Meeting 905 "The Ekka"

Peter

It's Ekka week - that's the Brisbane Exhibition or Show,  so of course that was the theme of the meeting. Peter introduced the word "Ostentation" which also means "show or exhibition" in another sense of the word.

We were delighted to welcome five guests, Maria, Shashi, Pamela, Gwen and James.

Leesa

Round Robin Master Dave asked us " Are you going to the Ekka - if not, why not?"  Many said they were not going, because of the crowds, and spread of flu etc, but some members are going to be there, volunteering on stalls or with family.

Toastmaster Leesa (also wearing her secretary hat) kept us informed with information abut the Ekka.

Annette in Table Topics

Ian's Table Topics session brought out the creativity of Annette, Liz Wo, Peter and Jonathon. They were so entertaining, I forgot to take photos of most of them.

The topics were, (not exact words)
"What from your life would you like to be put on display 100 years time?" 

 "In the final round to select host city for the World Fair, how would you promote your city?" 

 "What is the secret plot and what do the letters EKKA stand for?" 

Sharyn

"Are you for or against exhibitionism?"

The Table Topics were evaluated by Sharyn.

Nick presented his Ice Breaker speech. He appeared quite confident as he told of the main events in his life and the difficulties he had overcome.

Marlene evaluated Nick's speech.

Ron

Our new data projector is being put to good use. Ron presented an  speech "The Rain Man of Web Sites" and told us some interesting facts about Google that we didn't know before. It was his second speech.

Jonathon presented his 8th Speech, titled "The Weird and Wonderful Evolution of Whales."  He showed us how weird and wonderful it is!  Liz Wo evaluated Ron's speech, and Trish evaluated Jonathon's speech.

Jonathon

Another interesting speaker was John  T who demonstrated his vocal variety in his speech,
"One Angry Nation - From Fair Go to Aggro."

It was evaluated by Maureen.

John T

Maureen

The Business Session , chaired by Sharyn, ran smoothly and provided some practice moving motions and amendments.

Ian's raffle with a money prize was very popular. It was won by Dave.

Dave won Ian's raffle

Time Keeper Nicole

Time Keeper Nicole announced that we were running 10 minutes overtime. (It was a very full meeting.)

In the absence of our President Liz We, Immediate Past President Annette closed the meeting and presented awards to Leesa (Best Contribution,) Nick (Personal Best,) John T (Best Speech,) Jonathon (Best Table Topic,) and Trish and Marlene. (Best Evaluation - tie.)

Award winners 13 Aug 2013

A new star is born!

Welcome to our newest potential Toastmaster, Edison, who was born on the 29th July. 

We are looking forward to meeting him soon.

Congratulations to proud parents Harry and Jennine. 

Harry & Jennine with new baby, Edison

Toastmasters at Einbunpin 2013

Trish had an encounter with the Einbunpin Bunyip at the annual Einbunpin Festival last Sunday, where Sandgate Toastmasters had an information stall. 

Trish  with Einpinpin Bunyip

 Thanks to all our members who helped - those who organised, prepared brochures, lent equipment, set up, etc.  Here are some of them. (I didn't get photos of those on the early rosters or who packed up at the end of the day)

Annette & Inge

Liz Wo, John T, Sharyn

Nicole and June

A number of people stopped at our stall and received information about our club. We hope to see some of them at our next meeting on the 13th August. I wonder if the Bunyip will turn up!

Past TM members, Kylie and Narda

It was good to meet up with some past Toastmasters at the Festival.  I was able to introduce Narda, a member from way back, to Kylie, a more recent member. Kylie was busy with a stall of her own.

Kylie loves putting all she learnt at Toastmasters into action as a health coach - including listening carefully, and explaining clearly and effectively. As a health coach, Kylie inspires busy people to regain energy, desirable weight, health and happiness. She does this by helping them make achievable changes to whichever areas of their lifestyle that are unbalanced, whether nutrition, exercise, career, relationships, creativity, finances or joy. Kylie's experience at Toastmasters as VPPR also helped her set up her blog, check it out at http://healthwellnessrevolution.com. 

How might you use what you are learning at Toastmasters?

Judge & Contest Training

Take advantage of this timely training before the coming speech contest season.

Metro Division Judges Training

Banyo Library Sunday 11 August 8.30 – 2.40

Training Includes:

• what makes a good judge;
• the judging criteria;
• special requirements for Table Topics, Evaluation Contests, Humorous speeches and International Contests;
• ending with some judging practice.
  And it’s FREE 
  (other than $2 for morning tea and a plate of food to share for lunch)

Please register by emailing tlim@toastmastersd69.orgwith your name, contact details and club name before 8 August 2013.

