Joint Chapter Meeting with PLC-Link TMC - 10 Nov 2012

Welcome back!

It’s never easy being in Anchorvale TMC  because we are forever looking out for new things to try – and in line with that spirit, Anchovale TMC had our first-ever Joint Chapter Meeting with PL-Link TMC. Packed with excited members from both Clubs and the effervescent energies of the TMD Zulhafni and SAA Yvonne, both Anchorvale TMC and PL-Link TMC were ready for an explosive morning!

The Language Evaluator, Shaun Li, got the day off to a fashionable start with an apt choice of the Word-of-the-Day: fashion. To set the tone for the meeting, Freddie, President of PL-Link TMC, delivered a powerful opening address which left us anticipating the rest of the programme.

Prepared Speeches

With a packed programme ranging from the Project speeches to even Advanced speeches, the prepared speakers were all ready to enthral us with their speeches. Our first speaker, Marzouq, gave us a timely reminder about life with his speech, “Think Simple”. Even Anchorvale TMC’s President was in on the action with Bernard presenting his Project 7! For the Advance Speeches, Sally brought us back to the Singaporean context, prodding our minds and inviting us to question our usage of Singlish. Our resident word-smith, May Lee, delighted us with her re-enactment of the predicament of being stuck in between a spouse and an in-law while Paul Amazona gave us a stirring and meaningful re-telling of a popular folk tale, Ibong Idarna.

The highlight of the day had to be Roger Yap, who managed to successfully bring the audience on a touching and powerful journey in bringing our attention to the victims of abuse around the world. Undaunted by the 15 min requirement for his speech, Roger placed the audience in the shoes of billionaires and popular figures such as Barack Obama and deservingly won the Best Prepared Speech Ribbon. Congratulations Roger!

The speakers had the privilege of having our assembled team of Project Evaluators who together provided everyone with countless nuggets of wisdom to be a successful Toastmaster! The Best Project Evaluator went deservingly to Freddie, a man of many hats who took up the challenge of giving two project evaluations. Congratulations Freddie!

Table Topics

No meeting is ever complete without the much-anticipated Table Topics session and this time round it was led by none other than Freddie who ingeniously used a smartphone application to generate the Table Topics. In the spirit of inclusiveness, everyone had a chance to participate (even Freddie’s daughter, a budding, young Toastmaster!). At the end of the day, it was our star of the morning, Roger who convincingly received the Best Table Topics Ribbon. Congratulations once again, Roger!

We had the honour of having Thomas Lee, a visiting Toastmaster and also our General Evaluator for the meeting who, together with Shaun, gave both Clubs invaluable advice with regards to the “fashionable” usage of language and the smooth running of the event; not forgetting the many advice and tips that were shared unselfishly as well.

To mark the fitting end to the meeting, we had the unabashed lion and President of Anchorvale TMC, Bernard, to give the closing address and invited our guests and visiting Toastmasters to give their feedback and opinions about the meeting. Everyone was unanimous in their praise and fun that they had which the two homely Clubs graciously hosted for the morning. And with a drop of the gavel, another successful meeting was, once again, reluctantly concluded.

We would like to thank PL-Link TMC as well as all our guests for making the combined Chapter Meeting a successful, enriching and exciting event and this will definitely mark the start of a period of cooperation in our Toastmaster’s journey.

Till we meet again wish you all the very best !

Best Regards

Zulhafni - VP PR 2

Anchorvale TM Club Update - 29th Chapter Meeting (22 Sept 2012)

“We must become the change we want to see”, these are words by Mahatma Gandhi and these applies to all those who desire for things to be different. Anchorvale Toastmaster Club nurtures those talents and provides a platform for developing competent speakers and leaders and who are change agents.

Anchorvale Toastmasters Club is a relaxed atmosphere, where fun has a form and function. Where you communicate, instead of talking, where you learn, but never taught. Where you lead your by example.

Another month has just passed by, leaving us with fabulous memories, enriching our lives and making us better by the day. First of all we would like to highlight and congratulate our much-deserved competent communicators. We have two members who crossed the great milestone of completing the Competent Communicators manual with unrelenting determinations to excel in the field of communications and leadership:

Teo Kian Keong  - TM, CC

Thomas Slvaraj – TM, CC

Well Done and Congratulations !

Our winners of the 29th Chapter Meeting:

Best Project Speech Speaker: Sathiyamoorthi Chinnasamy

Best Table-Topics Speaker:  Andrew Chen, ATM-B, ALS

Best Project Evaluator: Norman Tan

The club meeting was well attended as usual with high-energy and passion. We learned from excellent speakers who kept everyone engaged with their panache and wit. Im sure everyone had a great fun, enjoyed and celebrated the progress of each other.

