113th Chapter Meeting - 28th October 2017

I was really having an emotional and mental battle if I will attend Anchorvale Toastmasters 113th club meeting or not. Do you know that many cities don't have 13th street or 13th avenue, many elevators don't list the 13th floor and many hotels don't have a room number 13. In tarot reading, the number 13 is the death card! So why the heck should I attend this 113th club meeting? I was spooked thinking that this 113th meeting was ridden with badluck or bad omen hmmm.
Triskaidekaphobia is the fear or avoidance of the number 13. Why is the number 13 considered unlucky, anyway? Biblical references to the number 13 is aren't all that positive, first one is that there were 13 people at the last supper of Christ and second, many believed that either the last supper or the crucifixion occurred on the 13th day of the month. The mass arrest and execution of the knights Templar began on Friday the 13th. It was also once believed that a witch's coven was made up of exactly 13 members, you can even ask Salma, she will passionately share you stories about it I'm sure.

There was even an old superstition that says if you have 13 letters in your name, you’re bound to be cursed. Yes silly it may be, but slightly more convincing when you consider that a number of notorious murderers' names (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Theodore Bundy.) all contain 13 letters. And, in case you were wondering: Adolf Hitler's baptismal name was Adolfus Hitler. Surprisingly, Ricky Setiawan, Deepthi Valsan and Hemant Singhal attended our 113th meeting last Saturday who all have 13 letters in their names, hmm. Are these innocent folks victim of the unlucky number 13 or not? Read on and let's find out.

Valliapan the valiant Sergeant-At-Arms called the meeting to order by greeting the members and by asking what scares them the most. Interestingly a couple of folks shared that they are fearful for life itself.  Fear exist in the mind and it will go away once we face it and start having fun.
Valli took over the limelight from Valliapan by performing her role as the Toastmaster of the Day. With her mild-mannered voice and sweet smile she knew how to make the chapter meeting a memorable one.

Smart and sassy Salma gave the President's opening address and confessed to everyone about her dark secret office affair which for many years have hunted her like Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street movie. She was caught with her pants down metaphorically because she kept quiet and did not challenge enough her "Freddy Krueger" to be better. She encouraged us to step up and always stand out to create a life full of meaning. We may be in the right place and at the right time but if we are not doing anything then life will just run us over.

The much anticipated prepared-speech segment starts right after. The lineup of the 4 speeches were very informative starting with:
1. Yuet Cheng, a professional writer who shared us her life story and her passion for classic literature. Her speech titled "Find your voice".
2. Hemant did his first Pathway project titled "My Journey". It was an ice breaker but since almost everyone knew this celebrity, he added a twist to his life story and flawlessly completed his speech.
3. Narayana motivated everyone with his speech titled "One liner mantra for success". He shared that failure is a stepping stone for success and anyone who has achieved anything great has at some point made a choice to embrace failure instead of fighting it.
4. Jeff Lin aka "Mr. Jack Ma" delivered his pathway speech titled "Why we fail to build a rapport". According to Jeff the process of developing great rapport and having great conversations is by letting go of one's ego and prejudice.

Following the end of the prepared speech segment, a short refreshment break gave us the opportunity to mingle with the guests while at the same time bingeing on the yummy cake prepared by  ravishing Ricky. Ricky, Deepthi and Hemant enjoyed the refreshment break and that unlucky 13 seems to have no effect on them, the yummy chocolate cake may have something to do with it.

After the refreshment break it was time for Evaluation. Sathiya evaluated Yuet Cheng’s speech, Deepthi evaluated Hemant’s speech, Zul evaluated Narayana’s speech, and Roger evaluated Jeff’s speech. I'm really proud of being a member of Anchorvale TM club because we are privilege with skillful speakers and evaluators who always give their most glorious and insightful evaluation.

Next came my favorite part of the meeting, the adrenaline pumping table topics segment!
Since its Halloween season the Table topic master made this special by asking the enthusiastic volunteers if they want to choose trick or treat. If the volunteer selected trick then they need to end the scary topic with a bad ending and if its a Treat then they have end it with a happy ending. All participants conjured up their darkest story and we knew we'd get some freaky stuff from our volunteers. Everyone had a blast specially the new members and now they are even looking forward for the Table Topic segment.

Richard my co-founder, with his eloquent and genuine encouragements, shared the general evaluator’s report. Salma our President eventually ended the meeting with her magnanimous closing address.

All good things come to an end and it seems there are no lucky or unlucky numbers after all unless you win the toto; they exist only in our heads – or in the heads of some of us – or maybe it’s a meme disguised as superstition.

