Recap: 141th Chapter meeting by Norman Tan

Despite not having attending Toastmasters in a long time, I was exhilarated to be attending Anchorvale Toastmasters 141th Chapter meeting, as this would mean seeing old friends, making new friends all the while bonding over sumptuous food.

As predicted, the moment I entered I was greeted by the ever-friendly Jenny, our Club Mentor as she treated us to spring rolls, carrot cake and chee cheong fun. What would we do without our beloved mentor Jenny and without the delicacies that she always prepares? J

With that, the meeting got off to an energetic start, with Hilda breaking the ice by asking everyone what their passions was. Next, Club President Chee Sian delivered a rousing opening address, with a call to new members to take up roles in the new exco term.

Next I sauntered onstage to explain the Word of the day, “Endeavour”, which connotes an attempt, to aim or to try to achieve. Its always encouraging to see members endeavouring to stretch their vocabulary and challenge themselves to use the WOTD in creative ways.

Next up, it was Toastmaster-of-the-day Valli, Timer Cheok Pui and Ah-Counter Hilda turn to shine as they readied themselves for the start of the meeting proper. Cheok Pui in particular, was raring to go :P

For the Prepared Speeches, Claire demystified and distilled the mental condition of Dementia using an analogy of a shifting bookcase which I can’t quite forget. Next, Audrey posed us a question “How Lucky are You?” and peeked a little deeper at the very habits that makes us successful. Thereafter, Bharathi shared about the most important 4Gs in her life. Lastly, Jeff espoused about Steven Bannon, Donald Trump and their profound impact on the world.

As with all Toastmasters speeches, our project evaluators came next to assess our speakers on whether they had met their respective project objectives. For that, we had Helena Lim, Muthu Ganesh, Rusman and Jenny to share on their acute observations. Its always useful to hear an independent assessment of your speech to identify new areas for improvements.

Last but not the least was our Table Topics session, where our Table Topics Master Joseph quizzed the crowd on beautiful quotes from famous movies such as Mulan, and Forrest Gump. While the participants sweated, the audiences were enthralled. Kudos to all (Margaret, Andy, Souvile, Kar Keng, Wilson, Samuel, Clara, Cheok Pui, Marcus) who bravely attempted the topics!

With that, it sums up our 141th Chapter Meeting. Till the next meeting (hint: Chalet) for more exciting and fun adventures!

Best Speaker: Audrey, PM1

Best Table Topics: Margaret

Book Review by Desmond Chong: The quick and easy way to Effective public Speaking by Dale Carnegie.

“Try your best to develop an ability to let others look into your head and heart. Learn to make your thoughts, your ideas, clear to others, individually, in groups, in public. You will find, as you improve in your effort to do this, that you—your real self—are making an impression, an impact, on people such as you never made before.” 

― Dale Carnegie, The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

This book provides a quick and concise method about improving your public speaking skills, in a few simple but important rules and some tips as well. Simple but importance examples and rules are shared and Carnegie sums it up into 5 steps

The 5 steps highlight the importance of public speaking not only in a professional stage but also how effective public speaking helps not just in a corporate environment but also in daily lives and allows you to know how to convince others by display a high level of confidence.

Part one explores the fundamentals of acquiring basic skills with a few simple points. For example taking heart from your own experiences or even others, keeping your goal before you, predetermine your mind to Success and also seize every opportunity to practice which eventually leads to success. He emphasizes how to build confidence by first acting confident, preparing in the proper way and the importance of never making a scripted speech. Speaking about something which you are deeply passionate or highly experienced about is certainly the way to be connected about your topic as your listeners are likely to be easily bored or disconnected with a mechanical memorized speech.

Part two then goes about looking at the speaker, Audience, and speech. It goes into limiting the subject and about developing reservice power and in particular, goes into the kinds of examples and the illustrations that can add to an engaging speech, for eg using metaphors to create vivid pictures in your mind

Part three looks into the purpose of prepared and Impromptu talks. Great insights about  how to do talks to persuade/ inform and convince with preparation, Impromptu speaking can be persuasive, informational or even entertaining depending on the occasion demands to make your communication powerful.

Part four goes deep into the art of communicating and how to deliver the talk. Effectively shows how being eager to share your message will ensure you deliver your speech with ease and your audience will be eager to hear your message.

