Anchorvale TMC Club Contest Series

Warm greetings to all and especially to all our brave contestants for the upcoming Anchorvale TMC International Speech and Table Topics Club Contest!

As part of this series in the build-up to the exhilarating day, hear from the 'veterans' of Anchorvale TMC and take a rejuvenated confidence for the contest!

First up, some encouraging words from Contest-veteran (who has been to the Division Level) and charismatic Club President, Roger Yap:

"It is true, when you step out as a contestant in facing the challenge, you need to have the courage to stand alone, under the spotlight.  Nevertheless, it is also true that when you reach for the stars, at least you won't end up with a handful of dust.  Go make your mark! " 

With that, all the best to all participants and remember, regardless of the competition, we are all in essence, definitely still the Anchorvale family!

Joint ITC-Bintang TMC & Anchorvale TMC Meeting - 23rd Nov 2013

He steps out of his house, intoxicated by the promise of the meeting evening. It was a meeting of two parties, the start of a fresh relationship and the birth of a consummate pairing. Definitely dressed for the occasion, he waited in the room for her arrival – dressed in his best, dressed to impress.

No, this is no simple love story – this was the meeting between ITC Bintang Toastmasters (“ITC Bintang”) and Anchorvale Toastmasters (“Anchorvale TMC”)! Under the blistering heat of the Singaporean intense sun on yet another Saturday (23^rd November 2013), members from both sides of the Causeway gathered together at Anchorvale CC for a delicious Joint Chapter Meeting between ITC Bintang and Anchorvale TMC. A brainchild of both teams, the stage was set for what was to be an impeccably sumptuous oratorical feast.

It was indeed my immense fortune to be drafted as the Toastmaster of the Day; I was able to experience first-hand the hospitality and effervescent nature of the toastmasters from ITC Bintang and Maxis TMC. Why, the Club President of ITC Bintang himself, Gabriel Chong, ACB/CL, was simply delightful as I tied down the programme for the day!

The session was of course definitely made special by the attendance of our local visiting Toastmasters as well as the guest attendances of our triadic talents – District 80 Governor, DTM Pradeep Kumar, Division A Governor, DTM Carolyn Street-Johns and Area A2 Governor Rebecca Chan! In what was an indication of the quality of the session to come, both Club President Roger Yap, CC/CL and Pradeep Kumar, DTM gave stirringly inspirational opening speeches as a reminder of us to reach out and be “legends” while at the same time not to be “too serious” about Toastmasters! I was definitely hard-pressed to give a performance worthy of the opening!

Project Speeches

In a spread befitting of the session, we had a buffet of 7 speeches, comprising of 4 projects from the CC Manual and 3 Advanced Projects from 3 different AP Manuals. Riz, TM from Anchorvale started out with a charismatic and sincere lesson on how a parent should raise his/her child. We were further treated to an existential journey with Hareesh, TM followed by a trip down terror lane with Salma Begum, TM and Vereen Foo, TM delivering spine-chilling personal renditions of their personal experiences of being held at parang-point and supernatural encounters respectively. Bernard Ng, CC/CL entertained the crowd with his speech while Roger offered us a deal we couldn’t resist. Melvin Tham, CC/CL from ITC-Bintang gave a sincere re-telling of a folk tale from the Storytelling Manual to round off the Project Speeches.

The session paused for refreshment as everyone brought their empty stomachs to the actual spread of buffet which was ready for everyone to tuck into. It was another round of enjoyable networking for the crowd and even the SAA found it tough to gather everyone back to resume the session!

Project Evaluations

In tandem with the traditional programme of ITC-Bintang, the session this time was subsequently helmed by the charismatic and energetic Gabriel Chong of ITC-Bintang fame. In a fresh twist to our standard programme, the audience were treated to not only the valuable spread of evaluations but also an immediate evaluation by the General Evaluator of each Project Evaluator – definitely something we can consider incorporating in future meetings!

Table Topics

Everyone was definitely geared up and ready for the challenging Table Topics session – helmed by the effervescently personable Tham Cinyee, CC/CL who was prepared with a complete set of Malaysian and Singaporean topics for the taking. From a special tour of the Night Safari to a recount of Malaysia’s delectable pineapple tarts, we were definitely entertained byt the creative genius of all the speakers who courageously took up the challenge. I’m sure every single of us agree that no one ‘mempertosoykan’ themselves during the session (you have to be there to know that that means!).

