Recap: 237th Chapter Meeting, 28th September 2024

On Saturday afternoon, when most people were catching up on their personal times, our dedicated members and guests came together for an inspiring Toastmasters meeting. The meeting theme "Finding Balance: Mastering Work-Life Harmony” resonated with everyone, as we strived to align our work responsibilities with our personal needs.

Sergeant-At-Arms, Abhay Dixit (TM), officially commenced the meeting by welcoming everyone and reminding them of the rules and regulations of the meeting. He then invited Club President Jenny Au (DTM), and other members such as Rusman Hadijanto (DL5, PI5), Mark Wong (DL5, PM1), Audrey Lim (PM3) and Venkat Voleti (PM3) to share their valuable insights on achieving and maintaining work-life harmony. 

Toastmaster of the Day, Rusman, warmly welcomed visiting Toastmasters Adi Jamaludin (PM3) from West Coast Toastmasters Club and Kelvin Leong (DTM) from Henderson Toastmasters Club as well as other guests. We were privileged to have Kelvin presenting a workshop this afternoon. Rusman strongly encouraged everyone to participate in the Table Topics session by highlighting how Table Topics could help us speak more confidently in our professional lives.

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Advisor, Jenny Au who is also serving as Division A Advisor, Division D Trainer, has gracefully taken up the role as our Club President, replacing the late Joseph Tan.

Jenny gave her first speech as Club President with a thought-provoking introduction on the theme of balance, setting the stage for a meeting centered around finding harmony in our daily lives. She reflected on the late Joseph’s qualities, including his enthusiasm and helpfulness, always willing to assist even when he was feeling tired. Jenny also shared her commitment to carrying out some of the plans that Joseph advocated at the beginning of the term, including inviting external project evaluators, general evaluators, and language evaluators. 

She expressed her wish for the club to once again achieve the Perfect 10 Award, especially after securing the 2 awards at the Hall of Fame 2023-2024 – President’s Distinguished Club and Perfect 10. Past Division A Director, Robekka Purba has received the awards on our behalf and passed to us via Division A Director, Rajesh Babu. Additionally, Club President Jenny hoped to increase club membership, urged members to attend meetings, encouraged mentors to work closely with their mentees, and proposed organizing more social events. Toastmasters were encouraged to participate in Club Contest (Humorous Speech & Tall Tales) which will be held on 12^th October 2024.

The heart of the meeting, as always, was our prepared speeches. Member, Doreen Neo (DTM, DL3) was in charge of the Timer’s report this afternoon.  

Speaker 1: Prabha Jayaraman (PM1) who was doing her Presentation Mastery, Level 2, Project 1 – Understanding Your Communication Style. Title of her speech "How I Engage in Conversation”.  The speech was evaluated by Audrey Lim. Prabha discussed different types of communication styles and shared personal stories of self-discovery while developing her communication skills.

Speaker 2: Christine Ng (TM) who was attempting her Engaging Humor, Level 1, Project 2 – Writing a Speech with Purpose. The title of Christine’s speech was "The Best Present is to Be Present”. This speech was evaluated by Adi Jamaludin. Christine reflected on her experiences as a mother, sharing her thoughts on what truly matters and how being fully present is the best gift she can offer to her loved ones.

 Speaker 3: Prasanna (TM) who was attempting his Presentation Mastery, Level 1, Project 3 – Introduction to Vocal Variety and Body Language. The title of his speech was "Persuasive Influence”. Prasanna shared a few real-life stories illustrating how attempting to solve problems can sometimes create more issues. He also provided valuable insights on how to avoid such pitfalls.

The next segment was the workshop segment by Kelvin Leong. Before the start of the workshop, Kelvin has gotten Rusman to gather everyone to observe a 1 minute of silence in remembrance of our late Club President, Joseph Tan.