Thanks to our visiting toastmasters:

Nigel Wong, CC Club President IFPAS Toastmasters Club

Ted Chong, CC, CL Club President Tampines Changkat TMC

Best Regards

Sanjay Das – VP PR

28th Chapter Meeting - 18 Aug 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen

Anchorvale Toastmasters Club witnessed another eventful session with members and estimeed guests joining us for a fun filled, educated Saturday afternoon on 18^th Aug.

We have added one more feather to the crown by adding one more “Competent Communicator” to our club and that's none other than our own Roger Yap, the VP for education. 

Its alawys a pleasure to welcome our fellow Toastmasters from various clubs in and around Singapore, and we never miss an opportunity to learn and collaborate from our exeprienced guest speakers.

After the meeting kick off by myself as a “Sergant-at-arms” I handed over to our club President Bernad who addressed the Toastmasters with an inspirirng short speech, with that we straight plunged into the prepared speechs.

We started with our first speaker Venkat who presented an excellent topic titled “Pranks of a Nobel Laureate” and entertained the team . 2^nd speaker was me and I presented a topic on self help about how to be successful and not get distracted standing at the cross roads of  “focus actions” and “distractions” titled – “2 lists to refer every morning”. Sreeman impressed us with superb body language through his speech and his Ragging experience in college, titled - “Ragging and my experiences”. And last but not the least the star speaker of the day Roger took us thorough his journey, stunned all of us by sharing his life threatning incidents, quite an emotional, and thought provoking story, titled – “I shall die another day”.

A big Thank You to all our esteemed guests Jean Ng, CC; Ted Chong, CC, CL; Christine Lim, DTM; Chng WeiLOng; Paulin Chan, CC, ALB; Gurmit Singh, CC; Vincent Leung, Karen Woon and Sabrina Seah for not only holding various positions of the day but encouraging our toastmasters throughout the session with undevided attentions.

Our award winners for 28^th chapter meeting are:

Best Project Speech Speaker – Roger Yap, CC

Best Table Topic Speaker – Joint winners: Sabrina Seah and Vincent Leung

Best Project Evaluator – Christine Lim, DTM

Ladies and Gentlemen, till we meet next time wish you all the very best and happy speaking.

Best Regards
Sanjay Das

Club Installation Ceremony & Chapter Meeting – 28th July 2012

A new chapter of fun filled excitement starts at Anchorvale Toastmasters Club as the curtain is raised to tee off its installation ceremony of EXCO team, for the next year 2012-2013.

If there ever was a tough day to make a speech at Anchorvale Toastmasters, this chapter meeting would have been that day! Despite the intense heat from Singapore’s tropical weather, the committed members and supporters of Anchorvale Toastmasters gathered together for another exciting Chapter meeting; this time, however, with the presence of various prominent Toastmasters from Clubs around Singapore!

This Chapter meeting also doubled up as the Installation Ceremony for the incoming EXCO for Anchorvale Toastmasters. Facilitated by Zaid Yassin, CC, CL, we appreciated and applauded the achievements of the out-going EXCO while at the same time sat excitedly as we witness the installation of yet another group of dedicated members as the new driving force behind Anchorvale Toastmasters, led by our eager and capable Club President, Bernard Ng! We would like to welcome onboard our new EXCO members:

President – Bernard Ng

VP Education – Roger Yap

VP Membership 1 – Yvonne Ang

VP Membership 2 – Sathiyamoorthi Chinnasamy

VP Public Relations 1 – Sanjay Das

VP Public Relations 2 – Muhd. Zulhafni

Sergeant-at-Arms1 – Norman Tan

Sergeant-at-Arms2 – Thomas Slvaraj

Secretary 1 – Tan Leng Leng

Secretary 2 – Vereen Foo

Treasurer – Teo Kian Keong

Mentors – DTM. Richard Tay and DTM. Jenny Au

Group picture of new EXCO

We like to take this opportunity to thank our fellow toastmasters who had held the fort though the past 12months -  President- May Lee,  VPE- Bernard Ng,  VPM- Sathiya Chinnasammy, VPPR- Roger Yap,  SAA- Thomas Selveraj & Enya Tan, Treasurer- Jenny Aw & Teo Kian Keong, Secretary- Sandeep.

After a sincere first-ever Opening Address by our President, we wasted no time in showcasing the range of speeches that Anchorvale had to offer. Valippan Selvamani impressed us with his impassioned speech about the protection of the environment (“Protect Your Environment”); Thomas reminded us about something we always tend to neglect in our lives (“The right time to drink water”); Vereen Foo taught us the best ways to spend time with your family (“First things first”) while May ended up with her maiden Advance Project, tickling our funny bones with the recount of her exploits with her new smart-phone (“I am not smart enough for my phone”).