Programme for Judges Training

(click to enlarge)

Club Officer Training 2013

A vital ingredient of a successful Toastmasters Club is an Executive Team that knows how to perform their duties. Toastmasters conducts training sessions twice a year which club officers are encouraged to attend. Some of our club officers attended the night time sessions during the week. I went with Leesa, Sharyn, Trish, Nicole and Annette to the Training Day at St Joseph's College last Saturday.

Leesa, Sharyn, Trish, Nicole, Annette,

Trish was the presenter of the sessions, Risk Management,  Distinguished Club Programme, and High Performance Leadership.

Presenter Trish

Sharyn presented the session on being Club President. Another member of our club, John S presented a session on the History of Toastmasters.

We all learnt something that will be of benefit to our club.

Meeting 904 "Technology"

Liz We

 Liz We wore two hats last meeting, when in her role as president she opened the meeting, welcomed our guests Lynne and Tekura, then she took on the role of Toastmaster for the evening. The theme was "Technology" and Liz had plenty of interesting facts and information up her sleeve.

Word Master Inge introduced the word "Precept," meaning an instruction, a command or a mandate.

Ernie read the mission statement and Robert proposed the toast.

In keeping with the theme, Ron presented a quote from Karl Marx, "The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people."

Del

Our Round Robin Master was not present but Del quickly came up with a topic, "What technological item do you use and what item confuses you."  There were some interesting answers.

We had two Table Topic Masters, Leesa and Jim. It was Jim's first time as Table Topics Master.

 Leesas topics were, "What technological item could you never do without?"
"Was there ever any technological item you could not get to work?"
"Have we gone too far with technology?"
"What is the best technological device you have bought?"

The Topics were answered by Robert, June, Bev, and Ron.

 Jim's topics were also related to our theme, "Do school children rely too much on technology?"
"Has medical technology made a difference to your life?"
" 'The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people'. - Do you agree and why?"
" Automatic tellers, etc - what are the consequences to society?"  (This is not the exact wording.)

Jim's topics were answered by Annette, John S, Dave and Inge.

Table Topic Evaluators John S and Del had some encouraging comments and good advice, on using gestures, making eye contact with one person, then moving on to another rather than scanning the room, slowing the speaking rate etc.

There were two speeches. The first was by Annette, speaking from the advanced manual, "Special Occasion Speeches." She presented a toast to someone who was retiring from a business.

It was evaluated by Dave.

The second speech was Ian's Ice Breaker speech. He held us spellbound with his imagery and vocabulary as he spoke about living and working in Siberia where the temperature drops to 40 degrees C below zero and freezes the moisture in your eyeball! 

Ian's speech was evaluated by Liz Wo.

Ian

In the absence of our scheduled educational presenter, Marlene presented an educational session on how to find ideas for a Humorous Speech, reminding everyone that our Humorous Speech Contest is the meeting after next.

Some of the tips were:  Think of  incidents that were painful, scary or embarrassing at the time, but are funny in restropect.  

Make fun of yourself, rather than others. Exaggerate your failings and fears

Think of conflicts - eg. dealing with teenagers. toddlers, in-laws, the opposite sex.

Embarrassing Moments. Misunderstandings. 

Observations - describe a crazy world from a straight perspective or vice versa.

Raffle Master June opened her segment with a riddle. "Why did the cat order a computer?" "Because he had heard that a mouse came with it."  The raffle prize was a cordless mouse. It was won by John T.

John T wins raffle

Grammarian John T commented on the use of a pause when speaking and said we could emulate experienced Toastmasters John S, Annette and Liz We. There hadn't been too many fillers such as "Um," "Ah" or "Okay."

General Evaluator Sharyn  gave some encouraging advice. 

Our guests Lynne and Tekura said they had enjoyed the meeting and would be back.

Time Keeper Nicole reported that our meeting was running 2 minutes ahead of time. (Sorry, I can never get a photo of the Time Keeper from where I sit.)

Liz We put her president's hat back on and closed the meeting. 

The evenings awards went to Liz We (Best Contribution,) John S (Best Table Topic,) Ian (Best Speech AND Personal Best,) Liz Wo (Best Evaluation.)

Award winners 24 July 13

Meeting 903 "Setting Goals"

New member Ian inducted by new President Liz We

Our Toastmasters year always begins on the first of July, so this was a fresh start for us all. The first duty our new President Liz had to perform was to induct a new member Ian into our club. Dave has offered to be Ian's mentor.

