Katong Toastmasters Club

  We had a stupendous & splendid chocolicious Willy Wonka-themed meeting tonight! Members and guests brandishing their favourite chocolates!  SAA Lydia started the meeting promptly by greeting everyone and getting guests to introduce themselves and share about a time when they got lucky and won something. Club President shared the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory briefly and how Charlie was a boy who remained humble despite his win. He was able to share his windfall with the rest of his impoverished family. The key takeaway: Happiness is not just having what we want, but sharing what we have. We were delighted to induct 6 new members into our club, led by VP Membership Ida Lee. We welcome Rachel, Haifa, Sharon, Bee Bee, Emi and Fook Tiang into our Katong family! LE John Poon shared “flamboyant” as Word of the Day, and we happily tagged it to people and speeches, as in our flamboyant Club President. First speaker Sharon in her Icebreaker speech “Little Star, Big D...

We had an enchanting and spooktacular evening with members donning different crazy hats or Halloween get up.  Here's our Toastmaster of the Evening Rubin looking very enigmatic in her witch's hat and glittery mask, guiding us through the night's proceedings. Our enigmatic TME Rubin Club President Swarna completed her Innovative Planning L5 Speech "Mirror, mirror on the wall" as her opening address. She reflected on her learning journey in pursuing the Innovative Planning Pathway and the many lessons on leadership she has learnt. "Mirror, mirror on the wall" by Club President Swarna We had three Icebreaker speeches from our new members Haifa, Rachel and Bee Bee, as well as a Level 2 speech from Effective Coaching Pathway by veteran member Malcolm Chen. Haifa related a story that affected her deeply. Months before her O level exams, she was diagnosed with Hepatitis A, a viral infection that caused her liver to become enlarged and inflamed. She had to be ho...

OCTOBER 2020 15  October 2020  (Thursday) 7-10pm October  Chapter Meeting Theme: Crazy hats/Halloween 31 October 2020 (Saturday) 2-3.30pm 6 Ways to Make a Speech Engaging  by Kok Yee Keong A Workshop organised by Division Z NOVEMBER 2020 19 November 2020 (Thursday) 7-10pm November Chapter Meeting Theme: Willy Wonka 29 November 2020 (Sunday) 2-4.30pm Evaluate to Elevate by DTM John Sih A Workshop organised by Division Z DECEMBER 2020 12 December 2020 (Saturday) 2-5pm Club Officers Training (COT) 2 For ALL EXCO members 17 December 2020 (Thursday) 7-10pm December Chapter Meeting Theme: Super Heroes JANUARY 2021 7 January 2021 (Thursday) 7.30-9.30pm No frills meeting  21 January 2021 (Thursday) 7-10pm Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests FEBRUARY 2021 18 February 2021 (Thursday) 7-10pm International Speech & Table Topics Contests 21    February 2021 (Sunday) 3-5pm EXCO Meeting MARCH 2021 18 March 2021  (Thursday) 7-10pm March  Chapter Me...

  We kickstarted the last quarter of the year with a phenomenal joint meeting with Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club. We even came up with two portmanteaus (blend of two words) to describe our union: Changkatong or Kachang (which do you prefer? 😊) SAA Bhaskar (from TCTMC) started the meeting promptly at 7.30pm and welcomed members from both clubs, eliciting excited whoops and enthusiastic applause. TME Wayne Nerva (from TCTMC) upped the energy level with his clever puns and succinct introductions of each appointment holder. Language Evaluator Hyder Taufik (from TCTMC) gave us "ascend" as Word of the Day. It's a verb that means to "move, climb or go upward; rise to a higher point or degree". We definitely hope the joint meeting tonight allows us to ascend to greater heights of online collaboration! TCTMC President Wendy Wang likened the current pandemic to a battlefield. In his words, "Everyday is like a war zone, fighting in an endless battle. We'...

There was a special segment hosted by Geri who invited her friend Nic Tan, a technical director to share with us Presentation Skills - Looking & Being Your Best on ZOOM . He shared useful principles of ZOOM such as avoiding windows with light from behind and low camera angle. He also showed pictures to illustrate the principles. In the Prepared Speeches Segment, we had three speakers, including two Icebreaker speeches. First speaker Thomas Ng shared about his academic journey which led him to Chicago. After achieving straight As and a scholarship, he proceeded to New York for further studies and returned to Singapore in 1991. He misses his good ol’ days in NY and looks forward to visiting it one day. Second speaker Yau Hong shared about his life as an engineer and how it’s hardship to be an engineer. Not many engineers actually stay on in the industry, in fact, only 15% of the 15% who make it stay on.   He also shared about a rare cancer that saw him go through 22 operation...

