16 June 2016 Meeting Synopsis
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 during meetings. They will both present their Icebreaker speeches this evening.
Our Language Evaluator Geri gave us the Word of the Day 'revert', which means to return to a previous state, practice, topic etc., for example, "he reverted to his native language". It is commonly misused in emails when someone writes, "I'll revert tomorrow."
Prepared Speeches
Swapna wowed us with her enthusiasm and energy in her P1 Icebreaker Speech The Diary of A Lioness. She was a mischievous child and often played tricks on others. She was nicknamed lioness by the neighbourhood children and did not have many friends. However, as she grew older, she became a quiet person to the surprise of many who knew her. She now lives in Singapore with her husband and 8-year-old daughter and works as a trainer to teach children presentation skills. She enjoys participating in all kinds of activities to get to know more people, including joining Toastmasters.
Rosean in her P1 speech I was, therefore I am gave us an insight into her childhood in Australia. She was born and bred in the mountains and was free to run wild. She was taught to learn something new everyday, that loyalty is important, and that tourists are rich but stupid. That was how as kids, she and her friends managed to earn money by performing stunts on their ponies for tourists. Her biggest regret is putting work over family and hence, missing out on seeing her father for the last time. She enjoys golfing and shooting and now rides around in a Harley to reclaim the freedom she enjoyed as a child.
Eliz, in her P10 speech, Everyday Creativity, tells us how we can be just as creative as geniuses like Mozart, Picasso and Einstein. As children, the world is limitless to us. As adults, we can tap into everyday creativity by not limiting it to where and how we can find it as it can happen in the strangest of places and at any moment. She shared the story of how potato chips was created out of culinary vengence. We do not need fanciful or expensive gadgets to find creativity, as evidenced by the beautiful murals painted by inmates using the most basic art equipment in the Fremantle Prison in Australia.
Malcolm attempted AP2 Speaking in Praise from the Special Occasions Manual. His speech The Five Gems of the Club focused on the strengths of Katong Toastmasters Club. The five gems refer to mentors, food, inspiration, encouragement and bonding. Malcolm shared anecdotes and examples to validate each of the point and how that has made Katong TMC a place where he is able to grow and develop not just his speaking skills, but also his character.
Table Topics
Leena gave us a series of slogans from companies as topics. The speaker can guess which company came up with those slogans. These were the topics chosen:
Mandy Vu: Never leave home without it. (Amex)
Guest Charles: Share moments. Share life. (Kodak)
Guest Tracey: American by birth, rebel by choice (Harley Davidson)
Guest Troy: When there is no tomorrow (FedEx)
John Lee: The happiest place on earth (Disneyland)
Tracey agrees that slogans are usually catchy and witty and can be very effective in getting consumers to buy into the products. Words have power and he cautions us from allowing slogans to sway our buying impulse. He was voted the Best Table Topics Speaker for the evening.
Evaluations
John likens Swapna's speech to a delectable and delicious dish where the best ingredients were used. She chose the juiciest and interesting parts of her childhood to share in her speech. She was eloquent, expressive and has excellent eye-contact. She dominated the stage like a lioness. John shares two suggestions for improvement, firstly, to tone down and control her volume and secondly, to avoid pacing about too much, instead to use movement around the stage purposefully.
Vera commends Rosean for being a rockstar who shared interesting snippets of her life and came across as a strong speaker who connects well with the audience. She found some parts of the speech rocky, especially the organisation and the conclusion which was rather abrupt. To help Rosean rocket to a higher plane of speaking, Vera suggests a balance in the content so equal time is given to each part of the speech.
Defriceni likes Eliz's use of dramatization in her opening to capture the audience's attention. She also enjoyed the many colourful anecdotes Eliz shared in her speech. Her recommendations for improvement are (1) to share personal experiences for each of the point shared and (2) to use pauses between transitions.
Colin commends Malcolm for the energy and humour that came across in his speech. He likes his choice of stories which help to illustrate each point clearly. However, Colin points out that the project requires Malcolm to speak in praise of a person, not an organisation. He feels that the ending was unclear and could be more impactful.
LE Geri focuses on enunciation of words, such as the 'th' in these words: father, others, paperthin, through, this, month. Other mispronounced words include opportunity, characters, aboriginal, quote. She highlighted good use of the language in metaphors, such as walls of incompetency, culinary vengence, creativity is a muscle, slaughtered (in a chess game) and alliteration, such as delectable and delicious dishes.
Congratulations to our ribbon winners tonight!
We are also delighted that three of the guests Yau Hong, Charles and Troy have decided to sign up as members. We look forward to their Icebreaker speeches next month!
