Meeting 1035 "Easter"

President Christiane opened the meeting and welcomed our guests.

Christiane

A lovely unexpected surprise was a visit from our overseas member, Liz We and her friend Leonie. Liz was an active member of our club for several years before moving to the UK. Liz has retained her membership in our club.

Leonie and Liz

We also had a visit from our Area Director David who is also a good friend of our club, and we were pleased to welcome Shima back for another return visit.

Christiane chose the word for the evening - "Miraculous."

Carmy was Toastmaster of the evening and had prepared some interesting information about the origns  and customs of Easter.

Carmy

Vaughan told us that we could tell that Easter was near, because there were Easter eggs in the shops, and that "Sam" on the road safety signs now had bunny ears. He proposed a toast to   "Easter eggs and 'Slow for Sam' signs."

Vaughan

 Darryl's Round Robin created some fun when he asked what we would do if we had hired someone in a bunny costume for an Easter party and a playboy bunny turned up. There were some interesting suggestions.

Darryl

Chris presented a speech from the Competent Communicator Manual and spoke about inspiring leaders. 

Trevor's speech, "Drug your Way to Heaven" was about the dangers of combining different prescription drugs.

Chris

Trevor

The speeches were evaluated by Marlene and Gail.

Gail

A special segment was "Executive Roles Explained." As club officer elections are coming up next month, each member of the executive gave a brief summary of what their role entailed. 

Darryl presented his raffle - a bag of Easter Goodies and was kept busy selling tickets during the break. 

After a timers report by Eileen, we enjoyed a delicious supper of Hot Cross buns and Easter eggs which Casey had provided, even though she was unable to attend the meeting. Thank you Casey!

Eileen - time keeper

A Business Session was efficiently conducted by Jonathon, who kept it moving and completed in 12 minutes. The main items for discussion were subsidies for members attending the District Conference, and an educational mock business session to be conducted in May.

Jonathon

Leesa's Table Topics gave the participants Liz We, John, Christiane, David, and Vaughan an opportunity for plenty of body language.

Leesa

Liz We - "Where was Easter Bunny rushing to?

John - "Animal substitute for chocolate bunny"

Christiane - "Camping over Easter."

David - "Easter bunny at Kindy"

Vaughan - " What Easter means to me."

The Table Topics were evaluated by Leanne and Paul.

Leanne

Paul

Grammarian Monica commented on some well turned phrases that had been used during the evening, and cautioned us against using "you know" as a filler.

Blake gave a General Evaluation of the entire evening, with some commendations and a few suggestions.

Monica

Blake

Area Director David gave us a report on what is happening in our area. It is good to know that the Bracken Ridge Club now has enough members to charter.

Area Director David

The lucky winner of Darryl's raffle was Trevor. 

Trevor won raffle

The evenings award went to Chris (Best Speech,) John (Best Table Topic,) Leanne (Best Evaluation,) and Vaughan (Most Improved.)

Winners 9th April 2019

Marlene and Leesa posed for a photo with Liz We before saying goodbye. 

Marlene, Liz and Leesa.

Next meeting will be on the 23rd April.

Club Officer Elections will be held on the 14th May. Please consider taking on a club officer role. It is a very rewarding experience.

Meeting 1034 "Home"

"Home" was the theme of the meeting. Toastmaster of the Evening Peter had plenty of interesting information about homes in the past.

Peter

We were delighted to welcome three guests, Adrian, a first timer, and Leila and Shima who had attended previously.

Monica's word of the day was "fair." It had a fair use during the meeting.

Monica

Trevor regaled us with his experiences of sharing his home with a two-and-a-half-year-old who has a talent for producing "unauthorised murals." Trevor then proposed a toast "To parents who have suffered living with a two-and-a-half-year-old."

Trevor

Trevor also conducted the Round Robin segment and asked for advice on "How to control a  two-and-a-half-year-old!" There were some funny as well as helpful suggestions.

There were three prepared speeches. Jonathon's speech "Wheel of Toastmasters" challenged us to evaluate our skills and to decide where we could improve.

 Jonathon has also completed his Advanced Communicator Bronze requirements. Congratulations Jonathon!

Jonathon A.C.B.

Annette gave an "Accepting an award speech," and took on the role of  ''Volunteer of the Year." She entertained us with anecdotes from her experience of volunteering in an Aged Care Home.

