A new term, a new
beginning but many new unknowns…
That had been the ethos for preceding weeks
before our 91st Chapter meeting. With a dearth of project speeches
and appointment holders, a few questions lingered ominously over us. “Will we
be able to still hold our next meeting? Will we have a good turnout?”
Did we know if our meeting could still proceed?
Probably not.
But that did not deter us from taking the
chance, planning ahead and hoping for the best!
That was my message in my first opening address
as President and as it turned out, our fears were completely unfounded as our
91st Chapter meeting fired off for an amazing ride, filled with
brilliant speakers, new and old and many fresh new guests and friends!
Our designated captain, Toastmasters-of-the-Day
Thomas Lee, CC wasted no time
energizing the crowd with his quick witted commentaries and hilarious opening
lines. Despite the initial hiccup in the venue, he kept a firm grip on the helm
and guided our ship past any rough maelstroms. Supported by the wonderful Debbie from MDIS Toastmasters,
first-time Ah Counter Choon Lian and
the profoundly-meticulous Hareesh, CC
as LE, our voyage ..ahem.. meeting was off to a great and exciting start!
For the prepared speeches, Prasad took to the stage first in his Project 1 Ice-Breaking speech
about his three greatest ‘Gifts’ in life. Having helped with his preparation, I
was really heartened to see Prasad confidently narrate his life story without
any notes or pauses.
This was followed by a very insightful Advanced Project 2
–Resources for Entertainment by Benjamin,
CC who spoke about not judging people by their appearances, reinforcing the
time-tested rule that one should never judge a book by its cover.
Next came
big, bad Alice CC (Advanced Project
1 – The Folk Tale), who gave us a chilling retelling of the classic ‘Three
Little Pigs’. After that speech, I promised never to look at cheeseburgers the
same way again.
Lastly, our newly minted Dad Senthil shared with us how to Master the Art of Parenting as part
of his Project 8 – Getting Comfortable with Visual Aids. A very informative
speech! (Note to self: to re-visit again for future use)
After a short break, we resumed with our
Project Evaluations, helmed by Owen,
our two awesome guest evaluators Rachie Lanked
CC and Mike Woon, DTM/ALS and
yours truly. Each evaluator had his own distinctive style, some opting to use
emojis while others relied on hilarious yet useful lines. I myself chose to
evaluate Alice from the perspective of a police inspector and it was truly a
great experience watching all these great evaluators.
Just like how the Titanic had a thrilling
climax, our Chapter meeting had a thrilling table topics, conducted by our very
own Leonardo DiCaprio, Benjamin with
his gravity-defying hair and fake microphone props.
With his crowd-sourced topics (Note: everyone
agreed that it was a resourceful and time-saving move), Benjamin hauled 7 speakers
onstage, namely Choon Lian, Huan Ling,
Jack, Yuan Yuan, Kuan How, Adil, Renji. With a vast range of questions such
as “How old is Benjamin” to “What would you do during the Standard Chartered
robbery”, each of them gave hilarious and wacky answers that attest to their
creativity and quick thinking.
After that, we had a spritely Ah-counter report
from Choon Lian and a very detailed
language evaluation by Hareesh, who had
been keenly taking notes. He also elaborated on the correct use of grammar,
vocabulary and rhetorical devices. Great analysis Hareesh! It was a great
journey and we’ve finally arrived at our eventual destination, the end of the
meeting.
If today’s meeting was
any indication of the coming term, it is that our upcoming year is definitely going
to be really interesting! If you wish to experience more, do join us for our
next meeting on 23rd July 2016 at Anchorvale CC, 3rd Floor Conference Room
(Falcon) from 2pm to 5.30pm.
It’ll be our Humourous
and Evaluation contest, where the best and the brightest of Anchorvale will
clash to vie for Toastmasters glory! Its really an event not to be missed. Stay
tuned!
Again, congratulations
to all the Award winners!
Best Speaker: Benjamin
Best Evaluator: Norman "d'Chairman"
Best Table Topics:
Kuan How
Written By: Norman Tan
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