Meeting 1013 - Mythical Creatures

President Annette welcomed Area Director Irene on an official visit to our Meeting.
John was then presented with his Competent Leader Certificate as he has achieved this goal.

Irene. and John with Annette

 Toastmaster Karen provided many anecdotes of assorted Mythical Creatures during her role.

Steve conducted a short Business Session to nominate Casey as incoming Vice President Public Relations. A vote was taken and Casey will take up her role in the new Toastmaster year.

Steve

A Toast to Icky the Fire Bobby who apparently resides on the Isle of Man, was presented by Steve.

Word(s) of the night from John were Plausible and Implausible. Much use of these was made during most sessions.

Round Robin introduced by Eileen - asked "What is your mythical creature?" and this provided some very entertaining depictions of Club Members hidden beliefs. Eileen told us of Ethel Red Kitchen Monster who lives at her workplace.

Eileen

Set speeches were presented and evaluated.

Kirsty present "Breathe" and was Evaluated by Paul

Casey's "Viral Defenders" was Evaluated by Chris

Marlene spoke on "The Power of my Presence" and was evaluated by John

Table Topics presenter Jonathon tested our Mythical Creature knowledge and our imagination too.

Christiane told of the Sandgate Mythical Creature, Chris related the tale of Werewolf and Vampire fight, John explained what quality of Genetic Engineering he would desire, Eileen as a Mythical Creature expert described a photo of one, Annette was almost convinced the Council should ban Unicorns, Irene had to imagine she was a dragon, and Paul as another Mythical Creature expert described the figurine of one.

Jonathon looks on in disbelief at Paul's "mermaid"

An Educational on Effective Feedback in Evaluation was presented by Liz.

Timer Stephen kept us up to date throughout the Meeting.

Annette conducted a military style Listening Quiz which kept everyone on their toes.

Grammarian Christiane congratulated good word usage and noted the over-use of Ums during Evaluations. Tips was also presented by Christiane, which were very helpful ideas to take on board.

Christiane

General Evaluator was Blake who gave an excellent and amusing review of the entire Meeting.

Blake

The Raffle, which was provided by Eileen, was won by Karen.

Awards:    Best Speech: Marlene, Best Evaluator: John, Best Table Topic: Eileen, Most Improved: Casey.

Congratulations to all.

Meeting 1012 - Birthdays

Put on your party hat and join in the fun. Toastmaster Paul kept the party going all night.

Paul

Eileen presented the Toast - to Birthdays, which are special.

Eileen

Annette

President Annette gave a brief outline of the District 69 Convention held in Ipswich recently. A highlight was the presentation to her of her 40 Year Badge. Congratulations for achieving this great milestone.
As Word Master Annette kept with the theme and provided "Celebrate or Celebration" as our challenge for the meeting. It was used throughout by most Members.

Round Robin introduced by Stephen, offered us the "Fortunately/Unfortunately" format, and began with the search for a birthday gift. Many devious schemes were devised to obtain the perfect gift.

Stephen

An Ice Breaker speech by Karen was insightful relating to her dog "Cyclone" and how we cope in life being on a long or short leash. Evaluator was Kirsty.

Karen and Kirsty

Christiane introduced Leesa with her speech entitled "Shopping Confusion", in which she efficiently took out the confusion by explaining how the retailers market the events and seasons throughout the year.

Leesa and Christiane

Trish was Table Topics Master, calling upon Liz, Eileen, Stephen, Gail, Annette and John to answer  questions - Should we have parties, money no object party, best party, 21st party, when to stop having parties, children's themed parties. Annette's answer of "have a celebration as long as you know you are celebrating" was excellent.

Trish

The Topics were evaluated by Monica and Chris.

Monica

Chris

The Raffle of birthday gifts was easily sold to all (especially Paul who needed a gift for his wife's birthday the next day). Winner was Liz.

The third speech by Blake, titled "More Minor Measures" was introduced by Evaluator Gail. Blake took us on a humourous journey of his "minor" phobias, from sniffing all food before eating, and checking everywhere for speeding spiders.

Blake and Gail

John provided an interesting Educational on Evaluation, and how to avoid being over or under with commendations or suggestions for improvement.

