District 69 Conference - "Grow by Design"

Four Sandgate Toastmasters attended the District 69 Conference: John T on Saturday, Gail H, Liz and Christiane for both Saturday and Sunday. (Neither attended the Friday night or Monday breakfast and excursion.)

Gail took on judging one contest, whereas the other three members were able to relax and observe.

Congratulations to Sandgate Toastmasters for making it onto the shortlist of finalists for "Best Club Website & Social Media". We were up against Dalby, Lockyer Valley and Waterloo Bay with latter taking the title. (Next year we will even further improve!)

 

Of course, we had the four contests (more below), but the team around Kate had also given us plenty of opportunity to learn and witness great speaking skills.

On Saturday, there was one educational breakout session, whereas on Sunday there were even two to select from three different sessions each:

Educational Breakout Session 1

• Vaughan Paynter - Identify and Engage with Your Unique Voice
• Christiane's feedback: Vaughan had changed the title of his presentation to: "Finding Your Voice - and having the guts to use it". He encouraged us not be happy with vanilla - especially when it comes to the four areas humour, formality, respect and enthusiasm. In those, we should not be in No-man's land since we won't stand out.
• Vaughan reminded us that discomfort is required to grow, because we didn't want to end up as white as rice in milk on a paper plate in a snow storm. He spoke about authority, integrity and simplicity leading to clarity and therefore confidence.
   
• Michelle Priem - Living Intentionally - Prioritising the Things that Matter Most
• Gail H's feedback: Michelle shared with us her experiences of letting go of the 'busyness' of the modern world to live more simple with intent.
• While wearing so many hats in her life, Michelle has found her 'why' that has allowed her to now live life with deliberation.
• It is important to keep in mind when setting goals and making decisions that you are being true to your authentic self.
   
• Jock Elliot - Top Ten Tips For Contest Speaking

Educational Breakout Session 2

• Amanda Rosazza - Creating A Purposeful Culture
• Gail H's feedback: Amanda led an interactive session on club culture and how it can be changed. Participants were encouraged to share the ups and downs of their club experiences.
• Ideas were exchanged on ways that changes can be made. For example: After a club meeting or event or even an executive meeting, ask the questions:
• 1. Name two things that worked well
  2. Name two things we need to improve on.
• The takehome is:
• CLUB CULTURE SHOULD BE BY DESIGN, NOT BY DEFAULT.
  
   
• Lisa Dodis - Cultivating Growth and Flourishing

• Katrina Roberts - Stage Presence - Demystifying The "It" Factor
•  Christiane's feedback: Katrina demonstrated three different circles in life of how we present/ are received. We should strive towards circle number two, where we live authentic. Katrina found that circle number three is a played confidence which can easily be called out.
• Second circle is vulnerable since no-one trusts arrogance.
  

Educational Breakout Session 3

• 
  Kevin Ryan - The Path To Professional Speaker
• Christiane's feedback: You learn everything you need on the journey, but it helps to have passion, expertise and experience in the field you will be speaking about.
• Don't use the phrase "Public Speaking" since people will think, you will deliver for free.
• Take opportunities now to speak outside of your club to build confidence. You might start off with payment/ reward, but don't confuse with being able to get a full-time income.
   
• Luke Meacle - Persona Play: Discovering Your True Self Through Improv
• Lewis Jones - Crash Course in 'Theatricality'
• Gail H's feedback: Lewis gave a session on having a Public Conversation, not a Public Speaking Engagement. You should focus on how you want to connect with an audience about your topic.
• Participants took part in exercises in connecting their body and voice. We dabbed, glided, puncted and floated our way in controlling our bodies.
• Lewis was a vibrant and entertaining presenter who provided an opportunity to 'get physical'.

On top of the educational breakout sessions, there were two keynote speakers on Saturday:

• Rana Saini - The Inner Game of Growth
• Christiane's feedback: Rana stressed that our identity is just a story which can be re-written. He mentioned the three drivers, the four lenses (with Health being the top priority) as well as the 5 resistances.
• He reminded us that if we focus on the weeds, we will surely miss the flowers all along.
• Rana also mentioned that without a plan, we end up where we didn't want to go.
  
• He made some polls when he gave us the lenses and resistances to see how Toastmasters feel.

• Kevin Humphreys - Noble self-leadership
• Christiane's feedback: Kevin told us about his mental illness and the toxic culture. He was down to earth and humbly spoke about his realisation: My mind got me into this, my mind will get me out of it.
• It is important that we show compassion (especially when we are engineers - who don't have empathy) as well as tell ourselves encouraging stories. We should put everything into perspective.
• He encouraged us that a diagnosis doesn't determine.
  
