137th chapter meeting recap: By Valliappan

It was a very hot sunny afternoon. That too on a school holiday. Nothing can stop our toastmasters from attending the 137th chapter meeting held at Anchorvale CC Falcon room on 23rd Mar 2019.

The chapter meeting was started at 2:00 pm sharp by our Sergeant at Arms, Narayana Rao. He started with an ice breaker question on “What made us attend the toastmasters meeting even though it is a school holiday period?”. Members shared that they love to be in Toastmasters meetings to get rid of their routines and also to learn something new. Some members mentioned in a lighter fashion, that they were in the meeting as they were single or have had accepted roles for the chapter meeting and forced to be there. With all the laughter, the stage was handed over to the Toastmaster of the Day (TMD) , Rusman Hadijanto. 

After briefing the meeting structure and introducing the appointment holders (Hilda - Timer, Marc - Ah Counter, Valli Kasinathan - Table Topics Master and Valliappan - General Evaluator), the TMD welcomed our president Wee Chee Sian for presenting his opening address. Chee Sian mentioned about the importance of public speaking and the 3 possible outcomes of the speech. The speech that we practiced, the speech we actually gave and the speech we desired to give. He stressed the importance of practice to make the speech better and also invited members to take up leadership positions in the next EXCO term starting from 1st July 2019 onwards. He also excited the members by telling about the special chapter meeting to be held on 27th Apr at our club in partnership with Grassroots club.

The TMD was exemplary and did a commendable job by inviting the speakers for their prepared speech by mentioning their speech title, interests and leading the applause. The four speakers for the day were Ponnuchamy, Jeff Lin, Helena and In Tiam. Ponnuchamy impressed everybody with his stupendous ice breaker speech and also shared us about the book “The Answer” , the first book he had read from title page to the last page and inspired all of us to read the book. Jeff Lin spoke about his experience as a “Protege”. The next speaker Helena Lim scared the audience by throwing a fake snake at the crowd, to demonstrate the fear and explain about how to overcome fear in those kind of situations. She also urged everybody to learn to do First Aid. The final speaker In Tiam did a role play with his cutie princess Jung Yi, to persuade her to take up roles in her school events.

Hilda did her role as a timer diligently and provided her timer report. There was no voting for the best speaker as only 3 speakers were qualified for the voting. TMD announced the next exciting segment which was the Refreshment Break, giving opportunity for the members to network with each other while having sumptuous food and a lovely rainbow cake. Our special thanks to Jenny Au, for bringing Papaya for the refreshment.

Following the break, the evaluation segment started and our competent evaluators Narayana Rao, In Tiam, Freya and Chee Sian gave their incredible evaluations to the speakers and  also helped them with some tips to improve their speeches. Unfortunately there was no voting for evaluation as well as only 3 evaluators were qualified.

Valli Kasinathan being the Table topics master came out with various questions for the table topics revolving around women, in lieu of the Women’s Day celebrations in March. As usual our club members and guests volunteered themselves to take up the challenge and there were close to 10 table topics speakers.

Special thanks to Marc, who accepted to take up the Ah counter role on the spot with great spirit. He did an exceptional job by listening very attentively throughout the meeting to capture the pause fillers and repeated words and provided a detailed report.  The last segment was the General Evaluator report provided by Valliappan. He appreciated what went well during the meeting and gave suggestions on areas that could be improved. 

Finally Chee Sian presented the best Table Topic Speaker award to Desmond and DTM Andrew Kwan.

Everyone felt happy for a well spent weekend afternoon and dispersed home.

Bye to all, till we meet on 13th Apr for another great session !

Blog post for 136th Chapter Meeting:By Joseph Lum

Blog post for 136^th Chapter Meeting

With the euphoria from the recent International Speech, Speech Evaluation and Table Topics contests still in the air, the 136^th Chapter Meeting got off to a great start as the Sergeant-At-Arms, Sathiyamoorthi, called the meeting to order and invited everyone to recall a life-changing personal experience that involved stepping out of one’s comfort zone. Filled with gratitude, numerous members shared about how joining the Toastmasters had made a big, positive difference in their lives – probably something which everyone present could not agree with more, based on the nods and smiles around :) Even the beautiful weather outside the cosy RC meeting room seemed to concur!

After a nice, welcoming introduction by Jeff who was the Toastmaster of the Day, Chee Sian, our club president, addressed the meeting and shared the good news that Zulhafni and Francis would be representing our club at the Toastmasters competition on 20 Mar 2019. Amid the cheers and applause, Chee Sian also invited and encouraged everyone to attend and lend support. We wish Zul and Francis all the best!

After that, Valliappan, the Grammarian cum Language Evaluator of the Day, introduced the Word of the Day, “euphoric”, and motivated the audience to keep improving their grammar and vocabulary so as to achieve more effective communication.

Next was the first major segment – and the most highly-anticipated part – of the Chapter Meetings – the prepared speeches. There were a total of five[1] – by Claire, Hilda, Zhaomin, Rusman and In Tiam. I could sense that the audience was feeling almost euphoric while being treated to a healthy feast of topics – ‘superfood’ Kale (Claire), inspirational movies (Hilda), managing stress (Zhaomin), negotiation technique (Rusman) and cost-effective cloud storage solution for personal use (In Tiam).

After that was the makan break. I must say that it certainly met its objectives – feeding the attendees with delicious food contributed by Jenny, Claire (Kale salad) and other members, plus providing opportunity for everyone to interact and catch up with one another, as well as get to know the guests better and invite them to join our club.

