Recap: 225th Chapter Meeting - 9 March 2024

The 225th Chapter Meeting commenced with a cheerful note by Sergeant at Arms (SAA), Constantine Koh (SR2) on the theme “Building Resiliency: Bouncing Back Stronger”. He shared that we could cultivate resiliency by stepping out of our comfort zone to attend this afternoon’s Toastmasters session. Constantine doubled up to be the Toastmaster of the Day (TMD). He extended a warm welcome to all toastmasters including the guests and introduced appointment holders who were going to support the chapter meeting.

Audrey Lim (PM3) did the opening address by sharing an analogy of carrot-egg-coffee bean to illustrate the theme. In the raw form, the carrot is hard, the egg has a hard shell which could easily crack, and coffee comes in powder form. When these ingredients are put into the boiling water, the carrot will turn soft, egg will become hard, and coffee will be dissolved. It very much depends on how a person perceives and reacts to adversity under immense pressure. She gave the analogy of the carrot that was soft and weak and could sink into depression easily and likened the hard-boiled egg to a person whose heart had hardened and lost trust in people. She encouraged all of us to be like the coffee bean powder who thrived in adversity and even emitted a fragrant smell. Audrey emphasized that Adversity Quotient (AQ) was more important than Intelligent Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ). Taking ownership and control instead of wallowing in self-pity was the other key message she tried to send across. Audrey concluded that Adversity Quotient (AQ) was more important than Intelligent Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ).

The 2^nd segment of the meeting was the Prepared Speeches Segment delivered by three speakers, Dylan Lam, Srinivasan Kumar and Chong Wee Kim. Dylan’s speech title was “The Art of Communication”. He started off by asking the audience if they had any preferred communication style. He called upon member, Sarah to understand her preferred communication style and she responded that personal feedback should be given in person to be more effective. Marc was next called upon and his preferred communication style was one that is more open and direct. Dylan himself preferred assertive communication style. He re-enacted the scene whereby he used assertive communication to work with 2 project team members, Jason and Mary. Their team would need to complete a project within 2 days for a customer. Jason was skeptical if it could be achieved and suggested past project where a backup Plan B was activated. Dylan then turned to Mary to ask for her opinion. Mary did not think Jason’s plan would work and suggested making refinements to the plan. After the illustration, Dylan emphasized assertive communication should be 2-way to allow all parties to exchange their ideas. The more the team members shared their ideas, the more positive results the team would get which could lead to a highly effective team. Dylan’s concluded that in order for assertive communication to work, team members must be willing to share and be respectful towards one another.

In Srinivasan’s speech titled “Understanding Your Leadership Style”, he started off by informing the audience to close their eyes for 10 seconds and asked three questions – 1. Were we a leader?; 2. How to be a better leader?; 3. Did we agree to be a better leader and would act on it? Srinivasan shared that he had spent 14 hours researching leadership styles. He explained everyone has skills, knowledge and behaviors but an effective leader would need to possess these five characteristics, i.e.(i) effective communicator, (ii) optimistic, (iii) open-minded, (iv) live by example and (v) demonstrate integrity.

Srinivasan displayed a colorful wallpaper in Zoom that showed the different styles of leadership.  He narrated for autocratic leadership; the leader made decision without requiring input from team members. He illustrated people-oriented leadership would take place in Sales Teams where the Sales Director would seek input all the Sales Teams. Tapping on his personal experience, Srinivasan cited his involvement in launching a Campaign that involved collaboration with teams from multiple countries. The duration of the Campaign was successfully reduced from 9 weeks to 4 weeks using effective communication techniques. He further explained that leadership could also be applied to our day-to-day activities, not just for work. For example, parents could use autocratic leadership style to get the kids to complete their homework. If a group of friends planned on a vacation, then collaborative leadership would be needed. He concluded by reminding the audience to connect the dots between leadership and communication to become an effective leader.

In Kim’s speech titled “Secrets behind Successful Products”, she started off asking the audience to ponder why some products failed and why some products survived and thrived. She shared her insights gained from reading products’ case studies and interactions with some product managers from Women in Tech event that happened the day before. The first secret sauce would be products that focused on Customer Centricity.  She quoted Jeff Bezos’s belief “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job everyday to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better”. Kim also shared that Tan Hooi Ling, Grab CEO was fearful of her safety in taking taxi in Malaysia especially at night years ago, just like any of the Malaysians. Once she boarded the taxi, she had to message her parents the taxi’s car plate number. This was a very serious pain point that pierced through the hearts of the Malaysians. Another example was the legal and privacy issues that surrounded the music industry back then when a lot of consumers downloaded music playlist into CD or MP3 player. Spotify was born and started off offering small streaming library to allow people to listen to music on the go.

