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