Area Conference 2013

Area Governor  Sharyn & Trish

Time Keepers John & Trish

Evaluation Contest wiinners

Annette came First in Evaluation.

Liz Wo, Leesa, Pam

 Morning Tea

Humorous Contest

Peter came first!

Contest Toastmaster Annette

Table Topics

 Trish came third

International Speech Contest

 John  S came third.

Contest Toastmaster Liz We

Congratulations to our winners, Annette and Peter, who will go on to compete in the Metropolitan Division Contests on the 22nd March. Congratulations also to Trish and John on coming third in their contests. They all did our club proud!  

Annette was also Contest Toastmaster for the Humorous contest. (The audience even laughed at her joke.) Liz We was Master of Ceremonies for the second half of the Conference. They both did an excellent job.

(Toastmasters from other clubs performed well too, but for privacy reasons I am just focussing on our club.)

Congratulations to our Area Governor Sharyn for organising the event. Everything went smoothly and it was a most enjoyable day.

Trish's House Warming

Peter & Trish

Peter and Trish proved to be excellent hosts at their House Warming Party last Sunday.  After a guided tour of their spacious new home we were served the most delicious food (and plenty of it) and caught up with old friends.

It was a lovely afternoon. Thank you Peter & Trish!

Guests

 This is the area overlooking the pool. Plenty of room for everyone.

Liz, Annette, Sharyn & Monica

Triszh & Liz

Meeting 910 "Comics & Cartoons"

Liz We, Jennine & Harry with Edison

We had a special visitor at our last meeting. Harry and Jennine brought baby Edison to meet us. He was soon surrounded by admirers.

Liz Wo, Maureen, Trish & Jenine with Edison

It was also good to welcome Terry back from his extended trip overseas. Terry brought his neighbour Marlene D to see what a Toastmasters meeting is like. Another guest was Josh, who attended for the first time.

The word for the evening was "Innovation," chosen by Maureen. A few people remembered to use it during the meeting.

New member Pam presented the Round Robin and asked who was our favourite cartoon or comic character. 

Peter had brought along some large copies of cartoon pictures and used them for his Table Topics. They were answered by John S, Liz We, Terry and Sharyn.

Liz We

John S

The Table Topics were evaluated by Jonathon.

An innovative session was presented by Joke Master Sharyn. She gave everyone two slips of paper, with a riddle printed on one and the answer to a different riddle on the other. We were challenged to read out the riddle, with someone else supplying the appropriate answer - with dramatic actions.

Jokemaster Sharyn

Nicole's raffle was a bag of goodies, including a desk calender, jigsaw and Christmas headgear.

  Our guest, Marlene D drew the raffle and was very surprised when she pulled out her own number.

Nicole also filled in as Time Keeper and Cashier.

Nicole

Speeches were presented by Dave, who told us many amazing facts about water, and John T, who told us why watching too much news is bad for us.

Dave

John T

Trish presented a technical speech about Social Media.

Trish

Jonathon cleverly intergrated two jokes about a woman with twins, but didn't get to the punch line, which made it funnier. He was able to complete the joke later.

John

Grammarian Liz We commented on the Ums and Aahs and Liz Wo evaluated the entire meeting.

Liz Wo

The evening's awards went to Marlene H (Best Contribution,) John T (Best Speech,) Sharyn ( Best Table Topic,) Pam (Personal Best,) and Jonathon (Best Evaluation.)

Because there are 5 Tuesdays in this month, it will be an extra week till our next meeting on the 12th November.

Don't forget the Semi Annual Conference at the Eventide Auditorium next Saturday, 2nd October. 8 am - 4 pm. Come and support our contestants. 

Meeting 909 "Post Holiday Blues."

Peter

"Bula Fiji!" was the title of Peter's speech. Peter had just returned from a trip to Fiji the morning of the meeting. Audience participation was a strong point of Peters speech, with everyone learning to say "Bula Fiji!" 

Bula Fuji!

Annette

 


Even Evaluator Annette got into the act.

Liz We

Del

To immunise or not to immunise? Liz We presented a persuasive speech about the Pros and Cons of immunisation.  Evaluator Del offered some encouraging advice to Liz..



Trish demonstrated how to use our club's new projector and the mistakes some people make when making a presentation.

Trish

Other highlights of the meeting were -

The induction of new member Pam. Pam is already working on her Icebreaker. 

Inge

Round Robin. Inge asked, if we had a friend holidaying with us, where would we take them to show them our city or local area?

Some of the suggestions were South Bank,  Lone Pine, the City Cat ferry, St Bernards at Mt Tamborine, Shorncliffe Moora Park, Riverside Markets, The Gabba, the Hop On Hop Off Bus. etc.

Table Topics. Maureen had some thought provoking questions for Inge, Leesa, Jim and Ron.
The Table topics were evaluated by Nicole.

Leesa & Maureen

Nicole

Jim's raffle (a bottle of Scotch) was popular.

