Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club 150th Chapter Meeting - 23rd November 2019

It was my privilege and honor to be the Toastmaster of the day for the MASSIVE DAY for the Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club, i.e, the 150th Chapter meeting. The venue was the ever familiar and comfortable, Conference Room Falcon, on the third floor of Anchorvale Community Club. Some of the members were kind enough to come early and decorate the room with colorful balloons and wall decors to make the occasion memorable. A good number of members from the club were in attendance along with guests. Competent Communicator and Competent Leader, Thomas was the visiting Toastmasters from Kampong Kembangan Toastmasters Club. 

Pleasant and cordial, Freya Gwee, the Sergeant-At-Arms (SAA) for the day started the meeting with the ice breaker session. Since the theme of the meeting was the 150th Chapter meeting, she asked everyone in attendance to write a word that comes to their mind about the Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club on a slip of paper available on the table in front of them. She then asked everyone to introduce themselves and let others know the period for which they have been associated with the Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club. After the ice breaker session, it was my turn to take charge of the meeting as the Toastmaster for the day. I was doing the role for the first time for the Club and the occasion was momentous, so I was thrilled but decided to reign in my enthusiasm to conduct the meeting smoothly. I started by introducing myself and then spoke about the purpose of a Toastmasters Club and the structure of a Chapter meeting for the benefit of the guests. I spoke about the sessions to follow, i.e., Prepared Speeches, Evaluation of Prepared Speeches and Table Topics with a 30 minutes break after the Prepared Speeches for refreshments. Next, I introduced the appointment holders for the day. Club member, Strategic Leadership 2, Francis, was performing the role of Timer, Dynamic Leadership 2, Andy was performing the role of Ah Counter and visiting Toastmasters, Thomas, was performing the role of Language Evaluator. After that, it was time for our unassuming and affable Club President, Competent Communicator, Valliappan Selvamani, to give the Opening Address. The Club President spoke about how he has got over his shyness and introversion by joining the Club and narrated his experience with the Club over the last 8 years. He urged everyone to come forward and grab the opportunity, as a member of the Club, to improve their public speaking and communication skills. Next, it was turning for the Prepared Speeches session. We had five marvelous speakers, who presented the following speeches:

Name	Prepared Speeches	Title of the speech
Seela, TM	L1 P1 Icebreaker speech	3 things I have learned in the 3rd decades of my life.
Nagarajan, TM	L1 P2 Icebreaker speech	The importance of reading books
Jeff Lin, DL3	Dynamic Leadership L4 P11	Negotiate the best outcome
Joseph Lum, TC3	Team Collaboration L4  P10	Team collaboration
Claire Yeo, IP1	Innovative planning  L2 P5	L.O.V.E.

Seela

Nagarajan

Joseph Lum

Jeff Lin

Claire Yeo

It was an superb session and each speaker was very well prepared and did a terrific job. Timer Francis, then read out the Timers Report and everyone qualified for voting for the Best Prepared Speech speaker. This was followed by voting by the attendants in Menti.com. Guests and members having difficultly used voting slips to cast their votes. 

After the the second speech, Language Evaluator, who was running late, introduced the word of the day  “Invigorating“ and urged everyone to use the word in the subsequent sessions for the day.

After the Prepared Speeches session, it was time for a refreshment break. The Club Present cut a cake to commemorate the 150^th Chapter meeting of the Club. Members and guests mingled and networked during the break.

Club President Valliappan cutting the cake for 150th Chapter meeting 

The the second part of the meeting started with the Evaluation of the Prepared Speeches. The five evaluators who performed the role were as follows : 

Name of Speaker	Prepared Speeches	Name of Evaluator
Seela	L1 P1 Icebreaker speech	Valliappan Selvamani, CC
Nagarajan	L1 P2 Icebreaker speech	Rusman Hadijanto, DL4
Jeff Lin	Dynamic Leadership L4 P11	Muthu Ganesh, CC, CL
Joseph Lum	Team Collaboration L4  P10	Wee Chee Sian, ACB, ALB
Claire Yeo	Innovative planning  L2 P5	Jeff Lin, DL2

Chee Sian

Muthu Ganesh

The Prepared Speech speakers got a lot of valuable feedback and suggestions for improvement for incorporating in their subsequent projects. Timer Francis, read out the Timers Report and everyone qualified for voting as Best Evaluator. This was followed by voting by the members and guests.

Finally it was the turn of the session for which everyone was eagerly waiting,i.e., the Table Topic session. Toastmaster Mark Wong performed the role of the Table Topic Master for the day. In line with the theme of the meeting, the topics included the number 150, for e.g., the topic for Francis was “ What is that you can't part with even for $150k “, the topic for one of the guest was “ Can you survive with a monthly income of $150 in Singapore “? In between, there was a surprise section, where the Club President, randomly took out 3 slips from the slips that everyone had filled up with a word describing the club at the beginning of the meeting. The three speakers, as per the randomly selected slips, were then told to give an impromptu speech about the word they had written about the Club in the slip. The lucky speaker was Jeff Lin, Joseph Lum, and Freya Gwee. The Table Topic session was really enthralling and Mark did a fabulous job with some exceptionally “invigorating” topic.

Timer Francis, then read out the Timers report and everyone qualified for voting as Best Table Topic speaker. This was followed by voting by the members and guests.

Guests participating in the Table Topic session :

Next, Ah Counter Desmond, who was covering Andy, who had left early for prior appointment, gave the report about the pause fillers like “ Ah”, “ Um”, “ Okay”, You know “ etc that the speakers had used during the sessions. 

The Language Evaluator, Thomas, congratulated all the speakers who had used the word of the day “Invigorating“ in their speech and also informed everyone about some of the good usage and misuse of the language during the meeting.

Finally it was time for the Club President to give the Closing Address and hand over the award to the winners for the day.

The Best Prepared Speech Speaker award went to Claire Yeo.

The Best The evaluator award went to Muthu Ganesh.

The Best Table Topic speaker award went to Samuel.

Group Photo

It was a very fruitful and riveting meeting and everyone went back happy and satisfied. For me, it was a great experience to anchor a meeting for 3 hours and I look forward to more such opportunities in the near future. I would also request members, who have not done this role, to take it up in the future for the great exposure and experience it provides in public speaking.

Article by: Samrit Das, TM
Published by: Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CL, DL4