106th Chapter Meeting, AGM & EXCO Installation Ceremony

It's in the air, another renaissance flared-up in Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club. 
This new renaissance began last Saturday during the 106th chapter meeting. A bunch of speakers and intellectuals burst forth from the rigors of the concrete jungle and marked the new EXCO installation for the club. An important milestone in the club's history.

The meeting started out with a members-only Annual General Meeting with the goal of updating the Club members on the significant events of the term, the club accounts as well as the developments and future events to look forward to.

Then came everyone's favorite time, the refreshment break!. This was not just a break but a time to sing "Happy Birthday to you...." yes..its birthday celebration for Rusman, Alice and Chee Sian.

The 106th meeting was kicked off by our Toastmaster of the Day, Zulhafni – who was, as always, inspiring and motivated. After explaining the program of the day, he invited outgoing President Norman to make his final opening address. Norman shared a video montage of the club memorable events. Everyone really enjoyed the video, it was not only heart-rending but also a magnificent and organic piece of film-making by the chairman himself. Alice and Salma burst into tears, such was its beauty and tenderness. 

Installation Ceremony
It’s no coincidence that influence and influenza come from the same root word. Real leaders are contagious. People “catch” what they have. A mark of a good leadership is its ability to continuously pass on their vision and values to the next generation of leaders which Norman & Salma possessed.
Anchorvale TMC was honored to have Area Governor, DTM Gor Soor Hoon to install the new, incoming and excited Executive Committee. Every member took the gavel with great conviction in their hands; paralleled only by the energetic gusto accompanying their acceptance of their respective role. We definitely look forward to having this new team, led by incoming President Salma, ACB, CL, to lead our club to even greater heights!

Here are the members of the 2017/18 Executive Committee:
President: Salma Begum, ACB, CL
VP Education 1: Wee Chee  Sian, CC, ALB
VP Education 2: Rusman Lee, TM
VP Membership 1: Hemant Singhal, TM
VP Membership 2:  Dino David, TM
VP Public Relations 1: Owen Lorena, TM
VP Public Relations 2: Benjamin Leow, CC
Sergeant-at-Arms 1: Valliappan Selvamani TM
Sergeant-at-Arms 2: Sam Wang TM
Secretary: Alice Ow, CC
Treasurer: Ricky Setiawan, TM
Immediate Past President: Norman Tan CC, CL

At Anchorvale TMC, we are also always on the look-out for members who deserve our recognition for their contributions to the Club. This year we recognized 6 different Members for their unique contributions to the Club:
Captain Consistent – Dino David, TM
Pro-Active Prince – Muthu Ganesh, CC, CL
Totally Transformed Toastmaster – Gu Weite, TM
Table Topics Titan – Sathiamoorthi, CC

Prepared Speeches
We had three project speeches that day:
Helena Lim (Project 2: Organize Your Speech) speech titled "Stop reaching for the stars, reach for your goals".
Mr. Vicky Frantz (Project 4: How To Say It) speech titled "Nothing changes if nothing changes".
Angela Cai (Project 6: Vocal Variety) speech titled "Procrastination Angela".
Congratulation to Vicky for grabbing the ribbon of the day for the best Prepared Speech speaker. He shared his solemn experience on pub crawling which brought him to a higher state of consciousness and how he attained enlightenment after imbibing a couple of liquid bread.

Team-Building Game
The day, however, was far from over – Hemant & Dino mastermind this very interesting puzzle game for everyone to figure out. This particular puzzle is quite interesting, if you didn't attend this chapter meeting then here's the puzzle:
A lady buys a shoes worth $12 from a shop. Assume that the shopkeeper is selling the goods with zero profit. The lady gives him $20 note. The shopkeeper gets the change from the next shop, keeps $12 for himself and returns $8 to the lady. Later the shopkeeper of the next shop comes back with the $20 note saying “FAKE” and takes his money back. So the question is “How much LOSS did the shopkeeper face?”
If you want to know the correct answer then you must attend our 107th chapter meeting and look for the masterminds.

As the meeting drew to a close, stunning Salma stepped forward to deliver the Incoming President Closing Address. Her eyes pierced right through everyone. They were a bewitching, dark chocolate-brown and almond shaped. When she broke into a smile, her beguiling, oyster-white teeth lit up the room. It was a heart-clamping moment when she nodded at Norman. She confidently gave out her most endearing motivational note, to continuously innovate or risk to evaporate.

Final Thanks
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!

Big Thanks to the Silent Evaluators:
1) Lim Bao Long, TM - evaluating Helena Lim
2) Ricky Setiawan, TM - evaluating Angela Cai
3) Kelvin Leong, ACB/CL of WDA - evaluating Vicky Frantz

Anchorvale Toastmasters 105th Chapter Meeting (10th June'17)

The 105th Chapter meeting fired off for an amazing ride in a cocktail-blue afternoon sky, filled with brilliant speakers, new and old and a legion of young bloods who I'm sure will transfuse their energy to Anchorvale club.

Toastmaster of the day, Weite head start the meeting by asking everyone to share their personal meaning with "Dancing with Life" and choreographed the crowd to a merry mood.
Her enticing, constellation-blue eyes gazed at everyone, her bouncy personality and a sugary voice, which everyone adore was not outmatched by the flu medicine she devoured early on. She really is one dedicated member! You Go Girl!

Thereafter, Club President Norman and his dashing rascal’s smile shared how he came up with "Dancing with Life" theme while dancing mindlessly in place he cannot even remember. He then prophesied to embrace optimism and positivity through the ups and down of life and learn to appreciate every single moment, good or bad. Norman's stunning opening speech just made everyone inspired and teary specially Zulhafni.

