Meeting 1165 "Life"

 This was our final meeting for the year.  Sergeant at Arms Narelle called the meeting to order and handed control to President Helen, who inducted our two new members, Brett and Julie.

Helen inducted Brett and Julie

Toastmaster of the evening was Arun, who kept the meeting flowing smoothly with some inspirational quotes between segments.

Christiane proposed a toast.

Arun

Christiane

Word Master Trevor presented a word that he hoped would stump our most prolific word user, (who unfortunately was absent.) "Vicissitude," meaning "a change of circumstances, particular one that is unwelcome."   It was used at least once (although not always pronounced properly) by most members during Brett's Round Robin and throughout the evening.

Trevor

Brett

There were 4 prepared speeches. Will's inspiring speech from the Dynamic Leadership path, was "Manage Emotions with S.C.A.R.F." (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness.)

Trevor speech was an amusing story about buying a condo in Thailand.

 

Will

Trevor

Helen told a moving story about her grandfather.

John's speech, "My Glad, Sad, Bad, Mad World" was about Emotional Intelligence.

Helen

John

The evaluators of the speeches were Gail H, Jonathon, Rosie and Marlene.

Gail H

Jonathon

Rosie

Marlene

Christiane presented an educational session on "Toastmaster of the Year" and explained how the points are allocated.

Timekeeper Maddy kept meticulous time. 

Maddy

Marlene presented her raffle consisting of some books that had been donated by a former member Tony, - and an Ant Farm! It was won by Gail H.

Raffle

Raffle

Supper, provided by Helen, Arun and Julie was a good time for socializing. 

Supper time

Rosie, Jonathon & Julie

Trevor, Brett, John, Will, Gail H

The Table Topics session was conducted by Gail H, who had prepared topics for Gail W, Rosie, Jonathon and Maddy.

Gail W - "Living v Existing"

Rosie - "Happy v Successful"

Jonathon - " First impression of person"

Maddy - Hug v nice words"

The Table Topics Evaluator was Will.

Gail W had everyone guessing with her "Who Am I?" quiz until we guessed that the person was Barbara Streisand.

Will

Gail W

Narelle delivered a General Evaluation of the entire meeting.

The award winners of the evening were Jonathon (Best Evaluation and Best Table Topic,) Will (Most Improved, and John (Best Speech.)

Award winners 26 Dec 2024

Our Christmas Break Up will be on the 10th of December. Don't forget to bring a Secret Santa gift of 10 value, and an item for the grocery hamper raffle.

The next meeting will be after the Christmas break, 28th January, plenty of time to prepare a speech!

Meeting 1164 "Purple - Magic, Mystery and Royalty" A Backwards Meeting.

 What a crazy meeting it was! Our Vice President Education Christiane had scheduled a backwards meeting.

President Helen welcomed our guests Monica, Katrina and Julie and new member Brett, then she announced the meeting closed and the meeting proceeded (or receded?) in reverse, making it a challenge for all participants to use their improvisation skills.

Helen

Trish

Toastmaster Trish shared some interesting facts throughout the evening about her favourite colour .

Timekeeper Carmy gave the final timers report for the entire meeting and speakers then tried to keep to those times. 

Timekeeper Carmy with Trish

Christiane delivered her Evaluation of how the meeting went. Everyone needed to pay close attention so that they could incorporate her remarks into their role. 

Gail H presented a Listening Quiz about what was said during the meeting.

Christiane

Gail H

Trevor on his Soap Box had some comments about the USA Election.

TJ presented the Word Master report - without revealing what the word was!

Timekeeper Carmy announced the times the Table Topics respondents had taken (which they attempted to make come true.

Trevor and Gail W delivered an evaluation of the Table Topics speakers. 

Trevor

Gail W

No one knew what their Table Topic was. Each participant selected a small parcel prepared by Marlene and told who they had bought it for and what they would do with it, before opening the parcel. It was a challenge for Paul, Helen, Christiane, TJ, Liz, Brett Gail H and Carmy.

Paul

Helen

Christiane

Gail H

Brett

Liz

Carmy

Trevor presented his Raffle, which was a huge clock. It was won by Gail H.

Trevor's Raffle

Supper was provided by Gail H and Carmy.

Supper Time

TJ (filling in for SAA Narelle) called the meeting back to order.

Carmy reported on the times taken for speeches (which we were yet to hear) and Trish introduced the Speech Evaluators Paul, Gail W and Helen, who evaluated the speeches before they had heard them!

