Braving the impending rain on a Saturday afternoon to a meeting of like-minded warm souls need little encouragement. What if adding the icing on the cake, it is to celebrate each and every participant’s personal growth too? This is aptly describing the inexorable Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club’s 229th Chapter Meeting where even a storm can take a back seat to dampening the enthusiasm of members and guests alike.
Club President Adeline Yeo,
PM5, EC5, PI1, gave an opening address speech of virtuoso
cogent setting off the tone “Celebrating Personal Growth: Your journey, Your
Story”, theme of the meeting. Her anecdotes of taking a sabbatical from a safe
and secure information technology job in the public sector for a master degree
course costing thirty thousand dollars, to plunging herself into event
management business in the private sector is no easy advice for the
faint-hearted. Quoting from John A. Shedd, a prominent American author and
businessman. "A ship in a harbor is safe but that is not what ships are
built for". It was pure serendipity that prepared speech speakers that
followed advocated following one’s heart; by overcoming fear and getting out of
one’s comfort zone.
Deepak, TM, with his speech title “Courage versus
Fear”, spoke of picturing oneself achieving the goal; using his own examples of
speaking to an audience for the very first time (in forty two years 😊) in person on this very day to moving on to his next
job. Prasanna’s, TM, speech title “Never Settle”, epitomizes the
need for perseverance in chasing and making dreams come true when he described
his turbulent albeit successful application for an internship at the National
Stock Exchange of India. Even Sreenivasan Kumar’s, LD2, speech on
“Cloud Computing” served to remind us that the future is in territories outside
of one’s once familiar premises; it is possible to create presentation slides
online now.
Participants in the Table Topics segment were like Christopher Columbus and Zheng He who ventured courageously into the unknown on their ships. The followings are the commendable takes. What’s the funniest lesson learnt about yourself? Chong Wee Kim, TM, revealed when she was little, and when her grandmother was not around, she experimented with a lighted candle in a dark room at home. Can small wins lead to big changes? Caroline (guest) spoke of making decisions in the midst of noises. Is personal growth a lifelong journey? Nicky (guest) thought he lacked knowledge to lead. This prompted him to want to learn it by joining a Toastmasters Club. How do you measure your personal growth? Melissa (guest) spoke of her desire to conquer fear in public speaking. Can mistakes be celebrated as milestone? Ashmi (guest) told of her father’s wish for her to learn singing. She took singing lesson eventually, and it became a poignant reminder she should have started, as with any desire, earlier. What’s your most inspiring growth story? Kelvin (guest) praised the warmth he received from Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club as inspirational. Can humor be a tool for personal growth? Melody Byrd, DTM, highlighted humor is especially an opportune tool to learn from one’s mistake, and not for beating up oneself.
Evaluators
are like anchors carried on ships. Anchors are not meant for ships to remain
stagnant, but to prevent the ship from drifting whilst preparing for the next
adventure in the worthy direction. Ever wondered about what is in the name of
our Club? Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club. 😊 Prabha Jayaraman, TM, suggested more relevant elements and appropriate
pauses for the audience to relate and assimilate in Deepak’s speech. Melody
Byrd, DTM, complimented Prasanna’s good greetings in her speech and
recommended suspense build up, use props and suitable vocal variety to make it
animatedly interesting. Imam Hossain, PM2, bring to Sreenivasan
Kumar’s attention of the need for consistent interaction with the audience in
his speech delivery. Marc Wong, DL5, PM1, applaud Prabha
Jayaraman’s confident and good paced evaluation as honest and constructive.
Marc proposed further to use catchy rhetorical devices and quotes to capture
attention.
Richard Sng’s, DTM, bitter, better and butter* acerbic
language evaluation put forth the pro forma use of cliches is not only a sin of
the perpetrator (speaker), but also a plaque on the victims (audience) as well.
An utter abomination almost every time it happens. Richard proffer refrain from
using the word “should” as it is a very imposing word especially when used in
evaluations.
Congratulations to the following Toastmasters who won the ‘Best’ ribbons in Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club’s 229th Chapter Meeting.
Best Speaker: Prasanna, TM
Best Evaluator: Marc Wong,
DL5, PM1
Best Table Topics: Melody Byrd, DTM
Written by
Wee Chee Sian, VC2
*Bitter, better and butter is attributed to Richard Sng, a
celebrated language evaluator who created this Signature Language Tagline. The
Triple B is an exquisite example of a combination of rhyme, alliteration and
the power of three. 😊