She highlighted that the key to getting started on a product was to find the pain point that consumers could resonate with.   

The second secret sauce was to start small and experiment following Amazon’s motto “Fail fast, fail often and fail forward”.  She shared that Tan Hooi Ling rolled out GrabHitch which was not successful but that did not make her give up her dream. She continued to experiment and in Vietnam, she studied the market localization and introduced the first GrabBike service as a trial service which proved to be popular with the locals. During the experimentation phase, it was important for the product team to monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), duration and when is the point to issue surrender flag.

The third secret sauce depended on the product’s flexible pricing model. Kim opined that people in general liked free things. Her daughter was a classic example as she listened to Spotify on freemium plan. Kim did not allow her daughter to subscribe to a premium service for now as she is still a student. Kim shared that from her interaction with Spotify’s Product Manager on how Spotify premium model worked. Spotify had introduced Artificial Intelligence-powered Disc Jockey (AI-powered DJ) premium service that leveraged on OpenAI. OpenAI is a research organisation with a mission to create safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI). For premium customers, they could select this DJ service and then invite freemium customers to join. Spotify took into consideration the whole ecosystem to grow premium consumers as well as to convert freemium into premium consumers. In conclusion, she reiterated these three key ingredients, i.e. customer centricity, small experimentation of new ideas and flexible pricing model were secrets behind successful digital products.

Table topic segment was presented by Audrey Lim and the table topics questions were related to the meeting theme on building resiliency and bouncing back strong. Some of the participants gave insights through their memorable life stories of how they had overcome obstacles. Adopting a positive mindset and learning from failures really stroke a common chord among us! Even our young guest, Raelyn Lam has bravely attempted the table topic.

In the evaluation segment, Iman Hossain (PM2), Marc Wong (DL5, PM1) and Jason Thong (PM5) presented constructive feedback and recommendations to the Project Speakers.

The awards were presented to the following top winners.

Best Speaker: Chong Wee Kim, TM

Best Project Evaluator: Jason Thong, PM5

Best Table Topics: Jason Thong (PM5) and Marc Wong (DL5 PM1)

We sincerely appreciated all appointment holders for preparing and making this Chapter meeting a success and were grateful to all guests and members who took time to attend this online Zoom meeting. 

Do stay tune for our next chapter meeting and we welcome you to join us as guest.

Together We Shine!

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

Written by Chong Wee Kim, TM

Anchorvale CC TMC International Speech Contest on 27th January 2024

 From Toastmasters to Triumph: Five Tales That Sparked the Stage

It was an amazing afternoon, the weather was perfect. It was Saturday, 27^th January 2024. Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club was buzzing with excitement. It was time for the Club’s international speech contest chaired by our beloved Club Mentor, Jenny Au.  Five brave souls stood poised, ready to ignite the International Speech Contest stage with their powerful narratives. Buckled up were all of us, for this afternoon as we embarked on a journey through triumphs, vulnerabilities, and lessons learned, all delivered with captivating eloquence.

The meeting started off with Contest Chair, Jenny Au addressing a packed room waiting eagerly for the International Speech contest to begin.

Prior to the meeting, the Tally Counters, Timers and Judges were briefed by the Chief Judge, Muhammad Nurhakim followed by briefings of contestants, SAA and the conducting of contestants order balloting. This was followed by a warm welcome to the 5 brave heroic club members who were contesting in the AVCC club contest and the explanation of contest rules by Contest Toastmaster, Mr. Anand Ariyarathinam and finally an opening address by the Club President, Adeline Yeo.

Some of the rules were indicated below :

(a) Only for Paid members

(b) Members who completed at least 2 levels of any pathway

(c) Speech should be original

(d) Contestants cannot make any reference to other contestants’ speeches

(e) Timing for the speech is 5-7 minutes and it starts when the contestant starts either a verbal/non verbal communication to the audience.

Conquering the Mountain in Reverse: 3 steps Forward and 1 step Backward - Constantine Koh

First up, Constantine Koh challenged our perception of progress. His "3 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back" wasn't about defeat, but a reminder that even stumbles lead to growth.