Kelvin conducted a workshop on Humorous Speech. The workshop was actively engaging, and effective learning were facilitated through Kahoot games. During the workshop, he shared practical tips on how to prepare and deliver a humorous speech and enhanced our understanding of the art of humorous speaking. He emphasized that clarity is crucial in a humorous speech and encouraged participants to focus on humor as the starting point for their writing. 

Our Table Topics session, led by Table Topics Master, Sarah Ong (IP3). Sarah has replaced Rangesh Suruliraj, who was unable to conduct the Table Topics segment due to last minutes work commitments. Sarah expressed her appreciation to Rangesh for his effort in researching and preparing the Table Topics slides based on the theme of "Mindfulness." A total of five questions were attempted by both members and guests.

 As always, we celebrated the achievements of the day with the following awards:

Best speakers: Christine Ng (TM)

Best Table Topics: Adi Jamaludin (PM3)

Best Project Evaluator: Adi Jamaludin (PM3)

We sincerely appreciated all appointment holders for assisting in making this chapter meeting a great success and were grateful to all guests and members who had spent their times with us this afternoon.

Do stay tuned for our chapter meeting and we welcome you to join us as guest. 

Every Member Matters!

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

Written by Sherlyn Tan Yee Chuen (TM)

Recap: 234th Chatper Meeting, 10 August 2024

On 10th August 2024, Anchorvale Community Club’s Toastmasters held its 234th chapter meeting on zoom, marking a significant event just a day after Singapore celebrated its 59th National Day. The timing added a special sense of pride and unity as members reflected on their commitment to the nation’s welfare and progress. The shared vision of mutual support and encouragement within the club was a reminder of how each member could contribute to bringing out the best in one another.

The meeting was further elevated by the presence of a distinguished guest, Michael Wader (DTM), who joined us via Zoom from Malaysia. Michael, an award-winning international speaker and best-selling author, is well-known for his expertise in guiding corporate leaders and entrepreneurs toward future success. His reputation as an inspirational catalyst made his participation in our chapter meeting particularly meaningful.

 

Michael conducted a highly engaging 45-minute workshop on “How to Write a Book in 15 Steps.” His energy and sharp insights captivated the audience, making the session both enlightening and memorable.

 

Our club president, Joseph Tan, officially opened the meeting at 2:05 PM. Vice President of Education, Audrey Lim, followed with a reflection on Singapore’s National Day, emphasizing the sense of belonging and community within Anchorvale Toastmasters. She likened the club to a family, where members support each other’s growth as confident and effective speakers, contributing to the club's vibrant atmosphere.

 

Joseph also shared his personal experience of meeting Michael for the first time in Kuala Lumpur. Impressed by Michael’s insights, Joseph was determined to bring him to Anchorvale Toastmasters for a workshop on book writing. Thanks to his efforts, we were able to benefit from Michael’s wisdom.

 

Michael’s presentation was nothing short of inspiring. In just 45 minutes, he broke down the complex process of writing, planning, and publishing a book into 15 easily digestible steps. His practical approach left the audience in awe, making the time fly by very swiftly. Michael demonstrated his mastery of time management by concluding precisely on schedule. He then opened the floor for a Q&A session, adding an interactive dimension to the meeting.

During the Q&A session, Audrey was the first to ask about selecting a topic and building content for a book. Michael advised to start with a subject that the writer knows better than anyone else. He recommended reading extensively on that topic to further deepen one’s knowledge, a process that could take weeks or even months.

 

Marc Wong, inquired about the optimal length of a book, to which Michael responded that he prefers to keep his books under 200 pages. However, he noted that the length can vary depending on factors such as the target audience, pricing, and the book’s title.

 

The final question was about setting the right price for a book. Michael suggested researching the prices of similar books in the market to gain a fair understanding of setting appropriate pricing for the book.

 

The workshop concluded on time, leaving everyone with invaluable insights into the journey of writing a book. As a token of appreciation, Michael was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation by the club’s Executive Committee members.

