Katong Toastmasters Club

PROJECT SPEECHES Our August meeting saw a line-up of 5 speakers, 3 projects from the basic manual and 2 advanced projects. First speaker Tracey Yuen presented his P2 speech with the intriguing title  You are code. He told us to imagine  writing our signature. It seems so automatic yet involves many different steps, from holding the pen just right to making the ink impressions on paper.  When signing a document, we may need to r epeat our signature, and s ign at the right place.   In the same way, we can b reak down codes into chunks, repeat commands and ensure certain actions happen only when a prior action takes place. In this sense, w e humans are like computer codes. This analogy helps to demystify technology. Second speaker Swapna Menon, also presenting her P2 speech, shared about  The Essence of Indian Festivals.  Indians used to celebrate festivals everyday to bring life and exuberance. However, p overty came and only 30-40  festivals were celebrated. Now only a handful

AP3: The Roast (Special Occasion Speeches manual) Time: 3 to 5 minutes Speech title: My Mentor J.O.N.I.  Love her or hate her, either way she will be chasing after you to make sure you do your projects! Good evening Toastmasters and friends, does that sound familiar? Tonight allow me to share more about our club's Vice-president of Education, Joni Siah. And to do that I will break it down into her name - J, O, N, I.  J is about how I JOINED Katong Toastmasters Club.  Last November, I came back as a visitor, but I was chased around the room and backed into a corner. Joni gave me 2 choices - either join this Toastmasters Club or join her Katong Running Club.  Knowing that I cannot outrun her, I asked to be signed up as a member. And that's how I ended up here, presenting a speech about her.  O is for Opponent.  Simply presenting a speech during club meeting is never enough for Joni. She would make use of ways and means such as threatening to sever our frie

At our recently concluded Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests, our contestants entertained the audience with their humorous stories and shared insightful evaluations.  A big thank you to NUS Alumni TMC members for helping us to organise the event and make it such a resounding success!  Congratulations to all the participants and winners!   Humorous Speech Contest Champion Rajendra Tiwari  1st runner-up Geri Kan Evaluation Contest  Champion Joni Siah  1st runner-up Malcolm Chen  2nd runner-up Rajendra Tiwari The audience waiting for the contest to begin! Contestants for the Humorous Speech Contest Contestants for the Evaluation Contest! Our organising chair Gee Shing and TME James from NUSA TMC    A big thank you to Chief Judge Area Director Chen Huangzhi and all our appointment holders Our test speaker Nazir who spoke about Kindness Special tokens presented by Ida Lee to Immediate Past President Aarti, VP

21 July 2016 chapter meeting marks the beginning of the new term 2016-2017. We were delighted to welcome three new members Yau Hong, Tracey and Charles. VP Membership Malcolm conducted the New Members Induction to officially welcome them. New Members Induction for new members Yau Hong, Tracey and Charles, joined by mentor Vera. We had the honour of having Area Z3 Director Chen Huangzhi to conduct the EXCO Installation for the incoming EXCO team for the term 2016-2017. All EXCO members were represented except for Ida (Secretary) and Aarti (Treasurer).  The team pledged to serve the club to the best of their ability. EXCO Installation by Area Z3 Director Chen Huangzhi Following the EXCO Installation, incoming President Raj addressed the audience with his inaugural speech. He shared about his journey in Toastmasters and how it has helped him become a 3C speaker - clear, confident and competent. (Read the entire speech  here .) The highlight of the meeting was an h

President's Opening Address   21 July 2016  by Rajendra Tiwari Enlightening achievers, enticing speakers & enthusiastic guests - a very warm welcome. As club president, one of my roles is to deliver an inspiring opening speech at every meeting! By nature, I just love to listen to inspiring talks. However, when it comes to delivering them, I am just not there. Last week when I tried inspiring my thirteen-year-old Son Aman, he fell asleep in two minutes.  Nevertheless, I shall try my best. Today I would like to share with you some stories from my “Toastmasters journey”. One of the great entrepreneurs of our times Henry Ford said - “ coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success . ” Google says that he was never a toastmaster but his quote, hits the nail on the head. It seems like he was the VP Membership of his toastmasters club. At Toastmasters, don’t we live this quote every moment? Let me tell you how. When we jo

CHAPTER MEETING DATES 2016-2017 (3rd Thursday) 21 July 2016 (EXCO Installation) 18 August 2016  (Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests) 15 September 2016 20 October 2016 17 November 2016 15 December 2016 (Christmas-themed meeting) 19 January 2017 (Joint meeting with Tampines Changkat TMC at Katong CC) 2 February 2017 (Joint meeting with TCTMC at Tampines Changkat CC) 16 February 2017 (International Speech and Table Topics Contests) 16 March 201 7 20 April 2017 18 May 2017 (12th Anniversary Celebration) 15 June 2017 AREA/DIVISION Z EVENT DATES 2016-2017 1. Division Z Club Officers' Training (COT) I 30 July 2016 Saturday 1-5pm Singhealth, The Academia Level 2 2. Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests Area Z3: 16 September 2016 Friday 7-10pm Chong Pang CC  Division Z: 22 October 2016 Saturday  1 - 9pm Singapore Conference Hall 3. Division Z Club Officers' Training (COT) II 14 Jan 2017 Saturday 1.30-5pm Singhealt

PRESIDENT Rajendra Tiwari, ACB ( rttiwari@hotmail.com) VP (EDUCATION) Joni Siah, DTM       (jonisiah@yahoo.com) Defriceni Ng, CC     ( defriceni@gmail.com) VP (MEMBERSHIP) Malcolm Chen, CC  ( chenmalcolm@gmail.com) VP (PUBLIC RELATIONS) Roann May Burgos, CC  ( roann.kuan@ngaiheng.com.sg) Geri Kan, CC        (geri_kan@yahoo.com) TREASURER Aarti Kabra, CC  ( atkabra@gmail.com) SECRETARY Ida Lee, CC, CL   ( ida.lee@ngaiheng.com.sg) SERGEANT-AT-ARMS Eliz Wong, CC      ( elizwongse@gmail.com) Marjane Pulvera   ( finchjane@yahoo.com)

SAA Jane kickstarted the meeting by asking what we would like to accomplish this year. A few of our members (Aarti, Swapna and Geri) would like to be calmer, Roann is looking forward to going home to celebrate her baby girl's first birthday, Malcolm can't wait to complete his wine specialist course and Joni intends to run a half-marathon in August. Club President Aarti, in her opening address, confessed that she has missed many developmental opportunities due to fear of exposing her flaws. She recounted how she gave up on learning chess because of repeated defeat. Years later, she is confronted with the choice of playing chess with her son and realises that the " walls of incompetence " confining us is often self-imposed and we can break them down to free ourselves. (Read the entire speech  here .) VP Membership Leena conducted a short and sweet New Members Induction for our two new members Swapna and Rosean. They also received notebooks for them to take notes dur