Recap: 164th Chapter Meeting – 12th September 2020

It is my privilege and honor to be the Toastmaster of the Day for the 164th Chapter Meeting of Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club. As we live in new normal adopting social distancing measures, the meeting was conducted through Zoom. The Sergeant-At-Arms (again myself) commenced the meeting with an ice breaker session, through an upbeat message and theme, 'FAITH' and encouraged the participants to share their views. The ice breaker took a little longer as the theme was so close to the heart of everyone due to the ongoing unprecedented challenges.

As soon as the ice breaker session was over, I informed on the sequence of the meeting followed by introducing the various appointment holders of the day. After that, it was time for our friendly Club President, Rusman Hadijanto's, CTM, CL, DL5, opening address. The Club President spoke about ‘FAITH’ and he mentioned that ‘FAITH’ is really powerful and an important element of human life. We just need to have belief in what we do and be positive, which will ultimately help us in overcoming all the challenges. Next was the introduction of the Word of the Day by Language Evaluator Patrick Sehoo, DTM, from DSTA Toastmasters Club. Patrick shared a little background before stating the Word of the Day ‘ENUNCIATE’ and encouraged all the speakers to use it in their speeches.

In the Prepared Speeches segment, we had four fabulous speakers, who presented their project speeches as follow:

Name	Pathway	Title of Speech
Nagarajan Manokar	Innovative Planning L2 P2	Discover my Communication Style
Sreenivasa Durga Prasad Cheparthi	Dynamic Leadership L1 P4	Understanding my Leadership Style
Siva Kumar Nulu	Presentation Mastery L1 P2	The Accidental Leader
Diego Alejandro Taira	Presentation Mastery L1 P1	My Life Vision

Prepared Speech speakers clockwise from top left; Nagaraj Manohar, Durga Prasad, Siva Kumar Nulu and Diego Alejandro Taira

It was a superlative session as we got to hear various inspiring stories and communication/leadership styles from our speakers. Tan Siew Foong, TM, then read out the timers report and mentioned that everyone was qualified for voting for the Best Prepared Speech speaker. This was followed by voting through Zoom sharing and then everyone had their cup of coffee, chai as refreshment break (virtually 😊). 

Everyone re-grouped again to start the second segment of the meeting, Project Evaluations. This is one of the important segment in every Toastmasters Club meeting as the speakers of Prepared Speeches get to hear their positive and development areas of their communication styles/aspects. Also, it gives an opportunity for the Evaluator to articulate the feedback in a structured and constructive manner. The Prepared Speeches speakers got a lot of valuable feedback and suggestions for improvements from our seasoned and senior evaluators Mike Ng, DTM, Chee Kim Loon, DTM, Valliappan Selvamani, CC, CL, and Marc Wong, TM. This was followed by timer’s report and then voting for the Best Evaluator.

Project evaluators clockwise from top left; Marc Wong, Mike Ng

, Valliappan Selvamani and Chee Kim Loon

We then started with our additional and exciting segment of the meeting workshop, 'Tall Tales Contest’ by Wee Chee Sian, ACB, ALB. It was uniquely presented with only pictures and everyone felt it was like watching a short film on a relaxing Saturday 😊. Chee Sian shared a number of important tips on how to participate in the Tall Tales Contest.

Then comes the last segment of the meeting which helps us to stimulate our brain cells and improving articulation skills: Table Topics. The Table Topics Master is our most beloved Bharathamma Eswarawaka, IP5. She came out with quotes and questions around ‘FAITH’ which is the theme of the day. It was once again a remarkable segment as we got to hear the views spontaneously both from our Club members and guests. A round of applause to all the volunteers of this segment. Once again, got to hear our timer’s report followed by the voting for the Best Table Topics Speaker. 

We then got to hear unique, impressive and extraordinary feedback from Language Evaluator Patrick Sehoo, DTM. This was followed by the energetic feedback from General Evaluator Jackie Lin, ACB, CL. He spoke about the positive and development areas of today’s meeting and appointment holders. 

Congratulations to our award winners and especially to Diego for winning duo!

Best Speaker for Prepared Speeches and Table Topics: Diego Alejandro Taira, TM

Best Project Evaluator: Mike Ng, DTM

Lastly, I ended my breathtaking role as Toastmaster of the Day, it allowed me to understand the Toastmasters Club meeting practices as I took this role after a long break from my Toastmasters activities. It also helps me to further develop my presentation style, communication, time management and also an opportunity to run bigger events outside a Toastmasters Club.

Thank You,

Ponnuchamy Muthusamy, TM