CC – Competent Communicator is the award you are given when you have completed the first ten public speaking assignments.  By this stage you are quite an accomplished speaker and it is a major achievement. The recipient this time was Sheridan.

The CL is the Competent Leader which you receive when you have completed ten assignments. They are things like being a chairman in a meeting, evaluating others, mentoring etc. Christer received this award.

The second contest was “Table topics”. Eight contestants had an opportunity to make a 1-2 minutes impromptu speech on the topic “A change is as good as a holiday” and even if  it turned out to be a difficult topic we were still able to hear eight quite different approaches with varying success.

The winners turned out to be Christer Lindée and Charles Gonzalves and they will go on to compete in the area contest in October.

Speeches were on varied topics with Ellen having made a motorbike trip to Victoria explaining some of the highlights and trials along the way. Lee-Anne spoke about how to pass on family history to future generations through scrap-booking and Jack taught us how to count calories. Two of the speeches were done with Power Point wich added some additional skills needed.

Several of our  new members had jobs to do, easing them into the art of public speaking.

Assuming no more disasters strike the Cassowary Coast, our next meeting, on the 28th should happen according to more traditional lines with prepared and impromptu speeches done by experienced speakers as well as novices.

Nicky gave an educational session on further things Innisfail can do to make its website an even more effective tool for attracting new members. She reported that Innisfail was judged in the top 3 websites for District 69 .. good work for a Club that has only gained the website in the last year.

Anne gave a brief round up of highlights from the District Convention including that Nicky has been confirmed as the Area 32 Governor for next year. Nicky has scored Gary Schmidt the Toastmasters International President as her mentor for the role. Kaj performed exceptionally well in the evaluation contest and did us proud even tho’ he did not place.

Peter Cochrane one of our newest recruits did an excellent job of Toastmaster of the Evening keeping us entertained by weaving anecdotes about budgets into his transitions between segments which of course was very topical at the time.

A few members were absent due to it being that time of year when University demands start to peak. We wish them well in their studies.

If you would like to know more about these roles please go to our Articles section on this website and look at the document.

Tonight’s meeting saw a stirling performance from Loretta, fulfilling her new role as Sergeant at Arms as well as Toastmaster of the Evening ably assisted by Sue Treston. Christer finally got to air his word ’skew-whiff’, wearing a formal shirt and tie with his tie skew-whiff to remind us to use the word. Sheridan posed some interesting table topics and almost stumped Anne with one titled ‘Gondalas and Greenhouse’. She got her revenge by posing him the topic ‘The time has come, the walrus said ….’

Peter amazed and delighted us all with a speech he prepared at very short notice to fill speech vacancies left by Raylene and Marj who were unable to attend. His speech entitled “To cut and how to cut” was chocca block with whimsical sayings and hilarious propositions for how we might help the ‘pollies’ cut their budget expenditure. The rest of area 32 better look out because it would appear Innisfail has found themselves a contender for the humorous speech competition.

Anne gave an educational to ensure members were aware of the office bearers positions within the executive committee. She emphasized that becoming an executive member provided yet another experiential way to learn and practice communication and leadership skills. The only prerequisite she said is a willingness to learn and participate and she encouraged everyone to seriously consider putting their hands up for the challenge. The election of office bearers will take place on the second meeting in May.

The Club has organised a new roster for the provision of supper and Christer showed that he is not only a smart dresser but a terrific cook by bringing a cake he made himself that was absolutely delicious. The recent executive meeting has sorted out the programme until the end of July but members were assured that there is still going to be room to move due to inevitable absences for one reason or another.

Congratulations to both Lorraine and Vivianne for improvements in evaluations.

We had 4 apologies and 12 in attendance this evening which when all is said and done is not too bad for the evening of a public holiday. Good work Innisfail!!