 Our Club President Swarna mooted the idea of a Speech Marathon to give our club members more opportunities to speak and evaluate.  We were all excited and raring to go. After choosing the dates, we launched the Speech Marathon in September 2020. We had three sessions on Thursdays with a total of 12 speakers. Three members Joni, Rubin and Avnish completed Level 1 of their Pathways, and four members Swarna, Geri, Nicholas and Cherylene completed Level 4 of their Pathways. We would like to thank all our EXCO members and club members for their active participation and contributions. Here is a snapshot of our programs and the photos we took, together with the voting results for each session: Session 1: 3 September 2020 Best Speaker: Harleen Best Evaluator: Geri Session 2: 10 September 2020 Best Speaker: Cherylene Best Evaluator: Geri & Cherylene (tie) Session 3: 24 September 2020 Best Speaker: Lydia & Rubin (tie) Best Evaluator: Joni Siah

Our Club President Swarna informed us about the Speech Marathon happening in September and got the members excited about presenting more project speeches. With three extra sessions in September, members will be given more opportunities to speak and evaluate.  We officially welcomed two new members Lydia and Yau Hong with a New Members Induction conducted by our VP Membership Ida Lee.👏👏 Our August online meeting featured four speakers: My First Time by Lydia Ng Lydia was challenged by her daughter Daniella to try a roller-coaster ride a few years ago on their visit to Disneyland. Her first ride was made with eyes shut tight and yelling in fear. On the second ride, with heart still pounding, she managed to pry open her eyes to survey the landscape. On the third ride, she raised her hands and started to enjoy the fast and furious speed of the ride. By the fourth ride, her eyes were wide open and both her hands were punching the wind. They completed 7 rides that night in less than an...

We started the 2020/2021 term with a phenomenal meeting with three visiting Toastmasters Clifford, Yee Keong and Sylvie from Cameroon who added valued, verve and vitality to our meeting. Our club President Swarna inspired us with her powerful opening address. She intends to reset, refocus, restart to recreate the magic that earned our Club the President Distinguished Club award last term. She aims to focus on encouraging members to take on projects, membership and learning. Her vision for the club is to create a legacy where our club is known for our competence, confidence and character. Our seasoned speaker Rosalind embarked on the Effective Coaching Pathway with her Icebreaker speech “Education is a journey, not a destination”. She encourages us to continue to embrace lifelong learning. Joni inspired us with a story about her mother’s journey of health and how she continues to practise healthy living even though she’s 80. Marina in her Research and Presenting project...

Due to COVID-19, we shifted our physical meetings online. We are now able to meet virtually and still carry out our speeches and table topics. Thank goodness for technology! We started off the night testing out our cameras and microphones, making sure that we could all hear each other comfortably. The meeting was then called to order by the Sergeant-At-Arms, Roann, who asked us to share either the most memorable or recent trip that we had overseas. Each shared their own personal stories either from their younger days or when they almost got quarantined because of the virus, after they arrived back home from travelling. Joni, the Toastmaster of the Evening, then gave her welcome address, followed by the opening address by our Club President, Hyun Joo, who shared on theme of New Awakenings. To start off the project speeches, Rubin completed her Level 1 Project 2, Evaluation and Feedback, about how she struggled speaking to her daughter when it came to sex education. Nicholas follo...

We started off 2020 with a bang as we shared about our dreams and aspirations for the new year. Do join us for our next meeting on 20th Feb 2020 7pm @Katong Community Centre. We will be having our speech contest! Remember, dreams don't work unless we do!

Congratulations to all our contestants and winners of our Club Speech Contest. International Speech Contest: 1st   Geri Kan 2nd Swarna Kalyan 3rd Deibby Mamahit Table Topics Contest: 1st Swarna Kalyan 2nd Geri Kan 3rd Deibby Mamahit Deibby will also be participating in the Humorous Speech Contest. Come and support our winners for the Area Z3 Speech Contest!

A big thank you to all the appointment holders for helping out last night to make our club contest a roaring success! Congratulations to all our participants! Your speeches were thoroughly enjoyed. Table topics: We should always forgive and forget. Do you agree?

This was our Table Topics on our first zoom meeting on 19 March 2020. Feel free to practise these topics at your own time. Self-improvement doesn't just happen during our meet-ups. It happens right at your own home too.