He started his speech with the opening sentence " How many of you like to complete your task of the day and couldn't handle any more and decided to give up". He then shared his story of the decision to join Toastmaster. When he slowly started to speak at various club meetings, his confidence at that point shoot to the sky. He reiterated that, “Sometimes we feel we are at the top of the mountain while sometimes we feel we are down”. However the constant "Reflect, review and refocus" methodology , will help us to monitor our progress or growth and ultimately show us who we are and what we are capable of". With his engaging call to action, "If I can do it, you can too," he left us empowered to embrace the climb.

Blessings and Perspectives: Alvin Kuek

Next, Alvin Kuek's "Blessings and Perspective" moved us with heartwarming anecdotes. He started off with a story of a beggar who was freezing in the temperature of -30 degrees Celsius, and when he offered 200 Yuan to the beggar, the beggar donated 150 Yuan into donation box demonstrating his wiliness to share the blessings with the temple in spite being in great financial difficulty. It was a mind-blowing gesture that was totally unexpected.

Alvin shared another story when in Manali, whereby he interacted with a driver who was blind in one eye and nearly 90% deaf. To help him financially, the speaker gave him INR 8,000 for the surgery. One month later, the speaker received a receipt in the name of the speaker for a donation of INR 8,000 to homeless kids. That was the perspective of the driver.

In the third story that the speaker shared, the speaker heard a one person told his colleague who was a customer service officer “You are nothing but an uneducated person and that’s why you are here serving as a customer service officer, Get your manager to speak to me. I do not want to speak to uneducated people”. The speaker asked the person what his profession was and he replied he was a lawyer and worked for one of the top 5 law firms in the world. The speaker then said “the hallmark of an educated person is not measured by the number of degrees he holds, or what status they hold but measured by how they treat people”.  From a beggar's generosity to a lawyer's misplaced judgment, he painted a poignant picture of appreciating what we have and sharing it with the world.

Sometimes we feel that Life is unfair, but that’s how it is. The essence of the speech was to highlight that we must learn to appreciate our blessings. Blessings are just like a candle and when we light a candle, the light spreads around the whole room showing the way. Remember not to whine for things that we don’t have because when life ends, the size of the coffin is the same for everyone and we must remember this perspective. His closing message, "Be the light, be the shower of empathy," resonated deeply into our hearts.

From Greed to Growth: I am not Stupid - Marc Wong's Honest Confession

The third speaker was Marc Wong who bravely bared his "I Am Not Stupid" story. His tale of a millionaire dream turned financial nightmare served as a cautionary yet empowering message. He started his speech with a millionaire dream that he had. The speaker said, that as a young man, he used to dream of becoming a millionaire like rich people in the Crazy Rich Asians movie. Driven by the dream of wealth, the speaker diligently explored various investment avenues. He eventually encountered a mentor who promised riches through a seemingly foolproof "robot" trading strategy. Despite initial reservation, the allure of easy money and seemingly positive results gradually eroded his prudence. He poured more and more funds into the scheme, fuelled by escalating greed and the illusion of guaranteed success.

However, the dream turned into a nightmare when the entire operation vanished - the robot, the mentor, and his invested capital. Devastated and blaming himself ("I was stupid"), he retreated into isolation. But a wise nudge from his father ("It's not stupidity, son, but greed that clouded your judgment") helped him emerge from the darkness.

He learned a valuable lesson: even intelligent individuals can be swayed by emotions like greed, leading to poor decisions. While acknowledging the sophistication of modern scams, he emphasized the importance of emotional intelligence and vigilance against manipulation. Recognizing that anyone can fall victim, he encouraged personal growth and heightened awareness as key defences.

He concluded by reclaiming his worth, declaring, "I am not stupid!" – a powerful message emphasizing resilience and learning from experience, highlighting the vulnerability of emotions, he urged us to learn from mistakes and approach opportunities with vigilance even in the face of adversity.

Cleanliness Starts with Us: Keeping our Public toilets clean. Imam Hossain's Call to Action

The fourth speaker, Imam Hossain challenged us with a question: "Are you satisfied with public toilets?" He mentioned what Public toilets are, speaking about the condition of the toilets these days in MRT stations, LRT stations or in the public places, where people when are not satisfied with the first toilet so they moved on to another and another in the search of a good toilet. The speaker highlighted the discrepancy between the government's spending on public toilets and their often-subpar condition, contrasting it with the cleanliness of toilets in places like shopping malls and airports. He emphasized the need for long-term solutions to maintain cleanliness and drew inspiration from their experience in Tokyo, where public toilets remained remarkably neat despite high usage.

The key, according to the speaker, lies in individual responsibility and a cultural shift towards treating public toilets like our own homes. This involves not just personal actions but also public education campaigns that instil a "clean and dry toilet is a healthy habit" mentality. He added that raising awareness about their state and suggesting practical solutions, he emphasized collective responsibility.

