Metro Division Conference 2013

Annette 

Six from our club attended the Metro Division Conference last Saturday. John S, John T, Annette, Leesa, Liz We, and me.

Annette competed in the Evaluation contest and came second. I felt I learned more from Annette's evaluation that any of the other evaluations, because she had a good point for improvement that none of the others mentioned. Anyway she did our club proud.

The speeches were of a high standard. It was good to see former International President of Toastmasters,

Gavin Blakey

Gavin Blakey chair the International Contest. Another distinguished guest was Jock Elliott, who was World Champion speaker in 2011.

I was challenged by the session conducted by  keynote speaker Kevin Ryan. 

One of his memorable quotes was, "Everything great you'll ever achieve will happen outside your comfort zone."

He challenged us to pair up with someone in the room who we didn't know & tell them what commitment we had made to step outside our comfort zone. I found myself talking to the lovely young girl in front of me, and I rashly committed myself to entering the Evaluation Contest this year. 

Oh dear, what have I done!!

Meeting 895 "Getting Involved"

Annette & Denise

We were happy to  welcome our Area Governor, Denise to our meeting. Denise brought a special treat - two large cartons of books for anyone who wanted them. They were eagerly snapped up.

Other visitors were Christiane, Nick, Bev and Kerryn.

Two new members, Peter and Ron were inducted by Annette. Annette used our new modified Induction Ceremony, which includes the Mentors Promise. Liz We will be  Peters mentor and Dave will mentor Ron.

Annette inducted Peter & Ron

Jonathon

Toastmaster Jonathon kept the meeting moving along and injected  it with some inspiring quotes about getting involved. 

Robert proposed the Toast and Del read the Toastmasters Mission Statement, which has recently been revised,
"We provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth."

Inge & guest Christiane

Round Robin Master Inge invited us to tell about our hobbies.To start the ball rolling, Inge had brought some of the brooches and stones she had painted. We were able to see them more closely during the supper break.

 Del, Terry, Maureen and Rhys were called on to answer Marlene's Table Topics with a "Getting Involved" theme -

"Tell us how you came to be involved in one of your favourite organisations."

"Your neighbour's teenager has a wild all night party while his parents are out of town. Do you tell his parents when they return?"

"You are driving alone at night. A desperate looking person tries to flag you down. Do you stop?"

"You suspect a neighbour is abusing his or her children. Do you notifiy the authorities?"

Del

Terry

Maureen

John S

The Table Topics were evaluated by John S, who pointed out their strengths & how they could improve.

Jennine

We heard three excellent speeches. Jennine's was "For the Love of Water."  She used great word pictures and explained how sea creatures are endangered by rubbish that finds it way into the ocean.

John T

John T's speech was "Winning the War of the Word." It was a very humorous look at the way "New Speak" is taking over our language.

Liz We

Liz We's speech "How Long is a Foot?" was a fascinating account of how the size of the human foot has increased over the years. She used charts and pieces of wood to demonstrate.

Evaluators were Amanda, Annette and Nicole.



During the supper break, we were able to inspect the chart John S had made of the history of our club.

John,  Leesa & Amanda

Liz Wo

The Business Session was chaired by Liz Wo. Parliamentarian John S congratulated  the club on the professional way the meeting was conducted.

Grammarian Dave commented on the colourful word usage during the meeting and gave examples.

Kerry's raffle (stationery) was won by Liz Wo.

Kerry

Sharyn was General Evaluator. She had encouraging comments and suggestions for all, and said she was particularly impressed with the quality of the evaluations.

Maureeen revealed herself as the Mystery Toastmaster.

Sharyn

It was a tightly packed programme, but thanks to the efficiency of the Toastmaster, Chairman and co-operation of everyone by not going over time, Timekeeper Harry was able to announce that we had finished 2 minutes early.


Winners of the evening's awards were Annette (Best Evaluator,) Maureen (Best Table Topic,) Jonathon ( Best Contribution,) Jennine (Best Speech,) and Amanda (Personal Best.)