• Kevin concluded with a story about his influence he had on a comrad and only being made aware several years later.

The conference started with Annette and Candice as MCs introducing themselves as well giving us some housekeeping. Annette challenged herself to go reverse alphabetic and called on members to make a ruckus if they were from Western Division (W), Southern Division (S), Pacific Division (P), Northern Division (N), Moreton Division (M), Eastern Division (E), Central Division (C) and Brisbane Division (B).

The flag parade followed.

District Director Denise opened the District Conference.

We then had a "Get to know your table neighbours" by trying to find a common thing. (Ours were "We all have been to the beach", whereas it seemed very popular to have been on a nudist cruise - you learn of new things all the time).

And we were ready for our first contest: Table Topics. It was chaired by last year's winner Thomas.

Contestant were asked to speak impromptu on "The next step". Contestants were Tally (S), Burt (N), Tara (C), Graham (B), Eden (P), Steve (E), Dudley (W) and Kate (M).

Unfortunately, there was one time disqualification.

The awards went to:

1. Steve
2. Tally
3. Graham

 

 

After morning tea, we heard from Rana (see above) followed by the first educational breakout session (see above) followed by lunch. After lunch, we heard from Kevin (see above), before we were ready for contest number two.

The International Speech Contest was chaired by last year's winner Michael.

He called on the following participants:

• Nathalie (W) - "Jump"
• Heidi (M) - "The Little Engine Within"
• Barbara (C) - "Lift Where You Stand"
• Tom (S) - "The Cover"
• Trevor (E) - "A Teddy Moment"
• Colin (B) - "Sunshine"
• Julius (N) - "The Only Way"

There was one time disqualification again.

We were able to congratulate:

1. Colin
2. Tom
3. Julius
   

 

Afterwards, we were able to chat a bit more over afternoon tea and stretch our legs before the gala dinner.

The evening saw us dressed in blue/green or Under the "C" themes: from sea creatures, pirates to Undercover agents.

Gala Dinner saw us having a two-course, alternative served meal as well as celebratory cake: The octopus round cake was organised (and decorated) by Heidi with the square carrot cake being provided by Lisa.

During dinner, we also had several rounds of trivia questions - with some tables being able to score 10 out of 10 in a few rounds.

Afterwards, there was a lot of dancing and singing until late at night.

On Sunday, Candice and Annette were again our MCs.

The District Celebration segment started by District Director Denise acknowledging the officers.

You can find more information on District 69's website: https://www.toastmastersd69.org/district-executive-2023-2024/

 

 

Afterwards, incoming District Director Lou called the incoming Top Table and Division Directors onto stage.

 

Public Relations Manager Thomas presented the Club PR Awards, first by giving us the shortlist/ finalist, then announcing the winner.

• Best Club Newsletter - Lockyer Valley
• Best Club Website - Mount Gravatt
• Best Club Social Media Campaign - Darling Downs
• Best Club Website & Social Media - Waterloo Bay

Thomas also awarded Dalby with the overall PR award since it made three times the shortlist, but never won.

Afterwards, we had the second educational breakout session (see above) before morning tea.

 

For the Evaluation Contest, chaired by last year's winner Kate, we first listened to Clyde presenting a speech titled "The Simple Answer".

Afterwards, Kate called on Franny (M), Robert (B), Kellie (P), Sue (N), Melanie (E), Megan (C), Tia (W) and Gerli (S) to give their evaluation.

Unfortunately, there was one time disqualification.

The placegetters were:

1. Sue
2. Gerli
3. Robert
   

 

After the contest, we had the third educational breakout session (see above) followed by lunch.

Then it was time for the Humorous Speech Contest which was chaired by last year's winner Marilyn.

Marilyn introduced:

• Dudley (W) - "A Happy Vegemite"
• Robert (B) - "Military Birds"
• Eva (N) - "The Sister Act"
• Chris (M) - "Love Is Not Enough"
• Graham (E) - "On-Air Adventure"
• Hillary (C) - "I Wish I Was Perfect"
• Colin (S) - "Wizards"
• Killie (P) - "What Would the World be Without Kids"

For the last contest, there were no timing disqualifications.

The awards went to:

1. Colin
2. Hillary
3. Graham
   

In the Conference Close, Lou awarded the Travelling Gavel (which was relocated) as well as the Adventurous Trophy. The former is calculated on the club with the most kilometres travelled (Supa) whereas the latter is the club with the most members attending (Murphy's Motivators).

Lou then thanked Chief Judge Lennard before calling the organising committee onto the stage. Kate gave a heartfelt closing speech thanking her team and graciously accepting some unwise decisions along the way.