The speaker concluded by reminding the audience of Singapore's reputation as a "Clean and Green" city and urged everyone to collaborate in keeping public toilets clean and hygienic.

Walking a Mile through Stepping “in Someone’s Shoes”: Wee Chee Sian's Empathetic Journey

The final speaker, Wee Chee Sian, took us on a metaphorical walk with his speech, "In Someone's Shoes." Inspiring empathy and understanding, his message urged us to see the world through different lenses and connect on a deeper level.

He started his speech explaining that his mind swam in adrenaline, erasing the memory of his footfalls, his heartbeat a distant tremor. Fear gnawed deeper than any imagined horror, leaving him breathless. He swore his heart raced ahead, reaching the rusted gate before his bloodied hands, frantic in their search for the key. Frustration mounted with each failed attempt, memory flickering as he wrestled the lock. Finally, it yielded, leaving a grimy smudge on his blood-stained palms. The distant wail of an ambulance offered a flicker of hope, swallowed by the grim scene before him.

This wasn't a movie, despite his youthful fantasies inspired by chilling tales. This was the harsh reality of a Sunday duty gone wrong when he was servicing as a medic during his national service. The silence shattered by the alarm and desperate cries. The medical centre revealed a sight etched in his memory: a bloodstained pen, a crimson pool, a life teetering on the brink. His voice, a veneer of calm over the inner turmoil, crackled through the walkie-talkie, calling for help. Disoriented and clumsy, he clutched a shirt, desperate to aid, his hands trembling under the weight of the moment. The arrival of the senior medic, armed with professional help, released him from his agonizing uncertainty, but the echo of the experience lingered.

Years later, he recognized the unsettling truth - the scene from a book, read long after, mirrored his own. It served as a stark reminder of the vulnerability masked by courage. He acknowledged the unsaid things, the tears unseen, the fear that could have crippled him. Selective memory might shield him from some of the pain, but the core message remained: judging those who face life-or-death situations from the comfort of a coffee shop is easy. True appreciation lies in recognizing the burden these front liners carry, the literal and figurative heat they walk into, fueled by a courage deserving respect, not armchair criticism. He concluded by saying that the next time you sip your coffee, remember the shoes they walk in, the burdens they shoulder, and the unwavering resolve that defines their service.

Toastmasters Triumph: From Speeches to Shine

The lights dimmed, applause faded, and anticipation filled the air. The Toastmasters International Speech Contest at the Anchorvale CC had concluded, leaving a vibrant tapestry of stories woven by five brave speakers. Now, it was time to capture the moment.

Cameras flashed, smiles beamed, and a warm camaraderie resonated as participants, judges, and the contest chair squeezed into a single frame. A sweet break for refreshments followed, offering the perfect opportunity for networking and connections to blossom.

But the highlight of the evening remained: the results. Certificates glittered as they were distributed, acknowledging the efforts of both speakers and those who made the event possible. With bated breath, everyone awaited the names that would etch themselves in the club's history – the champions who would carry the Anchorvale CC banner to the next round of the international competition.

No disqualifications – a testament to the caliber of talent. With a flourish, Division A director Rebecca presented the trophies to the top three: Marc Wong (3rd place), Alvin Kuek (2nd place), and the grand champion, Wee Chee Sian.

President Adeline Yeo then took the stage, her voice brimming with pride. She posed a question, and the answer resonated – "Fantastic!" The program had ignited sparks of inspiration and laughter, leaving an indelible mark on everyone present.

This wasn't just the culmination of the evening's contest, but a reflection of the club's journey. Adeline reminded everyone that this was the second contest in two weeks, following the Table Topics and Evaluation contests. In these moments, the club's motto, "Together we Shine," resonated deeply.

She lauded the transformation she had witnessed in members who joined over the past year. Their courage to take the stage and deliver such captivating performances wasn't just a personal triumph, but a testament to the nurturing environment cultivated by the club. It was a message of empowerment – stutter, stammer, stumble, but stay with Toastmasters, and you'll witness the magic of transformation unfold.

The Anchorvale CC International Speech Contest had etched itself not just in the memories of those present, but in the club's legacy. It was an evening of stories, connections, and a powerful reminder, as the President proclaimed, "Together we shine," the spirit of Toastmasters – growth, support, and transformation – shone brightly. 

Do stay tune for our next chapter meeting and we welcome you to join us as guest.

Together We Shine!!

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

Written by Sandhya Rani Maruvada