Our creative juices were put to the test by Zaid Yassin once more as he helmed an innovative session of Table Topics with the flair of a seasoned Toastmaster. We were enthralled by the myriad of speeches that came from the interpretation of his topics (the best, of course, being the teaching a pig how to sing!).

We also had the privilege of having our external evaluators putting our Club’s strengths to the test. Ken Chee, CC, Yeo Chai Tun, DTM and Mavis Lau, TM (visiting Toastmasters) provided us with insightful and enriching project speech evaluations. Dave Linde, CC, tested our language abilities with the challenging Word-of-the-Day (“prismatic”) while we had the honour of having Ted Chong, CC, CL to give us a general evaluation of how our meeting went.

We reluctantly came to the end of our meeting for the afternoon but will definitely be looking forward to the next session at Anchorvale Toastmasters. Congratulations to all prize-winners and thank you to all our visiting Toastmasters for ledning us your expertise and guiding our Club!

See you at the next meeting!

27^th Chapter Meeting Award Winners:

Best Project Speech Speaker: Valippan Selvamani, TM

Best Table-Topics Speaker:  Mike Woon.  ATM, ALS

Best Project Evaluator: Muhd. Zulhafni, CC

Best Regards

Zul (VP-PR2) & Sanjay (VP-PR1)

End of the term for EXCO team 2011-2012

It has been an 'annus mirabilis' for our club that serves to remind us of greater goals to aim for next year.   With a pinch of reluctance and reminiscence, we are drawing the curtain to a close on a fun-filled year running the Anchorvale Toastmasters Club.  While we pull the veil off our brand new team, featuring new enthusiasts who will carry the club to a higher altitude.    

I will like to take this opportunity to thank our old guards who had held the fort though the past 12months;  President- May Lee,  VPE- Bernard Ng,  VPM- Sathiya Chinnasammy, VPPR- Roger Yap,  SAA- Thomas Selveraj & Enya Tan, Treasurer- Jenny Aw & Teo Kian Keong, Secretary- Sandeep.

Our next VPPRs- Sanjay and Zulhaini will take over the responsibilities of maintaining our blog for next term,  please continue to lend your unrelenting support to our new pair of post-masters. Meanwhile, lets congratulate our winners from last chapter meeting;

Winner of ribbon for best prepared speech-  Wei Long

 Joint winner of ribbon for best table topic speaker- Norman Tan

   Joint winner of ribbon for best table topic speaker- Carolyn Street Johns

Winner of ribbon for best project evaluator- Norman Tan

Do make time to join us during our next chapter on Saturday, 28th July 2012.  We will be conducting the installation ceremony of our new EXCO team.  See you then, cheers!


Yours Truly,
Roger Yap  - VPPR

Extra! Extra! ...... Check out Anchorvale TMC's latest highlight!

On Saturday 31March2012, Zulhafni Muhammad, our representative to compete in the Area A2 contest for the 'Table Topics Segment', emerged as champion amidst a horde of competitors.  

22th Chapter Meeting - 24th March 2012

This chapter meeting saw the return of many old faces (all young-at-heart still nonetheless!) such as Steven and Norman, both having been away for quite a while – welcome back! Everyone was, once again, eager to begin the meeting and enthral everyone else with their repertoire of speech topics that they had prepared.

We were entertained with a wide range of speeches from Project 1 all the way to Project 8:  Congratulations Leng Leng for completing your first project and letting all of us know more about you! It was an enriching experience indeed - Sreeman taught us about the need to watch our health, heart and body; Steven imparted some of his hosting prowess in teaching us about how to effectively use our body language; Norman reminded the guys about our old, abandoned army boots (and discipline) and Roger shared his love of photography with his photographs of his experience (many of which left us wondering whether it was possible to capture such vivid and gorgeous images)

Bernard tested our limits as Table Topics Master, churning out a list of 65+ topics to choose from, some of which were topics from Advanced Club Meetings and Competition. Our members one-by-one stepped up to the mantle, took up his challenge and definitely did not disappoint.

We also had the privilege of having our Club President, May Lee (also the resident word-smith and a stern grammarian) assess our language as the Language Evaluator – reminding us of the difference between “compliment” and “complement” and kept her eagle-eyes trained on each one of us to make sure our language and grammar was up to speed.

The day reluctantly came to an end and here are the ribbon winners for this meeting:

Best Prepared Speech.. Steven Lee! How can one not be attracted to his infectious humour and enthusiasm – he never fails to light up the stage when he steps up!

Best Table Topics.. Roger Yap! This busy man managed to free up a slot for us for this meeting and definitely did not fail to impress us once more with his quick-thinking wit and creativity!

Congratulations to all the winners and I hope the meeting turned out to be as enjoyable for everyone else as it was for me!  Do join us for next chapter meeting!

Zulhafni Muhammad
Toastmaster of Anchorvale TMC