525th Chapter Meeting: 5th May, 2016

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club held its 525th Chapter Meeting on 5th May, 2016! This meeting had Club President Gladys was coming back after a hiatus of a few meetings. In addition, Toastmaster Ng Kin Foong had promised a very unique Table Topic Session. All-in-all, it was going to be an exciting meeting. However, before we go on to the actual proceedings, I shall introduce the appointment holders who ensured that the meeting was successful:

Sergeant-at-Arms: You Xiao

Toastmaster of the Evening: Tia Maria

Timer: Hyder Taufik

Ah Counter: Chia Choon Kiat

Table-Topic master: Ng Kin Foong

The meeting started with SAA Toastmaster You Xiao conducting an ice-breaking session by making people introduce themselves and sharing what they had done during the long weekend. The stage was then handed over to Toastmaster of the Evening Tia Maria. It can be definitely concluded that that night was perhaps Tia's best performance as Toastmaster of the Evening. She was energetic, funny and extremely efficient.

The President's opening address, which came next, was extremely interesting. We could all proudly say that Toastmaster Gladys was back! She gave us her views on minimalism and imparted the message of borrowing instead of buying.

It was now time for some excellent speeches. There were six speakers that night and it was going to be tough competition. The speakers were as follows:

1. Yong Muming

2. Ashish Kundra

3. Lau Kheng Soon

4. Mohanapriya

5. Jaric Ng

6. Naveena Methani

Each and every speaker was unique in style and kept us captivated with their stories, experiences and thoughts. People were thoroughly inspired with each and every speech subject, be it interacting with random people, embracing vegetarianism, internet of things, fun facts and trivia, lessons from bungee jumping or the art of acupressure. All six speakers delivered as per expectations and inspired the audience.

The Prepared Speech segment was followed by the birthday celebrations organized by Vice Presidents Membership Toastmasters Zhuo Shuzhen and Jaric Ng. Toastmaster Shuzhen sang a birthday song with  guitar accompaniment by Toastmaster Abigail Lee. The lyrics of the song were composed by Vice President Public Relations, Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti. The lyrics were as follows:

It’s Thursday again for you

Y’all surely know what we’ll do

With Cakes, Guitars and Singing

We will entertain You

Handsome, bright, young and tall

Countless ladies in his spell fall

Basic and Advanced Clubs he is in

Our lovely and energetic Kelvin

One of our new friends out here

Public Speaking he doesn’t fear

His Speech made us go Oh Wow

Let us all wish dear You Xiao

She is pretty and fair

With her lovely hair

Impressive to every man

Here's wishing Angela Tan

All In All This May

What We Want is to say

Toastmasters wishes all of you

A very Happy Birthday

The birthday celebration was followed by the break and bonding where people enjoyed the birthday cake as well as Pizza. The break session energized everyone and they came back for the Evaluation Session. The evaluators for the night were:

1. John Lee

2. Kapil Pareek

3. Law Jia Hong

4. Nathaniel Koh

5. Marshall Cooper

6. Arjun Chakrabarti

Extremely effective evaluations delivered, the audience was once again at a loss when it came for choosing the best evaluator of the night.

The final session of the evening was the Table Topics session. This session was conducted by Toastmaster Ng Kin Foong and he had a unique range of topics. He chose phrases at random and based on a speaker's choice of numbers, he combined these phrases to craft challenging topics. A few examples of topics were:

I hate insulting policemen with Joe Wan while at work.

I love eating bananas while driving with my mother.

Several toastmasters attempted the topics and it was a hilarious session.

The meeting almost over, it was now time for the results. The results were as follows:

Best Speaker - Toastmaster Jaric Ng

Best Evaluator - Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti

Best Table Topic Speaker - Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti

Having attended the meeting, the author of this blog can clearly say that this was one of the best meetings in terms of the standard of speakers and evaluators. I would urge you to attend Toastmaster meetings and learn the art of oratory as well as leadership. The next meeting is the Annual General Meeting on 19th May and only paid members can attend this one.

Keep watching this space for news, views and opinions on the most exciting Toastmasters club in Singapore!