Wednesday, October 3, 2012

September 18, 2012: Feel The Fear, Do It Anyway!

Ian Tai
Personally, I love this meeting theme as this is what Toastmasters Organization is all about. People from all walks of life step out from their comfort zone in order to learn how to rise and shine as an powerful public speaker. 
 
 Members and guests of Friendship's 18 September meeting
The meeting started slightly later than the scheduled 7pm and was diligently hosted by our Division W Governor, Tan Lay Theng. Table Topics was conducted by VPE, Daphne Au and we had six outstanding speakers in their own way. 

 Division W Governor, Lay Theng as our Toastmasters of the Evening
Ben Chan had made major improvements from his last attempt in Table Topics, while Fen Ng has a lovely voice and stage presence. Yong and Kelly Fun were steady and natural on stage while Justin was entertaining with his personal story. He reminded us to tighten our belts and obey to instructions given by the cabin crew during flights.

Yong and Kelly Fun from WIM Toastmasters Club delivering Table Topics speeches
 The most notable speaker was Andrew. After seating at the back of nearly six or seven meetings, he finally introduced himself to us with his virgin Table Topics attempt. It’s a huge breakthrough, and I believe he deserves a thunderous applause for his effort today. Way to go, Andrew!

Andrew gave his Table Topic Speech for the first time
We had three amazing speakers, Oh Lien Chai, Penny Choo and Timothy Nakayama. Loaded with smiles and opened about the good and bad side in him for his Ice Breaking Speech; Lien Chai successfully build good rapport with the audience. We do not find any bad side of him as he is honest, friendly and articulate.

"Do you want to hear to good, or the bad side of me?" asked Lien Chai during his speech
Penny Choo from MidValley Toastmasters Club was attempting her Speech number 6, about the Five Letter Words, which is S.O.R.R.Y. she gave a dramatic and engaging speech about how we should put our ego down and saying sorry, is after all not that hard to do.  
 
"The Five Letters Word" by Penny Choo
Timothy was attempting his Advanced Manual in Storytelling, where he shared a story about once a beautiful city. With the skills and techniques he already acquired, he managed to describe the details and the city painted beautifully in our minds. We got so engrossed into his mythical yet irony story, as if we were watching a fairy tale movie.

All three speakers have done fantastically well with adequate preparations, good stage presence and excellent performances. Well Done, guys!

Sure enough, the feedback and evaluation session is when speakers are given “veracious” comments and “constructive” criticism from a panel of evaluators. I started off with my evaluation for all Table Topic Speakers, which was followed by three outstanding evaluators, Timothy, Zaiton and Alexandra Lau.

After the technical evaluation, it’s time to decide who “the speaker of the night” is. Fen Ng was voted as the favorite Table Topic Speaker, and we gave her a certificate which will serve as a nice souvenir from us. Timothy Nakayama was voted as the winner for both speech and evaluation “contest” of today’s meeting. It’s a great morale boost for his upcoming division contest in University Malaya on Saturday, 29th November 2012. Be sure to be there to support him!

Fen receiving the Best Table Topics Award
Timothy receiving the Best Evaluator and Project Speaker Awards
General Evaluator, Teoh Chun Ming receiving our token of appreciation

Ian Tai
Vice President Public Relations

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