2014 Installation Night!

It's our 21st Installation Night, since the day Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club was chartered on the 26th Jan 1993. It was a night of exuberance, excitement and enjoyment!

Notable Learning Points:

• Special address by Guest-of-Honour Tampines MP Irene Ng:
  "leadership begins with everyone. Step up!" 
• Opening Address by previous Area S4 Governor Zhuo Shuzhen:
  "every member has contributed to the success of the club. Take ownership, Grow."
  
  
• Immediate Past President Gurmit Singh: 
  
  After a year of success, reflect, reminisce and remember to show gratitude to those who made this possible. Gurmit thanked each and every one of the exco team (2013-2014). Indeed, everyone was instrumental to what Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club is today.

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Inaugural Address by President Ng Kin Foong:
  "Why did you come to the club for?"
  The upcoming President shared his vision of reconnecting with the older members of the club, for the club to fulfil members' intentions of joining the club in the very first place.
  
  




• Distinguished Keynote Speaker and Trainer Roy Lai:
  "Every moment is a learning moment"
  Life only stops when you stop learning. In his inspiring speech, Roy shares how he loves what he do; being a trainer allows him to constantly learn from the people he meet everyday. 

A great thank you to all the appointment holders who made this possible!

Our diligent attendance Takers | Crowd Control: Flora Fong and Kim Low

Our enthusiastic sergeant-at-arms: Chan Chee Wai

our toastmasters of the day, the humorous Joe Wan!

Our table topics masters: guests from Barclays Toastmasters Club,  2014 International Speech Division Champion Vikram Sivakumar and 2014 Table Topics Area S4 Champion Deb Pal!

It was all cheers and smiles the entire night.

Presenting Exco 2014 - 2015!

473rd Meeting Recap, or The King, The Exco Member and The Military Commander

Best Prepared Speech: Christina Ho

Best Evaluator: Shaun Li, ACS, ALB

Best Table Topic: Gladys Tye, CC

Word of the Evening: ENERVATE

Club President, Gurmit Singh, CC, kicked the meeting off with a story about a man who took the place of a diety in a temple, for one day. And he had to follow only one simple rule: He mustn't say anything when he takes the place. After watching a sailor get blamed for stealing a wallet which someone else took, the man couldn't keep quiet any more, and spoke up that he saw it was someone else who stole it. When the deity returned and asked the man if anything interesting happened, the man said he just saved a sailor from being thrown in jail unnecessarily. However, the deity told the man that he had just killed the sailor; the sailor's ship was supposed to be sunk, and the sailor was to be exempt from boarding the ship, when he was supposed to be in jail. What's the moral(s) of the story? Deities have grand plans, some of which we don't yet understand. Do what deities tell you to. And stop taking the place of deities! Do the work you're paid to, and enjoy your days off!!

The first Prepared Speech (CC Project 3: Get to the Point, entitled “Greeeeen”) by Toastmaster Chan Chee Wai, was about taking care of the environment. He summed it up with 5 Rs: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Renew, and Respect. Chee Wai mentioned some ideas for protecting our environment: Car-pooling, Energy Star Rating and donating old clothes. I really like the ecological message of his speech and the specific steps that we can take to take better care of our environment. Also his detailed description of the man who comes by to collect recyclable materials: “Kring, kring!”

The second Prepared Speech (“Be There”, CC Project 5: Your Body Speaks) by Toastmaster John Lee was about a King who sought wisdom by finding the answers to 3 questions:

a) When is the best time to be doing something?

b) Who should I be doing it with?

c) What's the most important thing I should be doing, right now?

John gave an example from his own childhood: about being in the 'flow' of playing. Turns out The King in the story found out the answers to his questions by helping his enemy.

The third Prepared Speech by Andrew Chen, ATMB, ALS, was a rallying call to serve in next term's Exco (Advanced Project 5 from the Persuasive Speaking Manual, entitled “We Need You”) Andrew started by sharing with us his vision for our club: “To be an elite Toastmasters Club”. Then he spoke about how he went (Toastmasters) club visiting with his mentor, Michael Wee, DTM, who helped him a lot with his personal growth. Andrew also mentioned Nathaniel Koh, DTM, who was club President and Division Governor in 2006.

The next Prepared Speech was by Toastmaster Christina Ho, entitled “Everyone Has a Story” (CC Project 5: Your Body Speaks). Christina told the story of someone who just had an eye operation and was seeing the world for the first time- very odd behaviour. If we really understood where they were coming from, though, it makes sense. She also told of how her Dad seemed enervated and not interested in her basketball win and amazing speech achievement. However it turned out that he had a health problem and was losing weight because of it. Christina understood, though, and when she hugged her Dad, there was a clear message of love between them.

The fifth speaker, Toastmaster Joe Wan, talked about “Leadership in Adversity” (CC Manual Project 6: Vocal Variety). Joe recounted Cao Cao's speech from the “Romance of Three Kingdoms”, right after their defeat at the battle at the Red Cliff. His 830,000 troops were defeated by an army of 60,000 men. “A military commander is like a physician; when more people die from the failed treatments, the physician's skills become better and better” and “Failure teaches us how to succeed” were some memorable quotes from Joe's speech.

Till next meeting, be awesome!

