Without a doubt – Excellence, Resilience and Friendship – come to my mind.
Indeed, the club is a treasure amongst the many clubs in Singapore. The club’s illustrious history would have been buried deep, unknown amongst Toastmasters and even its members, if not for the dedication of the few charter members who are still with the club.
Excellence
The club has been a President’s Distinguished Club since 2001. The club has also received the Smedley Award and Talk Up Toastmasters Award for active membership recruitment several times.
In terms of leadership, we have many dedicated members who are willing to step up to serve the wider Toastmasters community. To date, we are proud to have 1 District Governor, 2 Division Governors, 10 Area Governors, and 2 DTMs from our club.
We have also sponsored 11 clubs to date, helped set up 2 Gavel Clubs and conducted many Youth Leadership Training for students.
Resilience
Our club was formerly chartered as NCOC I Toastmasters. In 1997, the NCOC (National Community Organisations Council ) was dissolved and the club orphaned. The survival of the club was called into question. It was the darkest time in the club’s history. However, instead of wallowing in pity, members went on with countless recruitment drives for a number of years and build up a club that we are now proud of.
Friendship
Today, anyone who walks into our club would find the warmth, joy, laughter and lively atmosphere in our club.
Over the past few months, we are glad that many guests have signed up as members. Toastmasters from other clubs and from other countries have also commented that they liked the way we conducted our meetings and would bring back some pointers to their own clubs.
There are of course many more facets to this club I belong to. While diffi culties and challenges are inevitable in all clubs, including ours, I am glad to weather them with the Executive Committee team and our members.
Finally, I am just glad to be a member of this club and to serve our members.
Area S4 Governor 2008
President, Tampines Changkat Toastmasters