 

We now eagerly look forward to our next chapter meeting, the 235th, which is scheduled for 24th August 2024. 

Written by Shubhajit Sengupta, TM

Recap: 229th Chapter Meeting - 25 May 2024

Braving the impending rain on a Saturday afternoon to a meeting of like-minded warm souls need little encouragement. What if adding the icing on the cake, it is to celebrate each and every participant’s personal growth too? This is aptly describing the inexorable Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club’s 229th Chapter Meeting where even a storm can take a back seat to dampening the enthusiasm of members and guests alike.

Club President Adeline Yeo, PM5, EC5, PI1, gave an opening address speech of virtuoso cogent setting off the tone “Celebrating Personal Growth: Your journey, Your Story”, theme of the meeting. Her anecdotes of taking a sabbatical from a safe and secure information technology job in the public sector for a master degree course costing thirty thousand dollars, to plunging herself into event management business in the private sector is no easy advice for the faint-hearted. Quoting from John A. Shedd, a prominent American author and businessman. "A ship in a harbor is safe but that is not what ships are built for". It was pure serendipity that prepared speech speakers that followed advocated following one’s heart; by overcoming fear and getting out of one’s comfort zone.

Deepak, TM, with his speech title “Courage versus Fear”, spoke of picturing oneself achieving the goal; using his own examples of speaking to an audience for the very first time (in forty two years 😊) in person on this very day to moving on to his next job. Prasanna’s, TM, speech title “Never Settle”, epitomizes the need for perseverance in chasing and making dreams come true when he described his turbulent albeit successful application for an internship at the National Stock Exchange of India. Even Sreenivasan Kumar’s, LD2, speech on “Cloud Computing” served to remind us that the future is in territories outside of one’s once familiar premises; it is possible to create presentation slides online now.

Participants in the Table Topics segment were like Christopher Columbus and Zheng He who ventured courageously into the unknown on their ships. The followings are the commendable takes. What’s the funniest lesson learnt about yourself? Chong Wee Kim, TM, revealed when she was little, and when her grandmother was not around, she experimented with a lighted candle in a dark room at home. Can small wins lead to big changes? Caroline (guest) spoke of making decisions in the midst of noises. Is personal growth a lifelong journey? Nicky (guest) thought he lacked knowledge to lead. This prompted him to want to learn it by joining a Toastmasters Club. How do you measure your personal growth? Melissa (guest) spoke of her desire to conquer fear in public speaking. Can mistakes be celebrated as milestone? Ashmi (guest) told of her father’s wish for her to learn singing. She took singing lesson eventually, and it became a poignant reminder she should have started, as with any desire, earlier. What’s your most inspiring growth story? Kelvin (guest) praised the warmth he received from Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club as inspirational. Can humor be a tool for personal growth? Melody Byrd, DTM, highlighted humor is especially an opportune tool to learn from one’s mistake, and not for beating up oneself. 

Evaluators are like anchors carried on ships. Anchors are not meant for ships to remain stagnant, but to prevent the ship from drifting whilst preparing for the next adventure in the worthy direction. Ever wondered about what is in the name of our Club? Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club. 😊 Prabha Jayaraman, TM, suggested more relevant elements and appropriate pauses for the audience to relate and assimilate in Deepak’s speech. Melody Byrd, DTM, complimented Prasanna’s good greetings in her speech and recommended suspense build up, use props and suitable vocal variety to make it animatedly interesting. Imam Hossain, PM2, bring to Sreenivasan Kumar’s attention of the need for consistent interaction with the audience in his speech delivery. Marc Wong, DL5, PM1, applaud Prabha Jayaraman’s confident and good paced evaluation as honest and constructive. Marc proposed further to use catchy rhetorical devices and quotes to capture attention. 

Richard Sng’s, DTM, bitter, better and butter* acerbic language evaluation put forth the pro forma use of cliches is not only a sin of the perpetrator (speaker), but also a plaque on the victims (audience) as well. An utter abomination almost every time it happens. Richard proffer refrain from using the word “should” as it is a very imposing word especially when used in evaluations.

