Recap: 160th Chapter Meeting - 11th July 2020

Imagine the world has finally reopened after the cease of the COVID-19 pandemic. What is the first thing you would like to do?

Sergeant at Arms of the Day, Venkat Voleti invigorated us to this pleasant possibility at our 160th Chapter Meeting held via Zoom on 11th July 2020. Traveling, meeting friends, go on a cruise, play badminton, resuming Zumba classes, and of course, to attend Chapter Meetings again with fellow members face to face in good humour and good food .... These are just some of the many things members are looking forward to doing. The day will come.

Indeed, what better way to remind ourselves it is important to smile even in the midst of difficult times (this too shall pass) than by our Toastmaster of the Day (TMD), Sarah Ong, IP1, who quoted, "The most wasted day is one without laughter".

Club President, Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CL, DL5, shared in his first President's Opening Address, how he can relate with the difficult times the COVID-19 pandemic had caused. He was ever jobless for nine months. During the time he was looking for another career, he joined Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club. Probably a blessing in disguise, the comfort in speaking he had acquired from attending the Chapter Meetings helped him ace the interviews and he received job offers three months later. Lately, he is again affected by a retrenchment. As an encouragement to members and to himself, he quoted "Winners are not ones who never fail, but ones who never give up."

Language Evaluator, Aaron Ting, DTM, from Chua Chu Kang Toastmasters Club, in his usual unique way of introducing the Word of the Day: words that start with en-. Members are encouraged to use any words that start with the two alphabets en- in their speech throughout the meeting.

Word of the Day by Language Evaluator, Aaron Ting

The prepared speeches segment is a chance opportunity to get to know more about our speaking members.

Siva Kumar Nulu excelled in school. He is married with two children and has been in Singapore for sixteen years.  In his presentation in an institution of higher learning, a particular audience felt the nervousness in him and came forward to tell him. That prompted him to join Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club.

Durga Prasad told the story behind his long name. He was told his grandmother ever came into his mother's dream and asked to put her name to his. That is how he got his long name. He enjoys reading Indian epics. His reading habit is where he came across the important take away, "Success should not be at the expense of others, it should be service to others". Based on this teaching, he took pride in encouraging and tutoring his classmate to the point his classmate's grades improved significantly during their school days.

Ebnuarabi Etheris, EC1, is a champion runner at the tender age of thirteen. A turn of event however (he was not placed in a cross country run competition), made him determined to train diligently under a mentor he adored and admired. With the conviction, he finally emerged as the winner in the years when he was in Secondary three and four. Much suspense has been built up in his speech on who is his mentor. Sebastian Coe. Till today, he continues to meet his mentor, Sebastian Coe, in the library.

Young Ebnu running 'alongside' with his mentor, Sebastian Coe

Marc Wong, DL1,  described Durga Prasad's speech entertaining (how the long name came about), enriching (message on "service to others") and encouraging (helped classmate). He further suggested conclusion, gesture and vocal variety to be added to make the speech better.

Helena Lim, CC, finds Siva Kumar Nulu's speech structured and his delivery calm and composed. She proposed adding vocal variety, some relaying of emotions in his story and use Word of the Day to stretch it to encompass some humour effect to make the speech more engaging.

Valliappan Selvamani, CC, CL praised the good mystery constructed that was only revealed at the end of the speech on Ebnuarabi Etheris's, EC1, mentor. He recommended giving more introduction on the mentor, Sebastian Coe. That would make the story about the speaker's transition even more interesting by telling how the mentor influenced him.

Table Topics Master (TTM), Desmond Chong brought our fantasy to the next level by letting us ride on his 'Back To The Future DMC DeLorean' with his "If you could travel back / forward in time....." themed table topics.

Time travel by Table Topics Master, Desmond Chong

Time travelling activities include going back to the time when one is only twenty-two years old, enjoying the freedom and lavish comforts and dotes from many suitors (Jenny Au, DTM); going to the time in old Shanghai, China, to meet grandparents (Marc Wong, DL1); choosing to be born in India again as Chennai is a beautiful city and all lovely relatives are there (Valli Kasinathan, CC); going back to 1947 to resolve tensions in place of conflict (Durga Prasad); and going forward in time to use future Artificial Intelligence to quickly come up with a vaccine to resolve pandemics (Aaron Ting, DTM).

Hey! With all these time travelling experiences, we could do a Back To The Future IV!

The meticulous Language Evaluator, Aaron Ting, DTM, captured and presented good usage of Word of the Day, alliteration / assonance, anaphora, personification, repetition and vocabulary by our speakers. In addition, suggestions for improvements on word usage were given.

All rounded and comprehensive language evaluation by our Language Evaluator, Aaron Ting

Some of the common mispronunciations like "project", "thought", "theme", "anonymous" and "present" were brought to our attention as well.

Pronunciations

The attentive General Evaluator, Annie Goh, CC, ALB, from Bukit Merah Toastmasters Club presented to the Club notable observations and some valuable tips for consideration:

1. Online POET form to use current dates (it was found to have past dates).

2. Club President's opening address remarks are encouraging (good point).

3. Recommended consistent reminder to use Word of the Day by TMD and TTM.

4. Complimented the use of polling tool available on Zoom (good point).

5. Project Evaluators are encouraging to the Project Speech speakers (good point).

Snapshot of the 160th Chapter Meeting attendees

Congratulations to Siva Kumar Nulu and Durga Prasad who took their maiden step forward and completed their Ice Breaker speeches.

Certificates of Appreciation for Ice Breaker speech completion

And the ribbon award winners of our 160th Chapter Meeting are:
Best Speaker - Ebnuarabi Etheris, EC1
Best Evaluator - Valliappan Selvamani, CC, CL
Best Table Topics Speaker - Aaron Ting, DTM

Virtual ribbons awarded

Wee Chee Sian, ACB, ALB

Vice President Public Relations