Award winners

Remember, next meeting is the deadline for our semi annual fees.  If you prefer to pay online, please contact Nicole for details.

Meeting 894 "Rain"

Del

Toastmaster Del had chosen the topic "Rain," which was very appropriate because it had rained all week. In spite of the weather, we almost had a full house, and had to add extra tables. (Which made us a bit late starting the meeting.) We also welcomed 8 guests - Ron, Peter, Jim. Nick, Bev, Shane, Christiane, & Joel.

We were thrilled to hear that one of our members is having a baby in August - and another member is going to have a Jack Russell pup at the end of April.

VPE Marlene was happy to report there were no programme changes, as everyone on the programme had turned up.

June proposed a toast to "Rain."

Round Robin Master John S asked us to tell us of an experience we'd had with rain. This resulted in many stories of rain, floods and storms.

Terry

Terry's Table Topics were "Why did Noah take two mosquitoes into the ark." (That's something I had always wondered, but Annette informed us that they slipped in by riding on the elephant's back.)  "At what stage does rain become a pain," (answered by Harry,) and "Why are they called apartments when they are stuck together. (answered by Leesa.)

Liz We

 John T's topics were "How do you spend a rainy day?" "How do you go through life without letting things rain on your parade?" and "Are our weather patterns changing?" These were answered by Liz We, Maureen and John S.

Liz Wo

Amanda

Liz Wo and Amanda evaluated the Table Topics.

Harry

Harry presented his 7th speech, "Clever Corvus," He gave us some fascinating information about crows, how they like to have fun, the way they use tools and how they can be trained.

Marlene and Robert shared the role of evaluator for Harry's speech.

Nicole

Maureen

Nicole also presented her 7th speech, which was about "Childhood Heart Disease." Nicole's little boy has recently had heart surgery, so she was familiar with the topic.

Nicole's speech was evaluated by Maureen. This was Maureen's first evaluation and she was a credit to her mentor Sharyn.

Annette presented an inspiring speech about volunteering. It was the 10th project in the Competent Communicator Manual.
It was evaluated by Leesa.

Annette

Leesa

Inspired Audience

June

June's raffle was a book to curl up with on a rainy day and an umbrella.

 It was won by one of our guests, Bev. 

John S read a poem that he had written. (John has recently had a cochlear implant.)

"HEARING

Like darkness slowly descending

The creeping loss of hearing extending

To the point of silently pretending

All words and conversations comprehending.

With assessments made and cochlear impending

Can we hope for complete understanding?

John S

With cochlear correctly implanted

We approach switch on day still tormented.

But under Karen’s guidance all questions answered

Overcoming the need for words repeated 

Six months on we remain elated

Professor Clarke you must be congratulated."

Liz Wo revealed herself as the Mystery Toastmaster. 

Time keepers Jennine and Inge advised that we were running late, so Rhys and Monica generously offered to forego their short segments. 

Dave gave  encouragement and suggestions in his General Evaluation.

Dave

The evening's awards went to Harry (Best Speech,) Liz Wo (Best Evaluation,) Amanda (Personal Best,) Del (Best Contribution,) and Annette (Best Table Topic.)

Award winners

Don't forget, if you are attending the Metro Division Conference, You will need to send your payment to Nicole as soon as possible.

And Semi Annual fees will need to be paid either next meeting or the meeting after.

Jonathon in the News

Our VPPR Jennine has had an excellent article printed in this week's Bayside Star, featuring Jonathon.
Well done Jennine and Jonathon!

Meeting 893 "Love is in the Air"

Harry

Annette is still practising her joke telling skills as she opens the meeting. Does anyone have some good jokes for Annette?

We were pleased to welcome three guests, Michael, Ron and Gigi.

Harry handled the role of Toastmaster for the evening with aplomb.

