Anchorvale grabs the Golden Gavel on 24th April 2014

 A band of pirates set sail from Anchorvale with one mission. Trekking through rough seas and heavy thunderstorms via the TPE and the PIE, we finally arrived at Bedok Toastmasters Club. Full of energy, we had our sole purpose - to grab the Golden Gavel! Arrrrr

The District's truly inspiring vision that was introduced at the Div A COT in June 2013 was to promote stronger bonds of friendship between clubs. That is the purpose of the Golden Gavel! To visit a club that is holding the Golden Gavel, grab it by having appointment roles at said club's chapter meeting, and subsequently invite another club to your own meeting to grab it. 

This time, we visited Bedok TMC to grab it for the, wait for it, fourth time! The visiting band of pirates were Suresh Reddy (Ah Counter), Thomas Selvaraj CC (Project Evaluator), Sathyamoorthi CC and Salma Begum (General Evaluator). Suresh performed his role to perfection while Thomas gave such a motivating speech evaluation! Sathya, the ever-present awesome VPE was our club's strongest supporter.

We had such an enjoyable and enriching time at Bedok and hope to visit them again! Their hospitality was so heart warming. I believe the purpose of the Golden Gavel was certainly met. 

Thank you once again to Bedok TMC for having us!

Come on down to Anchorvale's next chapter meeting on the 10th of May to witness another club grab the Golden Gavel from us! 

Written by: Salma Begum, TM

Anchorvale TMC - 51st Chapter Meeting on 19th April 2014

Hey there folks!

It was a scorching hot afternoon as I made my way down to Anchorvale TMC’s 51^st Chapter Meeting. It was held at Sengkang West Zone 'D' RC Centre instead of the usual venue at Anchorvale CC, which was undergoing renovations. Being unfamiliar with the new venue, I made a few wrong turns before finally arriving at the RC Centre. My fellow club members were milling around outside, sweating in the sultry heat, as we eagerly awaited our turn to use the room.

Club President Roger, CC CL opened with an intriguing story of a boy who chose to feed imaginary fishes in a hotel’s swimming pool instead of feeding real koi in a pond outside the hotel. This was because his parents forbade him to venture too far, and so he decided to pretend there were fishes in the pool that he could feed. The next story was about a man who lost his phone in a dark field, but decided to search for it in the well-lit street next to the field. Roger then posed a stimulating question, “in our quest to improve ourselves, are we focusing on the right areas?”

With that in mind, it was time for the prepared speeches. As always, a wide range of topics were covered, showing the diversity of members’ backgrounds and interests. Ken spoke about the recent mystery of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 and the different ways we could contribute to disaster relief efforts. I spoke about the fear of public speaking and how it might be due to the imposter effect. Rizal discussed the idea of success and what it might mean. DD Daruvala DTM presented lessons we can learn from the fall of the once-mighty hand phone maker, Blackberry. Hareesh bravely described the differences between men and women.

After the refreshment break, our evaluators gave many insightful comments and useful tips on how to improve in public speaking and livening up a speech. We moved on to table topics, helmed by Saleena. To our surprise and excitement, instead of the usual “pick a topic and deliver a short speech” style of table topics, we had a “story-telling session”. Saleena started off with a scenario and each speaker was to continue the story. The last speaker was to end with, “and I was glad to finally be home.”

Despite the sometimes confusing twists and turns that the storyline took, most of the participants spiritedly volunteered and spoke enthusiastically. It was heart-warming to see everyone enjoying themselves, especially our youngest guest Likitesh, who made everyone roar with laughter when he endearingly declared himself "the CEO of Panasonic" during his turn. Well done for a refreshing form of Table Topics Saleena! We certainly look forward to seeing more creativity from our members.

Perhaps it is not surprising that Anchorvale did take home the Star Award for recruiting more than 20 new members in the 3rd quarter of the fiscal year, as announced by Roger in his closing address. As a first-time visitor commented, the club has a warm and welcoming vibe and it was easy for her to feel at ease. I have the same sentiments as a “three-month-old” member myself, which is why I signed up in the first place. 

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club is indeed focusing on the key aspect of what a toastmasters club should have; providing a supportive environment for its members to learn and grow together. 

But don’t simply take my word for it, come on down for our next chapter meeting on the 10^th of May 2014 and experience the hospitality yourself.