Our Division A Governor,Carolyn showed everyone her ever-expanding repertoire of toastmastery talents by gamely taking up the refreshing role of Evaluator for Table Topics – she provided us with immediate, sharp and relevant comments on the speakers of the day and all this within a short preparation time!

Conclusion

All good things however have to come to a conclusion – while everyone was reluctant to take their leave (we only left the room because we needed to vacate the premises for the next booking!), we all went back nonetheless with a saturated mind and a satisfied soul. It was a feast for the mind, a feast for the senses and definitely a feast befitting such an occasion – mark my words, this is but only the start of a beautiful friendship between ITC Bintang and Anchorvale TMC and likewise, we will definitely look forward to any future opportunities for collaboration!

Thanks & Congratulations

In that vein, we would like to offer our thanks to (in no order of merit):

• Our District 80 Governor, Pradeep Kumar (for sharing your books as well!), Division A Governor, Carolyn Street-Johns (and for taking up the Table Topics Evaluator role), Area A2 Governor, Rebecca Chan (for taking up the evaluator role as well)
• All our appointment-holders for the day
• To all our visiting Toastmasters from District 80, ITC-Bintang TMC and Maxis TMC (especially to those who took up appointments)
• And all our guests!

At the same time, we offer our hearty congratulations to the ribbon-winners for the meeting:

Best Project Speaker – Melvin Tham CC/CL & Riz, TM
Best Evaluator – Robin Yap, CC/CL

Best Table Topics Speaker – Claudia Ryu

Final Words

With that we hope to see you at our next meeting! Watch out for details! 

43rd Chapter Meeting - Anchorvale TMC - 26th October 2013

And here's a highlight reel of our previous Chapter Meeting on the 26th October 2013!

Video Courtesy of Bernard Ng, CC/CL

Anchorvale TMC - Golden Gavel Once Again!

The Div. A Golden Gavel has landed on Anchorvale's turf again! The travelling group who helped us grabbed the glory on the 8th October 2013 was made up of the following members;  Sathiya, Zulhafni, CC (Project Evaluator), Salma (Language Evaluator),  Joseph (Ah Counter) and Roger, CC (Toastmaster of the Evening). Thank you, once again, to Fengshan TMC for having us down for such an entertaining and enriching session; we definitely gained a lot from the session!

Anchorvale Toastmasters Chapter Meetings - 14/09/13, 28/09/13

Warm greetings everyone!

Anchorvale TMC has been very busy the past month with not one but TWO Chapter Meetings on the 14th of September and 28th of September! To mix it up, we had a special, surprise guest all the way from Korea - here is her message out to Anchorvale TMC Toastmasters:

To Anchorvale CC Toastmasters

It was great that I got to know Anchorvale CC Toastmasters. It took long hours at MRT and LRT station to reach the community club (I took a wrong direction, which was East Wing) but still it was worth it. Before the meeting started, some people welcomed me with a warm smile and from that I already knew I would enjoy the upcoming meeting. Six speeches and ensuing evaluation sessions were neither usual nor short for me. But each speech was enough for me to put my whole concentration into picking insightful pieces in every sentence that touched my heart. And evaluators, they were well-prepared, ready to view their speakers in their own sincere words. It was not until the meeting was adjourned that I had realized it was my first time to be here, which means I was fully participating in Anchorvale TM with its most hilarious members and other guests.

Truly, I was inspired with thought-invoking speeches, great organization, and good people. Thank you for everyone giving me such a wonderful experience.

p.s. Right after going back to Korea, I paid my membership fees and signed up in Korean Toastmasters. I never realized I wanted to be a great speaker who moves people’s heart only before I attended your club.  

Rebecca Park, from Busan, Korea

Thank you, Rebecca for the kind words and congratulations on securing the Best Speaker Ribbon on your maiden Toastmasters Speech! We definitely look forward to having you back in December ;)

Do look out for our publicity blast for the next meeting and more exciting events ahead! 

Anchorvale Toastmasters Chapter Meeting (24th August)

Anchorvale Toastmasters (24th August)

Welcome to Anchorvale Toastmasters Club 40th Chapter Meeting!

Let us begin. Kian Kiong, CC, our Sergeant-At-Arms of the day, kicked-start the meeting with a topic that evoke everyone's thoughts about their strengths, weaknesses and ambitions. Needless to say, in the midst of everyone's sharing we have discovered that some of our fellow toastmasters have given themselves many interesting and worthy ambitions to accomplish in the club and surely,  we are all looking forward to watch them, not forgetting ourselves, capturing the dream as we all continue to ride on the toastmasters journey together.

