88th Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club Chapter Meeting on 23rd April 2016

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light
–Vera Nazarian - Armenian-Russian American Author

Don’t ever let somebody tell you "you can’t do something" not even me. You got a dream….You gotta Protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you “you can’t do it”. If you want something, go get it. Period.
-Chris Gardner (Movie: Pursuit of Happyness)

Books vs Films – this was the theme of the 88th Chapter meeting held on 23rd April 2016 at the Anchorvale CC. It was an exciting topic which most of us were eagerly looking forward to, as books and films open the doors of our imagination and dreams.

Kelvin Yap was our SAA and Toastmaster of the Day ( dual role like some movie heroes J ). He asked each of us introduce ourselves and share our short-term goals and our most admired Hero in either Books or Films as an Ice Breaking session. Sridhar Maroju shattered the ICE when he spoke about his ‘Girls’ (Sorry… Goals) for this year and made the whole audience laugh boisterously.

President Zulhafni Zulkeflee, ACB gave his opening address about the heroes in books and movies and spoke about how we should be inspired by them in our real lives. As usual he rocked with his signature speech.

The excitement built up as we move on to the next segment - Prepared Speeches.

Ram Kumaresan – (That’s me) I am the first speaker in this segment and I spoke about the ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ written by Steven covey for P2 - Organize your speech.  To recall here are the seven Habits to be effective:

Habit 1 – Be Proactive

Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind

Habit 3 – Put First Thing First

Habit 4 – Think Win / Win

Habit 5 – Seek First to understand the to be Understood

Habit 6 – Synergize

Habit 7 – Sharpen your Saw.

Vinay Krishna, TM – was the second speaker (P4 - How to say it ) and spoke about how he was inspired by his senior in college, who concentrated fully during his exams and after getting a job, began celebrating it with 'Beer and Briyani'. He also shared about another friend, Mr. Cool, on how to stay cool in stressful situations. Vinay’s speech was extremely engaging with his colorful presentation slides that brought the stories in front of our eyes like a movie.

Sridhar Maroju, TM – was the third Speaker (P5 - Your body Speaks). He began by sharing how he became a ‘Victim’ of a scam where a lady lied to him and looted money and how his father was about to get trapped in an insurance scam and his narrow escape from it by being cautious this time.

Thomas Lee, TM – was the Fourth Speaker (P8 - Get comfortable with visual aids). Thomas walked up straight to the wall instead of the Podium and we wondered why…. And he switched off all the lights and made the hall dark simulating it to appear as a dark forest night. (Maybe he watched some Horror Movie last night….??? K  At least, that is what was running through my mind). He narrated an incident which occurred during his National Service training in a dark forest. He spoke about how we are like Empty Cups every time when we encounter a new venture. And how slowly we gain confidence over time (like an empty cup being filled with water) He transformed himself as a magician to demonstrate his idea in a funny manner. Owen was called up to stage as a volunteer to participate in the Magic Show (Is Owen considered a Prop for Thomas’ Speech??? J) and made all of us laugh to the core.

Sathiyamoorthi, CC — was the Final Speaker in this segment (Advanced Project 3 – The Demonstration Talk from the Speaking to Inform Manual. He started by drinking water from a Cup and appeared like a ‘Robot’. He explained how a Robot changed to a Human by showing how his body became flexible doing Yoga. Sathiya himself demonstrated the 12 steps of Sun Salutation (aka Sathiya’s Salutation) which changed him. (Also called Surya Namaskar). Nowadays Sathiya doesn’t wait for a shop to open in Compass Point Mall, as he knows that the renovation will take time to complete. If he needs to purchase something, he will simply move to other operational malls to buy things. (Those who missed this chapter meeting may not understand this joke. Which means do not miss the chapter meetings. J)

Everyone felt relaxed and cool after several laughing sessions, and then took a break with pizzas and other snacks.

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

– Bill Gates

That’s the next important session -  Project Evaluation which helped all the speakers understand their strengths and learn how to sharpen their saw. We had an enjoyable round of evaluations.

Now we moved on to the best part of the day - Table Topics. Alvin Tan, TM conducted his Film Vs Books: Dawn of Comedy Table Topics. He opened the presentation with an offer for a Course on How to become Critic / How to act like a Critic and earn millions out of that J. It was a humorous and fascinating session where most of the members and all the guests participated and become / acted like a critic. Some criticized a Book and others chose Films. This session was something new with movie clips being played on screen. Each one of them were shown either a Book Cover or a Movie clip and the participants’ colorful critiques added plenty of laughter to this session.

The Ah Counter report was done by Debbie Hoo, CC. Our heartfelt thanks to her for visiting our Anchorvale Toastmasters Club and supporting us.

