Last week we had our first chapter meeting of September titled "Leadership". On our agenda, we had a quote by John Quincy Adams, saying "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more and become more, you are a leader". We often believe that leading others will require us to be in a position of influence of power, but is that true? Let's find out...
Our meeting kicked off with our Vice President Education (VPE) Wen Zhong leading the warm up session where we shared our favourite food. Once that was done, Club President Vincent Chua gave us the opening address. The word of the day, to compliment the theme "Leadership", was "Encouragement". We were
encouraged to incorporate (see what I did there) the word "encouragement" into our speeches, as a noun, verb or adjective!
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| VPE Wen Zhong |
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Club President Vincent
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We had 3 lovely speakers that evening. Toastmasters Mak, on "Research your Topic" presented on Power Boat Driving, starting the speech enthusiastically with "How many of you have a car license?", and following it up by "But how many of you have a boat driving license", in which none of us could raise our hands! He using many visual aids to explain to us about the mechanics about boat driving, which definitely kept us paying attention.
Our second speaker, Wai Kay, gave his final project 10 speech - "Inspire your Audience" and he shared with us about his Toastmasters Journey. He shared about how he grew from a reserved, beginner speaker, gradually building up his confidence and speaking abilities into the Competent Communication he is today! I'm sure he did inspire us to step out of our comfort zones and start improving daily.
Last but not least, our very own Club President Vincent, gave a speech based on the new pathways syllabus, titled "Identity Crisis". He shared about his leadership experiences over the years, and how he always wanted to be a "young slacker" but ended up one way or another in a leadership position!
After a short refreshment break, we had the evaluation session. As most Toastmasters would know, the evaluation session is a short feedback session given by other speakers and this is done in order to raise the speaking standards of the speaker.
We moved on to the Table Topics Session, which was conducted by VPE Wen Zhong, in order for us to practice our impromptu speeches! We were challenged with a wide variety of topics - ranging from "What is life's one simple truth" to "What is your favourite animal!" In topic tables, we had to give a 1-2 minute speech on the spot, without any preparation beforehand, to answer a random topic. To many newcomers, this may seem like a daunting feat but it is only through struggle that we grow!
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| Our young speaker giving a speech on her favourite animal! |
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| Intense! |
Normally table topics would conclude the club session, but thankfully that night we had a special Language Evaluation given by our Area Director Celine in order to raise our speaking standards. A memorable quote I will never forget from her session is this - "Language is Impact". She spoke about the importance of using sounds; the proper word choices (using the word "delivering" as opposed ot "giving"); the use of appropriate, vivid descriptions; as well as many other helpful pointers!
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| Celine giving us the Language Evaluation |
Thank you Celine for that session! And lastly, we had the standard presentation of awards to encourage (see what I did there) speakers!
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| Best Prepared Speech! |
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| Best Evaluator! |
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Best Table Topics!
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And with that, we ended a productive and fruitful chapter meeting! Do take note for our club, we will be having our internal humorous speaking contest on our next chapter meeting on the 19 September (Tues) 7.15pm! Do join us! :D
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| Our exciting Toastmasters and Guests! 5 Sep |
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