Hi Everyone,
Today is our first trial of using ZOOM audio/video conference, as a temporary solution in order for us to still be able to conduct our bi-weekly Toastmasters meeting in a safer environment, especially during this COVID-19 situation.
Thanks to Willie Loh ACS, ALB from Fuchun Toastmasters Club, to graciously lend us this Zoom audio/conference facilities.
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| High turnout in our first virtual Chapter Meeting |
The meeting started with some feeling of AMBIVALENT, due to the majority of the attendance is the first time we are using this ZOOM audio/video conference.
Before the meeting begins, we have about 15 minutes of time to do trial and error during this ZOOM session. In fact, to my surprise I'm having fun of finding out I can actually change my ZOOM video background to something looks neat and nice versus my kid's room which was a little bit messy and not nice to be shown off :)
After our Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club President, Valliappan Selvamani, CC share with us how some new rules being applied when using this ZOOM, such as clapping hands by waving our both hands on the air and saying yes by giving our thumbs-up. I believe this is being done this way, in order to avoid too many attendances are speaking at the same time which might cause sound distortion.
1st session started by our SAA Sathiyamoorthi Chinasamy, ACB, who let us do 1st ice breaker introduction by letting us sharing our real experience on how to overcome the most challenges moments in our life.
Next session led by our Toastmasters of the Day Raymond Zhang, VC5, EC5, EH4 (and also Area A4 Director), who became our emcee of the day. As usual he always eloquently led this meeting nice and comfortable for everyone, especially knowing he got his magic bear who can motivate him when he meets any challenges.
Our President Valliappan reminded us of how we need to stay adapt and open to changes during this uncertain situation.
For anyone who is not too familiar with the words of AMBIVALENT, herewith is the meaning of words AMBIVALENT: "having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone". And the great news is this is the exact Words of the Day smartly chosen by our Language Evaluator Celia Lim, ACG, ALB, EH5 (she is also our Div A Director).
The 1st prepared speech by Joseph Lum, TC3, was very inspiring whereby we learned how not to be afraid to lead.
2nd prepared speech by Marc Wong, TM about learning inspiration which kept him driving forward.
3rd speaker was Helena Lim, CC, whereby she also inspiring us through her Leadership experience.
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| Project speech speaker, Helena Lim |
Lastly, 4th speaker was Jeff Lin, DL3, he shared with us about practice developing a change management plan, and especially during this COVID-19 situation.
We have a great refreshment break whereby we can choose any foods or drinks as we wanted. Of-course!, this is because we are at our own house, thus we ought to choose our own available foods from the sweet place of our own house :)
1st Evaluation by Muthu Ganesh, CC, CL, as usual, he always has a rich vocabulary for wordings and he shared constructive feedback for Joseph.
2nd Evaluation was by Andy Ang, DL2, was really enjoying his evaluation as he managed to find creative ideas of showing his feedback bullet points at the background while he's speaking. This kept our focus and concentration despite some tendency of getting lost focus.
3rd Evaluation by Salma Begum, ACB, ALB, and shared numbers of interesting points about leadership as per speech topic done by Helena.
The last Evaluation was done by myself, whereby to keep good eye contact with the audience by adjusting our computer's camera as much possible as our eyes level or to see the camera when we are speaking. Also to pause after we ask a question, and to let the audience to answer, rather than cut-off the conversation after we ask a question and jump into our own conclusion
The next awaited session was the Table Topic Masters led by Bharathamma Eswarawaka, IP5. Many speakers, especially guests were joining this Table Topic session, however, only 4 passed the timer's report (Celia, Naveen, Valli, and Diego). Perhaps this due to green-yellow-red flag was not shown off as clearly as our normal physical meeting, and instead, speakers need to be extra attentively notice the small window of a timer which was showing up in one of the windows of ZOOM audio/video conference.
Overall it was a first great experience of using ZOOM audio / video conference as a temporal solution for our normal bi-weekly meeting, especially during this COVID-19 situation.
I really wish the COVID-19 situation can be resolved soon, hence we can continue with our normal physical meet-up meeting as usual.
Congratulations on our award winners:
Best Speaker - Marc Wong, TM
Best Evaluator - Andy Ang, DL2
Best Table Topics Speaker - Celia Lim, ACG, ALB, EH5
Blogs are written by VP PR - Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CL, DL5