Next year's District Conference will take place in the Gold Coast region.

Sandgate Toastmasters would like to acknowledge all contestants for making it to the District level, congratulate all the winners and extend best wishes to Colin since he is going on to the Regional finals with his International Speech "Sunshine".

Sandgate Toastmasters 50th Anniversary Dinner

Sandgate Toastmasters celebrated its 50th anniversary!

It was an evening filled with reflections, memories and, of course, laughter.

Just look how a room can be transformed by guests and decorations. Gail H had organised the latter and many helping hands put them into the right place.

John T and Liz Wo manned the sign-in desk, welcomed each guest and handed out drink vouchers, dietary cards and name tags.

Soon, the entry hall was swarming with guests - all to catch up with each other.

Raffle Master Narelle was kept busy selling raffle tickets for seven raffle prizes.

Marlene had prepared a photo presentation reflecting on the many (!) different dress-up themes, change-over dinners, conferences and awards - we bet she had a hard time selecting the best photo from 50 years of those.

Caterer Con and his team were all well-prepared, ready to serve us with yummy main and dessert (as always, the photographer was too excited about food, so the main went without photo)

Catching up continues...

Catching up continues...

The bar was kept busy with drink orders.

Sergeant At Arms Helen gave us a 5 minutes warning, which enabled everyone to find a seat at the tables.

Sergeant At Arms Helen called the meeting to order, read the apologies for the evening and gave us the mission statement.

President Gail welcomed the guests and expressed her awe when she summed up the combined years of Toastmasters' experience in the room.

Toastmaster of the evening Jonathon led us through the evening with personal reflections on his IceBreaker and other speech evaluations.

Narelle gave us the invocation and mentioned all the contributors and contributions of the event.

Peter toasted to Toastmasters International and told of his hilarious encounter with his tax accountant. (As our treasurer, he surely knows how much money we are sending to headquarters)

Chris led the Round Robin which gave everybody the opportunity to speak on the proposed topic "The personal highlight of Toastmasters". It was hard to stick to those 20 seconds allocated per speaker.

Shaun recounted his journey through different home clubs (due to work movements) and toasted to "Sandgate Toastmasters and all the Toastmasters clubs in the area making us all stronger".

In his reflection speech, charter member John S did a brilliant job of combining history, highlights and personal achievements.

Area Director Suzanne told us of the many highlights of visiting and interacting with Sandgate Toastmasters.

The recollection segment was led by Marlene. When she mentioned "the incident" (on September 9, xxxx), John T gave us first a clean-up version of the event. Since this didn't cut it for Marlene and Jonathon, Marlene recounted her memories which included an open beer bottle being inserted where it didn't belong. Unfortunately, there exists no photo evidence of the "incident" since all members present were too dumb-founded to take photos of each other.

Christiane took the opportunity to tell us of her funniest Table Topic response a past member gave, before past member Peter V entertained us with a song.

Division Director Suresh retold his first encounter with Sandgate Toastmasters as then Area Director and the many visits thereafter. He was proud to award Sandgate Toastmasters with the 50 years award certificate.

President Gail presented charter member John S with a clock to show Sandgate Toastmaster's appreciation of his involvement over all the 50 years.

Following this, they both cut our celebratory cake.

District Director Denise spoke about the centenary celebration of Toastmasters International before presenting awards to John Scouller: a 50 year badge as well as a plaque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since there can't be a Toastmasters event without Table Topics, Table Topics Master Christiane called on:

• Liz Wo with "What was your best speech ever?" 

Her humorous speech about her imaginary magazine "Lizzie" - and how some audience members inquired after the speech where they could buy the magazine.

• Liz We with "What is your least favourite segment of a Toastmasters meeting?"

Grammarian since she is from the UK. However, she also was adamant to remind us how important the segment was to improve our speaking skills.

 

Raffle Master Narelle and John T called on various dignities to draw the winning raffles. Ben, Blake, Sandra, Leonie, Colin, John T, Trevor and Merv could take a raffle prize home (yes, you are right, there are eight names - Toastmaster Jonathon decided to split a big prize in two).

Caterer Con had prepared take-home packs for the cake. Everybody could take home a piece of cake, a placemat and the memories of a fun-filled evening.

 

 The dinner wouldn't have been such a success without the following:

• Planning committee - Daniel Abey,  Narelle H., Marlene Hatton, Chris Horne, Gail Horne, Christiane Pedler, Arun Tanwar, John Topping, Gokul Vijayakumar;

• Treasurer Peter Dooley; 

• Invitation design Paul Horton; 

• Grants: Councillor Jared Cassidy & Hon Stirling Hinchliffe;

• Venue: Michelle from Brighton Bowls Club;

• Catering: Con Papamitros from My Catering Club;

• Printing: Andrew Pearson from Appello Media;

• Raffle prize donations: 

  • Bracken Ridge Tavern 
  • Round Table Coffee, Bracken Ridge 
  • Full Moon Hotel  
  • Myrtle and Bloom, Sandgate

• Plus the many unnamed people who helped in the background.

