468th Meeting Recap, or "Resolutions, Phones and Lip-smacking Laksa"

Best Prepared Speech: Darren Loh

Best Evaluator: Yew Runbin, ACS, CL

Best Table Topic: Shaun Li, ACS, ALB

President Gurmit kicked off the meeting with his Opening Address, in which he said that it's easier to achieve our resolutions, if we shared them. Also:

1. Know our why- Gives us a deeper sense of purpose
2. Specific and measurable checkpoints- by such and such a date, I will have lost x kg, or will have run y km
3. Don't just think it, ink it- A Stanford University study showed that by writing down goals and putting them where they are easily seen, chances of succeeding increase by over 70%

This is also relevant to Toastmasters. Eg we can book a project speech slot every 2 meetings.

The First Prepared Speech was by Toastmaster Terence Chong, P1 entitled “The Aspect of Life” He talked about his nervousness during presentations. And also his experiences in a nursing home where he learned perseverence by watching the residents walk and do their physiotherapy. Terence also likes classical music, watches soccer, and swimming. He wants to be an allied educator in MOE and is

glad to join Tampines Changkat Toastmasters, where the people are “very welcoming”

The Second Speech, entitled “Life Unplugged” was by Toastmaster Darren Loh. He related his recent holiday experience where he had to ensure that he had mobile phone during the entire holiday, his wife asked if he brought the phone charger and a 3 way multi plug to fit the foreign wall power sockets: the phones have become more important than passports!

In his “rest and relax” tour package, in the past, he would have asked for a map. But now, the first question is which telco offers the cheapest data plan, and people are queuing up for SIM cards.

He was constantly checking his phone for updates, and had to make a difficult decision- should they turn off handphone?

Darren's 3 year old daughter took to their family iPad like a fish to water, and so even in Taiwan, without the iPad- his “unplugged daughter” kept asking for the iPad, and phones so she could play with them. “Unplug and smell the roses!” was Darren's parting words.

The Third Speaker was Toastmaster See Shunwei, with his speech “Resolution, Make It Count”. Shunwei is an extremely energetic speaker who has an awesome voice, and he managed the energy of the audience by asking them to help him 'lubricate' his speech, ie applause!

He asked us to reflect for 15 seconds, the events of the past year, and gave us a few ways to make resolutions turn from dreams to accomplishments:

1. Big resolutions- eg resolution is to lose 10kg, but if not much progress, will default back to laksa and MacDonald's. We need small goals- checkpoints, otherwise we may lose sight and direction. The point is to “give yourself a pat on the back”. The ultimate goal could be to have a “Dancing chest” (muscular pectorals that can twitch in time to music. Or not. What's important is that they can twitch!).
2. Accountability – share resolutions with others. One of Shunwei's resolutions is to obtain his CC title before the end of this “financial year” (term).
3. Fear of change – some people have the fear of being laughed at. There's nothing to be afraid of. We are the author, creator and executor of our lives.

The fourth and final speaker was Toastmaster Richard Jia, who delivered a speech called “From chaos to order, logical order of things”

Richard talked about Organizing- how we should organize our physical space, emails and speech. He did his spring cleaning recently- his living room was “half empty” and there was a lot of clutter.

So this brings about the question: “How to start?” Answer: with Questions!

Ask these Organizing questions:

1. What's the OBJECTIVE? Why are we doing this? What do you want to achieve?

Is it to Increase efficiency? Make items easier to access?

2. PLAN: Split a bigger job to smaller tasks.

3. RULES: these are critical. Gives order to the inevitable chaos that will creep up. So for maintenance of the organized space, the most important step is to set up the rules. For different functions, you need to organize it differently, eg efficiency and aesthetic reasons. Important items need to be easily accessible. Also, mark the important items.

4. ACTION! The actual organizing, decluttering, and maintenance of the physical space.

EVALUATION SEGMENT

The First Evaluator, Shaun Li, ACS, ALB, evaluating Toastmaster Terence Chong's speech, said that he had highlighted various aspects of his life, employing a device called “speaking the obvious”, a natural, and pure speech. “This is all YOU”

Shaun said Terence is natural speaker who is sincere.

The Second Evaluator, our VPE, Ng Kin Foong, CC, evaluated Toastmaster Darren Loh, based on the analogy of a 3 pin plug. The pins were:

1. Facial expression- naturally done, posture was perfect
2. Gestures- he had a pretend suitcase, and showed an unplug movement
3. Recharging- What needed improvement: choose only one particular purpose, as the speech had more entertainment value

The Third Evaluator, Yew Runbin, ACS, CL, evaluated Toastmaster See Shunwei. She said his speech was humourous. She was so touched, so high on oxygen, and the speech was like a breath of fresh air.

Shunwei was charismatic, energetic, like in a Colgate commercial. The gems of his speech were:

1. Improved body language- dancing fingers, smack lips for laksa

2. “Oil” in the form of applause from audience

Areas for Improvement were: to diversify sources of information: using testimonies of ppl, in the crowd. Also to round off and mention “9 in 10 of you” – instead of 88%. Shunwei should also quote his sources, telling us where he got his data from.

The Fourth and final Evaluator was our Area S4 Governor, Zhuo Shuzhen, ACB, CL. Evaluating Toastmaster Richard Jia's speech, she made special mention of his excellent command of his English Language, wrote on the whiteboard and delivered the speech without notes. Areas for Improvement is that Richard could have provided a personal example of what he organized and how he applied the tips in daily life, as well as shortening the title to something like “Chaos to Order”

Table Topics Segment:

Table Topicsmaster Jack Chu gave us several one-word topics to choose from:

1. Character- Ted Chong, ACB, ALB
2. Wealth- Joe Wan
3. Family- Flora Fong
4. Relationship- Chan Chee Wai
5. Fitness/Marriage- Shaun Li, ACS, ALB

See you at the next meeting!

Carl Wong,

Vice President of Public Relations

Table Topics Master Jack Chu

IPP Ted Chong, ACB, ALB expressing his heartfelt feelings about volunteering (and going away for 6 months)

Toastmaster Joe Wan's glistening smile during Table Topics

Toastmaster Flora Fong talking about her promise to visit her Mum every quarter

Toastmaster Chan Chee Wai remembering something about his relationship with his girlfriend

Shaun Li, ACS, ALB combining fitness with marriage during Table Topics, the gist of which was "discipline"

Our General Evaluator Gladys Tye, CC telling us what we did wonderfully well, and our Areas for Improvement

Tan Mingjian, CC, who is Organizing Chair for our 21st Anniversary Celebrations on 18th Jan, telling us HOW MUCH FUN WE'LL BE HAVING FOR ONLY $10!!

Best Prepared Speech: Toastmaster Darren Loh's message about being unplugged while holidaying. That means no 'live' posting of selfies and checking Whatsapp every 5 minutes

Best Evaluator: Yew Runbin, ACS, CL. Isn't that the sweetest smile?

Best Table Topics: Shaun Li, ACS, ALB shows that you should combine the Table Topic of "FITNESS" with what the crowd (ie Coen Tan, ACS, ALB) wants, "MARRIAGE" to win a ribbon