Anchorvale TMC 66th Chapter Meeting on 14th March 2015

First Time, First Memories, First Step

We all have first times in our life. And we shared ours during the icebreaking session. Zulhafni, ACB was our Language Evaluator that day and he did things a little different from usual. Instead of giving the usual word of the day, he introduced a rhetorical device of the day – triads (Power of 3).

Then came the prepared speeches. Karthik informed us on internet security and privacy, specifically the threats present online and how to prevent them. Then Yueqi spoke on accepting unexpected moments by not sticking to schedule. Rasu inspired us to open up our mind to more possibilities by talking to more people. Deb recalled a very exciting story that happened to him personally. Salma, CC, CL attempted giving a provocative proposal to the public – legalizing the sale blood and organs. Yueqi and Salma’s effort eventually won them the best prepared speech ribbon.

After a refreshment break which celebrated the birthdays of members born in the months of January, February and March, the project evaluations segment began.

Ken, Mae, Mugan, Norman and Roger, CC, CL each gave their respective evaluations of the prepared speeches. Roger eventually clinched gold got the best project evaluator.

Alice, our table topics master prepared 12 envelopes, each corresponding to a month of the year. Speakers will then have to recount something that happened during that month that they chose. We heard many fun stories and we all got to know each other a little better. Alvin’s incident of his birthday being on April’s Fool Day brought us lots of laughter and thus won him the best table topic speaker.

Since Zul took up the role of being both the Language Evaluator as well as the Ah Counter, he did things differently this time round. By taking note of our frequency of using certain pause fillers, he introduced us to how each one of us tend to use them and how we should reduce its usage. He also gave a very useful tip, when delivering a speech, one has to take note of 3 things – yourself, your speech, your audience.

Anchorvale TMC’s very own Riz will be representing us in the Area ‘A2’ International Speech and Table Topics Contest, to be held on 28^th March 2015 from 1:30 to 5:00 PM at Temasek Polytechnic. It is an event not to be missed as you will get to see the best that Toastmaster has to offer. Do join us in cheering for Riz!

Special thanks to all appointment holders and visiting guests: Mugan (Grassroots TMC).

Best Prepared Speech: Yueqi and Salma, CC, CL

Best Project Evaulation: Roger Yap, CC, CL

Best Table Topics: Alvin

Written by: Chen Ken

Table Topics!

Free egg for each speaker!

Thank you all so much!

One of the best prepared speech!

The other one!

Best evaluation!

Best table topics! Well done!

Anchorvale TMC International Speech and Table Topics Contests 2015 on 28th February 2015

11 prepared speeches. 10 impromptu speeches. 2 champions.

Despite being contest day, not a single hint of nervousness could be sensed. Our ever-so-cheerful contest chair Jenny Au, DTM started off the contest by briefing the contestants and audience about the rules and regulations of the international speech contest. Then it began. The international speech contestants are:

Hareesh BN

Ken Chen

Norman Tan

Prasad Karnati

Riz Masurekar

Rudy Tan

Salma Begum

Sathiyamoorthi

Thomas Selvaraj

Wee Chee Sian

Zulhafni Zulkeflee

Right after all the speeches were delivered, the judge ballots were immediately collected and the refreshment break began. With a sumptuous spread of delicious food, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The contest chair then read the rules and regulations of the table topics contest before picking out the table topic for this contest. The contestants were then ushered out of the room, not before confiscating their handphones. Don’t worry, they were returned after the contest. The contestants are:

Alice Ow

Hareesh BN

Rasu

Riz Masurekar

Roger Yap

Rudy Tan

Salma Begum

Senthil

Thomas Selvaraj

Zulhafni Zulkeflee

Again, the judge ballots were immediately collected and the results were tallied. Tokens of appreciation were then presented to all contestants, appointment holders and judges. Good job everyone!

Finally, it’s time for the announcement of the contest results. The winners are:

International Speech

Champion: Riz Masurekar

1^st Runner-up: Zulhafni Zulkeflee

2^nd Runner-up: Salma Begum

Table Topics

Champion: Zulhafni Zulkeflee

1^st Runner-up: Riz Masurekar

2^nd Runner-up: Roger Yap

Congratulations to all winners! And to the rest: don’t be sad, there’s always next year.

Special thanks to all appointment holders, Contest Chair Jenny Au, DTM, Co-Organising Chair and photograher Yueqi Ge, Videographer Anila, SAAs In Tiam Pang, Karthik, Ying Leong, Tally Counters Debananda, Ng Luan Eng, CC, Yap Zhee Lian, Timers Edwin Tan, ACB, ALB, Ng Kin Foong, CC, Chief Judge Lynda Neo, ACB, ALS and her group of Judges.

To see and hear more from our club, visit us at our next chapter meeting on 14 March 2015. Hope to see you there!

Written by: Chen Ken

Phones on sale!

Tokens of appreciation

Contest Chair & Co-Organizing Chair

Table Topics Bronze!

Table Topics Silver!

Table Topics Gold!

International Speech Bronze!

International Speech Silver!

International Speech Gold!