Congratulations to the following Toastmasters who won the ‘Best’ ribbons in Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club’s 229th Chapter Meeting.

Best Speaker: Prasanna, TM

Best Evaluator: Marc Wong, DL5, PM1

Best Table Topics: Melody Byrd, DTM

Written by Wee Chee Sian, VC2

*Bitter, better and butter is attributed to Richard Sng, a celebrated language evaluator who created this Signature Language Tagline. The Triple B is an exquisite example of a combination of rhyme, alliteration and the power of three. 😊

Recap: 228th Chapter Meeting – 27 April 2024

It was a warm, splendid, and wonderful Saturday afternoon at our Anchorvale CC Toastmaster Club's  228^th Chapter Meeting. It is our great honor to have other distinguished guests, new members and fellow members from other clubs joining our hybrid meeting.

Our Club President, Adeline Yeo, who has taken up triple roles as Sergeant-At-Arms, Toastmaster of the Day, and Club President, called the meeting to order. She shared the meeting agenda and introduced the appointment holders. New member, Shelly Angriany was holding the role of Timer while Table Topics Master and Ah-Counter were held by Guests, Loo Chia Mint and Alayna Seah (PM2) respectively. Adeline gave the Club President’s opening address to everyone. As the theme of the Meeting was “Achieving Balance, Enhancing Life”, Adeline shared an inspirational speech on what is life balance and how to achieve and enhance it.

Prepared speeches were the highlights of the meeting. Three of our club members Prabha Jayaraman, Chong Wee Kim, Shelly Angriany and a finalist contest speaker, Vincent Chen have stepped out from their comfort zone, put forth their best abilities, and shared their life experiences to each and everyone. Their stories impacted many of us and has enhanced our learning.

Vincent Chen (DTM) Presenting

Next, is our Table Topic Session, which was prepared by Speaker Toastmaster Club member, Loo Chia Mint. In this segment, club members and guests get a chance to share their views and experiences on the topics they have selected in a 1 -2-minute impromptus speech.

New member, Shelly Angriany attempting a Table Topic

New member, Hongyu sharing his views for a Table Topic

  Zulhafni Zulkeflee attempting a Table Topic

Thereafter, everyone gets together to have a group photo session followed by a light refreshment. Everyone gets to exchange their ideas, share about their experiences, and get to network with one another. All had a very enjoyable time.

                Everyone gets together to have a group photo session 

After the break, the project evaluators [Audrey Lim (PM3), Iman Hossian (PM2), Joseph Tan (LD5, EC5, PM5, MS5), Wee Chee Sian (VC2)] gave their feedback to our speakers on how they fared in their speech presentation and how they could further improve. This was followed by our Language Evaluation by our honorary member, Richard Sng (DMT) on the proper usage of English Language, and our distinguished guest and Ah-Counter, Alayna Seah (PM2) on the detailed Ah-Counter report. She also gave some useful tips on how to effectively reduce pause fillers.

Ah-Counter, Alayna Seah presenting her Ah-Counter Report

Now, it is time to reveal the winners for the prepared speech, table topics and best evaluator. Congratulation to Vincent Chen (DTM), Zulhafni Zulkeflee, and Wee Chee Sian (VC2). Well done!

Best speakers: Vincent Chen (DTM)

                   Best Table Topics: Zulhafni Zulkeflee

                    Best Project Evaluator: Wee Chee Sian (VC2)

Finally, the meeting has ended with our ending speech from our Club President.

The awards were presented to the following winners:

Best speakers: Vincent Chen (DTM)

Best Table Topics: Zulhafni Zulkeflee

Best Project Evaluator: Wee Chee Sian (VC2)

We sincerely appreciated all appointment holders for preparing and making this Chapter meeting a success and were grateful to all guests and members who took time to attend this chapter meeting.

