It's Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club 200th Chapter Meeting!

The long-awaited day has finally arrived. It is 10^th September 2022. It is the Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club’s 200^th Chapter Meeting! It was a tremendous privilege and an honour to have that opportunity to witness and participate in this enthralling occasion.

It was a bright and sunny day. The sun shone brilliantly in the clear, blue sky. Committee members arrived at the meeting venue ahead of time to decorate the conference room and to ensure the right hardware is properly set up to enhance the experience for both the "Zoomies" and "Roomies". Members and guests were greeted with beautiful decorations to start off the celebration at Anchorvale Community Club, 3^rd floor conference room (Falcon).

Gracious and pleasant, our Sergeant-at-Arms of the Day, Jennifer Lim, IP3, who is also doubled up as the Toastmaster of the Day, started the meeting with the ice breaker and introduction session. 

After which, Our Club President, Venkat Voleti, PM3 made an eloquent opening address and welcomed everyone with open arms. 

Coming up next was the presentation of Historical Moment of Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club. Zoom-Master, Siva Kuma, PM5, presented 10 years (year 2010 – 2020) milestone video montage nicely produced by past Club President, Valliappan Selvamani, CC, CL, PM1, and introduced member of Exco and events held from year 2021 – 2023. 

Following the journey story was the Knowledge Moment. We are delighted to have the opportunity to invite a Senior Lecturer from a University in Australia to provide us an enriching learning session - Crafting the speech. She loves travelling and meeting people, learning, and sharing culture through food. She is an angel in disguise, known as a person with a kind heart, a person who is always ready to help others. She is none other than Lee Buckley, DTM.

She shared her experience of crafting a speech. In year 2020, she came across a fellow trainer in Sydney who shared the secret of how to craft a speech in 30 minutes. She mentioned that crafting a speech is different from writing a speech, crafting is a process when you set the foundation, when you think of the ideas and put them together in your speech.

A few tips were shared by Lee Buckley to ensure that toastmasters can craft a speech with aplom:

1. Speech content. Where do I get stories from? E.g., holidays, travelling, family, work, friends – keep all the life events in your “piggy bank of stories”.
2. Every speech should have a general and specific purpose.
• General purpose: Entertain, Inform, Inspire, Motivate, Persuade
• Specific purpose: What do you want the audience to do after listening to your speech
3. Define the message, list down 3 key points, know your audience, do your research, plan your story, internalise your presentation, connect with the audience, and solidify connections made.

Imagine writing a great speech starts with the skeleton, then elaborate on the vital organs (pick 3 of them!), connect the arteries, make the conclusion, think of an introduction, decide the speech title at the end and, Voila.

It is important to understand the theory behind the workshop, but surely it is even more important that it can put that learning into practice. Madhushika Munasinghe resonated happy ball, cry ball with herself. She mentioned that it is perfectly okay to cry if she feels like need to cry. Expressing her emotions through crying can be very soothing and feels much better than hiding them away or pretending she is okay when she is not. Her speech title was “Don’t cry. No. I cry.” Next, the Club President, Venkat Voleti shared about how AVCC successfully planned and executed the 200^th Meeting celebration and his speech title was “Blue and Gold”. 

Addition to Knowledge Moment, Marc Wong, DL5, PM1, has carefully handpicked the English game, via Mentimeter. Here were the words and definitions:

• What is a Pangram? A sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. E.g., A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
• How does the saying “Great minds think alike…” end? But fools rarely differ.
• Which Singlish word is NOT found in Oxford English Dictionary? Chope.
• When do you describe some a Mouse Potato? A person who spends a great deal of time using a computer.
• The dot over the letter “i” is officially known as a? Tittle.

Next was the World game:

• Which is the smallest country (by area) in the World? Vatican City
• Which is the tallest building in the World? UAE - Burj Khalifa
• Which country is the biggest island in the World? Greenland
• Which country is known as the “Playground of Europe”? Switzerland
• Which is the most stolen food in the World? Cheese

2^nd part of the game was Charades. Marc mentioned that this game allows us to demonstrate our nonverbal communication i.e., body language and body gesture other than the direct/verbal communication.

Here was the performance by our talented members and guests.

The games were great. We had a ball. 

Next up on the menu was cake cutting ceremony, followed by photo taking sessions. 

The afternoon continued with Talent Moment. 

Club Mentor, Jenny Au, DTM, presented a graceful and elegant Tai-ji performance with smooth movements. Valliappan Selvamani, CC, CL, PM1 sang a Tamil song "Mustafa Mustafa – Friendship", the song represents the friendship and journey he has with Anchorvale CC TMC. Sarah Ong, IP2 took us a trip down memory lane to school days with a Chinese song "小幸运 – A Little Happiness". Last but not least, Rusman Hadijanto, CTM, CC, DL5, PI4 said that Anchorvale CC TMC feels like a home and family to him, and the song said it all "Kaulah Segalanya – Say You Will Always Be Mine". 

Time flies when you are having fun. Ends are not bad things; they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that do not really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad, and many ends are not really an ending; some things are never-ending.

The 200th chapter meeting and celebration ended with closing remarks by Club President - shared his heartfelt appreciation to committee members, master of ceremonies, workshop speaker, members, and guests. 

Here is the 1-min clip of the 3 hours footage. Enjoy!

Written by Julie Tay, PM1