Meeting 892 "Australia"

Toastmaster Dave

There were 20 members and one guest present at our first meeting for 2013. As it was almost Australia Day, the theme for our meeting was "Australia."
Harry filled in as Sergeant at Arms. President Annette announced that she intended to work on her joke telling skills. There were a few groans but we laughed at her joke.
Toastmaster Dave had gathered snippets of  "Australiana" to present between segments.

Word Master Robert told a of encounter he'd had with an emu and selected the word "Emu" as the word of the evening.

Liz Wo presented the Round Robin as a continuing story, which began with an Aussie BBQ and took many twists and turns as each person added to it. Of course the main character in the story was an emu!

Del's Table Topics continued with the Australian theme - Something like "How do think people would react if the Australia Day holiday was taken away?" "How would you design a new Australian Flag?" and "How would you promote Australia to overseas visitors?" The topics were answered by Robert, June and Inge.

Jonathon presented another three Table Topics."As an Australia ambassador, how would you address New Australians?" "How & when would you serve up the ultimate Aussie meal?"  and "What is more important to Australians - sport or science?" These were answered by Kerry, Annette and Harry.
Jennine and Terry evaluated the Table Topics.

John T

John T 's speech was titled"Giving a Gonsky." He used charts and examples to help us understand this difficult subject.  The speech was evaluatd by Jonathon.

Trish's project was from "The Interpretive Reading" manual. She read an excerpt from Dawn French's book, "Oh Dear Sylvia."  It was evaluated by Marlene.

In the absence of our Raffle Master, a book of "Illusions" and a pack of toiletries was produced from our cupboard. It was won by Robert.

Inge provided three kinds of delicious biscuits for supper which was enjoyed by all.

Supper Break

John S read a poem that he had written in response to the reckless living of some of the youth of today.

"TODAY”S YOUTH

As childhood memories flood my mind I ponder,

What would I give to capture once more

The strength of my youth as before?

To jump a puddle, to climb a tree;

To rise with ease up from my knees.

We look with jaundiced eyes on the excesses of today’s youth 
Alcohol, cars, drugs and their reckless fun.

Let’s hope they are around at three score or more

To say, what would I give to capture once more

The strength of my youth as before?"

Annette

Robert told us another joke.
Grammarian Annette commented on our use of language and said no one had used many ums & ahs. She reminded us that the word "Now" is also a filler if habitually used at the beginning of sentences.

Timer Rhys advised that we were ahead of time, so John T told us the history of that Australian delicacy, the lamington.

The meeting was evaluated by Monica, who had some helpful suggestions.

Trish reminded us abut the Club Officers Training Day on the 9th February. This is open to any members who are interested - not just club officers. Our club pays for members to attend, but we need to register straight away.

Our guest Michael said he had enjoyed the meeting, particularly the evaluations, which he thought were very helpful.

Awards for the evening went to John T (Best Speech), Harry (Best Table Topic,) Jonathon (Best Evaluation)  Dave (Best Contribution,) & Terry (Personal Best.)

The 5 Amigos (award winners)

Don't forget, there are 5 Tuesdays in this month, so it will be 3 weeks till the next meeting. 

See you on the12th February.

Christmas Break Up

Our last meeting for the year was a Christmas Break Up Dinner.  It was a great night, with plenty of  fun table topics, a Secret Santa Swap, Celebrity Antlers and good food.  I'll let the photos tell the story.
Click on the photos for a larger size.

Merry Christmas to all. 
We will be in recess until the 22nd January. 

Register for Club Officer Training

Toastmasters conducts Club Officer Training Days twice a year. These are a must for any of the Club Executive Officers, but they are also open to any members who are interested. You will find it helpful if you are thinking of taking on an executive role in the future. As well as sessions on Club Officer roles, there will be other sessions that will interest any Toastmaster.

The main Training Day will be held on Saturday, 9th February, from 8.15 am to 3.30 pm in the New Education Centre, Prince Charles Hospital, Chermside.

If more convenient you can attending an Club Officer Training evening on Tuesday 12th February, at the Telstra Building in the city.  5pm - 9pm. (No extra sessions at this venue.)

Our club usually pays for members who attend but we need to know who is going so Nicole can make a group booking. It will be cheaper if we can book early.

Meeting 890 "Summertime"

35 years in Toastmasters!

Ranjeet & Denise congratulate Annette

Metropolitan Division Governor, Ranjeet and Area Governor Denise attended our meeting and presented Annette with her 35 year badge - and a bottle of wine to celebrate.

Other guests were Natasha, who is visiting from Canada, and Peter.

Rhys was Toastmaster and he kept us entertained during the evening with some interesting facts about summer, some tips for keeping cool and even some jokes.

June's Table Topics were very creative. She asked Annette to make up a story from some selected words on a card. Robert was asked to speak about a summer thunder storm, Maureen was given a picture to make a story from and Dave had to speak about a summertime activity.

Table Topics Evaluator John S, commended all speakers and suggested that they all could have been improved with more animation. John also mentioned that it is a long time since he received a table topic. (Future Table Topic Masters, please note - and don't make them too easy!)

