St Valentines Meeting

It was a great meeting this week. Toastmaster Monica kept things flowing. The theme was "Love and all That Stuff." The Round Robin and Table Topics had a romantic theme and caused some hilarity.

Rhys presented his 3rd speech, titled "H20 to Go." It was very persuavive and of a much higher standard than one would expect for a 3rd speech.

Michael  gave an entertaining speech from the  Advanced manual, "Speaking to inform." He spoke about his experience as a radio announcer.

Dave's speech about recycling was voted the best speech of the evening.

We had 7 guests - Kate and June who came last time, (I'm glad we didn't frighten them away) Michelle, Maithri, Peter, Chris and Hugh. They all said they had enjoyed the meeting.

Dave is working on  his next speech 

Australia Day Meeting

It was good to get back to our meeting after a long break during the Christmas & School Holidays period.

Our first meeting for the year was held on Australia Day. so of course the theme was  "Australia Day."

Although it was a public holiday, 15 members turned up, several  looking sunburned after a day at the beach. We also had 2 guests, Kate and June.

Our usual meeting room was not available, so we held our meeting upstairs in the boardroom, which was only just large enough to accommodate everyone. It was a hot night, but a lovely sea breeze coming in through the outside doors kept us cool.

Robert presented an amusing speech, titled "How to be Brisbane's Best Racing Commentator," in which he wove a fanciful story about some of our members. No one really believed that he calls races - or that I have ridden a race horse!

Trish delivered a powerful talk on "The Forgotten Element," about keeping a balance between giving speeches and taking on Toastmaster roles and responsibilities.

I am working on the Interpretive Reading Manual, so I read the poem "The Man from Snowy River."
I learned an unexpected lesson. Because it was breezy, I put the pages I had to read from into the plastic sleeves of my folder so they wouldn't blow away. I hadn't got far into the poem, when I realised the light overhead was shining on the plastic & I couldn't read the words. So I took out the pages and had to hold on to them in the breeze. At one stage, I let go and one of them blew onto the floor. In future, I will make sure my speech is clipped or pasted onto firm cardboard or something.

One of our guests, Kate won the raffle, supplied by Dave. It was a beautiful bag that Dave's wife Sandy had made. Michael won the second prize, a book.

Don't forget, Metro Division Training Day is next Saturday, 6th February at Spring Hill or Monday 8th February at Chermside.

Toastmasters on Holiday

CLEM 7 TUNNEL

Toastmasters are adventurous and to prove this, some of us went underground at Woollongabba travelled along a 6.8km tunnel and fortunately surfaced near Herston. Being a forthright Toastmaster I just had to take control, play with the microphone and safety vest and rest assured I KNOW what to do in the case of an emergency. Perhaps I should have rotated the photo !!!

Christmas Break-Up

Our Christmas Party was great fun. Toastmaster Liz kept us enchanted with her magic wand. We even laughed at her jokes!

We had fun playing Celebrity Antlers.

Everyone brought an item for the Grocery Hamper raffle and a Secret Santa gift.

Creatures of the Night

Our meeting on 27 October 2009 was very entertaining. An informative after dinner speech by Dave gave us some thoughtful, fascinating facts about glass (how does he remember all that information? - very inspiring). Ian presented an impromptu speech which left us all desperate to hear the next instalment. I showed how to build rapport with fellow members (using an exceptional able assistant - Thanks Liz). Trish, our toastmaster, almost told a decent joke regarding the halloween theme, all the members were all smiling and commenting goodheartedly at how bad they were although the DELIVERY was superb. The raffle containing a big black spider (edible) was introduced by our own wordsmith Leesa with an amazing rhyming verse. Trish won!
In conclusion Annette in her General Evaluation stated "It was a happy and friendly meeting".

I attended the 'free' Toastmaster viewing of Michael Moore's movie "Capitalism - A Love Story" at South Bank and as a bonus listened to International Contest winner Mark perform his speech.

John our International Contestant.

Turn Up the Heat

On Saturday, 24 October 2009, Sandgate Toastmasters showed amazing support (we occupied three tables) for our contestants: Table Topics - Annette, International - John, Evaluation - Trish, Humorous - Marlene.



The winners of the competitions were:
Humorous 1st - Marilyn 2nd - Annette 3rd - Bob.
International 1st - Richard 2nd - John 3rd - Chris
Evaluation 1st - Marilyn 2nd - Monica 3rd - Trish
Humorous 1st - Monica 2nd - Richard 3rd - Marlene

Mark Hunter facilitated an education session titled 'The Process of Writing a Great Speech'. Quite a few references were made during this session to the 'cheese and toast specialist' that we are lucky enough to have as a member at our club. The main points Mark made regarding the process of writing a great speech were; number
1. 'Select and Issue'
2.'Brainstorm ideas on paper'
3. 'Determine your purpose'
4. 'Identifying the topic'
5. 'The development of your main ideas for your speech'
6. 'Writing a great opening to your speech', 7. 'Writing a great conclusion for your speech'. Concluding with tips on 'How to overcome nerves' and 'The importance of rehearsal'.

Area Governor's visit

We were thrilled to have a visit from Asoki, our Area Governor last meeting. Asoki inspired us with her talk on setting goals.
It was good to chat with her during the break.

New member Sharon presented her Ice Breaker speech, titled "Who Am I?"

Ian gave a speech about a lion called "Samson."

Another new member Rhys was inducted.

Robert and Reese had a good chat over a cuppa.

Its Spring - and our club is blooming!

The theme for the meeting this week was "Swing into Spring." Toastmaster Dave kept the  evening flowing with quotes & rhymes about Spring.

The Table Topics chosen by Sharyn D were quotes related to Spring. Although they were difficult, all her "victims" rose to the occasion and delivered some very witty mini speeches.

Metamorphosis was the word of the  evening (chosen & presented by our new member Sharon R.) It was thrilling to see the metamorphosis that had taken place in Ian as he confidently presented his fourth speech. He had everyone listening and laughing at the story of his experiences with a science teacher from his past.

Other wonderful speeches were presented by Trish L (about Spring Cleaning) and Michael (about Toastmasters.)

Several of our guests filled in a membership application form and others asked for one to take home.