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 during meetings. They will both present their Icebreaker speeches this evening.
| Swapna and Roseann receiving tokens from VPM Leena |
Prepared Speeches
Swapna wowed us with her enthusiasm and energy in her P1 Icebreaker Speech The Diary of A Lioness. She was a mischievous child and often played tricks on others. She was nicknamed lioness by the neighbourhood children and did not have many friends. However, as she grew older, she became a quiet person to the surprise of many who knew her. She now lives in Singapore with her husband and 8-year-old daughter and works as a trainer to teach children presentation skills. She enjoys participating in all kinds of activities to get to know more people, including joining Toastmasters.
Rosean in her P1 speech I was, therefore I am gave us an insight into her childhood in Australia. She was born and bred in the mountains and was free to run wild. She was taught to learn something new everyday, that loyalty is important, and that tourists are rich but stupid. That was how as kids, she and her friends managed to earn money by performing stunts on their ponies for tourists. Her biggest regret is putting work over family and hence, missing out on seeing her father for the last time. She enjoys golfing and shooting and now rides around in a Harley to reclaim the freedom she enjoyed as a child.
Eliz, in her P10 speech, Everyday Creativity, tells us how we can be just as creative as geniuses like Mozart, Picasso and Einstein. As children, the world is limitless to us. As adults, we can tap into everyday creativity by not limiting it to where and how we can find it as it can happen in the strangest of places and at any moment. She shared the story of how potato chips was created out of culinary vengence. We do not need fanciful or expensive gadgets to find creativity, as evidenced by the beautiful murals painted by inmates using the most basic art equipment in the Fremantle Prison in Australia.
Malcolm attempted AP2 Speaking in Praise from the Special Occasions Manual. His speech The Five Gems of the Club focused on the strengths of Katong Toastmasters Club. The five gems refer to mentors, food, inspiration, encouragement and bonding. Malcolm shared anecdotes and examples to validate each of the point and how that has made Katong TMC a place where he is able to grow and develop not just his speaking skills, but also his character.
Table Topics
Leena gave us a series of slogans from companies as topics. The speaker can guess which company came up with those slogans. These were the topics chosen:
Mandy Vu: Never leave home without it. (Amex)
Guest Charles: Share moments. Share life. (Kodak)
Guest Tracey: American by birth, rebel by choice (Harley Davidson)
Guest Troy: When there is no tomorrow (FedEx)
John Lee: The happiest place on earth (Disneyland)
Tracey agrees that slogans are usually catchy and witty and can be very effective in getting consumers to buy into the products. Words have power and he cautions us from allowing slogans to sway our buying impulse. He was voted the Best Table Topics Speaker for the evening.
Evaluations
John likens Swapna's speech to a delectable and delicious dish where the best ingredients were used. She chose the juiciest and interesting parts of her childhood to share in her speech. She was eloquent, expressive and has excellent eye-contact. She dominated the stage like a lioness. John shares two suggestions for improvement, firstly, to tone down and control her volume and secondly, to avoid pacing about too much, instead to use movement around the stage purposefully.
Vera commends Rosean for being a rockstar who shared interesting snippets of her life and came across as a strong speaker who connects well with the audience. She found some parts of the speech rocky, especially the organisation and the conclusion which was rather abrupt. To help Rosean rocket to a higher plane of speaking, Vera suggests a balance in the content so equal time is given to each part of the speech.
Defriceni likes Eliz's use of dramatization in her opening to capture the audience's attention. She also enjoyed the many colourful anecdotes Eliz shared in her speech. Her recommendations for improvement are (1) to share personal experiences for each of the point shared and (2) to use pauses between transitions.
Colin commends Malcolm for the energy and humour that came across in his speech. He likes his choice of stories which help to illustrate each point clearly. However, Colin points out that the project requires Malcolm to speak in praise of a person, not an organisation. He feels that the ending was unclear and could be more impactful.
LE Geri focuses on enunciation of words, such as the 'th' in these words: father, others, paperthin, through, this, month. Other mispronounced words include opportunity, characters, aboriginal, quote. She highlighted good use of the language in metaphors, such as walls of incompetency, culinary vengence, creativity is a muscle, slaughtered (in a chess game) and alliteration, such as delectable and delicious dishes.
Congratulations to our ribbon winners tonight!
| Best Speaker: Rosean Neilsen |
| Best Table Topics Speaker: Tracey (Guest) |
| Best Evaluator: John Lee (from Temasek Polytechnic & WDA TMC) |
| Congratulations to Eliz on completing her CC Manual! |
| A big thank you to visiting Toastmasters for their help and support:timer Harry Nguyen, project evaluators Colin Chue & John Lee and ah counter Mandy Vu . |
| Katong TMC ROCKS!! |
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