a supply of Irish myths and superstitions to segue through the segments of the meeting.

Peter, substituting for President Chris, welcomed first time guest Lisa and returning guest Karen as well as Josh (a former member who is rejoining our club.)

Eoin
Peter

Josh
Jonathon

Jonathon proposed a toast "Good Luck" and also introduced the word for the evening, "Auspicious"

This was followed by Round Robin led by Amy with the topic, "Tell us your favourite/least favourite superstition." Everyone including guests took part.

Peter. Josh. Christiane, Paul.

As Christiane, John and Helen will be competing in the speech contests at the Area 8 Conference on Saturday, Christiane and John delivered their speeches as a practice run and received feedback from everyone. (Helen was not present at the meeting.)

Narelle introduced Christiane's International Speech and led everyone in a Round Robin Evaluation.

Christiane

Paul introduced John's Humorous speech and led the evaluation session.  Everyone had some good suggestions.

Paul
John





















Marlene Introduced Christiane's Humorous speech and invited all to comment.

Christiane
Marlene

The Timekeeper was Arun.

Arun

Gail presented a raffle which consisted of a book of Australian Ghost Stories, a spooky mug that changes when hot water is added and a box of Roses chocolates. The lucky winner was Arun.

Raffle

A generous supper was provided by Christiane and Jill.

Amy had some superstition themed table topic questions for Christiane, Karen and Jill.

Amy
Karen

Christiane

The Table Topics were evaluated by TJ.

Narelle presented a "Who am I?" quiz. Jill was quick to guess it was Kermit the frog.

Paul conducted a General Evaluation of the entire meeting.

Award winners were Paul (Best Evaluation,) John (Best Speech,) Eoin (Most Improved,) and Jill (Best Table Topic - not in photo.)
 
Award winners 28 Nov 2025

Our next meeting will be on the 11th November.

Area 8 Conference Saturday 1st November at the Corso, North Lakes.  Contact Gail if you want to attend. 

Thursday, 16 October 2025

Meeting 1185 Evaluation & International Speech Contests

 Contest nights are always exciting. President Chris opened the meeting and handed control to Contest Toastmaster Jonathon.

President Chris
Contest TM Jonathon

There were 7 contestants in the Evaluation Contest - Christiane, Helen, Maddy, Peter, Paul, Narelle and TJ.    

Evaluation Contestants

Test speaker Sue from Bracken Ridge presented a speech, then all contestants except the first one were escorted outside and brought in one by one to evaluate Sue's speech.

And the winner was Christiane with Helen second and Narelle third.

Helen (2nd) Christiane (1st) Narelle (3rd)

Maddy introduced her raffle - which was a $30 voucher that can be used in various places. She was kept busy during the supper break, selling tickets.

Madeline - Raffle
Sue - Test Speaker


Maria & Sue
 
A delicious supper was provided by Helen and Eoin. It was a good time to chat.

Supper time 







Sergeant at Arms TJ called the meeting to reconvene and Jonathon introduced the International Speech Contest. The three contestants were Helen, Christiane and Chris.

Contest TM Jonathon

And the winner was Christiane with Helen 2nd and Chris 3rd.

Helen (2nd) Christiane (1st) Chris (3rd)

Trish delivered a farewell speech, advising us that this was her final Toastmasters meeting. She told how she had joined Sandgate Toastmasters over 30 years ago as a shy introvert and now has a thriving business and has written 22 books. But she has decided the time is right for her to leave Toastmasters. She received plenty of hugs and well wishes.

Trish
Helen and Trish

Special thanks to our judges, Chief Judge Jenny, Suresh, Chris, David, Mark, and Maria and to our test speaker Sue who gave their time and talent to make our contest possible. 

Our first and 2nd place getters in the contests will compete against other clubs at the Area Conference in North Lakes on the 1st November. 

Next meeting will be held on the 28th October.