We would like to thank all our appointment holders for the day, especially to visiting Toastmasters for their support as well as guests who bravely came down. We hope you had an enjoyable time and we definitely hope to see everyone again!

Congratulations to our award winners!
Best Prepared Speech: Hemant & Narayana
Best Project Evaluator: Roger Yap
Best Table Topics: Richen

Article by: bow-talk

112th Chapter Meeting - 14th October 2017

I entered the Toastmaster’s meeting room, and the minute I did, I received a warm welcome from everyone. The room was filled with so much excitement. It was so exuberant!

‘Knock, knock’, and the 112^th chapter meeting started. It began with an ice breaker session! 

The Vice President of Education of the club, Mr Wee Chee Sian was the Sergeant-At-Arms for the day. The topic for the ice breaker session was; Describe a situation in which you turned your lemons into lemonade. This means converting unfavorable circumstances into something positive. Mr Wee Chee Sian described a situation that happened to him recently. He said that he and Mr Hemant were going back home together in the MRT. However, unfortunately they were caught in a train delay. To add fuel onto the fire, the officers asked the passengers to evacuate from the train! He said it was a terrible situation. But, he managed to make the situation better by getting to have a longer and nicer chit-chat with Mr Hemant and this, gave him the opportunity to get to know Mr Hemant even better. Similarly, everyone had to share their experiences too. I thought that the topic was very meaningful as many people who had faced similar experiences that people shared, could actually help them learn how to overcome the difficulty.

Next, our Toastmaster of the day, Ms Debbie He mentioned all the activities that were to take place for that day. 

Following that, was an opening address by the club president, Ms Salma Begum. She talked about Mr Zulhafni Zulkeflee’s defeat in the Division A Humorous Speech Contest. Although Mr Zul got 1^st runner up, he did not let this defeat pull him down completely. She said that she initially had the idea of changing opting to take Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club out of Division A and move to another division. The reason was  due to the club rarely succeeding to be victorious in Division A contests. However, after thinking a little bit more, she opted against it. This was because, if she had done so, it would be like the club ran away from something to achieve something victorious at an easier level of competition. She said that if you want to win something, you must do it the right way. You should never run away from something and attain victory at a lower level of competition. There will be no sense of satisfaction. I found her opening address very inspirational.

Then, our language evaluator for the day, Mr Zulhafni Zulkeflee brought up the word of the day; Quintessential. It means representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class. Everybody talking on the stage must try to use this word while speaking, be it prepared or unprepared.

After that, we had the prepared speeches. The first speech was by Ms Helena Lim and she shared tips on how to reduce weight. She said that everybody should measure their waists to ensure their chances of getting cancer is low. According to research it seems that ladies should have not more a waist line of more than 30 inches while the waistline of men should ideally not exceed 40 inches. Anything more than that, shows that you have visceral fats and thus a higher risk of getting cancer! This news brought shock to my ears!

After which, Mr Sam Wong spoke. He spoke about identity. He said that nowadays people tend to judge others by their cover very easily, which is extremely true. For example, the Internet says Australians are lazy. But does that really mean every Australian is lazy? He said that because of this many business men may think twice before deciding to hire Australians. His speech taught me how to stop judging everyone just because research says so. We must remember that the internet only shares the average, but does not display each individual.

Next, Mr Vicky Frantz spoke. He shared with us about how to improve in life; by taking risks. He was a very humorous speaker. He told a story to us; There was once a criminal who was caught by the king. The king said, “ I will give you two choices and you choose which punishment you want. The first one is that you get hanged. The second one is something mysterious that is behind a large door.” The criminal chose to get hanged. But before that, out of curiosity, he asked the King what was the mysterious object behind the large door. The King laughed and replied, “Freedom!” The criminal was shocked and the King said, “Like you, many other criminals always chose this punishment as this was something they knew and thus did not want to take a risk by choosing to see what is behind the mysterious door.” The criminal was then hanged and he died. Through this story, I felt that Mr Vicky managed to create an awareness in us that, taking risks in life may bear more fruits. It might give you a second chance.

Ms Deepthi is the lady in black and orange.

Finally, the fourth speaker came; Ms Deepthi Valsan. She shared a personal story to us. She said that there was a national conference and her boss had to share an article. So, she and her boss wrote the article together. However, before the day of the conference, her boss seemed to have chicken pox and hence told Ms Deepthi to attend the conference instead. Although she was shocked, her mother’s advice changed her mind and she decided to go. Her mother said, “What was the worst that could happen? There is nothing wrong in not giving a try.” Thus, she attended the conference and gave it her best shot and all the directors were very impressed with her proposal. From this story, I learnt that there is nothing wrong in giving a try especially when we question, “what is the worst that could happen?” Her speech was highly motivational.

