The long-awaited day has finally arrived. It is 10th
September 2022. It is the Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club’s 200th
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, 3rd 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:
- 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”.
- 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
- 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 200th
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
2nd 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
.jpeg)
