Moreton Division Conference 2018

Darryl, Liz, Kirsty, Christiane, Leanne, Monica, Annette & Marlene

Eight of our club members attended the Best Ever (So far) Moreton Division Conference . It was the first conference held by the newly formed Moreton Division and was very competently organised by Division Director Annette Mayfield and her team.

Council Meeting chaired by Div Director Annette M.

The quality of participants in all the contests was high and it must have been difficult for the judges to pick the winners.

We are proud of all three contestants from our club. Congratulations to Christiane, who came second in the Table Topic Contest. Liz and Darryl also performed brilliantly.

Our contestants, Liz, Christiane and Darryl.

Leanne was an excellent choice as Contest Toastmaster for the Humorous Speech contest.

Leanne

Div Director Annette with Table Topics  placegetters

International Speech Contestants

Table Topics Contestants

Refreshment time

We all agreed it was the best Moreton Division Conference ever. (So far.)

Meeting 1008 - Waste not Want not

The Meeting was opened by Sergeant at Arms Chris who read the Mission Statement. Acting President Christiane then had the pleasure of inducting two new Members, Lee-Anne and Casey.

Also welcomed were guests Annette (Moreton Division Director), Mahia and Steven from Bunya Club, Trevor from Clayfield Club and Sara.

Induction of Lee-Anne and Casey by Christiane

Toastmaster Gail, Guest Speaker Steven

Gail took on the role at the last minute of Toastmaster for the night and did an admirable job with interesting snippets of her parents "waste not want not" life on a farm in Kingaroy.

Stephen presented his Contest Speech entitled "Lessons from a Rickshaw Driver" which was evaluated in a Round Robin scenario led by Christiane. I am sure he received some very helpful suggestions and advice.

Toast by Casey was to "Preserving resources for future generations".

Casey

Word Master Stephen gave an intriguing lead up to his double meaning word "Refuse". It was used extensively throughout the night, with Blake achieving top score.

Stephen

The set Speeches were from the new Pathways module and were presented by Marlene, as an Ice Breaker, which was evaluated by Carmy. Trish Springsteen also gave an Ice Breaker which was evaluated by Liz.

Carmy, Marlene, Trish, Liz

Jonathon presented an interactive speech "What is your Choice" which was evaluated by Mahia and described as Motivational, Educational and Inspirational.

Jonathon and Mahia

Blake was Raffle Master and what a selection of chocolates and assorted goodies was on offer including a fluoride-free bottle of water!

The Business Session must be a record for shortest time ever, very ably chaired by Kirsty.

Kirsty

Table Topics conducted by Chris were very interesting and varied. All participants spoke on the topic (well, except one who shall remain nameless). Peter did however deliver a very humorous topic of his own choosing.

Chris

John, Casey, Christiane and Kirsty

Lee-Anne, Blake, Peter and Stephen

Evaluations were ably conducted by Annette M and Nikki.

Annette and Nikki

Grammarian John was impressed with the small number of ums and ahs, and commended many on good grammar, alliteration, graphic word pictures and quality word usage.

John

Timer Peter kept such good time that we finished early. Well done Peter.

Peter

Finally General Evaluator Paul gave a valuable wrap up of the entire Meeting with lots of praise and good humour.

Paul

Awards were presented by Christiane:
Best Speech: Jonathon
Best Evaluator: Liz
Best Table Topic: John
Most Improved: Carmy

Meeting 1007 "Books"

Who doesn't love books! That was the theme of the Meeting and many stories were told about favourite books, books from childhood and even books Members wished to publish.

Stand in Sergeant at Arms Monica opened the meeting and handed over to stand in President Steve.
It was his honour to induct new member Eileen into the Club. Steve informed members that Annette is progressing well after her surgery. Guests Andrea, Judy, Lee Anne and Trevor were welcomed. Tonight Lee Anne has signed up as a Member, so welcome to Sandgate Club.

Control was then handed to Toastmaster Liz who provided throughout the night the history of books over the past centuries. After a few program changes by stand in Education Vice President Nikki, the meeting continued. Nikki also took the role of Timekeeper.

Toastmaster Liz and Timekeeper Nikki

Marlene

A toast by Trish was followed by Word Master Eileen with the word NOVEL. It lent itself well to be used throughout the night, with both meanings.

Eileen

Round Robin was conducted by Marlene - "If you could publish a book what would it be about?"
Everyone had a contribution of weird or wonderful ideas, which brought out their inner writer.

Prepared Speeches included Carmy with her Ice Breaker, evaluated by Monica.

Carmy and Evaluator Monica

Sharyn was introduced by Steve and she gave an informative presentation on how to write a speech.

Sharyn

Darryl presented his Contest Speech as a practice run, and all agreed it was very well polished. Jonathon mediated a group evaluation with tips or suggestions to tweak the speech to perfection.

Darryl's Speech "Cool, Calm and Collected" evaluated by Jonathon

Nikki provided the times for the speeches, then the Evaluations took place. A raffle of Books and Candles (to read when the power goes out) was sold to all by Trish

Supper was provided by Gail, and fellowship was all encompassing.

Stephen based his Table Topics on books, and the session was enthusiastically embraced by the 8 participants. Trish with a Fairytale which describes her life, Trevor with a psychological disorder book, Gail with a limited edition from Lifeline Bookfest, Marlene had to find a book for men to read. Kirsty had to describe a book about her life, and Nikki a book about her passion. John had no problem suggesting a book which put him to sleep, and finally Jonathon had to add a saying to a book, it would be "Treat others how THEY would like to be treated".