John

Jonathon was an efficient timekeeper throughout the meeting.

The Business Session was conducted by Marlene, and included the election of Executive Officers for the 2018/2019 Toastmaster year. Congratulations to Christiane (President), Gail (Vice President Education), Kirsty (Vice President Membership), Marlene (Vice President Public Relations), Paul (Secretary), Blake (Treasurer), Carmy (Sargent at Arms), Trish (Parliamentarian).

Grammarian Liz highlighted good phrases and effective words, as well as reminding all about use of Ums and Ahs.

Marlene and Liz

Steve gave an overall view of the meeting in his General Evaluation, with helpful suggestions where required.

Steve

Awards were voted as follows: Best Speech - Blake, Best Evaluator - Gail, Best Table Topic - Stephen, Most Improved - Leesa.

A reminder to all Members that the Changeover Dinner will be held on Tuesday 26 June.

Meeting 1011 "Anzac Day" Reverse Meeting

 What a crazy meeting it was - but such fun! The entire meeting was backwards, beginning with president Annette's closing remarks and Christiane's General Evaluation of the entire meeting.

Marlene and Leesa even wore their clothes backwards!

Marlene

Leesa

Trish was Toastmaster and because Christiane had said in her evaluation that Trish had told stories about her grandfather, Trish made frequent references to her grandfather.

Christiane

Trish

Word Master Gail informed us that the word of the day had been used over 30 times during the meeting. She couldn't reveal what the word was, but gave a not so subtle hint that it was "Valour" so it was used many time during the evening - well over 30 times.

Gail

John

General Evaluator Christiane had told us that all Listening Quiz questions had been answered correctly, so Quiz master John  ensured that with just a little bit of help, no one gave an incorrect answer.

Carmy's quote was "The future belongs to those who prepare for it today." by Malcolm X.

Carmy

Monica

Grammarian Monica commented on the word pictures used, including "snow capped mountains" and "the incessant ringing of the phone." She said that no "ums" and "ahs" had been used all evening. Surprisingly, no one, not even the queen of "ums" who shall remain nameless, uttered a single "um."

The Table Topics evaluators provided a challenge for the speakers. Annette spoke about the structure that each speaker had used. Leesa told us that Marlene had fainted when blood was mentioned and had to be revived by having water thrown on her face. This was acted out during the table topics, though luckily the water was not needed. 

Carmy's Table Topics were challenging scenarios for each participant, all with Anzac related themes. 

Some of the Table Topics participants

Speeches were evaluated before the speeches were presented, with the evaluators Paul, John, Marlene and Blake. providing challenges for the speakers. Peter "tripped" on his way to the lectern as his evaluator had mentioned and Steve walked backwards to the lectern as predicted.

Paul

Blake

In his humorous speech "Second Place" Peter told us he had never aspired to become famous.
Steve spoke about Saving the "City of Adelaide." No, not the city, it is the name of a ship.

Peter

Steve

 Eileen's Icebreaker speech was titled "I don't take Coffee, I take Tea."

Stephen's speech was a fascinating look at Personality.

Eileen

Stephen

The speakers were introduced after they had presented their speeches.

Annette gave some tips on how to manage the role of Toastmaster.

Casey presented a review on the book, "Religion for Atheists."

Annette

Casey

A soapbox segment was delivered by Paul. He spoke about the Commonwealth Games and their history and asked "However did walking become an event? "

Gail presented her word of the day. Yes, It was "Valour" and had been used many times. She also proposed a toast to "Mateship".

Carmy's raffle, which consisted of wine, chocolate, a game and colouring book was won by Eileen.  A second prize, a bottle of wine donated by Steve was won by Christiane.

Carmy

The evenings awards were won by Peter (Best Speech,) John (Best Table Topic,) Marlene and Blake (Best Evaluator- tie) and Eileen (Most Improved.)

Award winners 24th April 2018

It was good to see our guests Trevor from Clayfield Toastmasters and a first time visitor John A. 

Club Officer Elections will be held next meeting on the 8th May. Contact Steve if you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for a position.

Best wishes to those attending the District Conference at Ipswich this weekend.