| Theme | : | HARI RAYA |
| Word of the Day | : | EMBRACE |
| Attendees | ||
| Members | ROLES | |
| Bryan Yong | TME | |
| Chandrasiri De Silva | TTM | |
| Chandran V | CC | GE |
| Eileen Crawley | CTM | |
| Joan-Lynn Chong | ASA, Timekeeper | |
| Lakhmichand | ATMB, ALS | |
| Lim Mooi Kheng | ||
| Lourdes Chandramohan | DTM | Ah Counter, Evaluator #2 |
| Ranjani Visvanathan | ACB | Evaluator #1 |
| Ranjit Singh | ACS, CL | Speaker #1 |
| Sham Sunder | ACB | TTE |
| Shobha Janardanan | Grammarian | |
| Uma Narayanan | CC | Speaker #2 |
| Guest(s) | ||
| - | ||
| Table Topics Speakers | ||
| Lucky | ||
| Bryan Yong | ||
| Eileen Crawley | ||
| Ranjit Singh | BEST | |
| Ranjani |
| Speeches |
| Advanced PR Manual |
| # 4 – Ranjit Singh, ACS, CL |
| " Vices Are No Crimes " |
| Advanced Manual |
| # 1 – Uma Narayanan, CC |
| " In-flight Entertainment " |
| Speech Evaluators |
| Ranjani Visvanathan, CC |
| Lourdes Chandramohan, DTM |
It was a breezy evening with clear skies. With Hari Raya just around the corner, there were only a few patrons in the cafeteria that day. By the time we arrived, the tables were already neatly arranged with plates, forks and knives. The reason for that is because we were having pizzas for our dinner! It's been a while since we last had those delicious pizzas so it was a great appetizer for the meeting that day.
Our ASA for the day was Joan. Joan called the meeting to order right on the time and led us in reciting the Toastmasters' Promise. The control was then handed over to our Mr President, Lucky! After a brief welcome and opening message for the day, Lucky introduced the TME (me!). What proceeded was a short mention of the theme of the meeting and introduction of the role players. With that completed, we moved on to the anticipated Table Topics session!
Our TTM for the day was Chandrasiri (Chand) who took up the role for the first time. For this session, there was a little twist as to how "volunteers" were chosen as the speaker. Chand first handed the volunteer a piece of paper which was then read aloud. The message in the piece of paper told the volunteer if he or she should be the speaker, or any person sitting to the left, right or even in front of the volunteer! This element of randomness added fun and excitement to the selection process, especially when done by Lourdes! After the speakers were chosen, they were required to pick the speech topic by choosing one of the five green packets Chand had prepared. The five lucky speakers for the session were Lucky, Bryan, Eileen, Ranjit and Ranjani. This was followed by the evaluation by Sham Sunder as the TTE. Sham complimented Chands idea of selecting the speakers and then evaluated the speakers from the aspect of whether the speakers answered the questions. Everyone received a great evaluation as Sham pointed out the strengths of each speaker. With the evaluation done, we had a 15 minutes break for refreshments.
Joan, our ASA called our meeting back to order right on the dot. We then proceeded with the assignment speeches session. On that day, we had two speakers delivering speeches from the advanced manuals. Our first speaker Ranjit gave a controversial speech with the title "Vices Are No Crimes". The speech was followed by a 8-10 minutes Q & A session. Our audiences were getting more and more controversial and restless as the session went on. Towards the end, our President Lucky called our attention to the time so we finished the Q & A session despite having more opinions and questions in mind. Next we were entertained by another speaker delivering a speech from an advanced manual. Uma gave a very interesting speech with the title "In-flight Entertainment" which was written based on her direct and indirect experiences. Throughout the speech, Uma played several roles while telling us in-flight jokes. Everyone had a hearty laugh that day.
Next up was the evaluation session led by our General Evaluator, Chandran. The first evaluator to speak was Ranjani who was evaluating Ranjit's speech. Ranjani complimented on the strengths in terms of the emotions portrayed, how Ranjit handled the speech well when it comes to the Q & A session and skillfully answering the questions. Chandran added on that the speech would be much more effective if the setting on whom the audiences are, were explained in advance. Overall, it was a very controversial and thought provoking speech. Our second evaluator for that day was Lourdes who was evaluating Uma for her entertaining speech. Lourdes pointed out that the speech was a series of monologues by different characters. The structure was lacking and having a story for the speech would overcome that. Lourdes suggested voice modulation between roles so the audience would know every time a different role came up and took over. Lourdes also complimented on the dramatic delivery and funny contents, ending with a note that being relaxed would be of great help.
With the speech evaluations completed, we moved on to the reports by role players. First up was our Grammarian, Shobha who reported on the usage of the word of the day Embrace and pointed out the excellent uses of language as well as the mistakes. This was followed by the report by our Ah Counter, Lourdes who gave a detailed report of the specific speech crutches we used (not only Ahs and Ums) coupled with some explanations and suggestions. Last but not least was the report by our Timekeeper, Joan with a time record that was accurate down to the very seconds for each speech and session. It was good news that we have been able to keep our timing on track most of the time that day! Our GE, Chandran then ended the session with the closing remarks, pointing out how we have improved over the time and a few suggestions on how we could further improve.
The next slot was the awards presentation slot. We had only the Best Table Topic Speaker award to be given as there were only two assignment speakers and evaluators. The Best Table Topic Speaker award went to Ranjit with his controversial speech on the concept of "Balik Kampung". The last time slot was the business and feedback session handled by our President, Lucky. Lucky reminded us regarding the contests over the past weekend as well as the coming Division level contests. This was followed by several announcements from club officers and the installation committee members. To end the day with an extra wonderful mood, we dispersed to the cafeteria where more pizzas were waiting for us, or should I say our stomachs were waiting for those?
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