Contestants with Contest Chair

Anchorvale TMC Chapter Meeting on 14th February 2015

Balloon, roses, chocolate

14^th February. Valentine’s Day. On that lovely afternoon, Anchorvale TMC gathered for a short and sweet chapter meeting at Seng Kang West Zone ‘D’ RC Centre. The meeting quickly got started with our President Sathiyaa, CC asking everyone to introduce themselves by sharing an interesting incident of their loved ones.

The meeting immediately moved on to the prepared speech segment. Senthil spoke on how to relax ourselves through a short and simple meditation exercise. Deb shared his story on how he earned everyone’s respect during his university times. His dramatic recount bagged him the gold. Ken then gave an amusing speech on how ugly he was as a kid. Chee Sian explained how love is able to change the growth of living things. In Thiam then persuaded everyone to change how they view photography by keeping it simple.

The table topics segment followed right after. The table topics followed the theme of the day – Valentine’s Day. Kin Foong, CC’s cheeky explanation of his topic won him the best table topics speaker ribbon.

Next was the evaluation segment where Salma, CC, CL, Sathiya, CC, Kin Foong, CC, Devesh and Zulhafni, ACB gave very helpful tips for our speakers. Zulhafni eventually beat the rest for the best project evaluation.

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, the ribbons were awarded with balloons. Surprisingly, the colour of the balloon matches the colour of the attire worn by the speakers perfectly! (See below for photos!) And it wasn’t a set-up!

Our first big event of the year, Anchorvale TMC International Speech and Table Topics Contest, will be held on 28^th February 2015 from 1:00 to 5:45 PM. It is an event not to be missed as you will get to see the best of Anchorvale battling it out for honour and glory.

Special thanks to all appointment holders and visiting guests: Ng Kin Foong, CC (Tampines Changkat Toastmasters) and Devesh Nair (Grassroots TMC).

Best Prepared Speech: Deb, TM

Best Project Evaulation: Zulhafni, ACB

Best Table Topics: Kin Foong, CC

Written by: Chen Ken

Hot Pink!

Light Pink!

Purple!

Division A Amazing Race on 31st January 2015

Wearing her shoes, all twenty-four carat,

To The Prom, she starts to walk.

After a meal, at the Old Market,

The Catfish swims, back to his spot.

This is a riddle. Can you guess the four landmarks it is referring to? For Anchorvale CC Toastmasters contestants to the first ever Division A Amazing Race; Norman Tan (Catch Us), Rachel Heng (The Killer Girl Squad), Roger Yap, Julie Mae, Ken and Rasu (Anchorvale Avengers), Suresh plus son Liktesh, Deb and Chee Sian (Anchorvale Minions), beside scratching our head, we had to frantically draw lines on the map linking Golden Shoe to The Promontory and Merlion to Lau Pa Sat. Next come the running to the metal cone sculpture (where the lines crosses) to take picture before running back to the starting point at UOB Plaza for the next clue.

Interestingly, our assignment at UOB Plaza was to do a spontaneous group dance for a minute, what a great workout! The Avengers and Minions (not the super heroes and the cute playful lots) decided to do a Macarena! You know, the one with folding arms and head touching movements……. All for the sake of the next clue, which is…..

Dashing off to Haw Par Villa! Taking the trains, it’s about one of few times we can take a breather. Phew! But on reaching the car park there, we have to stomach this; literally two pieces of bread and two biscuits per person from two members in each team before we can proceed into the villa. There we were treated to a hurried, or shall I add sweating, educational tour of traditional Chinese values, by taking picture of statues and information boards (if any) with at least two members from each group based on the clues given. On correctly identifying and photographing the five needed, one of which is Confucius (one other is Statue of Liberty – traditional Chinese values? How confusing!), we were given the next instruction to……

Scurry down to Vivo City! To the roof top near the hanging man for our next clue. Running around in an air-conditioned shopping mall, taking embarrassing pictures with mannequins (each team member to take one with each) and collecting free samples (at least one food, one cosmetic and one brochure) is another mad men experience. In addition to that, remembering at least fifteen words and acting out five of which from a gymnasium advertising “wall of offerings” is testimony the organizers (our member, Salma, is one of) believe in both mental and physical extreme stretch before we are allowed to…….

Enter Sentosa Island by foot! A great day to burn calories. No, the bread and biscuits cannot make up for it. We could take train or bus once we are in the island to Palawan Beach though. Again, no, not the one in sunny beautiful Philippines. But we were helped by beautiful beach goers in taking photograph of all four of us in a team jumping up, captured at the precise moment when we are in mid air, with the beach and the sun as our background. Taking in mind the jump was a challenge in itself as it was done with weak knees. This is so as we had just built a sand castle approximately a meter wide and, ahem, knee high! We had fun going back to our childhood play though. And alas, the moment of truth…..

Crossing the shaky and crowded hanging bridge with our shaky knees, we made our way to the final pit stop, which is the Southern Most Point of Continental Asia. Hurray! Anchorvale Minions emerged third in this inaugural Amazing Race! The magnificent bonding continues……

Written by: Chee Sian, TM

Groupie!