Jennine's speech, which was her 5th project from the CC manual, was "Three Quotes for Life."  The quotes she spoke of were "Be Where You Are,"  "Kill Them with Kindness," and "Don't Regret the Things You Have Done, but Those You Did Not Do." which she wove into an inspiring speech.

Spellbound audience

Ralph presented his Icebreaker speech, titled "My Place in the Sun." He told a little of the history of his homeland, The Philippines, his personal life journey and how he came to Australia and found his own "Place in the Sun." It was a very moving speech and Ralph received a standing ovation.




Nicole's speech (her 6th) was "A Tablet for Everyone," which was not about a panacea for all, but a fascinating speech about the iPad.

 Evaluators Liz, Dave and Amanda gave some encouraging comments. Amanda is new at evaluating, but she gave a very well constructed evaluation, with commendations, a point for improvement and a summary.

The time keeper (me) was engrossed in the speeches and forgot to check the time.
Luckily, Leesa arrived during the supper break and took over the timing for the rest of the meeting.

Rhys & Robert

Ranjeet & June

The business session proved to be good practice in moving motions and amendments as we decided  on the price limit for the secret Santa gifts at our break up. It will be $10 this year. Everyone is also to bring a grocery item for our Christmas Hamper raffle.

Annette evaluated the business session and commended Jonathon for his perfomance as chairman and for stepping into the role at the last minute.

Raffle Master John T had a treat for us. He had brought along 6 books that he had read but were still in pristine condition. The lucky winners were June, Amanda, Robert, Annette, Marlene & Ralph.

General Evaluator Del had some encouraging comments for all.

Awards for the evening went to Jennine (Best Speech,) Ralph (Personal Best,) Liz (Best Evaluator,) Maureen & Dave (Best Table Topic, tie,) and Rhys (Best Contribution.

This was the final regular meeting for 2012. Remember, if you are coming to our Break Up Dinner on the 11th, you will need to pay by Monday 3rd December. 

Old friends

Marlene, Bing, Edith & Lenore.

One the best things about Toastmasters is the lasting friendships we can make. Those of you who have been in the club for some time will remember past members, Edith, Bing & Lenore. On Sunday, I met up with them for lunch at The Full Moon.

We had a wonderful time catching up on the news.
Edith said she had found Toastmasters skills had really helped in her job as marriage celebrant.

Bing said she found the evaluation skills she had learnt at Toastmasters were useful when she had to write a report.

We all agreed that Toastmasters had made a big difference in our lives.

By the way, the meal was delicious. I can recommend the daily caught fish.

Meeting 889 "Fun with Words"

Annette installed Nicole as Treasurer

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Kylie 

Kylie chose the theme for the meeting and we really did have fun with words! Kylie, in her role of Toastmaster kept us laughing at her funny puns. We will miss her vitality while she is taking an extended break from Toastmasters.

Nicole has stepped in as our new club treasurer. She was unanimously voted in by the club and installed by president Annette.

Jennine

Rhys

Jennine's table topics were all a clever play on words. They were something like:
"My social studies teacher says the globe means the world to her."
"I have a pressing engagement -  I must go to the cleaners."
"Cook books are exciting. They contain lot's of stirring events."
 and "A dog not only wears a fur coat but also pants."
 Liz, Annette, John T and Sharyn managed to make them into some very funny mini speeches.

The table topics were efficiently evaluated by Rhys.

Amanda folding a fitted sheet

The three prepared speeches were all excellent. Amanda presented her second speech, which was titled, "Three Things I've learned off the Internet in the Past Week." It was a very amusing account of how she learned to fold a fitted sheet, how to avoid unwanted phone calls by registering with the "Do Not Call Register," and how to write a speech in 30 minutes. She cleverly tied these three subjects into a well organised speech.

Amanda's speech was evaluated by John T.

Sharyn

Trish

Trish, an advanced speaker, gave an inspiring speech on "Why I Do What I Do." and told how she loves helping people learn communication skills with her business, Trischel. 
Marlene and Robert gave a joint evaluation of Trish's speech.

Sharyn,  another advanced speaker, gave a very animated speech on "Word Perception" and told how a word can mean something to one person and something entirely different to another.
Sharyn's speech was evaluated by Inge and Monica. It was Inge's first time as evaluator.

Dave read a humorous poem, "Ode to Hubble's Troubles"  Liz read a poem called "For Better or Verse" that had some unexpected twists.

Tim and Ernie

Ernie told us a funny joke about how to tell the sex of a fly. It was good to have Ernie's son Tim, as a guest at our meeting. There were two other guests, Michelle and Andrew.

We had two raffles, Typo Package stationery from June and an assortment of preserves from Del.
They were won by Annette and Trish.

June

Del

Grammarian Jonathon reported on our use of words and fillers during the evening.

Annette, as General Evaluator, said she was pleased to see so many arrive early for the meeting. She reminded us to avoid unnecessary moving around or talking to one another while someone is speaking at the lectern as it is very distracting for the speaker.

Thanks to John S's meticulous time keeping and most people keeping within their allotted time, the meeting finished well on time.