After that, we had the refreshment break. There were puffs, tarts, salads and lots of fruits. Jenny Aunty, the club’s mentor prepared a fruit salad for us. It was simply scrumptious!

Next, the evaluators had to evaluate the speeches done by the speakers.

Before the meeting ended, there was one last segment; Table topics. The topics were of random quotes that was flashed on the screen. There were many different quotes and it was very nice to hear the experiences people had related to the quote. When the speakers on stage did not really know what to talk about, others came forward willingly just to help them. They supported the speakers on stage by helping them by asking questions to prompt more sharing.

Lastly, was the language evaluation done by Mr Zulhafni Zulkeflee. His language evaluation was very helpful. He gave tips like on how to avoid the word very. For example if you want to say very tired you can say that you are exhausted. He also said that, you should never use simple words. For example saying ‘good speaker’ vs ‘good sandwich’. There is no difference between the sandwich and the speaker. So instead of using good for both you can perhaps say ‘passionate speaker’ and ‘delicious sandwich’. You cannot say ‘passionate sandwich’ and ‘delicious speaker’!

Lastly, was the Ah Counter Report and Award presentation. After which, the Toastmaster 112^th meeting officially ended.

Overall, I thought that the meeting was awesome and I really hope to come to Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Chapter Meetings again!

Congratulations to all the Award Winners:

Best Prepared Speech: Deepthi Valsan

Best Project Evaluator: Jenny Au

Best Table Topics: Rathi Valliappan

Written By:

Rathi Valliappan, the 14 year old daughter of our senior member, Valliappan Selvamani.

Anchorvale Toastmasters 111th Chapter Meeting - 30 Sept'17

Did you discover something new over the weekend? If you did, then you've probably attended Anchorvale Toastmasters 111th Chapter Meeting last Saturday, 30th September 2017. If you did not and you want to learn to become a better speaker and leader in a relaxed, supportive environment then visit the most coolest club, Anchorvale CC Toastmasters club.

Hemant, our macho Sergeant-At-Arms of the day, kicked-start the meeting with a topic about Victory and how it meant to each one of us. And without further delay he immediately reminded us that it is our membership dues renewal, such an astounding reminder, he felt victorious afterwards.

Toastmaster of the Day Jeff Lin – who was diligent and very inspiring specially with his witty remarks and cute smile. After explaining the programme of the day, he invited Madame President Salma to deliver her emotional speech. She gave her fans some advice about creativity and encouraged everyone to give more speeches, take more roles and to continue improving. Madam Salma stands proudly for creativity by sharing to us things like injectable contraceptives in India and how a waste plastic can be reused for building road. She emphasized why creativity is really a crucial factor for our future success and how it can gives us a competitive advantage. This is probably the secret to her public speaking success.

We had five project speeches that day:
Helena's Project 1 Pathways titled "2nd chance" really gave her the chance to showcase her talent. Followed by Narayana who also flawlessly completed his Project 1 Pathways titled "What's in a name". With such pizzazz, Chu Chuen carried out his Project 2 Pathways titled "Want to see a doctor? Not that simple". Sam Wang’s Project 3 was a superb story titled "To be successful, is it worth risking your health?". Muthu's AP1 speech was riddled with paradoxes, similes and persuasive metaphors entitled "A riddle". Our final prepared speaker that kept us on the edge of our seats was our comedic diva, our friendly neighborhood guy Zul, who just completed his AP5 titled "The Laju incident".

Then came Norman Tan's favorite time: refreshment break! We had outstanding homemade salad from Jenny, it was really good. It was so delicious that she even forced a tomatoe into Chee Sian's mouth, such kindness, everyone's heart melted.

Followed by another round of excellent feedback from our evaluators. Vicky, Owen, Rus-man, Alice, Zul and Salma gave their respective evaluations of the prepared speeches. Special congrats to Mr. Vicky d'Versatile who completed his first evaluation, this according to him. Zul was teary-eyed and took scores of selfies while doing the chicken dance because he was really proud winning the best evaluator award, such a momentous event, bravado my friend!