JIm

There was a lot to discuss during the business session, which was chaired by Sharyn  eg the Area Conference on the 5th November, and whether the club should buy a computer and a microphone.
Timekeeper Amanda was asked for an extension of time.

Grammarian Liz Wo commented on the use of descriptive words used during the meeting, particularly in the speeches and Dave presented a General Evaluation of the entire evening.

Dave

Awards for the evening went to Nick (Personal Best,) Peter (Best Speech,) Annette (Best Evaluation,) Jonathon (Best Contribution,) and Ron (Best Table Topic.)

Award winners 8 Oct 13

Meeting 908 Contests - Eval & International

The Judges were ready.

Sharyn with Del, Jenny, Chris, Preeta, & Teena

Contest officials were briefed.

Chief Judge briefs time keepers Nicole & Liz We

The audience was ready.

Five Contestants participated in the Evaluation Contest

Jim, Annette, Peter, Trish  & Dave

Three in the International Speech Contest. 

(Trish tried to look taller than Jonathon.)

Jonathon, Trish, John S

And the winners of the Evaluation Contest were .....

Annette 1st, Trish 2nd, Dave 3rd.

Winner of the International Speech Contest was...

  John S.

Congratulations to you all!

Thanks to Chris, Del, Jenny, Teena & Preeta for helping with our contest. 

A special thanks to our test speaker Lucia who inspired us as well as providing material for our evaluators.

Sorry, I didn't get a photo of Lucia.

Goodbye Homer

We said goodbye to Robert's guide dog Homer, who is retiring. Homer will stay home with Val while the new dog, "Flame" comes to the meetings. 

   Our guests Mark and Wendy said they enjoyed the contests. and will come again. New members Pam and Gwen will be inducted next meeting.

Date Claimer

Area 8 Conference 2nd November

Hello everyone, please keep this date free to support our Sandgate contestants!

Meeting 907 "Spring"

A toast to Spring

Appropriately, it was a balmy Spring evening. Nick proposed a toast to "Spring" and John T introduced the word of the evening "Anticipate." which captured the promises of Spring. 

Sharyn took on the role of Toastmaster at short notice and kept us entertained during segments with interesting trivia and quotes about Spring.

Round Robin Master Jim asked, "What do your thoughts turn to in Spring?" Some of the answers were:

roses, hay fever, longer days, weeding, swimming, spring cleaning, magpies, and warmer weather.

The Table Topics session was conducted by Maureen. Her topics were:

"What is your favourite spring flower and why?"

"Favourite memory of a Spring scene".

"How do you cope with the change of wardrobe in Spring?" (Not exact wording.)

"What song reminds you of Spring?"

They were answered by John T, Leesa, Nick and Del. and evaluated by Dave.

John T, Leesa, Nick & Del

One of the strengths of our club is the members who are prepared to fill in  a position at the last minute. This is what happened, when both speakers cancelled at the last minute. Our two Johns - John T and John S rose to the occasion and each presented a speech they'd had on the back burner. This was taking our word "Anticipate" to a new level!

John T - The Great Reveal

John T revealed an amazing secret - what was the sticky black substance that God used when creating the world? If you weren't at the meeting, you will have to ask John.

John S - Fund Raising

John S, who had been a professional fund raiser for many years, gave us some insights into the world of Fund Raising.

The speeches were evaluated by Peter and Liz Wo.

Peter 

Liz Wo

Business Session

The Business Session was dealt with very efficiently by Annette and evaluated by John S.

Trish

With the Evaluation Contest coming up next meeting, Trish presented a timely Educational Session on "How to win an Evaluation Contest"  Some of the points she made were:

Look at the judging form - find out what the judges are looking for.

Analytical Quality - Was it clear & focussed? Identify strengths and weaknesses, Analysis.

40 points

Recommendations -  

30 points

Technique - How you present it. Sympathetic, motivational, Empathetic.

15 points      connect with the speaker. Inspire, encourage.

Summation - Summarise what you have said. Don't add new material.

15 points

Opening - What I liked. Why

Points for improvement - Why, How.

 Leesa's Spring Raffle had two prizes - two small floral arrangements from a local florist "More Than Just Flowers."   They were won by Jim and Peter.

Grammarian Del reported that there hadn't been many "Ums" and "Ahs."

 Del was also the Mystery Toastmaster as well the Cashier. She said that apart from those who greeted her when she first arrived, most members didn't actually greet her when they paid their meeting fees. They just said "Here's my money..."  Remember to greet the Cashier in future!

Sharyn in her role of  Area Governor presented our club with a Select Distinguished ribbon to place on our banner.

We are Select Distinguished!  

The General Evaluation was conducted by President Liz We and the evenings awards were presented to John T (Best Speech,) Leesa (Best Table Topic,) Sharyn (Best Contribution,) Peter (Best Evaluation,) and Nick (Personal Best.)

Next meeting on the 24th September will be the Evaluation and International Speech Contests.