If it's not a full-stop, what is it?

Macarena!

Rushing to the checkpoint!

@Vivo!

Deb, you look really tired...

So hungry...

Chee Sian... 

2nd Runner-up!

Chilling out after a tiring day.

Anchorvale!

Group shot with all the participants!

Anchorvale TMC 64th Chapter Meeting on 24th January 2015

Short and sweet

This  was Anchorvale’s express chapter meeting! Although it was a two hour meeting instead of the usual three hours, we still managed to cover everything. (With just a bit of rush, of course) On that day, we had four splendid speakers who shared their speech with lots of confidence. In fact, Xavier did his first Icebreaker speech, where he shared about his life stories and his awesome experience while he travelled to Las Vegas during his school internship and the amazing skydiving he tried over there. (Not to mention he lost one of his shoes during the dive)

Julie Mae moved on to her Project 6 – ‘Vocal Variety’ while In Tiam shared on his Project 8 – ‘Get Comfortable with Visual Aids’. In Tiam showed us some unique presentation tips using the PowerPoint slides.  It was really fun listening to both of the speakers as they engage with the audience.   

Lastly was our club champion Riz who delivered his memorable Project 10 – ‘Inspire Your Audience’ with boldly with confidence especially when he inspired the audience that it is not the size of the fighter but the size of the fight inside the fighter. The highlight came when he got everyone to stand up and got us to motivate ourselves by speaking encouraging words to ourselves and each other.

After the four prepared speeches, was my favorite segment- table topics! Rasu chaired the table topics as he challenged the audience to imagine they are living in the past or future (depending on the topic they picked) as 10 brave volunteers racked their brains to give an impromptu speech.

Lastly is our evaluators’ turn to shine while they shared what they liked most and areas for improvement.  They are Rachel, Hareesh, CC, Norman, CC and Shu Zhen, ACS, ALB, when they provided their thoughtful evaluations to the respective speakers. Norman’s excellent comments and evaluation won him the best evaluator of the day.

So do join us for our next chapter meeting on 14th February 2015!

Special thanks to all appointment holders and visiting Toastmaster: Shu Zhen, ACS, ALB.

Best Prepared Speech: Riz, CCBest Project Evaluator: Norman Tan, CC
Best Table Topics: Deb

Written by: Xavier

Congratz on your CC!

Best evaluator!

Best Table Topics!

Anchorvale TMC 63rd Chapter Meeting on 10th January 2015

Happy New Year!

The first chapter meeting of the year was held last Saturday, 10^th January 2015. A simple round of introduction signaled the start of the meeting as everyone spoke briefly on the languages and dialects that they can speak. Different people can speak different languages and dialects, but there is one similarity – English. And everyone is here to improve their English speaking.

The meeting quickly moved on to the President’s opening speech as Sathya, CC enlightened us on how our idea will influence our words, which in turn influences our actions, then our habits, and finally our character. He even conducted a tiny experiment to explain his point. He placed a bunch of white flowers into a jar of blue dye and invited us to see what happened to the flower at the end of the meeting. We had a Language Evaluator that day – Muthu, CC, CL. He encouraged us to use the word of the day – ZEST.

The much anticipated prepared speech segment starts right after. As her ice breaker, Nisha shared with us her personal experience as a firefighter. Senthil then educated us on the benefits of spending just 20 minutes every day jogging, as he had improved his health condition through this activity. Ken told a suspenseful yet humorous story about monkey brain, surprising everyone with a twist at the end. Riz had everyone laughing as delivered a hilarious speech on the difference between the brain of man and woman. Finally, Leng Leng educated us on how to lead an awesome life by following the 3 As – Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity. With that Leng Leng completed her Competent Communicator manual and is now to be known as Leng Leng, CC. J Congratulations!

Following the end of the prepared speech segment, a short refreshment break gave us the opportunity to mingle with the guests.

The end of the break marked the start of the project evaluation segment. Alice, Anila, Prasad, Salma, CC, CL and Roger, CC, CL all gave their insightful comments on the prepared speeches. Salma’s evaluation impressed everyone to win her the coveted best project evaluation.

Next came the interesting and adrenaline inducing table topics segment! Our table topics master, Deb, made this special by wrapping the topic slips with a piece of chocolate. The topics were suitably made to fit into the New Year theme. Richard, DTM eventually bagged the gold with his informative speech. However he decided to present it to a guest, Rainee instead.

It was the language evaluator’s turn to shine as he was jotting down impressive uses of language throughout the meeting. Muthu, CC, CL commended everyone for successfully using the word of the day repeatedly.

The meeting eventually ended with the President’s closing address.

Oh! Remember the flowers? They turned blue!

Interested in finding out more? Come join us on 24^th January 2015 for Anchorvale TMC’s 64^th Chapter Meeting.

Special thanks to all appointment holders for their contribution.

Best Project Evaluation: Salma, CC, CL

Best Table Topics: Richard, DTM

Written by: Chen Ken

Best Project Evaluation!

Best Table Topic!

Our guest, Rainee

Congratulations on ice breaking!

Leng Leng, CC