Recap: 163rd Chapter Meeting – 22nd August 2020

Being the Best Version of Ourselves.

Sergeant at Arms of the Day, Souvik Chowdhury, TM, called the 163^rd Chapter Meeting (via Zoom) to order. He presented the highlights of the program:

1. evaluation workshop

2. prepared speeches

3. group discussions in three breakout rooms

4. project evaluation by one representative from each of the three groups

5. evaluation feedback by facilitators and

6. evaluation discussion wrap up.
 
Theme of the meeting was Being the Best Version of Yourself.
 
Souvik who also doubled up as the Toastmaster of the Day, shared with us the three things that he practices daily to be the best version of himself:

1. Remember one great person and the things that he/she had inspired him

2. Spend 20 minutes in silence and deep thoughts and

3. Eliminate the word “try” in his dictionary as that is a low energy word and one should put in 100% when doing things or don’t do at all.

Souvik encouraged us to reflect on how we can become the best version that we dreamed ourselves to be.
 
Club President, Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CL, DL5, shared in his President’s Opening Address, how he faced difficulties transiting from speaking in Bahasa Indonesian to English when he first came to Singapore. He was nevertheless inspired by good speakers who were doing well in the corporate world and realized that public speaking is an essential skill for people of all walks of life.  Rusman urged us to embrace public speaking as it could help us be the best version of ourselves.
 
Area A1 Director, Celia Lim, DTM, from Emmaus Catholic Toastmasters Club, in her address, congratulated our Club for being ahead of the rest of the Toastmasters Clubs in hosting good workshops such as the Evaluation Workshop. Evaluation is an important skill set in the Toastmasters journey. We need to be able to give feedback to others, inspiring progress in the speaking arena. Celia was also the Language Evaluator in this Chapter Meeting and she introduced 'Outstanding' as the Word of the Day. Members are encouraged to use the word in their speeches throughout the meeting.
 
Other appointment holders for the meeting include:
Group 1 Evaluator: Division A Director, Raymond Zhang, VC5, EC5, EH5, PM5, TC3 (Kampong Kembangan Toastmasters Club)

Group 2 Evaluator: Tang Keen Yeen, CC, PM2 (NUSS Toastmasters Club)

Group 3 Evaluator: Lynda Neo, ALS, ACS (Queenstown Mandarin Toastmasters Club)
Timer – Valliappan Selvamain, CC, CL
Ah Counter – Audrey Lim, PM2

Evaluation Workshop by Aaron Ting from Chua Chu Kang Toastmasters Club.

There were a total of three prepared speeches in this Chapter Meeting.

Prepared speech speakers from left; Nagarajan Manokar, Durga Prasad and Joseph Lum.

Nagarajan Manokar, TM, one of our newer member, whom we had witnessed quantum progress in his Toastmasters journey. The title of his speech is 'My Leadership Style'. Nagarajan shared the various undesirable characteristics of his boss in his workplace, a telecommunication company. He related his preferred leadership styles such as empathy, great interpersonal skills, inspiration, clear vision, motivation, care and allowing rooms for mistakes. He concluded his speech by saying that good leaders need to have a combination of various skills. And one needs practices to become a good leader.

Durga Prasad, TM, is also one of our newest member. He is an avid learner and love traveling. He has already presented several outstanding speeches to the Club. The title of his speech is 'Forgiveness'. Durga started his speech by asking members two questions - 1. How many of you had said sorry diligently in your life and 2. How many of you had forgiven people even though they did not apologize to you? His speech placed emphasis on two aspects of forgiveness with another two questions – 1. Why people cannot forgive? 2. What are the powers of forgiveness? He shared the importance of letting go of one’s ego and be the first person to apologize in an argument. The power of forgiveness is, it allowed one to let go of the hatred and be happy.

Joseph Lum, TC5, believes, to be happy is not to have the best, but to make the best of what one has. The title of his speech is 'You Can Have the Cake and Eat it Too'. Many assumed that once the cake is eaten, it exist no more. Joseph showed us that it is possible to have the best of both worlds by narrating the lessons that his elder and younger daughters had learnt from their schools. We just need to change our mindset. There is no need to chase after everything as resources are finite and one will never be satisfied. We need to focus on what really matter and to take the good and bad of each side so that we get to enjoy both worlds. And in doing so, we will be able to have the cake and eat it too.

After the Prepared Speech segment, members were grouped (Group 1, 2 and 3) and assigned to their designated Zoom breakup rooms for discussions. The discussions for each group were facilitated by one Facilitator. Each group to appoint one representative to do project evaluation for each of the three prepared speeches.

Evaluators representing each group to do evaluations on project speech speakers. From left; Wan Muhammad, Cheng Kok Siong and Marc Wong.

