Meeting 1074 - It's Christmas

 It was like old times with a Meeting at the Full Moon Hotel. The room glowed with Christmas decorations to get us in the spirit, and some Members dressed up for the occasion.

Peter and Trish 

Sergeant-at-Arms Dan opened the Meeting with a tried and true Christmas joke.

Dan

Gail advised of program changes.

Gail

President Leanne welcomed Members and handed control to Toastmaster Chris H.

Chris H.

The Toast to "All Families and Christmas" was presented by Carmy.

Carmy

John T introduced the Round Robin which was themed "What are you looking forward to in the New Year".

A delicious Dinner was then served, followed by dessert.

Leanne conducted the Table Topics session. This was followed by the favourite part of the Meeting - Secret Santa Game by Marlene. Much "swapping" of presents was all done in good spirit.

Gokul

John T.

Paul

Annette

A Christmas Quiz was presented by Hazel and included a power point Question and Answer format. John T took out first prize, and after a play off the second prize went to Trish and Gail won third prize.

Hazel

The Raffle of hampers by Leesa and Monica saw winners Carmy, Paul and Hazel take home the goodies.

Santa's elfs Monica and Leesa

The highlight of the evening would have to be Leanne wishing us all the best for the Season with her musical rendition of "I'm dreaming of a Bright New Year". Brilliant!

Leanne

A reminder that the first Meeting for 2021 (a hybrid) will be at the Brighton Wellness Hub on Tuesday 26 January (yes, Australia Day). 

Meeting 1073 - Teachers, Students and Assessments

 Another hybrid Meeting, the last for the year as the final Meeting will be held in person at the Full Moon Hotel on December 8th.

Darryl was Toastmaster and he recalled many of the antics and adventures of his school days and further learning experiences in later life.

Darryl

Liz Wo. provided the toast - "To Teachers who teach by example".

Liz Wo.

WordMaster Monica gave the Word "Fine" and asked us to try to use it with the three definitions she provided. Trish was again the master of inserting the Word in almost every sentence uttered and won hands down (or is that hands up?).

Monica

Trish

Liz We. conducted the Round Robin, in which she asked each person to recall a special (or fine) day from their school days.

Liz We.

Speech 1 was by Gokul, about being Considerate and Mindful, and evaluated by Trevor.

Gokul

Trevor

Speech 2 by Darryl "One Thing" was evaluated by Carmy.

Carmy

Speech 3 by John T. was evaluated by Chris D.

This completed John's Level 1 in the Engaging Humour Path.

John T.

Chris D.

Timer Dan provided the progress throughout the Meeting, and an added feature was the displaying of Timing Lights to the Zoom participants. Well done Dan.

Dan

The Raffle by Gail was most appropriate providing the winner Dan with Stationery, Pencil Case and chocolates.

Leesa provided a delicious supper for those present at the venue. Those at home obviously had to pour their own champagne and eat caviar during the break.

Leesa

Hazel had her first time conducting Table Topics and provided some very interesting questions.

Liz Wo. was asked about the culture at her school. Leanne had to state the purpose of student assessments. Trevor informed us about school uniforms. Dan gave a parent's perspective, Monica also spoke and Gail explained the pay structure of teachers from the past and present.

Hazel

The Table Topics were evaluated by Christiane and Marlene.

A well conducted Business Meeting was chaired by Gail.

Gail

General Evaluator Leanne gave praises for the many well done segments, and an overall view (like a report card of the Meeting). 

Leanne

Awards:

Best Speech John T., Best Evaluator Christiane, Best Table Topic Gail, Most Improved Gokul.

Well done again to the efficient team who set up the facilities for hybrid Meetings.

Meeting 1072 "Island life"

 At last! We were able to meet in person in our new venue, the Brighton Wellness Hub as well as on Zoom. We appreciate Leanne and Dan who arrive an hour early to start setting up, with others helping as they arrive.

The Brighton Wellness Hub, corner 19th Ave.

Some of our "Roomies" .....

and "Zoomies."

President Leanne welcomed our guests, Renie (online) Edward and Renee.

Leanne

Carmy conducted her role of Toastmaster online and kept the meeting running smoothly with stories from her early island life.

Carmy

Darryl presented the toast and Jakob gave us a word for the evening, "Benevolent," meaning "well meaning and kindly."

Round Robin Master Chris asked "Why did you join Toastmasters." Everyone had plenty to say and the segment ran slightly over time.

Jakob

Chris H

Chris D presented his speech  "Never Underestimate the Importance of Learning a New Skill." 

 using the feedback he had received last time.  It was evaluated by Gokul.

Chris D

Gokul

Trevor held everyone spellbound with a story about a ghost. It was evaluated by Leanne.

Trevor

Paul's speech was about a mentor who had made an impact on his life. This completed Level 2  in the "Innovative Planning" Path.  It was evaluated by Hazel. (Her first evaluation.) 

Paul

Hazel

John completed the fourth level in his "Presentation Mastery" path by talking about the blog he has created "Toppings Droppings." It was evaluated by Jonathon.

John

Jonathon

Darryl used his salesmanship skills to sell tickets in his raffle which consisted of items that might be needed on an island. It included toilet paper, insect spray, chocolate, coconut water, fruit juice, tea, jelly snakes, fruit salad & a small bottle of vodka.

The lucky winner was Chris D.

Darryl

Christiane conducted the Table Topics session, calling on Trish, Leesa, Chris, Jakob and Jonathon to speak for 2 minutes on Island themed topics.  

Christiane

They were evaluated by Dan and Liz We. 

Dan

Liz- (This photo was taken later in the evening
when she was playing with the background.)

Time keeper was Marlene.

Grammarian commented on some good use of words during the meeting.

Trish mounted her Soapbox and urged everyone to write their life stories. 

Leesa

Trish

General Evaluator Gail had some commendations and recommendations. Gail also provided the delicious supper.

Gail

Leanne took a vote on whether to have our usual Secret Santa Swap at our Break Up this year or to try something new. Secret Santa won.

Award winners for the evening were Best Speech : Trevor, Best Evaluator: Jonathon, Best Table Topic : Trish and  Most Improved: Hazel.

Hazel and Trish
(The others were online.)

Next meeting on the 24th November will be the final regular meeting before our Break Up Dinner on the 8th December.

Area 8 Conference 2020

 2020 has been a year of change and learning new skills. This year our Area 8 Conference was held completely online, with Humorous and International Speech contestants from all the clubs in our Area - Pines, Peninsula, Sandgate, Healthy Chatterers, North Lakes and Bracken Ridge Toastmasters.

Congratulations to all place getters, especially our own contestants John, who won first place in the Humorous Speech contest and Leanne who was second in the International Speech Contest.

John - 1st in Humorous Speech Contest

Leanne - 2nd in International Speech Contest

Kirsty - Area Director

Darryl - Contest Chairman

Jonathon - Zoom set up

The official results were: (surnames deleted)

 HUMOROUS contest

1st John Sandgate

2nd place Kris Peninsula

3rd place Philip North Lakes

INTERNATIONAL contest

1st place Maria Bracken Ridge

2nd place Leanne Sandgate

3rd place Allan Peninsula