Sandgate Toastmasters Club turns 36 years old!

Club members, partners, members from other clubs, and our Area Governor Deb Smith gathered at the Full Moon on the evening of Tuesday 31 August to celebrate the 36th birthday of Sandgate Toastmasters Club.

Annette as Master of Ceremonies had us reliving the 70s with songs and TV shows of the decade - with most familiar to everybody, even though some members are only about the same age as the club.

John presented a brief history of the club, including the many locations the club has met over the years, and offered to email a copy of his research as Club Historian to interested members.

Sharyn had us all guessing what the "pink raffle" might entail, with Leesa the lucky winner.


New members were invited to participate in table topics, presented by Leesa and Jonathon, plus evaluations - and rose brilliantly to the challenge.

As fitting for all birthday celebrations, the night was sealed with a delicious mud-cake, cut by two of the "best dressed", Jonathon and Rose.

Contributions are welcomed from all members - why not post an article of the night from your perspective? Comments also invited. This blog is the informal area of the Sandgate Toastmasters Website - so add your touch.

Meeting 839 - Contests

Yet another new member, David was inducted last meeting and several guests attended.

Six members competed in the Table Topics contest and spoke on the topic  "It seemed a good idea." 

Trish came first, Annette second and Jonathon third.

Table Topics Participants

Table Topics Winners

John won the International Contest with his speech "Poor Performance." Dave came second with " Terra not so Firma.

International Speech Winners

Meeting 838 Theme - "Art"

" Poetry is an art," Toastmaster Dave told us, and he kept us entertained by reciting some of his favourite poems between meeting segments.

Another new member, Chris was inducted.

We had 3 excellent speeches. Trish presented a heart felt, inspiring speech about morning coming after the dark night - sorry, I can't remember the title.

Rhys presented an intriguing & amusing speech about the speed & velocity of a lemon.

Raider spoke about emigrating to Australia from Brazil. It was his "Icebreaker" speech.

Raider

All 3 speakers received equal votes for the "Best Speaker" award.

Next meeting will be a contest night - Table Topics and International Speech.

Photos for Meeting 837 - Humorous and Evaluation Contests

Meeting 837 - Contests

Our stall at the Einbunpin Festival paid off. There were quite a few guests at the meeting, as well as a test speaker and contest judges  from other clubs.

Two more new members were inducted - Liz and Nicole.

Test speaker Fiona who belongs to Healthy Chatterers and Peninsula Toastmasters presented a most thought provoking speech about the problems in nursing homes. Her speech was evaluated individually by 5 contestants.

The Evaluation Contest was won by Annette, with Rose in second place and Del in third.

The Humorous Speech Contest provided plenty of laughs. It was won by Damian with his speech, "Where did the Funny Go?" Liz came second with a very amusing speech about buses.

Winners of the contest will compete at the Area Conference on the 24th October at the Arana Hills Leagues Club.

Fun at the Festival

Our information stall at the Einbunpin Festival was successful.  Quite a lot of people stopped to ask about Toastmasters and expressed an interest in coming to our meetings.

Kylie, Rose and Sharyn 

Other Toastmasters took part at different times of the day.

Some were also involved with other stalls.

Jacqui on her "Secret Baskets" stall.

Einbumpin Festival

Sandgate comes alive on Sunday 25 July with entertainment and stalls. Delicious food and handmade goods to enjoy for every persons taste. Toastmaster members are at our Einbumpin stall to answer questions and invite interested people to visit our club on every second and fourth Tuesday of the month meeting at the Full Moon Hotel, Shorncliffe.

In July 2010 our Club will be 36 years young and we are celebrating! The enjoyable deliverance of the improvement of communication skills, the development of evaluation skills and the enhanced self confidence of every member over the years is being recognised by all members talking and enjoying a lively dinner with a 70's theme.

Meeting 836 Theme "Snow"

"Snow" was a chilly theme for a cold night. There were some tales of snowy experiences during the Round Robin.

New member Raider was inducted into the club and June presented a wonderful "Icebreaker" speech.

Kylie's report on Training at Chermside

With three winter training dates on offer, I attended an evening session on Thursday 1 July at Chermside.  An overview of each club officer role was provided to all, rather than breaking into groups - given a Toastmaster Club operates best with teamwork, I found it really useful to learn about all the roles.

In particular for the VPPR role I learned the importance of marketing and public relations to ensure viable club numbers; various ways to promote the club to non-members, members and previous guests; the need for consistency of the message; and where to go for further information and ideas.  One tip I particularly liked was to advertise a "free meeting for guests".

I also really enjoyed meeting other Toastmasters and members of area and district executive.  

This photo is of Kris and Sue from Peninsula Toastmasters,Kylie, and Inga from Queensland Rail Toastmasters (who have one hour lunch meetings). 

Officer Training Day

The first duty of a Toastmasters Executive Officer is to attend the Officer Training Days which are held twice a year. I usually find the day inspiring  and a great opportunity to catch up with old and new friends from other Toastmaster clubs.

The worst part was having to get up early on a very cold morning so we could arrive at St Joseph's College by 8.30 am!

The first session was for the various officer roles. I attended the  Presidents training. I liked the way Trish (who presented it) got those who had previously been club presidents to give their contact details to the first time presidents, so we  could help one another.

The session that I found most fun was "Taking a New Direction." To get our creative juices flowing, we were divided into teams & given a large piece of Alfoil (silver paper) and asked to make  the creature that was printed on a slip of paper that we recieved.

Del from Jacaranda Club put the finishing touches on our team's turtle. It was a miracle that anyone guessed what it was!

One of the teams made an impressive fish that spouted water!

There were a lot of other good sessions to choose from. The one that I found most helpful was "Effective Evaluation." Marilyn D had some really helpful tips, and we had a test speaker to evaluate.

There was an article by Marilyn on evaluation in the last edition of Corroborree Magazine. Page 14. If you haven't seen it, you can download it  from District 69 Website.