‘Knock, knock’, and
the 112th 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 1st
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 112th 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.