Thank you to all appointment holders and visitors! 

Congratulations to Award Winners!

Best Prepared Speech: Hareesh, TM

Best Project Evaluator: Jenny Au DTM

Best Table Topics Speaker: Likhitesh

Article contributed by: Rachel Heng, TM

Suresh the proud daddy watching his son claim yet another Best Table Topics Speaker Ribbon

Hareesh, as usual impressing us like a pro

DTM Jenny, our beloved Club Mentor never fails to impart priceless words of wisdom

Division A International Speech and Table Topics Contests

The day for the Area Champions to battle for glory was upon us.

The Substation, founded in 1990 is Singapore's first independent contemporary Arts Center. On 12th April, it was our pleasure to have it as the venue for the Division A International Speech and Table Topics contest.

The opening address was delivered by our bubbly Div A Governor DTM Carolyn Street and Area A6 Governor R. Sabapathy ACS/ALB, our witty TMD from the Tamil Toastmasters club.

First up, was the Table Topics contest, and the all-important quote was "The show must go on!" 

After the break, it was time for the International Speech contest where our very own Salma was the 3rd speaker. Salma began with confidence and assertiveness. She demonstrated with vigor, how she brutally killed the ants in her kitchen. Moving on to her dream where she turned into an ant, and lived its life. When she woke up, what she experienced as an ant came crashing upon her. She concluded by rousing the audience to work hard as a team, which in her opinion, is the most valuable lesson ants can teach us.

Soon it was time for the results to be announced. The winners of both contests will proceed to Bangkok to compete in the District 80 contests. The Table Topics Champion was Melvyn Goh.

It was time for the results of the International Speech contests. The winner was Saint Yi Htet. Surprisingly, Salma was not placed among the top 3. Her supporters, filled with consternation and dismay couldn’t understand why. Despite the upsetting news Salma showed no signs of disappointment. She knew she did her best and remained poised and confident, the hallmark of a true champion.

Our District 80 Governor DTM Pradeep Kumar ended the day by describing a book he read. He questioned the audience about what makes a leader. A thought provoking question that clearly piqued the audiences’ interest.

An unexpected development that day, was Anchorvale CC TMC receiving the Star Award for recruiting more than 20 new members in the 3^rd quarter of the fiscal year. It was a delightful surprise and a fantastic team achievement. Hopefully, this propels Anchorvale to even greater heights.

Why don’t you come on down for our next chapter meeting on the 19^th of April 2014 at  Sengkang West Zone 'D' RC Centre, Blk 307D, Anchorvale Road from 2pm-5pm. Apologies for the change in venue, as our usual spot is undergoing renovation.

Hope to see you there!

Written by:Thomas Selvaraj CC

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters 50th Chapter Meeting on 22nd March 2014

Bountiful hearty greetings!

Anchorvale reached another commendable milestone as we gathered for our remarkable 50^th Chapter Meeting. Coupled with our double victory at the recently held Area A2 International Speech & Table Topics Contests on 8th March by our sparkling Salma Begum (International Speech) and charismatic Club President Roger Yap, CC CL (Table Topics), club members were in celebratory mode!

To sum it up with one word, I would use RESILIENCE to describe this memorable afternoon. A meaningful takeaway for everyone present. The followings are the reasons why.

With our usual venue at Anchorvale CC undergoing renovations, as well as last minute cancellations to alternative venues, our VPE Sathya, CC managed to get access to Sengkang West Zone 'D' RC Centre and ultimately made this meeting possible. Bravo to Sathya!

Next, our Club President, Roger Yap’s opening address was about the recent drought, the longest in Singapore’s history. He explained to us about plants that can survive without water for up to four years! Simply amazing!

Interestingly, our prepared speeches all touched on the theme of grit. Firstly, Kiran about his challenges seeking a job from his hometown, to a city in India and finally to Singapore. Rachel Heng on her childhood love of reading and story characters leading to her present job as an editor. Hwee Leng highlighted the power of positive affirmations. Valliappan described his bumpy vacation with his family that ultimately led to a wonderful holiday. Bernard Ng, CC CL introduced a different version of the tortoise and hare story (albeit a humorous one) as he gave May Lee, CC a roasting. Finally, I described prisoners who overcame adversities.

It was a real treat to witness Salma’s rehearsal for the upcoming Division A Contest. Salma, we are all behind you!

