Recap: 170th Chapter Meeting - 9th January 2021

Tan Siew Foong - "be a nurturing team leader"

Kelvin Tan (guest) - "learn a new language"

Helena Lim - "exercise more to reduce waistline

Venkat Voleti - "stay fit by visiting gymnasium and going for run regularly"

Siva Kumar Nulu - "remain healthy"

Sarah Ong - "go to bed early to have adequate restful sleep"

Santwana Shrivastava- "break through COVID barriers, eg. went photo shooting recently"

Marc Wong - "get a professional certificate in line of work"

Salma Begum- "go for gymnasium workout with group of friends"

Jacqui Heng (guest) - "find an ideal job"

You guessed it! These are the New Year Resolutions of members and guests who attended Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club's 170th Chapter Meeting, the first meeting of the year 2021! 

Leaping into the New Year with unparalleled resolutions!

Indeed, as mentioned by some of the respondents, making a resolution is easy, keeping it though, requires persistent effort. This blogspot can perhaps serve as a reminder, a check (heehee!😆), as well as a motivation to see the resolutions thru 💪👍.

Club President Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CL, DL5, in his opening address wished everyone a Happy New Year! He even quoted "Tomorrow is a mystery, yesterday is history, which is why we call today a present", "Where there's no friction, all of us perish" - from the bible and "Be stubborn on vision, but flexible on details" - from Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos.... all timely reminder in this pandemic.

Our courageous Durga Prasad, TM, who took on the dual role of Sergeant at Arms and Toastmaster of the Day even went on to take up a little of the Language Evaluator role by introducing the Word of the Day "Faux Pas" which means social blunder, and encouraged everyone to include it in their speech. Bravo Durga!

Prepared speech speaker, Cheng Kok Siong, TM, gave us all a timely topic too. Happiness is all about mindset. If we allow our happiness to be dependent on external factors, we will find it outside the sphere of our control. So do cultivate a positive thinking mindset. Kok Siong, speaking of himself, go for constructive activities like exercising and reading on a regular basis. He also gave an example other than himself. The late Sam Berns, who suffered from progenia disease, lived a happy and fulfilling life by focusing on what he can do and he did.

Siva Kumar Nulu, PM1, gave us an overview on dealing with different communication styles at the workplace. Namely, direct, initiating, supportive and analytical. Our Vice President Education 2, Venkat Voleti's encouragement towards our members to take up roles in our meetings was used as an example of effective communication style.

Marc Wong, DL2, once dreamt of making it big after the completion of his National Service (NS) obligation. He pursued his career in the information technology (IT) field where he faced the challenges of constant and never ending technological advancements. In addition, he learnt and dabbled in the stock market in the hope of making loads of money. Unfortunately, the financial crisis happened in the year 2008. He lost it all then. The one fortunate thing that come out of it is, he grew emotionally stronger from the loss.

Table Topics Master, Helena Lim, CC, prepared topics related to the New Year in the most colorful fashion. Graphics were added into the Table Topics. It certainly imbued cheerful tone to the New Year's first meeting.🎇🎆

What was the single best thing that happened in 2020?
Marc Wong is grateful his family is well, safe and sound together.

How has life taught you recently?
Venkat Voleti shows resilience in the face of difficulties. He bonded better with his family during this difficult pandemic.

How old would be if you do not know how old are you?
Our guest, Kelvin Tan, feel grateful everyday regardless of age.

What is one New Year resolution that you take every year?
Another guest, Samuel, would strive to make family proud with good examination results.

What is your number one goal in 2021?

Kok Siong wishes upon everyone to cultivate positive mindset as shared in his prepared speech. He would like to continue to share positive messages to others around him.

What are the changes you want to see in the world in 2021?
Siew Foong would love to see kindness to the environment and the animals in this planet Earth.

If the average human lifespan is 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
Santwana opined 40 years are not enough to accomplish much.

What is one piece of advise you wish you could had followed?

If she could turn back the clock, Sarah Ong would certainly choose to follow her friend's advise to upgrade her apartment.

When was the last time you tried something new?
Siva Kumar Nulu shared his passion in travelling and had recently began investing into bitcoin.

If happiness is the national currency, what would you do to make you rich?
Rusman loves to get everyone to start using this happiness currency if it is real.

Graphics added into the Table Topics by Helena Lim imbued cheerful tone to the New Year

Santwana, TM, evaluating Kok Siong's speech, praised a well research topic and suggested adding expressions and examples.

Valliappan Selvamani, CC, CL, evaluating Siva's speech, pointed out the pluses of the speech, simple, well structured, cool and composed. Other good points include, appropriate example was used and it appealed to the audience. Improvements for consideration are; closing the gap between the content and the title, vocal variety, and pauses for key takeaways.

Salma Begum, ACB, ALB, evaluating Marc's speech, gave thumbs up on good twist of the story and refreshing take on stocks trading. She observed Marc had shared his colorful personal life's ups and downs but his expressions did not show. Look of sadness when telling the audience he lost his shirt will make a bigger difference to the impact the speech have on the audience. Ending of speech could be further elaborated to show better connection.

Ah counter Tan Siew Foong, TM, who has been paying special attention to everyone's speech gave a precise count of all the pause fillers used.

The winners of the first meeting for the New Year 2021 are:
Best Speaker: Marc Wong, DL2
Best Evaluator: Salma Begum, ACB, ALB
Best Table Topics: Samuel (guest)

Written by Wee Chee Sian, ACB, ALB