Meeting Date: 8th April, 2016
Written by Toastmaster Maureen Suryani:
I can’t agree more with theme of this month’s chapter meeting: “Good Things Come in Pairs!”
Human are social beings that need to interact with other people to feel alive. And I do think nothing is better than spending your Friday night with a group of positive people at Money Mastery (Singapore) Toastmasters Club (MMTMC). Held at our home base, Tai Seng, this theme was carried perfectly throughout the meeting. When I came in, I was greeted warmly by a pair of smiling ushers: Chandran Kanapathey and Wendy Lee. Coming with an empty stomach, my eyes directly caught sumptuous fried rice that makes me salivate. It was even paired up with banana to complete the wholesome dinner. Thanks to our dearest pair: Abbas Vakharia & Arva Rangwala who have prepared it all for us.
The evening starts by Sergeants-At-Arms (SAA) of the night to call for meeting, the cool Zhang Yuan stands on the stage looking for her partner to join her on stage. From the backstage, the witty Qing Lin rushed to the stage with a plate of fried rice; still busy munching. Together as a pair, they broke the ice between the audiences in an engaging discussion with the new guests. It was such a pleasure for us having some returning guests, supporters, and first time visitors who found us from our website and social media channels like Facebook.
The cheerful ambience was carried over nicely by our attractive Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), Karen Lim. With her deep and resonated voice, she describes toastmaster as a club that facilitate learning of public speaking through prepared and impromptu speech, as well as, being an appointment holder. She made everyone laughed when she introduced one of our appointment holders of the night by his surname: “Kusumowidagdo.” Surely lots of people had a slip of tongue trying to pronounce it correctly.
The meeting continues with the opening speech from club president, the one and only Chai Pei Shan. She seamlessly brought every guest to look at each other by asking them to greet one another sitting beside and behind them. Emphasizing on the importance of double M – “Mentor and Mentee”, she explained the theme and that besides the chosen evaluator for the evening, mentors invest a lot of time and efforts in their mentees’ journey. Most of our members will eventually become a mentor of a mentee throughout one’s journey in toastmaster as part of contributing back to our club. Our club has many talented, dedicated mentors who are past presidents, Chandran Kanapathey and Raymond Ee who have been active in the club and mentoring members since 5-7 years ago. Having members who are very compassionate in a group is truly a blessing for MMTMC.
The evening kick-started with three maiden speakers for the prepared speech session: Mahendran Bilendran, Shawn Lee, and Pamela Lau. Three of them have shown courage to take the first step and introduced themselves confidently to the audience through their ice breaker speeches. Mahendran Bilendran shared a little boy’s journey called “Hero from Madurai to Singapore”. With a steady voice and good vocal projection, he connected with the audience and ended up his story by revealing the true hero who turned out to be himself. Shawn Lee introduced himself through a storytelling form in which he expressed how “Grace” (as a person) has always been by his side through all the phases of his life: despair, repair, and prepare. With his strong vocal projection and lively movements on stage, he engaged and intrigued the whole audiences till the end of his story by revealing who is the “Grace” person and his transformation journey with God and his church community.
Pamela, with sincerity and authenticity rooted throughout her entire speech has successfully turned her sorrowful Cinderella life stories into a very positive ending. She left the audiences with a heart-warming feeling after sharing how MMTMC as a club has brought joy and laughter into her life. She is a testimonial of how a new member has enjoyed our chapter meetings by soaking in the fun and being with this warmth and vibrant MMTMC family.
To finish this session, our VPM, Mannan Pacha delivered his Project 3 “Get to the Point” speech with a very attractive title. He reminds everyone that the meaning of life can be found in an impromptu decision, like his unplanned trip to Tioman that leads him to fall in love with scuba diving. The best prepared speech of the night goes to Shawn with his captivating, impressive, and inspirational ice-breaker speech. Congratulations Shawn!
Following the prepared speeches, four toastmasters delivered their evaluations fluently with their virtuosity. Michell Sheya Wong, Raymond Ee, Candrika Adri Tjo, and Chye Bei’An packed their evaluations with the strength speakers already have, and some area of improvement to reflect on in becoming a better speaker in the future. And the chosen best evaluators is Michell Sheya Wong, who had taught us the importance of clarity in speaking. It is not a matter of the best accent, but how you make the listener get what you’re saying. The best way to do it is by emphasizing the right part of a word.
The table topic session started with a pair of very different persons; our serious Aaron Khoo and romantic Arva Rangwala. Every participant were free to choose taking a topic from either one of them with their serious and romantic topics. There were ten brave members and guests who participated in this session: Jessica and Sarah, our first time guests that convinced the audiences that great things come in pairs. MMTMC members, Shaun Pang, Christopher Kusumowidagdo, Abbas Vakharia, Desmond Yam, Chandran Kanapathey, and Michell Sheya Wong who always entertained the audiences with the unpredictable impromptu speech they came out with. A visiting Toastmasters Jeffrey Lam from Brahms Centre TMC shared the importance of ‘who we know’ rather than ‘what we know.’ And our charming Zoya, that never fails to impress us with her daring and courageous attitude. Good things truly come in pairs!The best table topic speaker based on polling is Michell Sheya Wong, our formidable member who received two best speakers award of the night!
Congratulations to our club mentor, Michell Sheya Wong who leads by example!
Before we end the night, our VPE, the cool Zhang Yuan reminds us that good things come in pairs, so please make sure you bring your partner, friend or companion to join us at our next chapter meeting: Good Things Come in Pairs (II) on the 22nd April 2016. Let’s have fun together and embrace our being as a human by having more interaction with others.