Recap: 126th Chapter Meeting

Doesn’t 126 remind you of the delicious dim sum place from Geylang? Besides Geylang 126, I know I can always find good food and great company in Achorvale Toastmaster club. It is also a great place to learn public speaking, especially as we are growing together with a group of experienced, warm and supportive community. As a member, I truly feel fortunate to be part of this family, being able to grow and learn together amidst all the fun and laughter.

126^th chapter meeting, was started by SAA Sathiyamoorthi asking us a very practical question that we encounter in our everyday lives, “What do you do when you face setback?” There were many interesting answers from our club members and guests, some look past the negativity of the situation, some distract themselves by doing things that they enjoy, while others will keep encouraging themselves.

Today TMD is Jeff Lin, he has a very clear voice and a very calm energy which made him a very compose host. Following which, he introduced the club president Chee Sian for the opening address. President Chee Sian started with a very smooth transition by connecting back to the topic SAA Sathiyamoorthi mentioned on setbacks. He used the example of placing in Olympics swimming heats and mentioned that even if the current situation is not very hopeful, things may change for the better.

Followed by LE Muthurama introduced an interesting word of the day for all the prepared speakers, which is “Blind Spot.” A good example would be, “The speaker has a blind spot to the ethical issue.”

TMD Jeff Lin introduced Desmond Chong for the first prepared speech speaker, who was very confident and spoke about his experience in NPCC and concluded that he has gained more having gone through this experience.

The second prepared speech speaker Pratik Pandya spoke about the different experiences he has and concluded why we should break the ice before the ice melt because doing is better than regret. He was very comfortable sharing his anecdote and we enjoyed his speech.

The third prepared speech speaker Anthony Lin spoke about an experience from officer cadet school called the confidence jump and concluded that it is better to just take a small step forward rather than to worry about it.

The last prepared speech speaker Sajith Kumar Dara, shared on an interesting topic about tattoos.  He shared about the different tools and reasons why people would put a tattoo. We can see from his presentation that he is very experienced and was well prepared for this speech.

For the evaluation, we have Audrey Lim, Helena Lim, Owen and Rusman Hadijanto. They were all very encouraging and gave very good advice to each speaker. It is not easy to be a good and encouraging evaluator, and they have shared their opinion objectively instead of being subjective. Some of their advice includes; to use good English, keep eye contact with everyone, and share 3 points or less.

It is time for tabletop master Thomas Lee and his favorite subject on quotes, and as usual, Hermant started the ball rolling. In fact, many guests and toastmaster participated that our tabletop master ran out of quotes. To me, this is a good problem to have. It was a great sharing of many motivational ideas from the quotes that Thomas has prepared.  

Ah, Counter Lucas was meticulous and did a fabulous job in ensuring that he has captured all the filler words for everyone who presented that day. Timekeeper Freya has also diligently timed and explained what was the required timing for the speakers.

LE Muthurama shared on his observation for the prepared speakers that day. Some of the points he mentioned were to use the same tense throughout the sentence, paragraph, and story. This is to ensure that the audience is able to follow the story. Another point he shared was to use triage so the ideas shared will stick with the audience.

GE Aaron Koh gave a very wholesome review. He shared his observation from the beginning when he entered the door until the moment he stands in front of the pulpit not forgetting our blog. As a guest, he noticed that the strength of Achorvale Toastmaster club is that we are very warm and welcoming like a family, and yet the quality of learning and education is as good as other toastmaster clubs if not better.

As usual, the day ended with our President Chee Sian giving out awards to speakers who have done their icebreaker speech, best-prepared speech, best evaluator, and best tabletop speech! Of course, we did not forget to take pictures before leaving, it was truly a beautiful day for all of us.

Thank you everyone, for making it possible.

-Penned by TM Anthony