17th March, 2016 was a special
day to members of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club for several reasons.
Firstly it was the third Thursday of the month and that could mean only one
thing: Chapter Meeting! This one was the 521st Chapter Meeting of
the club. In addition, this meeting was indeed special because it was the time
of the month when the Birthday Celebration segment of the month was planned. However,
that was not the only reason that over fifty people joined the club meeting
that night. Five members of the club were celebrating their recent achievement
of the Competent Communicator title by treating the rest of the members to a
Chilli Crab session! For the uninitiated, this club has a tradition of members
celebrating their coming of age – read Competent Communicator Certificate – by
having a get-together at the nearby coffee shop with a humungous dinner
comprising Chilli Crabs and beer! The members throwing the party that night
were Toastmasters Pijush Mukherjee, Jaric Ng, Kapil Pareek, Naveena Methani and
Vidhi Sarkar.
The meeting that night started with
Club President, Toastmaster Gladys Tye setting theme of the meeting – Kindness-
in her opening address. She spoke about several act of kindness and kept the
speakers mesmerized with her oratorical ability.
The next segment of the meeting
was, of course, the prepared speeches. Toastmaster of the Evening, Joe Wan,
made sure that the introduction of the speakers was energetic, engaging and
hilarious. The first two speeches were quite serious because Toastmasters
Pijush Mukherjee and Vidhi Sarkar delivered their P-10 Speeches of the Competent
Communication Manual. This was followed by one of the most hilarious speeches
in the history of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club. The speaker was none
other than Toastmaster Tia Maria. The final speaker of the night was
Toastmaster Ashish Kundra who delivered his Ice Breaker speech in an extremely
out-of-the-box fashion involving crowd interaction, humour and absolute lack of
notes. This was extremely commendable because it was the first time that he as
delivering a prepared speech. Needless to say, each and every speech was
followed by a standing ovation.
Tampines Changkat meetings move in
a wavy fashion. Just like a wave has crests and troughs, this club makes sure
that its meeting has alternating educational and fun activities. The second
activity of the night was the Birthday Celebration segment organized by the
Vice Presidents (Membership), Toastmasters Zhuo Shuzhen and Jaric Ng. The
birthday babies present that night were Toastmasters Joe, Joshua, Abigail,
Christina and Linda. Toastmaster Shuzhen first rendered a solo performance of
the Happy Birthday song. This was followed by Toastmaster Jaric’s guitar which
accompanied the crowd as they sang the Happy Birthday song for the birthday
babies. This was followed by a special performance by Toastmasters Arjun
Chakrabarti and Ng Kin Foong who used the Happy Birthday tune to sing a song
that was tailor-made for the Birthday Babies present that night. The lyrics,
written by Arjun, are as follows:
“Tis a day of Sunshine
My mama said make hay
But here we all are present
On this blessed meeting day!
She sells you reading glasses
Soon westward she’ll set sail
Tonight we’re going to wish her
Our darling Abigail!
Now to our VPE
Always driving in the sun
To buy nice gifts for Vera
Handsome emcee Joe Wan!
Someone I’ve never met here
But one I vouch for sua
I tell you that he’s too cool
Calm and sexy Joshua!
With her love for language
This LE I can’t miss
She is so hot and stylish
Yet sweet, little Chris!
Looking into her eyes
The boys now forget Tinda
Don’t you dare to woo her
She’s taken, lovely Linda!
To all the little sweethearts
Changkat can only say
May God bless you always.
Happy Awesome Birthday!
The post-break segment of Speech
Evaluations was fated to be a difficult one because the birthday cake had made driven
speeches and evaluations out of the members’ minds. However, the presence of
master evaluators like Toastmasters Haresh, Kin Foong, Christina and Ted immediately brought everyone’s
attention back to the meeting. Each of these evaluators is extremely competent
and naturally, just listening to them translates into a growth in the learning
curve of the audience.
The final segment of the night was
the Table Topics Segment. This is the section where the participants have to
think on their feet and speak impromptu. Table Topics Master Raj set the topics
in line with the theme of the meeting: Kindness. He decided to conduct things
differently and instead of reading out topics, he showed pictures and made the
participants speak on the topic. Members Amirul, Nicole and Arjun as well as a
visiting toastmaster participated in the session.
We all know that club meetings end
with ribbons recognizing the best performers in each segment. This is done with
the sole purpose of encouraging speakers to perform better and keep improving.
The winners of the ribbons in this meeting were:
Best Prepared Speech – Pijush Mukherjee
Best Evaluation – Ted Chong
Best Table Topic – Arjun
Chakrabarti.
A formal end to the meeting did not
mean that the night was over. It was now time for the Chilli Crab Session. The
members moved out of the Community Centre and met at the coffee shop close by.
The menu comprised Rice, Omelette, Fried Tofu Sauce, Chilli Crab, Buns, Mixed
Veg Sauce and lots of Beer! If you have never attended a Chilli Crab session
organized by our club, make sure that you join and attend this. The sounds of
laughter and jokes can be heard from few hundred meters and it is a known fact
that we end up being the loudest bunch in the coffee shop. The session is a hub
of positive energy and people enjoy to the utmost. People ate and chatted till
11.30 pm and then left for home. However, four members decided to extend the
night further. Toastmasters Kapil Pareek, Vidhi Sarkar, Arjun Chakrabarti and
Ashish Kundra showed that they can party harder than most and stayed back till
2am and chatted away to glory. They had nothing to gain from this chat session
but it just shows the level of camaraderie and bonding that is formed when one
joins Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club. The night finally ended but was born
was a fresh batch of toastmasters looking to earn their Advanced Communicator
Bronze titles. Once again, Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club wishes Competent
Communicators Jaric Ng, Kapil Pareek, Vidhi Sarkar, Pijush Mukherjee and
Naveena Methani all the best in their further oratorical adventures!
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