Following this was the opening address by president Salma Begum. She introduced the new Pathways learning experience, a modernization of the Toastmasters education program that better reflected real-world communication and leadership scenarios.
After that
language evaluator, Rusman Hadijanto, CTM who chose to use ‘Tranquil’ as the
word of the day to reflect the discussion about peace earlier.
Following this
were five prepared speeches starting off with Angela Cai's project 7, ‘Research
your Topic’ which was about Eggs. Through her research, we gained more
knowledge about the differences between organic egg and non-organic egg. It was
highly illuminating as she shared about how the eggs taste differently, how the
chickens are also bred and live in their farms.
The second speech was
an ‘Ice Breaker’ by Sam Wang who talked about how he was deeply inspired by a
book that he read, ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth. He told us why effort is much
more important than talent. As talent can be wasted without effort, but with
good effort, talent and skills can be gained.
The third speech was
also an ‘Ice Breaker’ by Kwa Jun Qi. He introduced himself to the audience very
well by showing us his smartphone, pen, passport etc, to talk about different
aspects of his life. It was a clever way to make his speech unique by showing
the various objects and its significance in his life.
The fourth speech was
Project 2, ‘Organize your speech’ by myself. I chose to rebuke some of the negative
opinions people have about smartphones and showcase why and how smart phones
have been so useful to us. I concluded that smartphones have had such a strong
impact to improve human interaction, health, and productivity.
The fifth speech was
also Project 2, ‘Organize your speech’ by Mishrita Gundluru. There she talked
about one of our basic instincts, ‘Fear’ and how we can overcome it. She shared
that life is so uncertain, and if we don’t try to overcome the fear of
uncertainty, we will not go far.
We then took a break for a fun round of refreshments as well as a birthday cake for the August Babies, Sarah Ong.
It was now time
for evaluators' report from Norman Tan, CC, CL, Alice Ow, CC, Angela Cai, TM,
Salma Begum ACB, CL, and Benjamin Leow, ACG, ACB. They shared about what the
speakers did right and the areas that needed to be improved. Some of the points
brought up include, for speakers to utilize the entire time allocation of their
speech by concluding their speech well, reiterating the points they have shared
earlier.
Additionally, speakers were advised to not speak fast during their speech,
as the priority is not to cram all their content in a speech, but to speak
clearly and ensure that everything they say is understandable for the audience.
Speakers were also advised to plan their speeches well and ensure that their
content flowed smoothly, had a clear beginning, with a structured body and a
proper conclusion to summarize their points. These were some of the basic but
useful tips shared with the audience.
We were also
advised about our use of pause-fillers and how to reduce it. Steps like rehearsing
our speech well will help us feel confident about what we present, and thus
lead to lower or no pause-fillers being used in our speech.
Today we did not
have Table Topics because Malcolm Chen, ACB, CL who is our Pathways Guide
visited us to explain about our new programs ‘Pathways.’ Members can choose
from ten unique learning paths that focus on different skills. In total,
Pathways offers over 300 unique competencies and 60 competencies in each path.
The Paths are made
up of five levels of increasing complexity that encourage members to build on
their knowledge and skills. Every path has required and elective projects. A
path is completed when a member completes 14 projects across all five levels—a
combination of 10 required projects and 4 elective projects chosen from a
comprehensive list covering a variety of subjects. Each project includes at
least one speech given in a club or other environment.
Pathways marks the
first education program that members can experience online. Using Base Camp,
the Pathways’ online learning management system, members have access to
engaging learning tools, including videos, interactive quizzes, activities,
feedback, recognition, useful tips and more. Members can choose to pursue their
learning paths on Base Camp or in professionally-bound printed materials.
It was a
fascinating afternoon well spent with engaging learning. I would like to
highlight the efforts of our appointment holders like Sathiyamoorthi for his
opening of the meeting, Valliappan for his confident performance as the
Toastmaster of the Day, Helena Lim for her detailed and hilarious Ah Counter
Report, Rusman for his educational Language Evaluation and clear narration of
rhetorical devices, Narayana for his thorough timing, as well as visitors and
members for their active participation.
Congratulations to our Winners:
Best Project
Speech Speaker: Kwa Jun Qi, TM
Best Project
Evaluator: Benjamin Leow, ACG, ALB
Written By:
Vincent Wong
Cing Shen
