Anchorvale Halloween Chapter Meeting

Monsters, Superstars and Superheroes, nothing was out of the question for Anchorvale’s annual Halloween Chapter Meeting. Guests and members alike were gleefully tasked to dress in their most “frightful” costumes to see who can be Anchorvale’s scariest and craziest.

Alas, none was comparable to our TMD, Zulhafni.. (ahem) Joseph, ACB who reminded us why he deserved the gold medal for his effort.

Club President Norman (or Count Normanius), CC, CL was next to remind us that Halloween was an opportunity for us to embrace both the fear and possibilities of the unknown.  

And so began the scintillating prepared speeches segment, with 5 brave speakers today. Benjamin, ACB blazed onstage with his AP1 – “Mastering the Toast” as he explained what was important for all Toastmasters –the journey of honing your public speaking skills. Dino, in his P1- “Ice-Breaker”, spoke about his interest in the automobile industry that kept ‘driving’ him forward in life. “Ignorance is Bliss” was Vinay’s mantra in his P6 – “Vocal Variety”, as he encouraged us to enjoy the process rather than worrying about things beyond our control.

ChangZhong from Bishan TMC (P8 – “Getting Comfortable with Visual Aids”), taught us on how to ‘create’ the perfect sunset proposal, using the sky as a canvas and the atmosphere as paintbrushes. 

Valliappan (P9 – “Persuade with Power”) shared with us the painstaking recent demise of his father, and persuaded us to reflect on the legacy we like to leave behind when we eventually pass on.

And behind our scintillating speakers, there was an encouraging evaluator for each of them. Zulhafni compared Benjamin the Toastmaster against the coffeeshop ‘toastmaster’ while Benjamin summarised his using his initials 3Bs.2Es.1N. Chee Sian, CC, ALB spoke about the importance of pauses in vocal variety while Muthu, CC, CL gave his evaluation based on his 4 cardinal sins – Clarity of Points, Clarity of Flow, Organization of Slides and WIIFI (What is in for you). Roger, CC, CL then gave a powerful and heartfelt assessment of how Valliappan’s speech managed to tug at our heartstrings.

After the project evaluations, it was time for our Halloween Table Topics, and this year – the topics were inspired by classic hollywood horror flicks. As Count Normanius took the stage, the fear on the audiences’ faces was apparent as they were forced to recount harrowing personal experiences onstage J Kudos to all the brave speakers today - Dino, Hemant, Rathi, Sathya, Valencia, Victor, Weite

Table Topics (just kidding on the harrowing topics)

1. The Shining - Have you ever been in a place that you could have sworn was haunted?
2. Saw - Tell us about a time when you felt good to be alive and free.
3. The Silence of the Lambs - Tell us about someone who the more you came to know, the more they surprised you.
4. Carrie - Tell us about an old childhood friend who helped you become the person you are today.
5. The Exorcist - little problems tend to get big if you ignore them.  Have you ever come across a problem like that?
6. Friday the 13th - Have you ever run across a strange character while you were on vacation?

It was then our language evaluator, Thomas Lee’s (CC) turn to scintillate the audience with his hilariously spot-on evaluation that shed light on our wrong uses of English while highlighting brilliant and poignant phrases.

Best Prepared Speech: Valliappan Selvamani, TM

Best Evaluator: Zulhafni Zulkeflee, ACB & Roger Yap, CC, CL

Best Table Topics: Victor  

For the second year running, our Halloween Chapter Meeting has been a success and once again, cheers to all who made it possible. Kudos to all who gamely dressed up and see you next year for the third and most horrifying instalment yet.