Do stay tune for our next chapter meeting and we welcome you to join us as guest.

Together We Shine!

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

Written by Dylan Lam (EC1). 

Recap: 227th Chapter Meeting – 13 April 2024

 The 227^th Chapter Meeting commenced by Toastmaster of the day Venkat Voleti (PM3). He shared that regardless of the frequency that we encountering failure in lives, the important thing is that we always can come back stronger. He extended a warm welcome to all toastmasters including the guests and introduced appointment holders who were going to support the chapter meeting.

Club President, Adeline Yeo (PM5, EC5, PI1) did the opening address by sharing her humble childhood during which she grew up in a 30 sqm HDB flat with the family size of 11 where she had to fight for space in the house to study on the floor and sleep together with other siblings. Yet, she still managed to be a top student during her primary and secondary school years. She also shared her daughter’s experience in the journey of getting her first job offer from a top financial institution after countless job applications since her graduation last year in overseas. Both Adeline and her daughter’s experiences reminded us that perseverance and positivity are very essential for us to emerge stronger in the face of adversity.

The 2^nd segment of the meeting was the Prepared Speeches Segment delivered by three speakers, Srinivasan Kumar (LD2), Sarah Ong (IP2) and Dr Clinton Lee (DTM).

Srinivasan’s speech was titled “Planning and Implementing”. He started off by sharing the 5 typical stages for any project implementations which include Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Closure. He narrated that exit criteria for each of the stages need to be in place to ensure project success. As simple as the process appears on the paper though, there are complications when implementing a project in reality, especially when there are a lot of people involved.  Issues may arise everywhere along the process which can be the contributing factors for the project unable to meet the set timelines. For example, product team had no knowledge in completing certain task, campaign analyst was unable to support the project due to conflicting priorities, test data was not available to testers etc. Based on his experience, the secret sauce to ensure project success was through 3 changes. i) Formation of a collaborative team to hold accountable on the open issues, ii) Daily call as a platform for resolving issues in timely manner and iii) Enforcing SLA in resolving issues. He concluded his speech by emphasizing that Team, Project Updates, and SLA were very important in project implementations.

In Sarah Ong’s speech titled “The Journey to Redemptions”. She started off by sharing that life hadn’t been smooth sailing for her 10 years back, and she was on the brink of developing depression when was facing weight gain after 2 childbirths. It was an extremely challenging phase of life for her when she suffered from self-pitying, anger and emotional rollercoaster for an extended period of time. Till a point that she realized enough is enough! She enrolled herself to the weight management program at Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s Sports Clinic. At the clinic she was coached to exercise for losing weight through various gym equipment and exercises. She started to see results after taking the advice from the sports coach by performing interval running on treadmill, lunges, squats, following diet plan, along with brisk walking sessions during weekends. This was so that she could condition her body to run given the obesity issue that she faced back then.  After 4 months, she finally attempted her first run. She narrated that she was unable to keep up with an old man in the park when she first ran, but she continued to run for the next 3 months plus until she completed a 10KM run with the timing of 1 hours and 23 minutes.  With that, she also achieved her goal of living a healthy life by losing more than 20 kg. She became a happy and confident person since then, and running had also become the essential morning routine in her life regardless of weather and locations, even during her overseas vacationsin overseas. Whilst running able to help Sarah to lose weight, it also prepared her for tougher sport such as dragon boating where she was still able to persevere and press on with long distance rowing. She concluded her speech by quoting “There is always light at the end of the tunnel, so long as we persevere”.