Part five relates to how to use specific details to apply to everyday conversation and most importantly in public speaking situations

I find this book highly insightful, engaging and effective. It gives great for everyday communication in both personal and business situations. I would really recommend this book for everyone, especially to the budding toastmasters.

“In almost any subject, your passion for the subject will save you. If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it. If you wish to be good, you will be good. If you wish to be rich, you will be rich. If you wish to be learned, you will be learned. Only then you must really wish these things and wish them with exclusiveness and not wish one hundred other incompatible things just as strongly.” 
― Dale Carnegie, The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

Book Review By Desmond Chong

Joint Meeting Grassroots & Anchorvale CC Toastmasters

Joint Meeting

Grassroots & Anchorvale CC Toastmasters 

27th April 2019, Saturday

Together We Can Achieve More!!!

The Famous American author, political activist, and lecturer, Helen Keller once said "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Grassroots Toastmasters Club & Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club together proved the statement right, by jointly conducting a wonderful session with alacrity*.

The session was kickstarted by SAA Valli. Everyone introduced themselves and echoed with the theme of the session “Together We Can Achieve More!!!” by sharing their own personnel experiences on how there is strength in unity. Anchorvale TM Club President Chee Sian during his Presidents’ address shared his memories of visiting Grassroots Club and shared how everyone should be alacritous* by getting out of our comfort zone by doing things which challenges us (including visiting other clubs!). TMD Jenny introduced all the role takers and briefed about the meeting proceedings.

First Speaker Trinh (Pathways Level 1 Project 2 Evaluation & Feedback) spoke about Goal setting and achieving goals with practice and consistency. Second Speaker Dany (Pathways Level 1 Project 3 Researching & Presenting) took us through an aromatic journey by sharing all about “Coffee”. Then came in Francis (Pathways Level 2 Project 5) who spoke about cross cultural understanding and shared few anecdotes in relation to Filipino accent. It was then Frank Perera’s (SR1 Pathways Level 3 Project 7) turn to speak about different styles of negotiations. Raymond (DL2 Project 8 Get Comfortable with Visual Aids) enlightened everyone by sharing importance of retirement plans. Finally Pang In Tiam (AP3 The Demonstration Talk from the “Speaking to Inform”) gave a demonstration of an application to keep kids away from mobile games!

After an array of impressive speeches, it was time to have refreshing break. Members and guests filled their tummies with pizzas, cake, fruits and a refreshing sweet potato dish prepared by Jenny.

During the evaluation session toastmasters Jeff Lin, Wee Chee Sian, Mugan, Hu Richen, Valliappan Selvamani, and Thomas Lee, evaluated respective speakers precisely and sublimely. Evaluations were followed by Table topic session, wherein TTM Yuen Cheok Pui (who bravely took the role for the first time) brought in interesting topics and encouraged participants to speak on the topic for 2-3 mins. Many volunteered and shared their thoughts on beguiling topics posed to them. Language Evaluator Deepthi then shared good languages usages and highlighted few grammatical errors speakers made during the session. Aaron presented the Ah counter reports and Timer Shu Rong who was keeping check on time throughout the session, presented the timing report.

It was time for results. Chee Sian called upon the valiant winners and handed over the ribbons.

Best Speaker: Francis

Best Evaluator: Mugan

Bes Table Topic Speaker: Lex

The President of Grassroots TMC Jennifer Lee presented the closing address, shared her valuable thoughts about the joint session and adjourned the meeting.

Indeed, it was a successful and awe-inspiring joint session.

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

--Henry Ford

alacrity

/əˈlakrɪti/

noun

synonyms: eagerness, willingness, readiness; enthusiasm, ardour, fervour, keenness, joyousness, liveliness, zeal; promptness.

alacritous

/əˈlakrɪtəs/

adjective

brisk or lively.

137th chapter meeting recap: By Valliappan

It was a very hot sunny afternoon. That too on a school holiday. Nothing can stop our toastmasters from attending the 137th chapter meeting held at Anchorvale CC Falcon room on 23rd Mar 2019.