Carl Wong HL

(Vice President of Public Relations)

Best Table Topic: Gladys Tye, CC

Best Prepared Speech: Toastmaster Christina Ho

Best Evaluator: Shaun Li, ACS, ALB

470th Meeting Recap (6th Feb 2014), or The Apple Millionaire, The Pearls and The Kobe Beef

Best Prepared Speech: Gladys Tye, CC

Best Evaluator: Andrew Chen, ATMB, ALS

Best Table Topics: Shirley Lam

Club President kicked off the meeting with a story. Once upon a time, there was a millionaire who was explaining how he got rich. “My father gave me 20 cents. I used it to buy an apple, polished it, and sold it for 40 cents. The next day, with that 40 cents, I bought 2 apples, polished them and sold them for a total of 80 cents...” His audience was on the edge of their seats. “Then my uncle died and left me a huge inheritance. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how I became a millionaire”

Hey, don't throw the keyboard at me. You knew that was coming. Whoever heard of an Apple Millionaire?

Our club was also graced with the presence of Raphael, a 10-year-young boy who seems to have all the qualities of a great Toastmaster, however he's too young to join. He did, however participate in Table Topics.

The first Prepared Speech was by Gladys Tye, CC. She was presenting an Advanced Speech from the Storytelling Manual, but we had to guess the title from the speech content, and it was only revealed at the end of her speech. It was the story of two sisters, Ah Lian and Ah Huay (the story has been localized for a Singaporean audience), who were kind and nasty, respectively, and their mother. Ah Lian had to fetch water from a well. She met an old lady who asked her for a drink of water. After Ah Lian gave her the drink (and the extended conversation), she got herself into trouble because she was late. However, pearls started dropping out of her mouth whenever she spoke (these were real pearls, not the bubble tea kind). Long story short, her mother wanted Ah Huay to have the same gift (why anyone would want TWO daughters with pearls coming out their mouths is beyond me- you'd have to wash and dry the pearls before selling them, and set up a Pearl Sales and Marketing Department, collect money, set up and maintain websites, etc), but since Ah Huay was cruel to the lady (who now looked very pretty, like Jessica Alba) she had frogs coming out of her mouth each time she spoke. If I were Ah Huay I'd keep my mouth shut. Or sell the frogs to Biology students. There was a happy ending for Ah Lian, but not for Ah Huay or her Mum. Can you guess the title of the speech? Hint: it's about what came out of the sisters' mouths.*

The second speech was by Carl Wong, CC. His Advanced Speech was from The Entertaining Speaker manual, entitled “I Wish I Had a Wife”, taken from a 2001 Korean movie of the same name. Carl spoke about being introduced to a 1-year-old wife (yes, that's what really happened), the story of the Korean movie that he chose, and how things were not as easy as 'spouse shopping', ie buying a spouse from a supermarket. Also Carl shared his criteria for a wife, which was met by groans of agony from the audience: Kind, Loving, Intelligent, Sexy, Beautiful, Understanding, Tall and Humourous... but acting on advice from his married colleague, he has modified it to only 2: must speak English, and must be a Toastmaster (well having a great sense of humour and looking like Jessica Alba won't hurt)

The third speech was by Toastmaster Joe Wan. His P5 speech from the Competent Communicator manual was about his experience in Japan. He and his wife were having their honeymoon, and decided to try a Syabu-syabu Japanese Buffet (thin beef slices that were cooked quickly in boiling water). Since the cost was only 3,900 yen, they thought it reasonable and ordered it. But then they saw it (cue Mr Bean theme song and light shining from above, on the menu)- Kobe beef, one of the most expensive beef ever (my friend told me that they play music for the cows, feed them beer and massage the cows. No kidding. But he called it Wagyu Beef). Again, long story short, Joe saw that the bill amount seemed more than he had anticipated (27,000 yen), talked to the manager to get a discount, and got charged for the Kobe beef 'at cost' (10,000 yen total). One Toastmaster even had the cheek to ask (jokingly) for the restaurant name, so that they could attempt the same stunt again.

The fourth speech, by Richard Lam, ATMB, CL, was about “Choices”. He elaborated about how he had decided to uproot his family and relocate to Bangkok 15 years ago, stepping up to a challenge. He and his wife Shirley Lam joined a Toastmasters Club to mingle with other English-speaking expatriates in Bangkok, and that's what made him the amazing Toastmaster that he is now.

The final speech by Coen Tan, ACS, ALB, was entitled “The Choice” (singular, this time, and preceded by “The”; the similarity with Richard Lam's speech was the title and how choices made at pivotal points in their lives have altered them greatly, but otherwise the 2 speeches differ greatly). Coen began by imitating his secondary school Additional Maths teacher in Sec 4: “You're a disgrace to the school! You're lazy! You don't give a damn! You don't care!” (Methinks you need to read The Secret and learn about the Law of Attraction, teacher)

Then Coen talked about how he confessed his love for the girl that he liked, asking her to be his steady girlfriend. “You're a nice guy, Coen” (Oh, that usually doesn't end well). “I like you... as a friend”

Coen articulated the voices in his head: “LOSER!! FRIEND ZONE!” But he remembered something his mentor taught him (and I, in turn, learned from Coen): “You can close your heart in fear, or open it in LOVE” And that, dear friends, is how Coen came to be with his current girlfriend.

Till next meeting, Check buffet price lists and open your heart in love!

Carl Wong HL

Vice President of Public Relations

*Answer: Pearls and Frogs

Happy Birthday too youu...

  

February babies!

Blowing out the candle

Cutting the cake

What enthusiastic singing and photo taking

You can see Raphael standing next to Shaun

Preparing the Yu Sheng

The Lou Hei

We got more Yu Sheng on the table than on our plates

Linda Huang, CC; Coen Tan, ACS, ALB; Gladys Tye, CC; Zhuo Shuzhen, ACB, ALB

Our youngest speaker!!

Best Prepared Speech: Gladys Tye, CC

Best Evaluator: Andrew Chen, ATMB, ALS

Best Table Topic: Shirley Lam

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