Paul

Gail W

Helen

Maddy

Maddy's speech was her Icebreaker. She told how she joined Toastmasters to overcome her fear of Public Speaking.

Liz

Liz's speech "Where Leaders are Made" was a helpful talk about Toastmasters and the Pathways Programme.

Marlene

Marlene's speech was titled "Learning to Listen" and was about how to avoid being a "conversational narcissist."

Round Robin Master Helen's invited everyone to tell of an encounter with Royalty.

Word Master Gail H revealed that the word of the evening was "Unique."

President Helen asked our guests Monica, Katrina and Julie to comment on the evening, then closed the meeting by announce it open.

Award winners of the evening were Helen (Best Table Topic,) Maddy (Best Speech and Most Improved,) and Paul (Best Evaluation.)

Award winners 12th November 2024

Next meeting on the 26th of November will be a normal meeting and will be the final one before our Christmas Break Up on 10th December.

Plans for our Breakup have changed, and it will probably be held at the RSL Hall. More information soon.

 

Area 8 Conference - "Helping others to help yourself"

 

It was a sunny Sunday, when eight Sandgate Toastmasters joined many other Toastmasters to celebrate the club's bests to compete with each other: Christiane, Helen, Chris, Arun, Trish, Gail, John and Will.

Area 8 comprises of 6 clubs: Bracken Ridge (BR), North Lakes (NL), Peninsula (Pe), Powerlink (Po), Redcliffe (R) and Sandgate (S). There were 4 contests and 12 trophies up for grabs.

 

 

 

The registration and raffle table were manned by Peninsula Club who were kept busy until they sold out of raffle tickets VERY quickly!

Before the actual contests were underway, there were a few procedures beforehand: Sue called the meeting to order as our Sergeant At Arms, before handing to James who was our Conference MC for the first half of the day.

It was David's job as Area 8 Director to open the Conference and honour all the dignities in the room.

 

 

 

Our first contest was the Evaluation Contest, hosted by North Lakes Club, chaired by Jenny. We first heard a test speech by Abishek titled "The Hindsight Window". It was evaluated by the five contestants which were Andrew (NL), Cheyenne (R), Allan (Pe), Heidi (BR) and Christiane (S).

For the awards (with no time disqualification), Jenny announced:

1. Heidi
2. Christiane
3. Allan
   

 

 

 

 

We then had our first break: morning tea, which we took to catch up between the clubs and the news.

The International Speech Contest was hosted by Bracken Ridge and chaired by Chris P. 

Chris P called on John (S) with "Sending Out an SOS", Kris (Pe) with "Three Mindful Tricks", Monica (R) with "Childless Cat Ladies" and Maria (NL) with "2:43am".

With no time disqualification, he awarded:

1. John
2. Monica
3. Kris

 

 

Next on the agenda was our guest speaker Christine Lennon who gave as some insights of how  "Being the Best Version You Can Be" influenced her life.

It was time for our lunch break and more catching up time.

After lunch, we were welcomed by new MC David who took us through the afternoon.

 

 

 

The next contest was hosted by Redcliffe and chaired by Barbara. In the Table Topic Contest, she called on Paul, Umar (Pe), Heidi (BR), Christiane (S) and Andrew (NL) with the topic: "Just in time".

With no time disqualifications, Barbara awarded:

1. Christiane
2. Heidi
3. Andrew

 

Raffles were drawn - and it would have been a rigged raffle if Gail H wouldn't have won!

 

 

We had a short afternoon tea break before the final contest: Humorous Speech. It was hosted by Sandgate and chaired by Will. This also meant, he had to brief the contestants. The contestants' speeches were timed by Gail H and Chris. The Sergeant At Arms were Helen responsible for the stage and Trish responsible for the application of the microphone. The Ballot Counters were John and Chris.

Will called on Monica (R) with "The Next Olympic Event", Heidi (BR) with "An Olympic Life", Christiane (S) with "It's About Time", Allan (Pe) with "Whose a Clever Boy Then?" and Anoop (NL) with "The Great Halloween Lesson".

Fortunately, Will was able to announce no time disqualification before placing the winners:

1. Anoop
2. Christiane
3. Monica

 

Sandgate Toastmasters would like to congratulate the winners going on to Moreton Division Conference next year and wish them good luck in a tough competition. Keep March 16 free for attending and cheering on Heidi, John, Christiane and Anoop.

Thank you to Trish for providing most of the photos.