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.