 

Sandgate Toastmasters' next meeting is on May 14.

Meeting 1149 "My Precious Treasure"

 President Gail opened the meeting and presented  Amy, Russell and Ben with their new member badges before handing control to Toastmaster of the evening, Arun.

Gail

Arun

Amy spoke about her precious treasure - her daughter, and presented a toast to "Our precious treasures - and Toastmasters."

Russell presented the word for the evening- "Perseverence."

Amy

                                     

Russell

 Round Robin Master Carmy introduced something we haven't done for a while - a continuing story, beginning with (not the exact words)"It was a sunny day and I decided to go for a walk at the beach and found.....

As members added to the story it grew more and more unbelievable and included finding an historical coin in the sand, hitch hiking to Cash Converters, winning money in a poker machine, hitch hiking with an axe, convincing police that it was a rubber axe.... etc. 

 There were 3 prepared speeches.

Gail W

Gail H

Gail W's amusing speech titled "Let Me Spell That For You" was about the trial's of growing up with an unusual surname. 

Evaluator Gail H commended her on her use of stage and gestures and gave some constructive  feedback.

Helen

  Helen used body language and vocal variety in her speech "The World in Your  Palm" as she explained that gestures in one language could mean something  totally different in another. eg. Don't use the OK signal in Japan!

Evaluator Narelle commended Helen on her closing summary  "Be aware.  Check if your message is clear." 

 

Jonathon

Shaun

  In his speech "The Golden Rule is Really Poo   Brown" Jonathon explained that the Golden Rule of "Treat others as you would be treated" is not as good  as the Platinum Rule - "Treat others as they would be   treated."
              

  As Evaluator Shaun said "we were better  off from   hearing it."                    

Ben was timekeeper.

Ben

 

How do you like Ben's socks?

  

Amy provided the raffle - which consisted of Australian and New Zealand alcohol, Anzac biscuits, home made candles and a toy donated by Amy's daughter.  It was later won by Gail H.

Amy

 

Raffle

  Supper was provided by Ben and Marlene.

Table Topics Master Marlene brought a box of small items and invited Liz, Russell, Amy, Narelle, Carmy, Gail H, Ben and Shaun to select one and tell why it is their "precious treasure."

Table Topic items

Liz, Russell, Amy and Narelle all chose the cat & spoke about a beloved pet (although Liz called it a dog) and Narelle cleverly took a photo of it with her mobile phone and spoke about her antique phone. 

Carmy chose the New Zealand power shell , Gail chose the frog (she loves frogs) Ben chose the mouse and Shaun told a fantastic tale about the lizard, which he swore was a true story.

Liz

The Table Topics were evaluated by Liz. She even had to evaluate herself! (The TT Master forgot that Liz was evaluating) 

 

 

President Gail H gave an evaluation of the entire meeting and reminded us that we should remain at the lectern and hand control back to the Toastmaster when we finish speaking. 

The evening's awards went to Jonathon (Best speech,) Narelle (Best Evaluation and Table Topic) Amy and Ben (Tie - Most Improved.)

Award winners 23 April 2024

Next meeting will be on Tuesday14th May. Remember, it will be 3 weeks till the next meeting, because there are 5 Tuesdays in April. 

Club Officer elections are coming up, so please consider taking on a role. You will find it a rewarding growth experience. 

For those who have registered for our Anniversary Dinner, we'll see you next Tuesday!

Meeting 1149 "Commas are Important"

Who would have thought that the theme would take us back to childhood and grammar lessons (or the lack thereof)? Toastmaster Christiane explained that she selected the topic because commas are used differently in different languages and with English not being her mother tongue, it can be difficult to punctuate correctly.

Narelle was our stand-in Sergeant at Arms. However, she took us through the safety announcements like a pro, before reading us the mission statement.

President Gail H opened the meeting and gave us the update of the countdown to the anniversary dinner as well as the District Conference.

Toastmaster Christiane introduced the theme with some pondering questions.

Vice President of Education Liz gave us the program changes.

Russell stepped to the lectern to deliver his first toast. He took us through his journey how he came to Toastmasters, then took us back to his school days. We toasted to "Commas and Toastmasters". (General Evaluator Liz applauded Russell to bring back the toast to Toastmasters since this was our common ground for attending).