As Quote Master, Inge chose one from the ancient Greek philosopher  Diogenes, "I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world." She explained she had chosen it as suitable for our theme of love, because love of humanity knows no ethnic or cultural boundaries. This prompted another one from Harry, (I think it was Harry) from Thomas Aquinas, "Love is willing the good of another."

Liz We filled in as Round Robin Master and asked us to tell about a valentine we had received. This evoked many humorous stories.

Table Topic Master Rhys asked John T, Amanda, Annette and Inge to talk on theme related topics such as, "Uses for the word "Love." "Types of love between people." Different loves in your life" and something about "Modern Media" (can't remember exactly what it was.) Dave and Liz Wo evaluated the Table Topics.

Jonathon

Jonathon presented a dynamic speech, "Planning is Everything."
He spoke about the advantages of planning the next 10 years, the next 12 months, 90 weeks, 1 week and 1 day. He left us with a memorable thought from Eisenhower, "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."

Liz Wo evaluated Jonathon's speech.

Marlene is working through the Interpretive Reading Manual and presented a Monodrama adapted from Daphne Du Maurier's book, "Rebecca."  It was evaluated by Sharyn.

Liz We

Dave's doily

Dave had brought a raffle donated by his craft loving wife, Sandy. Dave raffled it as a square doily, until someone suggested it was actually a cushion cover. (which it was.) There's always something to laugh about at our meetings.

The Raffle was won by Leesa.

John S

The Business Session was competently chaired by John S. The main  item discussed was the Metropolitan Division Conference which will be held at the Education Centre at Prince Charles Hospital on the 16th March. The club will subsidise our members to attend. Annette is competing in the Evaluation Contest, so we hope to have plenty of  our club members there to support her.

Maureen

Leesa

Maureen filled the role of Grammarian. It was her first time in that role.

Leesa had some good suggestions in her role as General Evaluator.

Mystery Toastmaster

We haven't had a Mystery Toastmaster in our programme for sometime. This segment was reintroduced. (No one knows who the mystery Toastmaster is until the end of the meeting, when their identity is revealed and they report how many people greeted them during the evening.) The Mystery Toastmaster proved to be Annette, who named a few people who hadn't spoken to her.

Thanks to the efforts of  Del, our Time Keeper, the meeting finished on time.

Awards for the evening went to Harry (Best Contribution,) Marlene (Best Speech and Personal Best,) Sharyn (Best Evaluation,) and Annette (Best Table Topic,)

Club Officer Training Day was Fun

Nicole, Liz We & Sharyn at Training Day

 Nicole, Liz We, Sharyn, Annette and I attended the Club Officer Training Day at the Education Centre at Prince Charles Hospital, Chermside. Trish was there too, as a presenter. Sharyn was also one of the presenters.

The sessions I attended were all very interesting & well presented. The Session on mentoring was very creative. It was a very large group. We formed two long rows with our chairs facing each other, then the row I was in had to keep moving down one chair at a time, "speed dating." We interviewed each person facing us for 30 seconds & asked them to tell us the advantages mentoring has for a "Mentee." after a while we switched roles & were interviewed about the advantages to the mentor. We also formed groups of 4 & discussed mentoring someone who had sent us the first draft of their speech. (We were given a copy of the speech.)

I gleaned a few new ideas from the VPE session and learned some things I didn't know from the session on Parliamentary Procedure. The final session, "Positive Thinking" was most enlightening. Sharyn was also in that session. If you get a chance, ask her how she was taught how to set a trigger to help boost her confidence!

I think we all came home with renewed enthusiasm.

Damian is an author!

Click on picture to enlarge

Did you see the article in this weeks Bayside Star? Damian, one of our past members has written a children's book Titled "The Day the Dragon got its Fire."  The heroine is Princess Lavinia (named after his 5 year old daughter) and doesn't need a dragon to save her!

You can find the book at Dymocks at North Lakes, Chermside, Indooroopilly and Carindale. It's also in BCC Libraries. More about it on Damian's Facebook Stanton and Abbott.

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.