We had a unique evaluation this time with May Lee, CC presenting an absolutely scintillating poetic reaction to Bernard’s speech, filled with rhymes and more rhymes.

The theme for our table topics was 'Milestone' to commemorate our 50th meeting. Our Table Topics Master, Joseph Chong provided an array of interesting topics, with 12 enthusiastic volunteers tackling his questions! 

I find it amazing, that even with the change of venue, we still had a turn out of more than 30 folks with many first timers. From the many positive feedbacks, we made a great impression. Kudos to all our members! It is a team effort.

We would like to thank all appointment holders.

Congratulations to the Award Winners.

Best Prepared Speech: Chee Sian, TM

Best Project Evaluator: Norman Tan, TM

Best Table Topics Speaker: Vijaya

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the Division A Contest on 12^th of April at Temasek Poly and our next Chapter Meeting on 19 April 2014.

Cheers!

Article by: Chee Sian, TM

Anchorvale Toastmasters 49th Chapter Meeting- 22nd February

Welcome welcome, to another fabulous day at Anchorvale Toastmasters

A day to show-case the prowess of our talented Toastmasters. Our chapter meeting was attended by more than 30 Toastmaster members and visiting guests.

It was my pleasure to take up the role of Toastmaster of the Day for the very first time.

This meeting was extra special, because we had an induction ceremony for our new members conducted by our VPM Norman Tan.

After the induction ceremony, our Club President- CC/CL Roger Yap gave an opening address in which he explained his thrilling Indonesia adventure where he was stranded due to the sudden volcano eruption causing massive travel disruption.

We had a sterling round of prepared speeches. Congrats to Ken Chen and Zal for completing their maiden speeches in which they described their musical journey and pursuit for self-development respectively. Followed by an empowering speech from Saleena about how we can save the world. Venkat’s P6 was a superb fictional horror story that kept us on the edge of our seats. Our final prepared speaker was our heroic superstar, our VPE Sathya, who just completed his P10. Congratulations on becoming a Competent Communicator! He described his ‘Mission Impossible’ and inspired us to strive to achieve our dreams.

Followed by another round of excellent feedback from our evaluators, and special congrats to TM Joseph Chong who completed his first project evaluation. We moved on to Table Topics, conducted brilliantly by CC May Lee. The topics were based on intelligent quotes inspired by the prepared speeches. As she said, the harder the topics, the better the quality of speeches. And we could definitely see that being true, our table topics speakers wowed us as they tackled the tricky questions.

Our special thanks to VisitingToastmaster- Daniel Lee, Grassroots TMC for participating in our meeting as a General Evaluator and all appointment holders. 

Congratulations to our award winners!

Best Prepared Speech – CC Sathyamoorthi

Best Table Topics – Jim Hencke

We hope to see you at our next meeting on the 19^th of April! Watch out for more details.

Article by: Riyaj Masurekar, TM

Anchorvale's first Speech Craft for 2014

Greetings!!

Guess what folks? 

Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club has big plans to end this term with a bang. In light with Toastmasters tradition, we organized our first Speech Craft session on the 23^rd of February in collaboration with Sengkang West Zone D RC. 

This was the first in a series of workshops that Anchorvale will be organizing. The Speech Craft program allows experienced Toastmasters to present the fundamentals of public speaking to the general public and club members.

For this session, we had two outstanding Toastmasters to learn from. First up, was our inspiring and enthusiastic club President, Roger Yap, CC, CL. He described the foundations of speech delivery, gestures and movements. His demonstrations were so useful, I felt myself nodding vigorously to his words, and at certain points, having light bulbs go off in my head, with the “ahah, yes I should incorporate that in my speech!”

Our next speaker, hailing from Toastmaster Club of Singapore is a seasoned communicator, Toastmaster Shishir Choudhary, CC CL. Shishir graciously agreed to speak at our first Speech Craft session and my oh my, was it a privilege. He shared his secret for communicating well, with regards to self-awareness. His presentation was so motivating, I didn't just receive secrets of communicating well, I felt much better about myself too.

It was indeed, a fruitful day and we hope that our next three Speech Craft sessions, to be conducted in May will match or be better than our first one.

More information will be posted closer to the dates!

Till next time, adios amigos!

By: Salma Begum

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!