Reflections and Resolutions

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

On 19 December 2013, we had our annual Joint Meeting with Brilliant Advanced Toastmasters Club. The meeting started with an icebreaker game Christmas Bingo where participants had to go around the room to find 9 different people who had done Christmas shopping, owned a Christmas album, had ever built a snowman, baked Christmas cookies and could name the presents the wisemen gave to baby Jesus （gold, frankincense and myrrh), among other things. And the winners were Dilya, Timothy and Ida!


Opening Address

Club President Ida enjoys a yinyang drink (made of 3/4 tea and 1/4 coffee) with kaya toast for breakfast.  She likens a group of people working together like the yinyang drink - everyone contributes something different to make a great blend. She mentions that although a 'postmortem' meeting sounds morbid, its purpose is to help us review and improve. In the same way, as the year draws to an end, we can spend time on reflections and resolutions to think about the year that is coming to an end and plan for the year ahead.  She ended her speech with a gift of a beautiful bookmark to everyone. What an endearing and personal touch!

Prepared Speeches

P2 speaker Geri presented a speech entitled Life Lessons from a 9-year-old. She recounted how she met Haiqal at a centre where she was volunteering.  She shared anecdotes and life lessons learnt from them: (1) To lead, you have to connect, to build trust, to care; (2) To be understood, seek to understand; (3) Never give up.

P9 speaker Kok Peng shared about the power of belief and how that translates into conviction, courage and hope. Through his experiences in setting up a website-based company, he has learnt 3 important beliefs: Believe in yourself, believe in others, believe in the power of all of us!

Presenting AP1 Warm up Your Audience from the Humorously Speaking Manual,  Leena tells us It's Never Too Late! Her amusing anecdote about how, as a little girl, her dream to be a ballerina was crushed had us in stitches. Belatedly she had a chance to explore dance in her university days, which was an enriching experience.  Her message to us: Get up and dance! Get up and pursue your passion!

Presentation on Evaluation Skills by Darren Tay


We had the privilege of having Darren Tay, two-time District 80 Evaluation Champion, share with us his techniques on evaluation.

Some pointers included:
(1) Be specific
(2) Substantiate your points with valid research
(3) Demonstrate / Illustrate
(4) Conclude properly - condense and crystallize the topic sentences

He also advised us about pitfalls to avoid, namely, (1) avoid using the same structure over and over again (oops! I'm guilty of that!)
(2) Avoid polarization, i.e. don't whitewash (e.g. that was the best speech/ most fantastic speech I've ever heard!) nor be overly critical.

Evaluations

Timothy Lin, from Queenstown TMC, gave Geri affirmations like attention-grabbing opening, well-organised speech and succinct closing. He suggested connecting key words in the introduction like "patience, wonder and hope" to the main points in the body of the speech to create a better flow. Geri could also share insights on how she has applied the life lessons learnt in other areas of her life.

Saddiq complimented Kok Peng for his openness in sharing about his life experiences, the use of quotations from famous personalities to spice up his speech and how he exuded sincerity and conviction.  He recommended strengthening the emotional aspect of his speech to make for a stronger case.

Seh Leng praised Leena for being humorous, brilliantly witty and bubbly and for her animated delivery.  To enhance her delivery further, Seh Leng suggested that Leena could pause a little longer before the punchline and condense the story.

Saddiq was voted as Best Evaluator! 


Table Topics Session

Three experienced toastmasters took up the challenge of Table Topics.

Saddiq waxed lyrical on the topic "Do New Year Resolutions Work?"  He sees no need for New Year Resolutions. Instead what we need are life principles to guide us in our everyday life.

 In response to the question "What is the best advice you have ever received?", Kok Peng confided it's three simple words: "Work is Life!" as shared by an interviewer when asked about work-life balance.  He was voted Best Table Topics Speaker for his profound take on this advice.  

"What is your best Christmas memory?" Sau Ying shared her delight in getting presents during gift exchange at Christmas parties.





Language Evaluation

Language guru Richard Sng expounded on the "good use, misuse and abuse of the English language". He highlighted wonderful words such as Dance is the hidden language of the soul, stomach was in knots, condense and crystallize. In his segment on wasteful words, he pointed out examples like let me tell you a story, sit down, let me ask you a question, collate them together.  Instead of using "good opening", one could consider other more specific adjectives such as striking, remarkable. 

Richard also highlighted the use of a rhetorical device Harmony in duality with examples such as "logic opens the mind, emotions open the wallet"; "thirst for knowledge, hunger for wisdom"; "broke the ice and melted my heart".

Voting Results:

Congratulations to the following who were voted as Best Speaker/Evaluator:

Best Table Topics Speaker: Khoo Kok Peng (Brilliant Advanced TMC)
Best Speaker: Leena Santore (Katong TMC)
Best Evaluator: Mohamad Saddi (Nee Soon East TMC)

To view all the photos taken at the meeting, click here

Champagne and gift exchange for the festive season!

Another enjoyable, educational and enriching session at Katong TMC!!