Amanda

Amanda took on the role of Toastmaster of the evening for the first time. She
welcomed our guest Bronwyn and kept the meeting running smoothly, with inspiring quotes interspersed between segments.

Word Master Marlene introduced a  familiar word, "should've" which is a contraction of "should have" - not "should of." She explained that anyone who has written "should of" in an email should've used "should have." The same applies to "would have" "could have" and "must have."

Round Robin Master Nick sent us down memory lane when he asked  if we were a fan of the  Beetles and which one was our favourite.

Ron  used the theme of the meeting in his Table Topics. "The toughest goal you have ever set yourself," "Resolutions are meant to be broken," "How to present your goals to a long serving employee that you have to stand down." "When someone else sets goals for you," and "Why do they put round pizzas in square boxes?" (This is not the exact wording of the topics.)

Jim answers a Table Topic

The topics were answered by Bev, John T, Nicole, Jim, and Liz We.  Annette evaluated the Table Topics and congratulated the speakers and suggested that they could have moved the lectern aside to give them freedom of movement when answering.









Sharyn presented a speech from the advanced manual "The Entertaining Speaker." Her speech was about "Opinions." The speech was evaluated by Liz Wo.

Sharyn

Liz Wo

Jonathon was the first to try out our club's new data projector when he presented his speech, "Minding your Medicine."  It was evaluated by Maureen.

Jonathon tries the new projector,

The Business session was efficiently chaired by Trish. The main item discussed was the information stall we will be conducting at the local Einbunpin Festival on the 28th July.

General Evaluator John T commented  that it was a pity that our Parliamentarian was not present to see  how well the business session was conducted.

Grammarian Nicole commented on the use of  descriptive word pictures and alliteration by some of the speakers as well the ums and aahs, that some of us need to avoid.

John T

Nicol

Our Raffle Master Robert was not present, but he had sent the raffle prize with Dave, who presented the raffle. It was 2 bags containing pot plants. June and Del were the lucky winners.
Peter won the Books that Marlene had brought.

President Liz We closed the meeting after presenting the evening awards to Bev (Personal Best,) Annette (Best Evaluator,) Nicole and John T (Best Table Topic,) Jonathon (Best Speech,) and Amanda (Best Contribution.

Award Winners 9th July

Changeover Dinner 2013 (Meeting 902)

Executive Team 2013/2014

Welcome and Congratulations to our newly inducted  Executive Officers for 2013 -2014.

They are (from left to right) V.P. Education Marlene, V.P.Membership Maureen, V.P.Public Relations Amanda, President Liz (in centre) Treasurer Nicole, Secretary Leesa and Sergeant-at-Arms Ron.

Other members of the executive team are Immediate Past President Annette and Parliamentarian John S.

Area Governor Denise installed the new executive and presented Annette with the "Toastmaster of the Year" trophy. This award is based on a points system. The points are earned by filling meeting roles, earning Toastmasters Awards, winning Contests, etc.

Annette - Toastmaster of the Year with Area Gov Denise

Another surprised trophy recipient was Dave, who won the President's Award, which is sometimes awarded to a Toastmaster who performs above and beyond their call of duty. Dave never misses a meeting. He is one of the first to arrive to help set up. He is always ready to fill in at the last moment, compete in a contest, or to mentor a new member.

Dave won President's Award & 100%  Attendance

The theme of the evening was "stripes," and people certainly came in different stripes!  Sharyn and Trish wore more stripes than anyone else.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Incoming Area Governor Sharyn with Trish

We are thrilled that one our own members, Sharyn is to be Area Governor this year. Sharyn's effervescent personality is always evident at our meetings.

Her slogan for this year is "Formula Fun!"

Sharyn in Table Topics

Sharyn won a raffle prize

It was a memorable night. Toastmaster Trish entertained us with information about stripes and she had prepared a Trivia quiz that tested our lateral thinking as well as our knowledge.

John T and Nicole had some really challenging Table Topics for  Annette, Dave, Liz Wo, John S, Sharyn, Maureen, Trish & Harry.

Maureen & Nicole

Liz & John T

Annette

John S

Harry

Trish

Last year's book raffle was so popular, we repeated it this year. Everyone brought books - most of them pre read but in pristine condition. They were raffled in bundles of four or five and there were enough for 10 lucky winners.

Incoming President Liz We presented an inspiring speech. She spoke of the club's past achievements and  our aspirations as we approach our 40th year.

Incoming President Liz Wo

Our 2013 - 2014 Toastmasters year is off to a good start!