Wan Muhammad represented Group 1 to evaluate the speech of Nagarajan. He highlighted Nagarajan was standing when making his speech presentation and was able to project his voice and made himself audible. However, his speaking was too fast and he could slow it down so that listeners can catch his ideas better. Muhammad also suggested to Nagarajan to better prepare his equipment and organize his speech.

Cheng Kok Siong represented Group 2 to evaluate Durga’s speech. He congratulated Durga for taking the chances to do speeches to improve his public speaking.  He found his presentation was animated and able to quote examples. Example: husbands are always the ones to apologize first. He was able to engage his audience by asking them questions. Kok Siong asked Durga to speak slower so that the audience could catch him and to improve on his time management so that his speech presentation can stay within the time limit.

Marc Wong, DL1, represented Group 3 to evaluate Joseph’s speech. Marc praised Joseph for his good vocal variety, effective body gestures and being able to imitate the ways that his family members speak. He also closed off his speech with good summary on what really matters. However, it would be even better if he could add more emotion in his closing. He would need to be able to have more connectivity for the part he talked about his boss and then translate to his family. Marc also suggested to Joseph to stand up when doing speech presentation as that would make his presentation more impactful.

Next segment of the meeting is the evaluation feedback by the Facilitators.

Facilitators evaluating the evaluators. From left; Raymond Zhang, Tang Keen Yeen and Lynda Neo.

Facilitator of Group 1 is Raymond Zhang, VC5, EC5, EH5, PM5, TC3. Raymond described Muhammad had done an outstanding job of encouraging Nagarajan. In order to upgrade his evaluation, he recommended Muhammad to find out the purpose statement of the project and point out to Nagarajan that he need to share what his leadership styles are rather than just sharing the various good leadership styles. Raymond urged Muhammad to do signposting of his evaluation so that audiences and speaker acn follow the evaluation better.

Facilitator of Group 2 is Tang Keen Yeen, CC, PM2. Keen Yeen assessed Kok Siong’s evaluation by using the acronym, GIC. G= Good, I=Improvement and C=Challenge.  Keen Yeen congratulated Kok Siong for delivering a outstanding evaluation in his first project evaluation. She found Kok Siong had showed empathy to Durga. She found Kok Siong’s evaluation to be rather structured as he evaluated Durga on what he did well, his areas of improvement and what he could challenge himself to do. On areas of improvement, Kok Siong needed to go back to the purpose statement and to see whether Durga had met the purpose of the speech. Since it is a research topic, Kok Siong should have pointed out to Durga that he needed to present some statistics.

Facilitator of Group 3 is Lynda Neo, ALS, ACS. Lynda pointed out that Marc had used Aaron’s Hamburger Approach of evaluation which was taught in the Evaluation Workshop. Marc was empathetic and used good, encouraging evaluation vocabularies which end with positive, outstanding notes. Marc could have pointed  out to Joseph to work on a more structured content for his speech.

Evaluation Workshop discussion wrap up by Aaron Ting.

The meticulous Ah Counter, Audrey Lim, PM2, presented the numbers of and pause fillers used in the meeting.

The attentive Language Evaluator, Celia Lim, DTM, commented there were not many instances of speakers using the Word of the Day. She captured and presented the good usage of language by our speakers. In addition, suggestions for improvements on word usage were given.
1. Souvik Chowdhury: Frequent use of the Word of the Day,“Outstanding”.
2. Aaron Ting: Like to use power of three which is easy for audience to capture the essence.
3. Rusman Hadijanto:
a. Instead of saying "Greater and Best", he could say "Better and Best" (all B words).
b. Instead of saying, "We are later on going to the breakup room", he could have said, "We are going to the breakup room later".  
4. Nagarajan Manokar: To use the correct tense for the work 'Inspire'.
5. Durga Prasad: Could not make out whether he had said 'Question' or 'Person'. Need to speak clearly.
6. Joseph Lum: Instead of saying “Once the cake is eaten”, he could have said, “Once the cake has been eaten”. Should put it as 'elder daughter' instead of 'older daughter'.
7. Wan Muhammad: “His voice is very cleared” is incorrect. It should be “His voice is very clear”.
 
Celia taught us the correct way to pronounce the word 'Gesture'. In general, she felt members of Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club have pretty good command of the language.
 
And the ribbon award winners of our 163rd Chapter Meeting are:
Best Speaker - Joseph Lum, TCS

Best Evaluator – Marc Wong, DL1

Written by Sarah Ong, IP1

Thomas Chen’s Master Storytelling Workshop

We at Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club were about to be transported to the most magical land with our Wizard of Oz Speaker, Thomas Chen, EC3, Entrepreneur and Coach who hails from Pasirisians Toastmasters Club.

