Entertainment to the Maximum (4 June 2013)

Tonight’s meeting was packed to the brim, with only a few empty seats dotting our usual meeting venue.

We had the strict but humorous Fernando Young kickstarting tonight’s meeting with the ice-breaker question that was quintessentially in Fernando’s style: What do you love or loathe most about Fernando Young? The crowd was simultaneously tickled and energized by this topic.

Off to a good start, the next item on the agenda was the introduction by our club’s very own Vincent Chua. He was the Toastmaster of the Day and he explained the different segments in a typical Toastmaster Chapter Meeting and its benefits, as well as the various appointment holders and the purpose that they serve.

This is followed by our Club President Alvin Yong’s opening address, where he encouraged us to listen attentively, not selectively. We should listen to new ideas with an open mind, instead of condemning something we do not like right from the start.

Our Language Evaluator, Crispin Rodrigues, then presented the Word of the Day: exemplify. Unlike other Words of the Day, the word “exemplify” has only one meaning, which is to “be an example of” and is especially apt when describing an intangible idea with a tangible act or object.

And so now, off to the first segment of the meeting: the prepared speeches!

Robin Chiu was our first prepared speaker of the evening. Fresh from winning the Best Speaker when presenting Project 1, Robin exuded his usual charm and confidence as he asked the audience whether we are in control of our lives while making money or we have already lost ourselves and become slaves in the pursuit of monetary wealth. Peppering his speech with some humorous lines every now and then, he won the affection of the audience once again as he walked off with the Best Speaker ribbon yet again!

Kee Chun Kwang, a club member, was up next. Chun Kwang decided to re-do Project 2 because his evaluator recommended that he do so in his first try, having failed to memorise parts of his speech. On his second attempt at Project 2, Chun Kwang was more confident and there were few pauses in his speech, if any, as he shared with us how to be a bunch of happy Singaporeans.

Our last speaker for the evening, Vincent Tatan, is a frequent visiting Toastmaster from Whampoa Toastmasters Club. Vincent gave a speech on stereotypes, which is a belief that people may already have but may not be necessarily accurate. He used the king of fruits, the durian, to exemplify the idea of stereotyping: one may think he shouldn’t go near durians because of the thorns it has on its exterior as well as the somewhat offensive smell to others. But go beyond these characteristics that a durian has, and one can experience the sweet nectarine taste that lingers on long after the first bite is taken.

The next segment of the meeting was the Table Topics session, anchored by the experienced Gerald Ong. Armed with his iPad and his list of topics, several challengers gamely squared up to the (sometimes quirky) questions that Gerald posed.

For example, our lovely Pei Zhi’s question was “LTA = Listening to Alien”, quite different from the Land Transport Authority that we are used to. And then there was Chun Kwang again, who had to answer “why are there 11 players on a soccer field?” We also had a visting Toastmaster Alamel, who was asked “why don’t we eat ice-cream with chopsticks?” I’m sure everyone, including the challengers and audience alike, had great fun listening to the topics as they did with the response to these quirky questions.

In the end, the challenger who prevailed was Zaki Ibrahim, a friend of Pei Zhi’s.

Finally, the last segment of the meeting was the Evaluations for the prepared speeches. We had three visiting Toastmasters as Evaluators today, with Welly Sebudi, Mavis Lai and Suryana Norman respectively evaluating the three prepared speakers. While effusive with their praise for the impressive prepared speeches, they nonetheless had some pointers for the speakers to take home with them to improve.

And that marks the end of a highly entertaining meeting tonight. Join us for our next meeting on 18 June 2013, see you!

(Updated by Vanessa, Club Secretary)