Elaine TanWith the Christmas festivity in the air, the pressure to clear long awaited annual leave and half a month left towards 2010, it was the perfect time to rejoice (word of the day)! In line with the theme “Don’t think! DO!” President Ben Fong said that it wasn’t really a perfect time to start. However, sometimes the best strategy is to jump in and just get started.
This is what Friendship Toastmasters Club (FTMC) did despite the dark grey sky dispersing heavy water bombs outside! The evening programme began on time and recorded an attendance of 24 persons. Generously dishing out toasts and introductions was Toastmaster of the Evening, Leong Kwok Hung.
The dashing Leong Kwok Hung in his maiden role as TME*
The Yuletide cheer also brought along guests Robert Ram (VPM of IEM), Cheong Kuok Sum (Area W4 Governor), Janice Lee (VPM of TTDI), as well as Lai Chee Yoong (VPPR of Exact ADC) and Teo Soo Loon (Past President of Exact ADC). We even had three guests from as far as Singapore. The more the merrier! So, thank you for spending time with us.
As part of his invocation and to further motivate fellow Toastmasters, KC Lim with a little help from his voiceover prompter Angeline Lee, shared his two bobs worth to inspire us towards a better tomorrow. Life is a struggle. It’s not to have conquered but to have fought well.
Sivadas tried his hand as Table Topics Master and succeeded in making five jolly gung-ho souls taking on the challenge. They were Freddie Yap, Alexandra Lau, Robert Ram, Kent Ho and Lai Chee Yoong.
Freddie Yap delivery his table topics speech
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As thorough research had to be done for Project no. 7 in the Competent Communicator Manual, Zaiton Zainal Abidin dutifully did her homework and addressed the importance of detoxification through controlled pauses in her speech aptly titled “Better Out Than In”.
Past President Freddie Yap presented Project 3 in the Storytelling Manual by narrating the story of a cunning husband who kills his wife and her lover and then tries to hide the evidence in “The Perfect Plan”. Although the authorities suffer numerous roadblocks in solving the wife’s disappearance, the husband was finally caught by a humble gallstone. Moral of the story: Don’t take the law into your own hands.
In a sequel to the December 1 Special Occasion Speeches Manual, we saw a reversal of roles. This time, Angeline Lee presented a leadership award to Ben Fong. Both delivered awe-inspiring speeches entitled “Leadership by Example” and “Extraordinary” respectively.
FTMC and guests celebrated Sivadas' birthday during the Happy 10-Minute Break with a song and cake. Many happy returns of the day, Sivadas!
Sivadas blowing out the candles on his birthday cake
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We indulged in the amusing tales by IPP Tan Lay Theng who is the humour master. She said she found it hard to look for humorous matierial, so she decided to show us a video clip on the winning speech at the District 51 Humorous Speech Contest 2009. “Local English or Standard English?” was a sidesplitting speech by Marianna Pascal that left us convulsed with laughter.
We express our heartfelt thanks to our General Evaluator, Robert Ram, ACS, CL. He imparted words of wisdom and invaluable tips on improvement. He commended FTMC for its high exco members' attendance (over 50%) at the meeting. He also praised the club for having a blog that is being updated.
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We thank the other role players for making the meeting a success:
- Teo Soo Loon, Cheong Kuok Sum, Tom Chen and KC Lim, the speech evaluators
- Elaine Tan, the Grammarian
- Lai Chee Yoong, the Ah Counter
- Gino Chong, the Timer
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Robert Ram, the General Evaluator, caught in action
Teo Soo Loon evaluating Zaiton's speech "Better Out than In"
Elaine Tan delivering her Grammarian's report
Chee Yoong (left), the Ah Counter, is also the Best Table Topics Speaker. On the right is Chee Hoe, first-timer as Assistant SAA.
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President Ben Fong is the Best Project Speaker seen here receiving his certificate from IPP Tan Lay Theng
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Freddie Yap is the joint Best Project Speaker
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Teo Soo Loon is the Best Speech Evaluator
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Tom Chen is the joint Best Speech Evaluator
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REPORT BY ELAINE TAN
PHOTOS BY ANGELINE LEE
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