With euphoria (yes, again!) after the physical nourishment, the second major segment of the meeting – Speech Evaluations – commenced. The first member to present the evaluation was Helena, followed by Joseph, Valliappan, In Tiam and lastly, Rusman. It was a great learning experience which benefitted not only the speakers, but also the audience and even the evaluators themselves, as everyone picked up useful tips.

Finally, it was time for the third and last major segment of the meeting (and probably the most “feared” one) – Table Topics! A total of six persons courageously participated, including Francis who took the opportunity to practise for the upcoming competition :) The others were CP, Mark, Assella, Bryanti and Souvik. It was truly a battle of nerves – not against others’ but against their own – as they picked and fielded questions lovingly prepared by our Distinguished Toastmaster and mentor, Jenny :)

Before Chee Sian wrapped up the meeting, the attendees also benefitted from the valuable findings shared by the Ah Counter, Francis, and the Grammarian cum Language Evaluator of the Day, Valliappan. We gained so much from the meeting!

In his closing address, Chee Sian shared a piece of good news – following the EGM held before the meeting, the monthly membership fee has been reduced from $18 to $16, in view of the healthy financial position of the club. The audience ruptured into loud applause!

Last but not least, we congratulate Claire who was voted Best Speaker, Joseph who was voted Best Evaluator and Francis who was voted Best Table Topic.

Thanks everyone who made the meeting possible and so enjoyable and fruitful!

Blog post happily prepared by Joseph :)

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[1] Andy was unable to make it at the last minute and sent his apologies.

Recap: 135th Chapter Meeting

They say that the 5^th day of Chinese New Year is believed to be the birthday of God of Fortune and so people celebrate with a large banquet. It seems it is not untrue.

The 135^th Anchorvale Toastmaster chapter meeting was again another extraordinary gathering of club members highlighted with a banquet of excellent speeches and of course, the iconic prosperity toss, lo-hei.

Still in festive and upbeat mood, the meeting was commenced by Sergeant-At-Arms Shubhangi asking how everyone celebrated Chinese New Year. There were many interesting answers from the club members. Majority enjoyed the reunion among family members and friends and relished delicious foods as they gave and received Ang Bao. For non-Chinese members, it was a good 2-day breather; a time to rest and recharge.

Our genial host, Toastmaster of the Day, Dinesh then set out the agenda for the meeting and subsequently introduced the club president, Chee Sian for his opening address.

It was a powerful remarks from our president as he talked about the greatness of African runners who dominate the world’s stage in any long distance races. These are runners who trained and invested tremendous amount of hard work to achieve excellence. It was a moving speech and key takeaway was if we focus on a specific thing and work hard for it, then we can achieve success beyond what most people achieved. It is never impossible.

Next, Language Evaluator, Ebnu set foot on the centre stage to share his “fantastic” experience in a flight simulator. It was an eventful experience to him, that none of the superlative words can describe. Thus, he introduced the word of the day, “fantastic”. He encouraged all speakers to adapt this word.

The 5 prepared speeches were one of the highlights of the meeting. It was started off by Hong Tee who spoke about an inherited blood disorder called Thalassemia. She said that if both parents are carriers of Thalassemia, then there is a greater chance of inheriting a more serious form of the disease. She left off her speech with a call to action to everyone to be vigilant and take precautionary measures.

Francis and Andy were the second and third speaker, respectively. Both talked about leadership styles. Francis kicked off his speech with a funny anecdote of a leader and demonstrated his democratic style of leadership through storytelling. Andy, on the other hand, started off with cool approximation of a leader. He discussed there is never one-size-fits-all leadership style. And the best style is your style and being genuine to yourself.

Rusman, the 4^th speaker orated that a good understanding of communication style allow us to learn how to react most effectively when confronted with a difficult person.

And last but not the least, In Tiam spoke about the ability of any organisation to manage constant change through Agile Methodology.

The meeting then took a “yummilicious” break to toss for prosperity and enjoyed pizza buffet. When it resumed, project evaluation began. Evaluators Anthony, Sajith, Valliapan, In Tiam and Zul assessed the speeches and gave valuable feedbacks and improvement pointers to the speakers.

The most exhilarating yet exciting part of the meeting was next. Table topic master, Sajith presented Chinese New Year related topics .As always, new members come first and so Souvik, our freshest club member took the stage. As if it was not his first time, when asked what he can teach on CNY, he enthusiastically talked about teaching the correct way of breathing. Jeff Son’s Yu Kang shared about the most exciting thing he did during CNY which was prawning with his dad. Anthony recalled kinship is everything and it is what he cherished about CNY. Valliapan thought that when people we love are still around, we should not take them for granted.

Language Evaluator Ebnu praised and shared his observation for the prepared speakers that day. When concocting a speech, he suggested not to stop at first draft. Be deliberate. And as the speech is improved, use triads to emphasize a point and practice good vocabulary. If plausible, search for good metaphors and link it to your speech. Be creative by playing with words, he added.

President Chee Sian in his closing remarks shared about the usefulness of the Anchorvale Toastmaster club blogspot. In particular the links where to download the evaluation forms. Club members are encouraged to visit the blogspot for announcements, meeting recaps, and book review, among others.

And finally, before the meeting ended, President Chee Sian awarded the best speaker ribbon to Francis, the best evaluator to legendary Zul and best table topic to dashing Anthony.

It is definite that our 135^th chapter meeting captured the attention of the God of Fortune and therefore all club members are ensured of his favour and good fortune for themselves and their families in the year ahead. Gong xi fa cai.

Penned by Francis