The chapter meeting was started at 2:00 pm sharp by our Sergeant at Arms, Narayana Rao. He started with an ice breaker question on “What made us attend the toastmasters meeting even though it is a school holiday period?”. Members shared that they love to be in Toastmasters meetings to get rid of their routines and also to learn something new. Some members mentioned in a lighter fashion, that they were in the meeting as they were single or have had accepted roles for the chapter meeting and forced to be there. With all the laughter, the stage was handed over to the Toastmaster of the Day (TMD) , Rusman Hadijanto. 

After briefing the meeting structure and introducing the appointment holders (Hilda - Timer, Marc - Ah Counter, Valli Kasinathan - Table Topics Master and Valliappan - General Evaluator), the TMD welcomed our president Wee Chee Sian for presenting his opening address. Chee Sian mentioned about the importance of public speaking and the 3 possible outcomes of the speech. The speech that we practiced, the speech we actually gave and the speech we desired to give. He stressed the importance of practice to make the speech better and also invited members to take up leadership positions in the next EXCO term starting from 1st July 2019 onwards. He also excited the members by telling about the special chapter meeting to be held on 27th Apr at our club in partnership with Grassroots club.

The TMD was exemplary and did a commendable job by inviting the speakers for their prepared speech by mentioning their speech title, interests and leading the applause. The four speakers for the day were Ponnuchamy, Jeff Lin, Helena and In Tiam. Ponnuchamy impressed everybody with his stupendous ice breaker speech and also shared us about the book “The Answer” , the first book he had read from title page to the last page and inspired all of us to read the book. Jeff Lin spoke about his experience as a “Protege”. The next speaker Helena Lim scared the audience by throwing a fake snake at the crowd, to demonstrate the fear and explain about how to overcome fear in those kind of situations. She also urged everybody to learn to do First Aid. The final speaker In Tiam did a role play with his cutie princess Jung Yi, to persuade her to take up roles in her school events.

Hilda did her role as a timer diligently and provided her timer report. There was no voting for the best speaker as only 3 speakers were qualified for the voting. TMD announced the next exciting segment which was the Refreshment Break, giving opportunity for the members to network with each other while having sumptuous food and a lovely rainbow cake. Our special thanks to Jenny Au, for bringing Papaya for the refreshment.

Following the break, the evaluation segment started and our competent evaluators Narayana Rao, In Tiam, Freya and Chee Sian gave their incredible evaluations to the speakers and  also helped them with some tips to improve their speeches. Unfortunately there was no voting for evaluation as well as only 3 evaluators were qualified.

Valli Kasinathan being the Table topics master came out with various questions for the table topics revolving around women, in lieu of the Women’s Day celebrations in March. As usual our club members and guests volunteered themselves to take up the challenge and there were close to 10 table topics speakers.

Special thanks to Marc, who accepted to take up the Ah counter role on the spot with great spirit. He did an exceptional job by listening very attentively throughout the meeting to capture the pause fillers and repeated words and provided a detailed report.  The last segment was the General Evaluator report provided by Valliappan. He appreciated what went well during the meeting and gave suggestions on areas that could be improved. 

Finally Chee Sian presented the best Table Topic Speaker award to Desmond and DTM Andrew Kwan.

Everyone felt happy for a well spent weekend afternoon and dispersed home.

Bye to all, till we meet on 13th Apr for another great session !

Blog post for 136th Chapter Meeting:By Joseph Lum

Blog post for 136^th Chapter Meeting

With the euphoria from the recent International Speech, Speech Evaluation and Table Topics contests still in the air, the 136^th Chapter Meeting got off to a great start as the Sergeant-At-Arms, Sathiyamoorthi, called the meeting to order and invited everyone to recall a life-changing personal experience that involved stepping out of one’s comfort zone. Filled with gratitude, numerous members shared about how joining the Toastmasters had made a big, positive difference in their lives – probably something which everyone present could not agree with more, based on the nods and smiles around :) Even the beautiful weather outside the cosy RC meeting room seemed to concur!

After a nice, welcoming introduction by Jeff who was the Toastmaster of the Day, Chee Sian, our club president, addressed the meeting and shared the good news that Zulhafni and Francis would be representing our club at the Toastmasters competition on 20 Mar 2019. Amid the cheers and applause, Chee Sian also invited and encouraged everyone to attend and lend support. We wish Zul and Francis all the best!