 

Annette

Casey

Casey presented her Pathways "Know your Leadership Style" project. Her speech "Leader for the Day" took us through the methods she uses to lead her three year-old daughter. (Take note, Trevor!)

The speeches were evaluated by John, Leesa and Carmy. Gail was Time Keeper.

John

Leesa

Carmy

After supper, (provided by Paul) it was time for Table Topics.

Darryl had brought  items from his home and invited the participants to select one and to speak about it. Two of our guests, Leila and Adrian were willing to take part.

Darryl

Leila  - Vegemite

Paul - Kit Kat

Gail - lemon

Christiane - wedding photo

Annette - magazine

Trevor - Milo

Casey - book

The Table Topics were evaluated by Marlene and Eileen.

Eileen

John presented an educational session on conducting a business meeting. Next meeting he will follow this up with a fun "Mock Business Meeting."

John

Business meeting

Grammarian Paul  commented on the use of "ums" and "ahs" during the meeting, and commented on some of the good word usage, particularly the word pictures our guest Adrian had used during his Table Topic.

Christiane

As General Evaluator, Christiane had some good advice for all.

Gail's raffle, a meal voucher at the Full Moon Hotel, was won by Christiane.

President Christiane awarded a ribbon to Gail, Casey, Marlene, Paul, and Eileen, who had completed Level One in Pathways.

Pathways Level 1. Gail, Casey Marlene, Paul, Eileen

The evenings awards went to John (Best Evaluation,) Casey (Best Speech and Most Improved,) and Christiane (Best Table Topic.)

Award Winners 26 March 2019. John, Casey, Christiane.

Our thoughts and best wishes go to our hero Stephen, who was brutally attacked while trying to prevent his neighbour's car from being stolen, and is recovering from his injuries. 

Next meeting will be on the 9th April.

Gail in the news

Did you see Gail on the front page of "The Bayside Star" this week?  We are so proud of members like Gail.

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Meeting 1033 Etymology

President Christiane was glad to be back at a Meeting and she welcomed guest Diane.
Christiane also congratulated Gail who was recognized at a breakfast on International Women's Day for her contribution to community organisations.

Christiane

Toastmaster Liz asked who had to look up the meaning of the theme of tonight's Meeting (it means an explanation of what our words mean and their history and derivation), and who confused it with Entomology (the study of insects). She also introduced the words Lexophile (a word to describe those who have a love for words), and Onomatopoeia (a word that actually looks like the sound it makes (e.g. babble, gurgle, plop, swish, purr).

Liz

A Toast to the late great interviewer "Mike Willesee" was a timely choice by Darryl.

Stephen chose the word "Naughty" for the word, and gave a complete background of how it's meaning has changed over the years.

Darryl and Stephen

Kirsty stepped in to conduct the Round Robin, with a theme of What One Word would you use to describe your year so far.

Kirsty

Speech 1 by Jonathon, entitled "Wheel of Life" was evaluated by John T.

Jonathon and The Wheel of Life diagram

John T

Speech 2 by Eileen, entitled "My Communication Style" was evaluated by Paul.

Eileen and Paul

Trevor was a diligent Timekeeper all evening.

Trevor

Christiane gave a presentation on the Moments of Truth survey results, which showed our Club as well above the average in most areas. Suggestions that were made have been taken on board by the Executive and will be introduced where possible.

Carmy was the Raffle presenter, lucky winner being Gail.

Carmy

Chairman of the Business Session, for the first time, was Casey. She really threw herself into the role and enjoyed bringing order to the session. Well done.

Casey with gavel in action

Table Topics presenter Monica gave single word topics, which participants then had to create a mini speech around.

Monica

Darryl (oranges), Marlene (hate), Leesa (shoes), Stephen (confidence), Gail (shock) and Kirsty (family). The topics were evaluated by Peter and Gail.

Peter and Gail

Marlene gave some tips in her Grammarian session which all Members could take on board.

Marlene

General Evaluator was Annette who gave a comprehensive overview of the Meeting, and reminded all Members to speak up so as to be heard.

Annette

Awards:

Best Speech: Jonathon, Best Table Topic: Leesa, Gail and Kirsty (shared), Best Evaluator: Gail, Most Improved: Casey.

Jonathon, Gail, Leesa, Kirsty and Casey