Most importantly, we had two guests - Paneer and Angela who enjoyed the session by participating in the Table Topics as Critics and shared their thoughts about Anchorvale Toastmasters club and showed their willingness to join our club. Looking forward to meeting them in our upcoming sessions.

Finally the Awards Presentation:

"If you're strong enough, there are no precedents." - F Scott Fitzgerald

Congratulations to the Award Winners!

Best Speaker - Thomas Lee, TM

Best Table Topic – Owen Roma, TM

Best Evaluator – Zulhafni Zulkeflee, ACB

Filled with fun memories, I am eagerly looking forward to the next Chapter meeting to be held on 14^th May 2016 at Sengkang West Zone 'A' RC Centre, Blk 303B Anchorvale Link, #01-92, Singapore 542303 from 2pm to 4.30pm. Do join us there if you are free! It is guaranteed to be another great day with Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club J

Written By:

Ram Kumaresan

87th Chapter Meeting: 'The Interview' Edition

Interviews.. Interviews.. Interviews

The all-too-familiar, stomach-churning, gag-inducing rite of passage everyone has to undergo, before we land that coveted job, scholarship or internship. As nerve-wrecking as it sounds, interviews also represent one of the most crucial aspects of job-hunting, as it’s the first opportunity for you to meet your potential employer and more importantly, its your chance to tell if a potential job is really the right fit for you.

For Anchorvale’s 87^th Chapter meeting, “The Interview” was the theme of the day, and our SAA Sridhar kick started the meeting by posing the first interview question of the day – “What was your most Memorable Interview experience?” After a hilarious round of introductions, our Toastmaster of the Day (TMD) Benjamin opened the meeting, electrifying the atmosphere with his energy and fist-bumps. Our Club President Zulhafni was up next, as his opening address touched on the very real issue of handling tough situations (aka interviews) and how pressure can turn the roughest rocks into diamonds.

Under the thoroughly enjoyable facilitation of our TMD Benjamin, the project speeches began, with Chee Sian speaking about the importance of Upcycling – showing that with some will and determination, even unwanted waste can be transformed into useful products.

Alvin then shared about his recent visit to Tokyo, Japan where it dawned on him to treasure his unique experiences and affiliations. Best enshrined by the concept of Ichi-go ichi-e ("one time, one meeting"), one is reminded of the serendipity and sincerity of chance meetings during one’s travels or work.

Our TMD Benjamin, then took the stage, speaking about the relevance of the happiness index, and how stress levels may be influenced by having children (hmm.. singles take note)! Well, there are definitely more things to Life than just work, interviews and stress. 

With every job interview, there is always the need for personality profiling and for his "Winning Proposal" speech, Danny shared with us his company's latest personality profiling tool - the Kawa Compass! (for more information, head over to: http://www.kawatraining.com/ )

Swiftly after, we had the project evaluations, deftly executed by our team of experienced evaluators, Norman, Chee Sian, Danny and Zulhafni.

The next major highlight was the Table Topics – Extreme Interview edition, awesomely masterminded by Alvin. Taking the idea of a Job-Skill set match to its logical extremities, all contestants had to randomly choose a Job Position and 3 character traits. Their task then was to convince everyone why they’re most suited for this job. Behold, our uncanny candidates as follows:

Candidate	Position
Ricky	The Tai Chi Lawyer
Prasad	The Self-Entertaining Astronaut
Sindu	The Underrated Wrestler
Norman	The Ugly SuperIdol
Chee Sian	The Politician with a ‘Big Appetite’
Sridhar	The Secret Agent with a British accent
Benjamin	The Puppy-eyed Superhero
Danny	The Taxi Driver in Skinny Jeans

After an intense round of sales pitches from each candidate, which mostly reduced the audience to tears from laughter- one clear winner emerged. It was Chee Sian, the Politician with a Big Appetite who emerged victorious! From this table topic, it also revealed a side of Chee Sian that only one can imagine =)

Furthermore, the Best Speaker Ribbon was shared between Benjamin and Danny while the Best Evaluator went to Zulhafni!

Kudos to everyone for participating so actively and for making the Interview Meeting so enjoyable! Always remember the skills for your future interviews, be it your boss, girlfriend, boyfriend, mother-in-law etc..  =)

Cheers

Norman

86th Chapter Meeting and Tall Tales Contest on 26th March 2016

The usual Saturday club chapter meeting had an interesting twist on the 26^th March and all of us gathered for a very exciting session to ensue.

SAA Ram Kumaresan called the meeting to order by starting an ice breaker session. He invited everyone present to introduce themselves and also share about the most memorable prank which they  either committed or experienced. This was due to the upcoming April Fool’s Day. The answers we heard were certainly amusing and generated plenty of laughter. 