In Dr Lee’s speech titled “Create a Podcast”, he started his speech by asking the audience “Why Podcast”. He narrated that our grandfathers would listen to radio in their generation, while we watched TV and videos as we grew up. However, new generation wanted information accessible via TV and cellphones. Dr Lee called podcast as Edu-tainment since it was about education and entertainment. His advice in doing podcast was to “Be prepared, be fearless, and expect the unexpected”.  He then shared the interview through podcast with Sarah Heller on The Artistry Within Wine channel. Dr Lee started the podcast by asking Sarah about her background to gradually making her comfortable and open up for later questions to capture “The meat, bone, and soul of the individual” as Dr Lee phrased it. Dr Lee then moved on to ask Sarah the “thrust to the onion” questions to get a good understanding on her leadership view as the youngest Master of Wine in 2017. Dr Lee concluded the speech by emphasizing to the audience that you had to bring the message from the heart and believe in the message that you were talking and asking in order to get the message from the person who was being interviewed.

Table topic segment was presented by Rusman Lee (CC, CL, DL5 PI5) and the table topic questions were related to the meeting theme on Overcoming Adversity and Celebrating Victory. Some of the participants gave insights through their valuable life experiences where they had overcome various obstacles and setbacks. Having positive outlook and staying steadfast in the face of adversity are the common values shared amongst us. Bravo to our new guest, HongYu who had also attempted the table topic!

New Guest, Hongyu attempting Table Topic Challenge

Long time club member, Alice, attempting the Table Topic challenge. 

In the evaluation segment, Eileen Quek (PM1), Jason Thong (PM5), and Marc Wong (DL5, PM1) presented constructive feedbacks and recommendations to the Project Speakers.

Last segment of the meeting was a Workshop on “5 Moments of Truth to be a Leader” conducted by our Club Mentor, Jenny Au (DTM). Jenny conducted an enriching workshop on cultivating leadership. She concluded that “To be a leader, do not be afraid to take risk. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Important is to have trust in yourself”. 

The awards were presented to the following winners:

Best speakers: Sarah Ong (IP2)

Best Project Evaluator: Marc Wong (DL5, PM1)

Best Table Topics: Jason Thong (PM5)

We sincerely appreciated all appointment holders for preparing and making this Chapter meeting a success and were grateful to all guests and members who took time to attend this online Zoom meeting.

Do stay tune for our next chapter meeting and we welcome you to join us as guest.

Together We Shine!

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

Written by Danny Chng, TM.

Anchorvale CC TMC and Braddell Heights II TMC Joint Meeting on 23th March 2024

 It was a warm, sunny, and lovely Saturday afternoon. Seargent-at-arms (SAA) Sarah Ong (IP2) gave a warm welcome to everyone.

Our SAA Sarah Ong (IP2) broke the ice by opening the meeting with the meeting theme “Embrace Change and Grow Together”. Members had the chance to share their thoughts about this theme, and many of us drew the conclusion that change is a norm although it’s not comfortable, however we need to embrace it and grow together with it.

Our Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club President Adeline Yeo (PM5 EC5 PI) started the President’s Opening Address. She shared that many years ago her daughter went to London for studies, and Adeline felt sad and depressed being separated from her daughter. Faced with this situation, her family needed to adapt with this new change, and they were able to move on with this change together as a family. Time went by quickly, 3 years later, her daughter managed to find a new job in London and the family need to accept the fact that she would not be able to return and stay with them. 

Adeline also shared that Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club has again achieved the DCP (Distinguish Club Program, which is the highest achievements for the club in Toastmasters, and she mentioned that we had gotten this achievement as our members had embraced changes and had been working together closely.

Richard Sng (DTM) introduced the Words of the Day “EXCISE”. The meaning of this word is to cut, remove and dispose.

The first segment which was Prepared speeches started with:

1^st Speaker, Keith Perriloux, with speech title “The lessons learned”.

Keith has lived in 3 different countries although he is a Singapore citizen. He recently enlisted in the Singapore army. He learned about: Discipline (being on time), Respect (tolerance to other people, culture, religion), Teamwork (together to achieve the common goals). Keith has always embraced change all the while when he was living other countries, He has to quickly learn the rope to adapt to the requirements of serving national service in Singapore.

