He steps out of his house, intoxicated by the promise of the meeting
evening. It was a meeting of two
parties, the start of a fresh relationship and the birth of a consummate
pairing. Definitely dressed for the occasion, he waited in the room for her
arrival – dressed in his best, dressed to impress.
No, this is no simple love story
– this was the meeting between ITC Bintang Toastmasters (“ITC Bintang”) and Anchorvale Toastmasters (“Anchorvale TMC”)! Under the blistering heat of the Singaporean
intense sun on yet another Saturday (23rd November 2013), members
from both sides of the Causeway gathered together at Anchorvale CC for a
delicious Joint Chapter Meeting between ITC Bintang and Anchorvale TMC. A
brainchild of both teams, the stage was set for what was to be an impeccably
sumptuous oratorical feast.
It was indeed my immense fortune
to be drafted as the Toastmaster of the Day; I was able to experience
first-hand the hospitality and effervescent nature of the toastmasters from ITC
Bintang and Maxis TMC. Why, the Club President of ITC Bintang himself, Gabriel
Chong, ACB/CL, was simply delightful as I tied down the programme for the day!
The session was of course
definitely made special by the attendance of our local visiting Toastmasters as
well as the guest attendances of our triadic talents – District 80 Governor,
DTM Pradeep Kumar, Division A Governor, DTM Carolyn Street-Johns and Area A2
Governor Rebecca Chan! In what was an indication of the quality of the session
to come, both Club President Roger Yap, CC/CL and Pradeep Kumar, DTM gave
stirringly inspirational opening speeches as a reminder of us to reach out and
be “legends” while at the same time not to be “too serious” about Toastmasters!
I was definitely hard-pressed to give a performance worthy of the opening!
Project Speeches
In a spread befitting of the
session, we had a buffet of 7 speeches, comprising of 4 projects from the CC
Manual and 3 Advanced Projects from 3 different AP Manuals. Riz, TM from
Anchorvale started out with a charismatic and sincere lesson on how a parent
should raise his/her child. We were further treated to an existential journey
with Hareesh, TM followed by a trip down terror lane with Salma Begum, TM and
Vereen Foo, TM delivering spine-chilling personal renditions of their personal
experiences of being held at parang-point
and supernatural encounters respectively. Bernard Ng, CC/CL entertained the
crowd with his speech while Roger offered us a deal we couldn’t resist. Melvin
Tham, CC/CL from ITC-Bintang gave a sincere re-telling of a folk tale from the
Storytelling Manual to round off the Project Speeches.
The session paused for
refreshment as everyone brought their empty stomachs to the actual spread of
buffet which was ready for everyone to tuck into. It was another round of
enjoyable networking for the crowd and even the SAA found it tough to gather
everyone back to resume the session!
Project Evaluations
In tandem with the traditional
programme of ITC-Bintang, the session this time was subsequently helmed by the
charismatic and energetic Gabriel Chong of ITC-Bintang fame. In a fresh twist
to our standard programme, the audience were treated to not only the valuable
spread of evaluations but also an immediate evaluation by the General Evaluator
of each Project Evaluator – definitely something we can consider incorporating
in future meetings!
Table Topics
Everyone was definitely geared up
and ready for the challenging Table Topics session – helmed by the
effervescently personable Tham Cinyee, CC/CL who was prepared with a complete
set of Malaysian and Singaporean topics for the taking. From a special tour of
the Night Safari to a recount of Malaysia’s delectable pineapple tarts, we were
definitely entertained byt the creative genius of all the speakers who
courageously took up the challenge. I’m sure every single of us agree that no
one ‘mempertosoykan’ themselves
during the session (you have to be there to know that that means!).
Our Division A Governor,Carolyn
showed everyone her ever-expanding repertoire of toastmastery talents by gamely
taking up the refreshing role of Evaluator for Table Topics – she provided us
with immediate, sharp and relevant comments on the speakers of the day and all
this within a short preparation time!
Conclusion
All good things however have to
come to a conclusion – while everyone was reluctant to take their leave (we only
left the room because we needed to vacate the premises for the next booking!),
we all went back nonetheless with a saturated mind and a satisfied soul. It was
a feast for the mind, a feast for the senses and definitely a feast befitting
such an occasion – mark my words, this is but only the start of a beautiful
friendship between ITC Bintang and Anchorvale TMC and likewise, we will
definitely look forward to any future opportunities for collaboration!
Thanks & Congratulations
In that vein, we would like to
offer our thanks to (in no order of merit):
- Our District 80 Governor, Pradeep Kumar (for sharing your books as well!), Division A Governor, Carolyn Street-Johns (and for taking up the Table Topics Evaluator role), Area A2 Governor, Rebecca Chan (for taking up the evaluator role as well)
- All our appointment-holders for the day
- To all our visiting Toastmasters from District 80, ITC-Bintang TMC and Maxis TMC (especially to those who took up appointments)
- And all our guests!
At the same time, we offer our
hearty congratulations to the ribbon-winners for the meeting:
Best Evaluator – Robin Yap, CC/CL
Best Table Topics Speaker – Claudia
Ryu
Final Words
With that we hope to see you at
our next meeting! Watch out for details!