Zulhafni who has a volcanic voice, loaded with vigor shared his oratorical mastery to the club.
His natural affinity for linguistic communication made him the perfect Language Evaluator.
He came up with "Intoxicate" as the word of the day because he planned to use his galactic smile and devil-may-care style to intoxicate the fairer sex.

Part of the prize when attending Anchorvale Toastmaster’s Chapter Meeting is a privilege seat to witness all the prepared speeches from our talented fellow Toastmasters, to be inspired, entertained, and enthralled. 3 prepared speeches delivered from our first-class speakers, Bao Long's "Don't Think About It", Angela's "Be Brave and Say It" and Owen's "Pyramid for High Performance". Inspiration, Life Tips, Moral Lessons, Humor, we had it all! It was an oratorical delight that made the Saturday afternoon absolutely awesome!

After the inspiring first half, now its time for a short refreshing break. This was not just a simple break but a time to savor the best Mee Siam in the world lavishly shared by our dear club mentor Jenny Au, DTM.

After a short break, we were in for another treat and this treat was from our flamboyant celebrity speaker Benjamin Leow, ACB,ALB. He delivered a powerful speech on how to use Body Language. Warp, Amplified, and Interpersonal are the key points according to him to have a wolverine-like energy and debonair body moves. He really inspired everyone with his Mohican-cut hair and his twinkly eyes. His derring-do personality and bass voice were a big part of his crowd-pleasing character. Good Job B!

We resumed with our Project Evaluations, steered by Roger, Deepthi and Jenny, DTM. Each evaluator had his own distinctive style, Roger opting his speech with interspersed metaphors while Deepthi and Jenny used their passionate and enlightening counsels. It was truly a great experience watching all these great evaluators.

Next up was the brain-racking table topics segment. Table Topic master Rusman gave everyone a very inspiring quotes to talk about. We were enthralled by the myriad of speeches from Hemant, Debbie, Chee Sian, Alvin, Shi Yong, Steven, Guo Xuan, Patrick and Max.

We reluctantly came to the end of our meeting for the afternoon but will definitely be looking forward to the next session at Anchorvale Toastmasters. Special thanks to our timer, Helena. Congratulations to all prize-winners and thank you to all our visiting Toastmasters for lending us your ears! See you at the next meeting!

105th Chapter Meeting Award Winners:
Best Project Speech Speaker: Owen, TM
Best Project Evaluator: Roger Yap, CC, CL
Best Table-Topics Speaker: Alvin, TM

Article by: bow-talk

Memoirs of a Toastmaster's Journey - Into the FUN Experience

Communication and leadership. This is the most common answer given when asked what Toastmasters is about. 

Let’s be honest. Most of us Toastmasters already recognised the importance of communication and leadership even before joining our Toastmasters Clubs. In addition, we bring along our own set of values and beliefs to become members of our Toastmasters Clubs. In other words, we did not pick up communication and leadership skills only after joining Toastmasters. We joined to enhance both of these skills.

Here comes the litmus test. When asked to do speech projects or assume appointment roles in your Club’s meetings, would you take it up with little or no hesitation? That’s communication and leadership. When appropriate, would you go the extra mile to do something special for your Club members? That’s when your set of values and beliefs come into the picture. And if you do, your communication and leadership skills are further enhanced.

As members of a non-profit organisation, the major gel that binds all of us together is the mission of giving. Intangibles are hard to be accounted for. Did your speaking encourage more members of your Club to do the same? Did taking up EXCO position contribute to your Club? Did taking on a role in a committee outside of the Club create value for the Area, Division or even District level? We cannot put a number to quantify everything. Through our observations in the Toastmasters community, we know the answer is yes, to all the three earlier questions. Personally, to me it does not matter how much, as long as it does.

Behind the scenes

During the scenes

I was asked to do a website for District 80 Annual Conference 2017, distinctively named FUN – Fresh, Unique and New. I took it up. I look upon it as giving to the Toastmasters community as mentioned earlier. I probably did more. That isn't the point though. I received more, intangibles. As part of the organising committee, the many interactions, co-ordinations and decisions added spice to my Toastmasters journey. Truth be told, I picked up website design skills not too long ago. This opportunity gave me further chances to sharpen my knowledge while developing the website. I am grateful for the numerous feedbacks I received, without which I would not have learned so much, while at the same time having FUN!

FUN Organising Committee

Flashback to the time when I first joined Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club close to four years ago. I thought it was simply about polishing one’s public speaking skills. If someone had told me at that point of time, “You are going to be asked to do speeches, then appointment roles….join the EXCO….take up organizing Toastmasters activities outside the Club….take on more responsibilities to lead…. Area position…. District….” The timid and clueless me would be taken aback, having second thoughts. Looking to the future with bloated expectations can be frightening. Just like when I am overcoming the fear of public speaking.

With my Anchorvale Family

On hindsight though, its one of “I meet people, who become my friends, we took on roles…. organised segments and grew…. in the midst, meet more people and make friends…. realise we can confidently do even more as a team and really did…. and wow it was such FUN….”

Richen and I with the World Champion of Public Speaking - Darren Tay

I am not saying the journey is easy, smooth sailing and all Pollyanna. The conclusion of the two day event on 27 to 28 May 2017, District 80 FUN Annual Conference 2017 may have received more compliments than ‘very honest feedback’. 

This is judging from the many jovial photographs put up by enthusiastic delegates on the AC2017FUN Facebook page. I thought nobody would have refute this, all of us grow from such events making. That includes delegates of the Annual Conference. There will always be “we could have done so and so better”. Like all growth, it’s a journey, never a destination. This, in my view, is another answer to what Toastmasters is about.

Thank you for the memories and lessons so far!

Written By: 

Wee Chee Sian, CC, ALB

VPE 2, Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

District 80, Division Z, Area Z2 Director

District 80 FUN Annual Conference 2017 Webmaster