Just before we move on, I would like to add that the ambience or rather the mood before the meeting began was slightly different as compared to the past. You may wonder why is this so? This outcome was based on the fact that the meeting was held at 9am instead of the usual timing of 2pm. Fortunately, our Anchorvale toastmaster leaders were experienced soldiers and being unfazed by a morning agenda, they engineered the meeting towards a great start!

The Induction Ceremony

Valliapapan, TM, did a splendid job in carrying out the ceremony, where he presented three new members into the family of Anchorvale Toastmasters Club. From here, we'll once again welcome Anila, MaryAnn and Abilash to our club! It was a heartening moment to see that the club is growing stronger in numbers and not to mention the significant progress it has gone through since the beginning of the year.

Our Language Evaluator, Bernard Ng, TM

Since my joining in Anchorvale Toastmaster Club as a member, I must say I'm always dazzled by the ideas, speeches and the fantastic evaluations made by a Langauge Evaluator every time he or she takes the podium. And that morning, Bernard had shown all of us that he has truly embodied the spirit of a Language Evaluator and produced a wondrous, aspiring and passionate performance. Kudos for explaining to us the Power of Three that work wonders!

As the morning presses on to accommodate a wealth of content, our speakers have already begun their prepared speeches, wowing the audience one by one with their captivating stories and performances. I would never forget the awesome performance by our guest speaker Karen Woon, ACB, showing off her powerful selling skills, enticing Bernard Ng, TM, to make an immediate purchase of the BPA-free set of items!

Up next we moved on to Table Topics session which made unique and memorable by our very own Neo Wee Chong, TM, pulling off from the conventional method of having the speaker to select a topic from bundles of topic papers. It was a fantastic performance conducted by him, whereby the fantastic visual aids produced by a projector and laptop as well as the convenience of his iphone's applications allowed speakers to pick at random his or her table topics. Kudos to Wee Chong!

And alas, the results are out and congratulations to our winners!

Best Prepared Speech: Vereen Foo, TM

Best Table Topics Speaker: Siow Ling (Marine Parade Toastmasters Club)

Best Project Evaluator: Yew Ru Bin, ACS, CL (Guest Speaker)

Last but not least, congratulations to YMCA Toastmasters Club for attaining the Golden Gavel from us!

 

Let us here thank our guests who have participated and contributed throughout the meeting!

From YMCA Toastmasters Club:

Karen

Lynn

Todd

Rubin

General Evaluator:

Kevin, TM

 Do join us for our next Chapter meeting on the 14th September 2013!

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Chong, TM

Anchorvale Toastmasters Club - Quest for the Golden Gavel

On Friday, 02 August 2013, 4 of our members visited Marine Parade Toastmasters Club in participation of the “Pirates of the Golden Gavel” program.  Sathiya, Salma, Sreeman and myself were warmly welcomed by the nice folks there.   The program was initiated by the District Leaders, to promote the spirit of camaraderie among different clubs within the same division.  Marine Parade was the first club to get the rights of holding on to the golden gavel, while Anchorvale volunteers as the first challenger. 

The Golden Gavel!

We took on some appointment roles while being part of the group during their chapter meeting;

Roger Yap-  Language Evaluator

SathiyaMoorthi- Project Evaluator

Salma Begum-  Timer

Sreeman Mannamusiva-  Speaker for a prepared speech project

Merely a week away from our National Day, the organizer decided to adopt a patriotic theme by asking all participants to turn up in red & white.   Well, it seemed like a tall order for me, as I don’t have anything that is red in color.  I tried to put a red hanky, exposing it on the front pocket of my blazer, but it really looked awful.  Definitely a better idea not to do it, I will look as if I travelled in a time-machine and came from 1960s! Fortunately, no one really noticed as I was virtually hidden from view in the sea of reds and whites.

The fellow toastmasters from Marine Parade were such gracious hosts; we really had a great time during the meeting, enjoying their company.  N

ow that the Golden Gavel has landed on our turf, we endeavor to show similar hospitality to our guests.  Till date, we have already heard from 3 different clubs, who expressed their desire to join us on Saturday, 24^th August. (9am to 1pm).  It is certainly going to be an exhilarating experience for everyone involved.  

The team that brought back the gavel!

For anyone who is interested to be part of the action, do feel free to contact our VPE, Sathiyamoorthi at 98528340!

At the same time, feel free to come down or drop in on the action on the 24th August 2013 (9 am - 1 pm) - Anchorvale Toastmasters await your arrival!

Article contributed by: Roger Yap, CC