Recap: 237th Chapter Meeting, 28th September 2024

On Saturday afternoon, when most people were catching up on their personal times, our dedicated members and guests came together for an inspiring Toastmasters meeting. The meeting theme "Finding Balance: Mastering Work-Life Harmony” resonated with everyone, as we strived to align our work responsibilities with our personal needs.

Sergeant-At-Arms, Abhay Dixit (TM), officially commenced the meeting by welcoming everyone and reminding them of the rules and regulations of the meeting. He then invited Club President Jenny Au (DTM), and other members such as Rusman Hadijanto (DL5, PI5), Mark Wong (DL5, PM1), Audrey Lim (PM3) and Venkat Voleti (PM3) to share their valuable insights on achieving and maintaining work-life harmony. 

Toastmaster of the Day, Rusman, warmly welcomed visiting Toastmasters Adi Jamaludin (PM3) from West Coast Toastmasters Club and Kelvin Leong (DTM) from Henderson Toastmasters Club as well as other guests. We were privileged to have Kelvin presenting a workshop this afternoon. Rusman strongly encouraged everyone to participate in the Table Topics session by highlighting how Table Topics could help us speak more confidently in our professional lives.

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Advisor, Jenny Au who is also serving as Division A Advisor, Division D Trainer, has gracefully taken up the role as our Club President, replacing the late Joseph Tan.

Jenny gave her first speech as Club President with a thought-provoking introduction on the theme of balance, setting the stage for a meeting centered around finding harmony in our daily lives. She reflected on the late Joseph’s qualities, including his enthusiasm and helpfulness, always willing to assist even when he was feeling tired. Jenny also shared her commitment to carrying out some of the plans that Joseph advocated at the beginning of the term, including inviting external project evaluators, general evaluators, and language evaluators. 

She expressed her wish for the club to once again achieve the Perfect 10 Award, especially after securing the 2 awards at the Hall of Fame 2023-2024 – President’s Distinguished Club and Perfect 10. Past Division A Director, Robekka Purba has received the awards on our behalf and passed to us via Division A Director, Rajesh Babu. Additionally, Club President Jenny hoped to increase club membership, urged members to attend meetings, encouraged mentors to work closely with their mentees, and proposed organizing more social events. Toastmasters were encouraged to participate in Club Contest (Humorous Speech & Tall Tales) which will be held on 12^th October 2024.

The heart of the meeting, as always, was our prepared speeches. Member, Doreen Neo (DTM, DL3) was in charge of the Timer’s report this afternoon.  

Speaker 1: Prabha Jayaraman (PM1) who was doing her Presentation Mastery, Level 2, Project 1 – Understanding Your Communication Style. Title of her speech "How I Engage in Conversation”.  The speech was evaluated by Audrey Lim. Prabha discussed different types of communication styles and shared personal stories of self-discovery while developing her communication skills.

Speaker 2: Christine Ng (TM) who was attempting her Engaging Humor, Level 1, Project 2 – Writing a Speech with Purpose. The title of Christine’s speech was "The Best Present is to Be Present”. This speech was evaluated by Adi Jamaludin. Christine reflected on her experiences as a mother, sharing her thoughts on what truly matters and how being fully present is the best gift she can offer to her loved ones.

 Speaker 3: Prasanna (TM) who was attempting his Presentation Mastery, Level 1, Project 3 – Introduction to Vocal Variety and Body Language. The title of his speech was "Persuasive Influence”. Prasanna shared a few real-life stories illustrating how attempting to solve problems can sometimes create more issues. He also provided valuable insights on how to avoid such pitfalls.

The next segment was the workshop segment by Kelvin Leong. Before the start of the workshop, Kelvin has gotten Rusman to gather everyone to observe a 1 minute of silence in remembrance of our late Club President, Joseph Tan.

Kelvin conducted a workshop on Humorous Speech. The workshop was actively engaging, and effective learning were facilitated through Kahoot games. During the workshop, he shared practical tips on how to prepare and deliver a humorous speech and enhanced our understanding of the art of humorous speaking. He emphasized that clarity is crucial in a humorous speech and encouraged participants to focus on humor as the starting point for their writing. 

Our Table Topics session, led by Table Topics Master, Sarah Ong (IP3). Sarah has replaced Rangesh Suruliraj, who was unable to conduct the Table Topics segment due to last minutes work commitments. Sarah expressed her appreciation to Rangesh for his effort in researching and preparing the Table Topics slides based on the theme of "Mindfulness." A total of five questions were attempted by both members and guests.

 As always, we celebrated the achievements of the day with the following awards:

Best speakers: Christine Ng (TM)

Best Table Topics: Adi Jamaludin (PM3)

Best Project Evaluator: Adi Jamaludin (PM3)

We sincerely appreciated all appointment holders for assisting in making this chapter meeting a great success and were grateful to all guests and members who had spent their times with us this afternoon.

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

Every Member Matters!

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club

Written by Sherlyn Tan Yee Chuen (TM)