Gail, Stephen and Trevor

Evaluators for this session were Paul and for the first time in this role Blake.

A Book Review segment was delivered by John about a thriller called "Thirteen."

John's Book Review                                                     Trish's Tips                           

Trish gave tips for writing an introduction to yourself.

Show and Tell always throws up something different, and Jonathon delivered with 2 items bought in a Souk, against his better judgement. They were copper kettles - just what you need to carry in your backpack across the Middle East. Ah, the folly of youth.

Jonathon's Show and Tell

Kirsty

Grammarian Kirsty praised great word usage, word pictures, alliteration and captive phrases by all speakers, with a reminder also to avoid ums and ahs.

Gail continued with the Listening Quiz and had some very in depth questions for members.

General Evaluation had to be hurried as we were well behind in time. Karen reminded us that the first three seconds either capture your audience or loose your audience. It is called "the blink". She asked us all to think about our three second "blink".

Karen

Awards: Best Speech - Darryl, Best Evaluator - Blake, Best Table Topic - Jonathon, Most Improved -Carmy.

Register for Moreton Division Conference

Don't forget to register for the Moreton Division Conference held on the 17th March at the Albany Creek Community Centre. There will be members from Kilcoy, Bribie Island, Herston, Sandgate, Mitchelton and everywhere in between.The registration fee for this conference is just $20 and you can register online, here. http://morecon.eventbrite.com.au 

Darryl, Christiane and Liz will be competing in the contests, so come and support them.

Meeting 1006 "Valentines Day"

John T

Congratulations to John T who won the best speech award last meeting.

I was unable to attend, but have heard reports that it was a very good meeting. Carmy had prepared well for her role of Toastmaster of the evening and set the high tone of the evening.

Monica and Leesa's speeches were also well presented, with Leesa winning the "Most Improved" award.  The table topics were fun.

If anyone would like to add more details, it would be appreciated.

Next meeting 27th March.

Semi Annuals can be paid at either of the next two meetings.

There is still time to register for Club Officer Training to be held next Saturday 24th February. All members are welcome to attend, even if they are not a club officer.
Just click this link. https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/moreton-division-club-officer-training-2-tickets-41858625275

Meeting 1005 "Journalism. Newspapers, Media Tycoons"

It was our first meeting for 2018 and our first meeting since the new educational system Pathways was rolled out in our area. Thanks to our Pathways Guide Christiane, our club has been well informed.  Kirsty, Nikki and Leanne have also received training to act as our "Pathways Gurus." President Annette presented Kirsty,  Nikki and Leanne with their badges.

Kirsty, Nikki, Leanne & Annette

Annette welcomed our  three guests, Tim, Lee-Anne and Eileen. She also conducted a brief  business session for 3 minutes while we elected a new secretary to fill the vacant position. No arm twisting was necessary - Paul immediately volunteered.

Darryl

Toastmaster of the evening Darryl introduced the theme of the meeting and announced that his aim for the evening was to "Have fun and to run on time."  He managed to keep the meeting flowing while also presenting  stories and snippets about the media.

Wordmaster Nick introduced the word "Propaganda."

 

Nick

Gail

Round Robin Master Gail invited us to tell about misleading headlines we have read. Some examples of propaganda were mentioned.

Blake

Cristiane

Blake presented his third speech titled "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink." He told about the harmful effects of fluoride added to water. 

It was evaluated by Christiane.

Kirsty

Nikki

Kirsty's speech "A Child's Journey" was about visiting her grandparent's home as a child. It was her 4th speech. Nikki was the evaluator.

Paul

Trish

Paul was our first member to present a speech in the new Pathways programme. His Icebreaker speech, "It's all about confidence, isn't it?" was an interesting and informative account of his progress in Toastmasters. It was evaluated by Trish.

Monica

Leanne

Raffle Master Monica offered four chances to win money with her raffle of  scratch-it tickets. It was won by Sharyn. 

Time Keeper Leanne reported that thanks to members keeping within their allotted time to speak, we were running 1 minute ahead.

After a supper of cup cakes and biscuits provided by Chris, the meeting was called to order and Jonathon conducted the Table Topics session. 

Jonathon

Karen, Chris, Steve, Christiane, Monica, Trish, Nikki and Blake were called on to speak for 2 minutes on media related topics.

Karen - "Write the truth or toe the line?"

Chris - 'Who would you interview/"

Steve - Fake news about Donald Trump"

Christiane - "Owner of media empire"

Monica - "Front page story"

Trish - "Best media story 2017"

Nikki - "Give up media for a year"

Blake - "Presenter of YouTube channel"

They were evaluated by Jim and Marlene.

Some short segments followed...

A book review was presented by Stephen, who spoke about the book, "More Great Australian Flying Doctor Stories" by Bill " Swampy" Marsh.

Steve offered some Tips for more effective speaking.

Karen conducted a lively Listening Quiz.

Annette got on her Soapbox and complained about social media, which she said is a waste of time.

Grammarian Leesa commented on some descriptive  words used during the meeting.

Annette

Leesa.

Sharyn gave a comprensive General Evaluation of the meeting and suggested that evaluators always look for positive points.

Sharyn

Annette closed the the meeting which finished just a few minutes over time and presented the evenings awards to Blake (Best Speech,) Trish (Best Evaluation,) Nikki (Best Table Topic,) and Paul and Nikki ( Most Improved - tie.)

Award winners 23 Jan 2018

Next meeting 13th February.