Regular meeting 3rd Nov, Melbourne Cup Eve.

 Well  it was the Eve of "The Race that stops a Nation"
 and it almost stopped our Toastmasters meeting. 

There were only 6 starters entered the barrier at Ourimbah a pathetic field really when you consider that we do have a few more members than that in our stable of stars. 
Are they all sprinters, not stayers. ?
There were  more scratchings than you would ever imagine. 
Maybe they were all in Melbourne  lining up in  the Cup field, who knows. ???? 
 ( OR had they been  doped,  or did they have Equine Flu). ?
Just hope you all have a sick note ready, 
questions will be asked ????.

 President Tanya arrived and started setting up and preparing the meeting room but was very unwell and was soon  vetted out of the race and she too ended up a late scratching  as well. 
                          (Equine Flu was suspected).
Hope your feeling better by now Tanya and back eating 
your Oats n Hay.  
Oops, maybe your alergic to those.......

Alan stepped up  into President Tanya's saddle  and did a good job. 
All in all we only had six starters and as I said THANKFULLY four visitors
Thankfully we  did have the  4 visitors tonight because if they hadn't been there it would  hardly have been worth while having a meeting. 
 (Hardly worth delivering a good speech to 6 people).
We even had to put our visitors to work to fill some positions.
             Our Visitors tonight  were......
     Giles. (2nd) visit
    Sophia.  (who ended up vote counter)
             Thanks Sophia hope this didn't scare you away)
    Peonix.
    Domininic.  4th visit ( Dom. does intend to join our club  as soon as is possible) ,  he is already showing great promise too.
He helped set the room up and  had to be our timer tonight and did a great job too. Well done Dom.

Tonight Stuart was our ( Chief Steward)/ Chairman,  and it is a shame so many of our members missed seeing how well Stuart conducted the meeting. He was great.
 He did a great job under saddle  and kept the stable running well through out the whole evening. 
He had to pull the whip out a couple of times when the field became restless because there was no hot water for our Tea/coffee break again. 
Most of our members had to wear two saddles and two bridles tonight due to the heavy scratchings, and they really needed a cuppa. 
Somehow  we managed though and even ended up with hot water eventually. 
Well done to all who were there. !!!!
 You did us proud.!
Hope you all went home to a warm stable and a full feed bin.

We had only two speakers tonight,  it was good to see that both dressed with the Theme of the night , then  two very good evaluations followed.

 Our Winners and Grinners tonight were.
Best Speech :           Judi, ( with a very topical story about Phar Lap)
Best Table Topics : Stuart
Best Evaluation     : Ray
Chairmans Award : Dom. ( Great job as timer)

T/T Stuart (note he wore a tie to perform his duty......well done Stuart)

Speech Judi

Evaluation Ray

Chairmans Award .,Dominic (Our Timer)

Speaker (1) Christine in Melbourne Cup Theme

Speaker (2) Also in Mebourne Cup theme.

  

                                             Darren

I am happy to report that Darren carried the BLUE GUM flag for us for the final time at the recent Area contest and I am very  pleased to report that he did score the 2nd place Trophy, well done Darren and many thanks for doing so well for our club over the years you have been with us. We wish you luck in your new club.

                         Good and Bad news combined.
I am really  happy to report that John is recovering well after open heart surgery on 28th.  Glennis sent John a card and some of us have visited John in hospital and I can report that he is recovering really well, (sadly though John's dear old Mum passed away while John is recovering and that has caused him considerable emotional trauma. There is an old saying ("It never rains , but it pours"),
 John is finding that to be very true at the moment.
                     Please keep him in your thoughts.
John won't be back with us until the new year as he will be staying with his daughter for a few weeks after leaving hospital. He was released from Hospital on Fri 7th....
                           *****************************
Ray is off on a cruise on 16th Nov that will see him unable to attend our next 2 meetings but he should be back for our Christmas meeting. 
Its going to be  tough Ray, but someone has to do it...
             Have a good time and "dont fall in "
                      *********************************
  OUR Next Meeting will be 17th Nov. 7-15 Ourimbah RSL
 Hope to see some of the faces there who were missing in action from last meeting....