The Toastmaster of the Day, Sridhar, took over to run through the agenda. Then, President Zulhafni began his opening address with a tall tale, sharing about how he got injured and considered not attending the meeting. With his tall tale, he was hinting on the upcoming agenda and went on to emphasize on the need to make a commitment to commitment!  His main message was about how we should all strive to commit to the choices and responsibilities we have taken up, in all aspects of our lives.

Next up, was the Prepared Speeches section. We heard 3 extremely impassioned speeches. Senthil got the ball rolling with his Project 7 on ‘How to Stay Motivated.’ He shared clear tips that will motivate us to achieve our goals for the future. 

Next, Valliappan hooked the audience with his Project 8 on ‘How to make your children clean up their room.’ He even used clothes as his visual aid, and created a scene of a messy room during his speech. Everyone was eagerly waiting for his solution but Valliappan swiftly turned the tables around, by ending his speech by desperately seeking advice from the audience instead! 

Zulhafni rounded up the section with an unconventional folktale about ‘The Prince and the Honest Girl’ as part of his Advanced Project from the Storytelling Manual. The surprising twist at the end taught all of us the importance of honesty.

The refreshment break was refreshing indeed with pizzas for the day. The club also celebrated the birthday of March baby Sridhar!

Then came the most valuable Project Evaluations where the 3 speakers received their feedback. Visiting Toastmaster Debbie CC, from MDIS, highlighted on the importance of using multiple sources of information while researching a topic in her evaluation of Senthil’s speech. Sathiya CC gave a motivating evaluation to Valliappan, only expressing his disappointment at how there was no solution to ensure that children clean up their rooms! (No surprise there :D). Salma commended Zulhafni on his folktale and shared her thoughts on how the moral of a story is important to story-telling.

My favourite segment, the Tall Tales Contest was next! This was a new contest at Anchorvale, which was done for the first time! Tall Tales is not practiced in Singapore, but Anchorvale decided to try something new. 

It was definitely a great success. 3 of our members spontaneously signed up for the contest on the day itself to try their hand at tricking everyone else whilst the remaining 6 speakers had signed up prior to the contest. 

Contestants had to tell the audience a tale for about 3-5 minutes. This tale could either be true or false but should be narrated in a way to convince the audience to believe the opposite. So if the story was true, one had to narrate it in a way to ensure the audience believed it was false or vice-versa.

Each audience member tricked would mean 1 point for the contestant. The audience would also be allowed to ask the contestant questions at the end of their tale for 1 minute and this really got everyone engaged! Norman especially was stepping up as the primary interrogator of the Tall Tales contest. The questions directed at the speakers were utterly hilarious.

It was a brilliant showcase of all the beautiful liars at Anchorvale TMC! 9 members took their shot at tricking everyone with their stories. From enthralling overseas experiences like drinking urine, driving in the dark or getting robbed, to home stories of running away, being hit by a car, dealing with a python or modelling experience, it was an oratorical and creative treat. Some stories were definitely too good to be true while others were so convincingly powdered with meticulous detail that one would definitely assume it to be a true tale.

It was at the end when Zulhafni went through each story, that he revealed which was true or false, when we realised how we were fooled by most of the contestants. In the midst of the colourful tales, there were true stories which shocked the audience because it seemed like they were false. It also went on to show some of the unknown facets of our members, bonding the club together as we listened to their experiences which were for real!

Our General Evaluator for the day aka Secret Agent 008 was finally revealed to be Past President Roger Yap. Roger gave an emphatic evaluation about the events of the day and also the overall progress of the club from where it was a few years ago. He complimented the EXCO for their sincere efforts in bringing forth creative ideas and motivated everyone to step up the game, in improving the Toastmasters experience for themselves and for the club as a whole! Incredibly inspiring!

Last but not least, the Awards Presentation!

Tall Tales Contest:

Most Creative Speaker: Norman Tan

            
The Top 3 Tall Tales Titans listed below refer to the speakers who earned the most points by fooling the audience with their speeches.

     Tall Tales Titan Winner: Tang Hiang Huang

     1^st Runner Up: Sindu

    2^nd Runner Up: Thomas Selvaraj

Best Project Evaluator: Salma Begum

Congratulations to all the winners and speakers! Thank you to all our appointment holders, especially Debbie and Came from MDIS. And special shout out to Alice for the pictures and Secret Agent Roger for his General Evaluation.

Please join us for our upcoming meeting on the 9^th April 2016 at Sengkang West Zone 'A' RC Centre, Blk 303B Anchorvale Link, #01-92, Singapore 542303 from 2 to 4.45pm for another wonderful evening with Anchorvale Toastmasters!

In the meantime, you can follow the Anchorvale Toastmasters on Facebook for the latest updates and photos!

Written By: Sindu