2^nd Speaker was Japinder Singh (PM2). Title of the speech was “My cycling journey”. 

His earlier bike had thick tires to handle the off-road type of journey. However, when he went for a longer journey, he found out that a lighter type of bicycle with a thinner tire and certain type of handle and gear, could help him travel around in longer distance such as 50 to 150 km. Japinder also shared with us that anyone between the age of 18-88 years old is capable of biking for 100km. And strongly urge all to try biking. 

3^rd Speaker was Michael Spencer Go (DL1) and the title of his speech was “Superhero Story”.

Michael is an indoor life person. However, his grandfather insisted him to try out the outdoor challenges such as a bicycle riding activity. His grandpa also tirelessly drove Michael to his school every day. Michael learned the real Superhero attitudes such as: Companionship, Service, and Passion from his beloved grandpa.

4^th Speaker was Chong Wee Kim. Her speech title was “Down and Up”. There was a  sudden and tragic change happened to Wee Kim family when she was still a child. Her father, the only breadwinner of the family, sadly passed away. Wee Kim managed to help her family get some money by participating and winning the great lucky draws from supermarkets, which had brought tremendous and joy and comfort to her mom during the difficult times.

From the life hardship that she had experienced, she learned three things that kept her going:

1. Believe in yourself.

2. Be grateful and contribute to society.

3. Connect with people. 

1. The 5^th Speaker was Uppli Srinivasan (DL5, PM2). Title of his speech was “Coronary Heart Disease”.

He shared about his recent bad experience of suffering from heart disease. From what he has learned, fatigue, cholesterol, family history might have contributed to his coronary heart disease. He shared some prevention tips such as doing exercise, having adequate rest, and seeking earlier treatment, could help someone to avoid the heart disease.

6^th Speaker was Srinivasan Kumar (LD1). Title of his speech was “Introduce Mentoring”.

Srini shared a quote that “A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you than you see in yourself and helps bring it out of you”. He shared on how his mentor, Mark Wong has helped him to be more courageous in his Toastmasters Public speaking journey.

Srini also shared on how Generative AI tools also help in mentorship. He introduced one of the tools names “Yoodli”, which can play the role of Virtual AI mentor in  public speaking.

Next segment was Table Topic led by our Table Topic Master Manikandan Chidambaram (DL1).

1^st topic “What you will do if somehow you are left in an island with nobody for sometimes” was attempted by by a young boy, Vishwa. He shared that he would utilize the coconuts fruits there, and he would do the hand waving with the hope of being spotted and recused by passing helicopter.

2^nd topic attempted by another young boy named, Jayrius was about what was his best childhood memory. He shared that the best memory was watching movie and play games with his brother.

3^rd topic, “The most life defining memory” was attempted by Danny.

Danny shared about going overseas to study with the feeling of excitement. He tried to adapt with the new culture, the new environment, and he worked as part timer. One day he had a serious accident, whereby he accidentally cracked some of his bones, that incident forced him to embrace and adapt change quickly.

4^th topic,  “What would be the piece of advice you would like to share with others” was attempted by Varshini.  He has learnt to slow down, and understood that life was not just to get by but to find the reason of living.

5^th topic, “If the Doctor mentioned you can only live for another 5 years, what would you like to accomplish?” was attempted by Nagarajan. Nagarajan would be more involved in humanity, do proper exercise, embrace changes, nurture the nature, help people that are in the poverty.

6^th topic “How to live happily” was attempted by Uppli. Uppli shared about starting  thing small and be simple so as to avoid disappointment due to poor outcome.

Last topic, “What message you would convey if you needed to speak for the entire world” was attempted by Michael Spencer. With the wars going on, Michael encouraged the audience to be kind, and to think of other people.

Anchorvale CC and Braddell Heights II Toastmasters members posed for a great phot together before headed for snack break. 

The next segment was Project Evaluation.