We were promised that it would be a lesson to captivate. A lesson to remember. A lesson in storytelling mastery. We have heard plenty about Thomas Chen and were eagerly looking forward to being mesmerised.

Storytelling by Thomas Chen: the equivalent of completing the advanced manual

Thomas began by asking the audience members to share what they thought storytelling is. There are so many definitions of it. Sharing experiences, inspiring people, recollecting events, communicating a message, teaching a lesson. All of it is true. Therefore, storytelling is so powerful because it can profoundly influence and capture anyone.

Thomas shared how storytelling is used everywhere in our lives, from work, school, business, socialising. Storytelling brings us on a journey of discovery.

Thomas used the example of Pokemon. Why has it survived multiple generations? It is built on story telling. There is a progression of how the main character went on a journey as a beginner trainer to a Pokemon Master. People are enthralled by that and keep returning for more.

Storytelling is not just used to entertain; storytelling has created billions of dollars in sales. Thomas gave examples such as Nike using the story of Lebron James’ humble background to drive sales by telling how they can transform anyone into superstars if they work hard. Or how Russell Brunson closed 3 million-dollar deals in his technical presentations using stories.

Thomas highlighted how storytelling is more effective if you tell stories which make the audience feel like you (the speaker) are like them (the audience). This is because it promotes relatability and connects the speaker and audience. Hence, for our members who are planning to tell stories soon, do remember to make it as relatable as possible.

Thomas explained clearly about the structure we must have in our stories. The 5 C-s.

Context	Where it all began. 5Ws and 1 H. As much description as possible.
Catalyst	What caused a change? The trigger?
Consequences	What happened after the change or the trigger?
Change	Enlightenment. The process of learning or improving.
Call to Action	Main message, the call to action, the main lesson.

A story with the 5 C-s would be able to take you on a journey and convey a message.

Components of an impactful story: the dramatic journey

To create a story, we need to have the end in mind which is the main message. This is highly crucial as this would allow us to create content that supports the main message. Without a main message in mind, we would write / tell stories that have no direction and ultimately will not convey a message / call to action.

Stories can be knowledge, personal experiences, observations, or popular references. Hence, there are endless possibilities of stories to create. Thomas shared examples of past World Champions of Public Speaking such as Darren Tay or Mohammed Qahtani. They had colorful stories which captivated the audience and a clear message at the end.

Thomas provided some tips to create richer stories such as using more descriptions, having dialogues, or showing emotions of the characters.

Some of the best speeches were rehearsed and refined a million times. This is what we should do if we wish to tell a great story. What we prepared the first time, would have been edited, fixed and finally we would have a work of art that would have been quite different from the first draft.

When we test our stories, we need to ask if the audience could relate to it, understand it, visualise our content, feel emotions, and be engaged? If the answers are all yes, then you have a story that will capture hearts and be remembered.

Just when we thought we had learnt the perfect recipe to crafting a beautiful story, Thomas had more tips and tricks rolled up his sleeves, much to our delight.

He told us something simple but easily forgotten. We must know who our audience is if our stories are to resonate with them. There is no point telling a group of children stories about how you survived a financial crisis. It is not something that would stir emotions within them.

It is also important to have hooks in our stories. These would keep the audience engaged such as moments of suspense, surprise, or stirring emotions. Other hooks would be asking questions, having activities, or maintaining eye contact.

Additionally, having a vivid and descriptive vocabulary would clearly help the audience visualise your story. However, it is important to note that having a vivid vocabulary does not mean having huge bombastic words. There are simple yet powerful words that can be extremely descriptive. One example is instead of saying unconventional, use unique. For more words you can play around with, you can visit https://www.synonym.com/ and learn more words to use.

Simplify to Amplify

Thomas even touched on the use of props. We should question its necessity by asking if the story has a similar impact without the prop. If your answer is yes, then forget the props. Just remember how Darren Tay used his white underwear in his world championship winning speech. It was essential; it brought the audience into his world and his feelings. The impact of his speech would have been quite different without the underwear.

Thomas concluded by urging us to maintain a story bank. Sometimes, moments of inspiration strike us at the most unusual times. It would be good if we maintained a record of these stories somewhere, perhaps in google drive on a doc or writing on a notepad. We might never know when we can use our stories as teachable moments, to build relationships or to create a million-dollar opportunity.

Each and everyone of us has riches of stories

Thomas shared all the above without rushing and in such an easy to understand format. I believe our members have benefitted greatly from his masterclass. Thank you, Thomas, for being so sincere and generous with your knowledge.

Thomas mentioned that he has a wish that we should all pass on something we have learned to someone else. It is quite incredible that Thomas has passed on a bucket full of valuable knowledge to so many of us. Hopefully, we can all transform our stories and help others tell better stories with the resources that Thomas has given us.

Written by Salma Begum, ACB, ALB