Awards for the evening went to Amanda (Personal Best,) Kylie (Best Contribution,) Trish and Sharyn tied for Best Speaker, and John T (Best Evaluation.)

We have a winner!

Annette - First Place Evaluation

We were thrilled to see Annette win first place in the Evaluation Contest at the Area 8 Conference. She also came third in the International Speech Contest. Annette will go on to compete against all the clubs in the Metropolitan Division on the 16th March next year.

Dave performed well in the Table Topics Contest. We are proud of both our competitors.

Sharyn was great in her role of Contest Chairman.

 Area 8 consists of 6 Toastmasters clubs - Pines,  Healthy Chatterers, Bunya, Peninsula, Narangba Valley, and Sandgate. It is always good to meet old & new friends from other Toastmasters clubs.

The food from Tommy Tucker's Takeaway was excellent & plenty of it.

Meeting 888 "Practice Makes Perfect"

Possums

No, this photo has nothing to do with Toastmasters. But it's the reason I was late for the meeting. The possums that had been living in my ceiling had been trapped & I had to wait until after dark before setting them  free. I just had to show you because they are so cute!

So I missed the beginning of the meeting & arrived during the Table Topics. Monica had chosen some excellent topics - they were brief, no long introduction needed and could be answered by anyone. (At least in theory.)

The topics were, "I should have known," "They were wrong," "It's going to take time," and "It's the best option for me." They were answered by Terry, Robert, Dave and Anne.

Amanda

Amanda evaluated the Table Topics. It was her first time as evaluator and she handled it very well.

A lot of our members were absent.  Some were ill, some on holiday and a few had studies. It was good to have our guests Jaya and Christine back again as well as Anne, a first time visitor.

 Toastmaster Rhys kept the meeting running smoothly.

Maureen presented her second speech, entitled "Holiday Times" and had some helpful suggestions to make holidays stress free.
John T's speech, his second also, was "Australia - Where to Now?" with a lot of tongue in cheek humour.

The speeches were evaluated by June, another first time evaluator, and Leesa.

In preparation for the Area Conference, Annette delivered her contest speech, and was given a group evaluation, which was led by Liz Wo. We wish Annette success in the  speech contest, as well as the evaluation contest. Also Dave in the table topics contest.

The business session was also conducted by Annette. The main business was the position of treasurer, as Kylie is taking an extended break from Toastmasters, because of other commitments.  We were unable to elect a new treasurer at the meeting, but don't worry, someone has come forward since to take on the position. Stay tuned!

Grammarian Kylie commented on the ums & aahs as well as some good word usage during the meeting.

Robert's guide dog Homer took control of the lectern for a few minutes.

John S was General Evaluator. He suggested putting "6.30 pm for 7 pm" on the programme, as quite a few members had turned up right on 7 pm. He also stressed the need to have a copy of the minutes at the business session and for executive members to send a report if they could not be present.

Annette closed the meeting & presented the evening's awards to Anne (Best Table Topic,) John T (Best Speech,) Leesa (Best Evaluation,) Amanda (Personal Best,) & Rhys (Best Contribution,)

Sorry, I didn't get a photo. My battery had gone flat taking photos of possums & I forgot to take a spare one.)

Don't forget there are 5 Tuesdays in this month, so it will be an extra week till the next meeting on the 13th November.

Meanwhile, see you at the Area Conference on Saturday.

Newsletters

Sandgate Toastmasters Newsletter

Congratulations to Melissa, on producing the club Newsletter! She has also put it online. Go to http://issuu.com/toastmasterssandgate/docs/august

You will find it easy to read online if you click where it says "Click to read." so that it comes up bigger. Click again to make it larger still. You will find arrows at the side to turn to the next page.  To get back out of full screen, press the "Esc" button on the top left of your keyboard.

Well done, Melissa!

Meeting 887 Eval & Speech Contest

Congratulations to all our contestants in the Evaluation and International Speech Contest. You were all great!
And the winners are....

Evaluation Contest  Sharyn, Annette & Dave

Annette & Ke

EVALUATION CONTEST
 1st Annette
2nd Sharyn
3rd Dave
INTERNATIONAL SPEECH CONTEST
1st Annette
2nd Kel

So Annette will represent our club in both the Evaluation Contest and the International Speech Contest at the Area Conference on the 3rd November.

Dave is going to represent us in Table Topics.

Thanks to Mark from Pines Toastmasters Club who acted as Chief Judge. Other judges were from our club - Leesa, Marlene, Rhys & trainee judge June.

Dave and Liz Wo were very proficient Contest Toastmasters.

Our guest speaker was Terry,  who is a new member to our club, so none of our competitors had heard him speak before.

Dave

Terry was interviewed by Liz 

We were delighted to welcome Monica back after a long absence and John S with his new bionic ear, as well as Annette and Sharyn, who had returned from their travels.

We were also pleased to welcome back guests from a previous meeting - Allan, Jaya and Christine, and also Gio who visited for the first time.

Don't forget to bring your registration fee for the Area Conference to our next meeting so Kylie can make a bulk booking for our club. Let's support our contestants and help to make it a great day.

Click to enlarge