1^st Evaluation by We Chee Sian (VC2), evaluating the speech of Keith Perilloux.

Some good advice shared by Chee Sian, were the usage of short sentence, and the use of note effectively. If Keith was too engrossed with his note, this might cause him to have many pause fillers in the speech delivery.

2^nd Evaluation by S.S Cheng (ATMG, CL), evaluating the speech of Japinder Singh (PM2). Japinder had good audience engagement with his interesting topic. One advice was to improve the speech presentation by keeping good eye contact with all the audiences in the room.

3^rd Evaluation by Adeline Yeo (PM5 EC5 PI1) evaluating the speech of Michael Spencer. Adeline advised Spencer to emphasise on how the change had brought about improvement. And not only to share on how great was his grandpa.

4^th Evaluation by Santhi Perilloux (DTM) for Chong Wee Kim’s speech. Wee Kim had used dialogue, vocal variety and tone. She engaged the audience by asking questions and usage of body language. Santhi advised Wee Kim to improve on the share of take away messages to encourage audience as the key objective of the speech is to inspire the audience.

5^th Evaluation by Marc Wong (DL5 PM1) on Uppli Srinivasan’s speech. Marc has observed the usage of good opening dialogue, good usage of personal story, speech organization and sharing of good take a way message of taking care of our hearts. Some suggestions of improvement include to change the title to a more interesting one like “1 in 5 in America has this” rather than the dull title “Coronary Heart disease”, limit to 3 main points to allow audience to digest the messages, try to have eye contact with audience while presenting from slides.

6^th Evaluation by Li Li Lim (ATMS, CL) on Srinivasan Kumar’s speech. Good thing observed was that Srinivasan was calm and cool as he has delivered his speech smoothly, sharing his good mentorship experience with his mentor, Marc Wong. Li Li suggested some areas of improvement such as choosing a more interesting title such as “Mentee and Mentorship” rather than the simple and bland title of “Introduction to mentoring”. And sharing the compare and contrast between earlier stage without mentor and after mentorship.

Next Segment was the Language Evaluator by Richard Sng (DTM) whereby he shared some improvements for the usage of words.

1.     1. For all plural words to always pronounce the ending ‘s’.

2.    2. Avoid usage of abbreviations, as some guests and new members might not be familiar with the toastmasters’ terms.

3.     3. Simply say “younger” instead of “more younger” as “more
is redundant. Say “fall” and no need to say “fall down”.

4.     4. Say the “last speaker”, instead of “final speaker”.

5.     5. Say “so much things” instead of “so many things”.

6.    6.  Use the phrase “at the highest level” instead of “In the highest level”.

7. 7. Instead of using “Good afternoon”, we can use “Splendid afternoon” or  “Wonderful afternoon”, as the word “Good” had been over-used.

8.    8. Language Evaluator in programme sheet should be changed to Language Evaluation.

9.    9. Accent is very important, hence we need to speak with the correct accent.

Next segment after Language evaluation, was Ah counter’s report whereby Mark Tan  shared on the Ah-counter report for everyone who had the chance to speak. 

In conclusion, during the speech presentation when pausing, we just needed to stop and think, and resist the urgent to say pause fillers words such as “Ah, Uh, Er, Um, Okay, And, So, You Know”.

Final segment was Award Presentation by Adeline and Uppli.

Winner of Table Topic: Michael Spencer Go (DL1)

Winner of Evaluator: Santhi Perilloux (DTM)

Winner of Prepared Speeches: Michael Spencer Go (DL1)

President’s Closing Address by Uppli Srinivasan (DL5, PM2) where Uppli shared his joy of re-visiting Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club and having this joint meeting between the Anchorvale CC Toastmasters and Braddell Heights II Toastmasters.

Do stay tune for our next chapter meeting and we welcome you to join us as guest.

Together We Shine!

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

Blogs written by Rusman Hadijanto (CTM, CC, CL, DL5, PI5).