January 2017 Joint Meeting with Tampines Changkat TMC

On 19 January 2017, we witnessed the birth of a collaboration between Katong TMC and Tampines Changkat TMC (TCTMC). Our joint meeting was double the fun, excitement and learning, thanks to the highly energetic and enthusiastic members from TCTMC.

Sergeant-At-Arms (SAA) Malcolm invited everyone to share their predictions for 2017. We had auspicious predictions of fulfilled goals and dreams, as well as hilarious ones about failed attempts at losing weight.

Club President Raj highlighted Toastmasters tagline "Where Leaders Are Made", emphasizing the fact that in Toastmasters, we create leaders, not just speakers. A leader is someone who creates thoughts that shape the world. He shared about a local hero in India, Sunitha Krishnan, a social activist.  She was gang-raped at the age of 15 yet failed by the law, media and society. She refused to be broken and has co-founded an institution that helps trafficked women and girls find shelter. Through her efforts, she has rescued and rehabilitated more than 8000 victims of the sex trade. Though untrained in public speaking, she gives a courageous speech during a  TED TALK "The fight against sex slavery" in a bid to unite government, corporations and NGOs to end human trafficking. 

Project Speeches

We had an awesome line-up of 5 speakers with 2 basic manual speakers and 3 advanced speakers. First speaker Charles shares about "Quarter life crisis" in his P3 speech, highlighting the angst faced by young adults entering the work force and trying to forge their self-identity. 2nd speaker Ansari in his P9 speech urges the audience to "invest in child education". He shares a story about how a dedicated father helped his son achieve academic excellence by spending time with him daily. 

3rd speaker Geri shared a wining proposal "Coffee from the wall" in her AP3 speech from the Persuasive Speaking Manual.  The idea is to pay for an extra coffee that gets represented on a piece of paper pasted on the wall. Anyone walking in who is in need of free coffee can 'redeem' it from the coffee on the wall. This concept can help us to build club culture, make a difference to our community and help us pay it forward.

4th speaker Erica in her AP2 from the Entertaining Speaker Manual opines about the "Struggle for Happiness". While Usain Bolt takes 20 seconds to run 200 metres, she takes one hour to get out of bed. While everyone wants to be happy, admired and respected, are they willing to do what it takes to get there? She shares a story about Andrew who finds his happiness by travelling the world and leaves us with this question to ponder: "Is the life you're living worth the price you're paying?"

5th speaker Raj entertained us with his speech about his "Crazy Parents" in AP5 Speaking After Dinner from the Entertaining Speaker Manual.  Their crazy antics included pouring cold water on him at 5am to get him to study and misguided biology about how babies are born. 

TABLE TOPICS SESSION

Table Topics Master Aarti dished out topics related to the new year. 

• Shuzhen attempted a metaphorical analysis of the new year. 

• New-comer and guest Hyun-Joo shared an insightful encounter involving the new year.

• Tampines Changkat TMC President Joe shared some positive and negative aspects of the new year. 

• New-comer and guest Cherylene compared the new year to other special occasions.

• Priya explained why resolutions are often abandoned.

SPEECH EVAUATIONS

Harsha commended Charles for his use of questions and how he sets the stage to connect with the audience. He recommends more practice so that he can deliver without referring to his notes and to end the speech with a strong conclusion. 

2nd evaluator Kok Peng liked how Ansari established himself as a subject matter expert in the beginning of his speech. He proposed highlighting the contrast between use of money and time through sharing local examples of the Asia tiger moms who spend a lot of money of their children's education. To make the stories more compelling, embellish the facts and garnish the details. Consider using an alternative speech title such as 'The best gift to our children'.

3rd evaluator Naveena felt Geri was a strong speaker with fluency and competency in content and delivery. She would like her to consider dramatising some of the characters in her examples and to end the speech on an emotional high note. 

4th evaluator Rosean commended Erica on her great choice of stories and effective use of  vocal variety and body language. She noticed some of her sentences tend to end on a low note and suggested practising ending sentences with high energy. Another recommendation is to end the speech with greater impact.

Final evaluator Michael felt the audience were entertained with humour and drama throughout Raj's speech. He held the rapt attention of audience through bold gestures and relatable speech material. He pointed out that Raj moved too far forward at times so that his back was facing some members of the audience and this should be avoided.

LANGUAGE EVALUATION

Hyder, a peak performance success coach, presented 'audacious' as the word of the day, which can mean lively, unrestrained, bold, reckless, or extremely original. For example, Geri's proposal of initiating the 'Coffee from the wall' project is an audacious one.

Hyder highlighted many beautiful bouquets used by the speakers: Alliteration, such as break the barrier of being bonded; Dissatisfied, disinclined to be roused to battle; strict and severe creature, rhyme such as I do not have abs, but I have flabs, metaphors such as Coffee became his wife and books his mistresses, repetition such as A club that plays together stays together; One town, one city and one country at a time; To spend this precious commodity on something even more precious - our children and exaggeration such as At the peak of my potential I had not one, but four girlfriends.

AWARD WINNERS
Congratulations to all the following award winners voted by the audience!

Best Speaker Erica Lim, CC from TCTMC

Best Table Topics Speaker Cherylene, new-comer and guest

Best Evaluators: Rosean from Katong TMC and Harsha from TCTMC

Fellowship during break time

The team of awesome evaluators from TCTMC!

We're having fun together!

Full house attendance! 

The camaraderie we shared at our first joint meeting has created a special bond between Tampines Changkat TMC and Katong TMC. As the saying goes, "two is always better than one". This joint meeting was the perfect way to kickstart 2017.  

For more photos, click here