After that, Valliappan, the Grammarian cum Language Evaluator of the Day, introduced the Word of the Day, “euphoric”, and motivated the audience to keep improving their grammar and vocabulary so as to achieve more effective communication.

Next was the first major segment – and the most highly-anticipated part – of the Chapter Meetings – the prepared speeches. There were a total of five[1] – by Claire, Hilda, Zhaomin, Rusman and In Tiam. I could sense that the audience was feeling almost euphoric while being treated to a healthy feast of topics – ‘superfood’ Kale (Claire), inspirational movies (Hilda), managing stress (Zhaomin), negotiation technique (Rusman) and cost-effective cloud storage solution for personal use (In Tiam).

After that was the makan break. I must say that it certainly met its objectives – feeding the attendees with delicious food contributed by Jenny, Claire (Kale salad) and other members, plus providing opportunity for everyone to interact and catch up with one another, as well as get to know the guests better and invite them to join our club.

With euphoria (yes, again!) after the physical nourishment, the second major segment of the meeting – Speech Evaluations – commenced. The first member to present the evaluation was Helena, followed by Joseph, Valliappan, In Tiam and lastly, Rusman. It was a great learning experience which benefitted not only the speakers, but also the audience and even the evaluators themselves, as everyone picked up useful tips.

Finally, it was time for the third and last major segment of the meeting (and probably the most “feared” one) – Table Topics! A total of six persons courageously participated, including Francis who took the opportunity to practise for the upcoming competition :) The others were CP, Mark, Assella, Bryanti and Souvik. It was truly a battle of nerves – not against others’ but against their own – as they picked and fielded questions lovingly prepared by our Distinguished Toastmaster and mentor, Jenny :)

Before Chee Sian wrapped up the meeting, the attendees also benefitted from the valuable findings shared by the Ah Counter, Francis, and the Grammarian cum Language Evaluator of the Day, Valliappan. We gained so much from the meeting!

In his closing address, Chee Sian shared a piece of good news – following the EGM held before the meeting, the monthly membership fee has been reduced from $18 to $16, in view of the healthy financial position of the club. The audience ruptured into loud applause!

Last but not least, we congratulate Claire who was voted Best Speaker, Joseph who was voted Best Evaluator and Francis who was voted Best Table Topic.

Thanks everyone who made the meeting possible and so enjoyable and fruitful!

Blog post happily prepared by Joseph :)

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[1] Andy was unable to make it at the last minute and sent his apologies.

Recap: 135th Chapter Meeting

They say that the 5^th day of Chinese New Year is believed to be the birthday of God of Fortune and so people celebrate with a large banquet. It seems it is not untrue.

The 135^th Anchorvale Toastmaster chapter meeting was again another extraordinary gathering of club members highlighted with a banquet of excellent speeches and of course, the iconic prosperity toss, lo-hei.

Still in festive and upbeat mood, the meeting was commenced by Sergeant-At-Arms Shubhangi asking how everyone celebrated Chinese New Year. There were many interesting answers from the club members. Majority enjoyed the reunion among family members and friends and relished delicious foods as they gave and received Ang Bao. For non-Chinese members, it was a good 2-day breather; a time to rest and recharge.

Our genial host, Toastmaster of the Day, Dinesh then set out the agenda for the meeting and subsequently introduced the club president, Chee Sian for his opening address.

It was a powerful remarks from our president as he talked about the greatness of African runners who dominate the world’s stage in any long distance races. These are runners who trained and invested tremendous amount of hard work to achieve excellence. It was a moving speech and key takeaway was if we focus on a specific thing and work hard for it, then we can achieve success beyond what most people achieved. It is never impossible.

Next, Language Evaluator, Ebnu set foot on the centre stage to share his “fantastic” experience in a flight simulator. It was an eventful experience to him, that none of the superlative words can describe. Thus, he introduced the word of the day, “fantastic”. He encouraged all speakers to adapt this word.

The 5 prepared speeches were one of the highlights of the meeting. It was started off by Hong Tee who spoke about an inherited blood disorder called Thalassemia. She said that if both parents are carriers of Thalassemia, then there is a greater chance of inheriting a more serious form of the disease. She left off her speech with a call to action to everyone to be vigilant and take precautionary measures.

