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:
- Know our why- Gives us a deeper sense of purpose
- Specific and measurable checkpoints- by such and such a date, I will have lost x kg, or will have run y km
- 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:
- 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!).
- Accountability – share resolutions with others. One of Shunwei's resolutions is to obtain his CC title before the end of this “financial year” (term).
- 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:
- Facial expression- naturally done, posture was perfect
- Gestures- he had a pretend suitcase, and showed an unplug movement
- 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:
- Character- Ted Chong, ACB, ALB
- Wealth- Joe Wan
- Family- Flora Fong
- Relationship- Chan Chee Wai
- Fitness/Marriage- Shaun Li, ACS, ALB
See you at the next meeting!
Carl Wong,
Vice President of Public Relations
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| Table Topics Master Jack Chu |
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| IPP Ted Chong, ACB, ALB expressing his heartfelt feelings about volunteering (and going away for 6 months) |
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| Toastmaster Joe Wan's glistening smile during Table Topics |
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| Toastmaster Flora Fong talking about her promise to visit her Mum every quarter |
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| Toastmaster Chan Chee Wai remembering something about his relationship with his girlfriend |
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| Shaun Li, ACS, ALB combining fitness with marriage during Table Topics, the gist of which was "discipline" |
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| Our General Evaluator Gladys Tye, CC telling us what we did wonderfully well, and our Areas for Improvement |
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| 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!! |
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| 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 |
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| Best Evaluator: Yew Runbin, ACS, CL. Isn't that the sweetest smile? |
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| 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 |
