16 JULY 2020 ZOOM MEETING

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 gave us interesting insights into “How not to explode in the cultural minefield”. Final speaker Nicholas attempted the project “Managing a Difficult Audience” where he had to manage interruptions from different club members and incorporate the comments into his speech, unscathed and undaunted.

HJ highlighted Rosalind’s approachable, adorable and authentic demeanour. She advises her to use pauses at the appropriate places and to look straight into the camera. Geri commented that she felt like she was in a movie, being carried along by the emotions and drama in Joni’s speech. She encouraged her to create more drama by using pace and tone more effectively and to ditch the notes. Clifford commended Marina on her depth of research and compilation. He queried if there is common ground for the 4 countries mentioned in her speech and advised her to a funny story or personal anecdotes involving cross-cultural communication 

Sylvie commented that Nicholas was the only speaker who delivered his speech standing and looking straight into the camera. He handled the interruptions with a smile, with poise and respect. She felt the introduction was rather weak, and advised him to dive straight into the story and use transitions to link the various segments of the speech. Another recommendation was to avoid rambling and to conclude the speech on a strong note.

Table Topics Session was conducted by newbie Thomas Tan, who led it with great aplomb. The topics given are beautiful and meaningful statements about Friendship. He led us in giving each other a virtual fist pump!

Malcolm Friends are like stars, you don’t always see them but you know they are there

Avnish There are friends, there are family and there are friends who become family

Penny Radcliffe A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out of your life.

Lydia A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires your garden.
Preety Some friendships are timeless.
Ramanpreet A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.  

We were charmed by Language Evaluator by Kok Yee Keong, from Chong Pang Toastmasters Club. He highlighted the use of triads such as “reset, refocus and recharge”, “beautiful, wonderful and meaningful” and “phenomenal drive, energy and vitality” and metaphors such as “The best university in life is the university of life”, “put Katong TMC on the world map”, “feedback is the breakfast of champion”, “I was the fly on the wall”, “the holy grail we all strive for” and “cultural minefield”.

Examples of the use of alliteration include “forge ahead with fortitude” and “last words linger” and examples of rhyme include “aspire and inspire”, and “Clifford is his name, laughter is his game”. He explained that the phrase “warms the cockles of my heart” (made popular during the GE by Jamus Lim) means to make one feel good, or heartwarming and that the best way to understand how that feels is to eat a plate of char kway teow. We totally love his sense of humour.

Voting results; Best speaker Joni Siah

Best Evaluator Sylvie Nina Ngombe

Best Table Topics Speaker Penny Radcliffe