Francis and Andy were the second and third speaker, respectively. Both talked about leadership styles. Francis kicked off his speech with a funny anecdote of a leader and demonstrated his democratic style of leadership through storytelling. Andy, on the other hand, started off with cool approximation of a leader. He discussed there is never one-size-fits-all leadership style. And the best style is your style and being genuine to yourself.

Rusman, the 4^th speaker orated that a good understanding of communication style allow us to learn how to react most effectively when confronted with a difficult person.

And last but not the least, In Tiam spoke about the ability of any organisation to manage constant change through Agile Methodology.

The meeting then took a “yummilicious” break to toss for prosperity and enjoyed pizza buffet. When it resumed, project evaluation began. Evaluators Anthony, Sajith, Valliapan, In Tiam and Zul assessed the speeches and gave valuable feedbacks and improvement pointers to the speakers.

The most exhilarating yet exciting part of the meeting was next. Table topic master, Sajith presented Chinese New Year related topics .As always, new members come first and so Souvik, our freshest club member took the stage. As if it was not his first time, when asked what he can teach on CNY, he enthusiastically talked about teaching the correct way of breathing. Jeff Son’s Yu Kang shared about the most exciting thing he did during CNY which was prawning with his dad. Anthony recalled kinship is everything and it is what he cherished about CNY. Valliapan thought that when people we love are still around, we should not take them for granted.

Language Evaluator Ebnu praised and shared his observation for the prepared speakers that day. When concocting a speech, he suggested not to stop at first draft. Be deliberate. And as the speech is improved, use triads to emphasize a point and practice good vocabulary. If plausible, search for good metaphors and link it to your speech. Be creative by playing with words, he added.

President Chee Sian in his closing remarks shared about the usefulness of the Anchorvale Toastmaster club blogspot. In particular the links where to download the evaluation forms. Club members are encouraged to visit the blogspot for announcements, meeting recaps, and book review, among others.

And finally, before the meeting ended, President Chee Sian awarded the best speaker ribbon to Francis, the best evaluator to legendary Zul and best table topic to dashing Anthony.

It is definite that our 135^th chapter meeting captured the attention of the God of Fortune and therefore all club members are ensured of his favour and good fortune for themselves and their families in the year ahead. Gong xi fa cai.

Penned by Francis

Sengkang West Bursary Education Awards 2019 - written by In Tiam

Sengkang West Bursary Education Awards 2019

Outstanding school students were recognized for their success at this year’s Education Awards Ceremony, which took place at the Anchorvale CC on 12th, 13th, 19th and 20th January.

Anchorvale Toastmasters Club members Alice Ow, Pang In Tiam and Norman Tan represented the club as the emcees to host and facilitate this grand event with Dr. Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State for Health & Transport, Grassroots Adviser to Sengkang West GROs. 

The ceremony saw school students from the Sengkang West receive their certificates and cheque for their achievements in academy results.  This year saw record numbers of awardee, more than 3,000 awardees across more than 30 sessions of the ceremony.Sengkang West Zone A, B, C, D, E, K, and L Bursary Education Awards was held on 12 and 13 January 2019.  Sengkang West Zone F, M, J, N, AVNC, FVNC and EMA (Zone A - N RC) Bursary Education Awards was held on next weekend 19 and 20 January 2019.

Our emcees had given a very strong, effective and high energy opening to kick start the event. Followed by a keynote was delivered by Dr. Lam and highlighted Sengkang West has the most awardee compare with other area and various efforts to grow our talents. 

Our emcees then warmed up the crowd and invited all awardee to give a big hug and thank you to their parents.  They continued to engage the awardee and interviewed them.

‘Without support from my parent, I won’t be able to achieve so much.  I want to tell them how much I love them’, said one of the awardee. 

Besides the award presentation and photo session, our emcee also collaborated with Sengkang West RCs and Anchorvale Youth Executive Community (YEC) members and share a lot of events which are happening now.  Awardee and family also actively visit YEC booth to find out more details.

It was wonderful 4 days for our emcees to step up and host the event for 9 hours continuously every day.  It always seems impossible until it is done.  Yes, they did it and entire ceremony was conducted successfully. We would like to take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to Alice Ow, Pang In Tiam and Norman Tan....and to Anchorvale TM club!

-In Tiam