Word Master Gail gave us a challenging word "punctuation". She explained that it could be used for the 14 different punctuation marks or to interrupt at intervals and she would allow the noun as well as the verb to be used towards our score.

Jonathon led the Round Robin segment by sharing his school experiences with naughty kids and homework excuse(s). He asked us to share about "our most inspirational teacher".

Answers varied from sharing about an inspirational employer, Lord of the Rings, school being viewed as the necessary evil to have little lunch and big lunch, language teachers in South Africa, Mr Pi (yes, he was a math teacher), a show-off teacher in an MG to excuses for not practicing your instrument. Fascinating was that two stories involved rulers (as in the wooden ones) - both in negative connotations: Mr Wood would use his ruler to wake up the class and a ruler was used to let your students sit up straight.

Our prepared speeches were balancing each other:

1. Trish delivered a 26 minutes inspirational keynote speech titled "Lessons From An Introvert Speaker" (Visionary Communication path, Level 5, project 10: Prepare to Speak Professionally) and reflected on her journey through many different job choices to 2006 opening her own business. Her intimidated evaluator Narelle reflected on her slides, how she went from "Fear" to "60 seconds of insane courage" and other improvement lessons.

2. Gail H presented her Icebreaker to start her new path Leadership Development (Level 1, project 1). The speech titled "Under The Corkwood Tree" brought some childhood memories to light or as evaluator Paul summarised "an entertaining story how Gail illegally funded her dresses" since words like Kingaroy Mafia were used.
   

Shaun was our Raffle Master and had us pondering on all the temptations we might have had (to cheat and bribe evaluators or judges). He called us "guilty cheats who had to redeem themselves through buying raffle tickets" for Monopoly - Cheaters Edition, a bottle of red wine and two wine glasses.

We finished the first half by timer Amy telling us how well we went although the timing lights had run out of battery. (Not to fear, Toastmasters are adaptable - however we learnt that the Toastmaster should have announced the change).

In the supper break, it was time to buy those raffle tickets to clean our conscience, catch up about the happenings of the last two weeks (as well as holiday plans of members) and enjoy the food provided by John and Liz. Jonathon also found the time, a screwdriver and batteries to have the timer lights working again.

We started the second half with Table Topic Master John who called on to give impromptu speeches about:

1. 
   Amy - How do you hope your speaking skills will improve by being in Toastmasters? They are already since she reflected on her introvert fear when discussions were scheduled at uni.
   
2. Jonathon - Grammar ain't as important as it used to be? Since in 13 years of school, he never received grammar lessons, he done alright on the way.
   
3. Russell - If you could speak another language, what would it be and why? Chinese since he loved when he visited China.
   
4. Liz - Is it more important to speak less or say what you think? First of all, put your brain on before speaking and listening is the key to all conversations.
   
5. Christiane - What was a situation in your life that made you pause and reflect? Being "put straight" about presents by hubby and the returned engagement ring.
   
6. Gail H - What is the most important lesson in life? It's not about being nice to all people, rather sometimes tell the hurtful truth if it means you stay true to yourself.
   
7. Narelle - If your life could be described in a sentence, what would it say and why? I had a very privileged life being able to grow up in the Australian country and travel throughout Europe for years.
   
8. Paul - If you had to describe yourself using adjectives (describing words) what would they be? Can you think of three? After the audience made him aware that "Dull White Man" only contained two adjectives, he extended to "Dull White Dependable Man". (Great audience interaction!)
   

The Table Topics were evaluated by Shaun who didn't have time to pause. He still found a point of improvement for all eight speakers as well as several commendations. One nugget of recommendation was to pretend to make eye contact at the back of the room between two people (it looks like you have eye contact, but you don't get distracted in sorting your thoughts)

While Narelle collected votes, we got some grammar lessons from Toastmaster Christiane to help us all to be more precise with those punctuation marks.

We then heard from Word Master Gail how often members used "punctuation". Russell got third place (3 times), Liz in second with 5 times and Trish won with punctuating her sentences 13 times.

Liz in her general evaluation commended us on our "small in number, big in enthusiasm" meeting.

Timer Amy in her final timing report made us aware that we were slightly running behind.

Shaun asked Trish to draw the raffle prize winner which wasn't an easy task since there were no purple cups. She drew Paul.

President Gail H thanked all the members before awarding:

Most Improved - Russell

Best Evaluation - Shaun

Best Speech - Trish

Best Table Topic - Christiane

 

 

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday April 23.

Narelle would like to thank those members who have again brought along raffle prizes for the 50th anniversary dinner. For those who still have non-perishable items to donate, you will have a last chance on April 23.