We moved on to Table Topics, conducted sternly and brilliantly by our VP of Education Chee Sian. The topics were based on intelligent quotes inspired by his past experiences, previous affairs, childhood flashbacks, unforgettable evoking dreams and the almighty google search. Our table topics speakers wowed us as they tackled these mind-bending quotes with unflappable brilliance. Below are samples for you to practice.
- He who asks is a fool
- A rumor travel, a truth stay put
- My bed is magical place, I can remember what I have forgotten to do
- would you like your coffee black or what?
- My first date
- Beauty is skin deep and ugliness is deep to the bone
- Today is the tomorrow you worry about yesterday

Our beloved Deepthi took up the role of the Language Evaluator. She commended and gave everyone a high-five for successfully using the word of the day "astounding". Big thanks also to Raymond Wong for being the Ah-counter of the day.

Roger's general evaluation was impeccable with specific suggestions to each speaker and everyone who generously shared their time and talent to this wondrous event. The audience was especially thrilled with his unique stories specially when he shared to us how he managed to recollect his name from his wife over the phone during an unforgettable titillating experience with a cop. Another great  meticulous evaluation and story telling from the panegyrist master.

Special thanks to all our guests who took time off to visit us last Saturday. 
Do join us for the next chapter meeting on 14 October at Anchorvale CC, 3rd floor Falcon room.

Congratulations to all Award Winners!
Best Project Speech: Sam Wang
Best Project Evaluation: Zulhafni Zulkeflee
Best Table Topic: Vicky Frantz

Article by: bow-talk

110th Chapter Meeting on 9th September 2017

 

Like an inter-galactic Star Trek adventure, Anchorvale Toastmasters was ready to set off on our next epic journey as we embarked on our 110th Chapter Meeting.

Club President and Commander-in-Chief Salma Begum delivered her opening orders as she hammered home the message to “boldly go where no man has gone before” and to venture bravely into the night. Our Sergeant-At-Arms, Hemant Singhal and Toastmaster of the Day, Dino David helmed the ship as Pilot and Co-Pilot. They navigated through the meeting with finesse and enthusiasm, inspiration and direction.

Speaking of the new, our oracle Language-evaluator Carolyn Street-Johns was up next, to deliver the prophesized and prized Word-of-the-Day:

·         Act: To behave in a certain manner and/ or to do something for a purpose (eg. reactive, action, pro-active)

·         Faux: French for ‘false’ (eg. Faux pas, breach of etiquette; faux-fur, fake fur)

Armed with this precious knowledge, we were ready to set forth to venture and explore new frontiers. Today’s meeting, especially heralds fresh beginnings for many new members, with 2 Ice-breaker speeches and 2 Project 2 speeches. Chu Chuen, a self-professed ‘tortoise’ smashed the ice with his earnest and heartfelt tale about his slow but steady journey in the race of Life. Not to be outdone, Jeff Lin delivered a riveting and touching Ice-breaker about his dad’s struggles with Alzheimer ’s.

 

Equipped with a formidable vocabulary and smooth, baritone voice, Guo Xuan enraptured the audience with his impassionate speech to toe a careful line between Pragmatism and Principles. (Sounding exceedingly like a foreign policy diplomat there, Guo Xuan)  

Last but not the least, Sam Wang powered through his P2 with such gusto, just to remind us that in our Toastmasters journey, nothing is more important than to ‘Be Ourselves, and Tell Your Own Speech’ and to believe in the power of our stories.

 

After a quick refresher break, we were back on course with the Project Evaluations, with Hareesh actively dispensing words of wisdom; Chee Sian being proactive and erstwhile in his evaluation. Roger mused about how Guo Xuan acted well to ensure a smooth delivery, while Richen doled out useful action points for Sam to improve on

As we approached the Table Topics, the mood shift was palpable, from an space opera into a whimsical laughter session. Launching off with Table Topics Master Hareesh, who spun up an ingenious web of topics, speakers were given random items under random scenarios to talk about. Talk about having an identity crisis!

Kudos to the following members for bravely attempting and completing the topics (with no time disqualifications!)

1.       Zul

2.       April

3.       Pria

4.       Michelle

5.       Mishrita

6.       Desmond

7.       Ryan

8.       Hemant

9.       Badri

Lo and behold, we have come to the end of our adventure and it was time to crown the victors! After a ferocious, nail-biting journey through the great unknown, I am proud to announce those who have emerged victorious in today’s space adventure:


Ice Breaker Awards for Chang Chu Chuen and Jeff Lin



To our beloved Language Evaluator, Carolyn Street Johns, DTM



Best Prepared Speech: Sam Wang



Best Evaluator: Roger Yap, CC, CL

Best Evaluator: Zulhafni Zulkeflee and visitor, Desmond.



Stay tuned for our next adventure, only at Anchorvale Toastmasters J

Written By: Norman Tan