A warm welcome was felt when our Sergeant-at-Arms (SAA), TM Awfa Nawawi initiated the meeting by briefing us the history of Toastmasters followed by introduction of guests; Izati and AIsyah who were brought by TM Aziman Nasir, and Muiz from Baiduri who came to experience our meeting for the first time.
Shortly after engaging everyone to recite the mission of the club, Awfa passed the control a returning member, Nur Ahmad, CC. Nur openly reassured us that the meeting will filled with fun learning experience with the help of the following office bearers.
Table Topic Master – DTM Genevieve Lai
Table Topics Evaluator – TM Donna Balthazar
Grammarian – TM Heidi Rahman
The word of the day was “thunderstruck” which is an adjective for extremely surprised/amazed,
synonymous to stunned or shaken up!
Ah Counter – TM Kelvin Lai
Timer – Jack Chin CC, CL whose tip was “Wrap up when you see red light!”
General Evaluator – Hilman Omar, CC
After each office bearer introduced themselves, Toastmaster of the Evening; Nur Ahmad, shared the thought of the day about her parent’s fantastic stories which revolved from running a business to trekking adventures. Her parents shared one common value; which was to just go out and do it!
The first speaker, TM Delwin Keasberry, presented his CC6 speech project entitled; “The Proud Father”
He started off with a question; “do you want to get into relationship with someone?” and continued by sharing about himself. Delwin is married with 3 kids, Noah, who is six, Elise and Eva who are 4 year old twins.
The day Delwin had a water shed moment was the day his son was born which changed his life. As soon as his wife’s pregnancy tested positive, Delwin had a thunderstruck emotion. With sounds of tears and laughter, Delwin quickly told his parents over the phone. It was a tumultuous time for Delwin to see his wife in labor. But tears turned to joy when Delwin held his son for the first time. It was one of his proudest moment in life.
As Delwin spoke, we saw Noah gingerly walking up on stage to perform in the school’s year end celebration. Without attempting to contain his pride, he turned to the person next to him and said “That’s my boy!” Like any other Asian parent, he once questioned why Noah didn’t top the class in math and science. But nevertheless, Delwin proud of his son’s academic performance.
Delwin concluded that parenthood is not easy but he enjoyed the journey. That was a wonderful speech from Delwin and the audience was thunderstruck too!
Moving on to our second speaker, our vice president education, Gerald Goh, CL delivering an ALB presentation – “Meeting roles and responsibilities “. He started off with there’s a saying that you don’t learn just by watching. Active participation is required for effective learning.
His presentation covered responsibilities of office bearers to few addition roles such as presenter invocation, joke master, parliamentarian and executives committee.
First, he covered each of the office bearer’s role.
- Toastmaster
The person in charge of hosting a meeting, ensure audience engagement while leaving a good impression.
- The Topicmaster
A member who comes up with speech topics and speak off the cuff.
- Speakers
Dedicate time and energy planning and practicing manual speeches
- General Evaluator
Oversees and provides their report at the during evaluation segment of the club meeting. General Evaluator also offers feedback during evaluation session so that the quality of the meeting can be improve
- Speech Evaluator
Practice listening skills and offer feedback on speech delivery
- Ah counter
This person keeps track of the crutch words like umms, errs and the unnecessary short and long pauses of the speaker.
- Grammarian
The grammarian takes a note of the good and the not so good usage of grammar. Also takes note on the number of times the word of the day is used. In short, he/she helps the members to polish their language usage.
- Timer
Timer helps speakers learn to convey their message within a specific time limit. He/she operates the timing cards as required by each segment
Some club also feature additional meeting roles to provide more varied participation opportunities such as
- Presenter of Invocation – He starts the meeting with an inspirational thought. In our meetings, this is usually done by the SAA.
- Joke master – He lightens the meeting by cracking few jokes or a funny incident etc. I remember that this segment existed at Medley Toastmasters Club long back wherein the joke master narrates a short funny story or shares a few jokes before the Table Topic session.
- Table topics evaluator – The Table Topic evaluator evaluates each Table Topic speaker for a maximum time limit of 30 seconds. He/she points out the strengths and also focuses on the areas of improvement when it comes to impromptu speaking.
- Parliamentarian – to assist us all in becoming more familiar with the workings of Robert’s Rules of Order.
Executives Committees
Club officers’ contributions to meetings are not always as obvious as the meeting participants’, but the officers’ support is just as vital to a club meeting’s success.
- Sergeant at Arms
He/she confirms meeting location, arranges the room and equipment like the timing device, gavel, banner, ribbons etc, greets attendees and finally returns the room to its original state. He/she starts the meeting by explaining the mission of Toastmasters and the ground rules to be followed during the meeting and introduces the Toastmaster of the Evening.
- President
He/she opens the meeting and sets the meeting’s mood. He/she then gets the introduction from the invites guests for comments on meeting. This person consults with other officers about the meeting agenda prior to the meeting. he/she presents awards, makes announcements if any and adjourns the meeting.
- Vice President Education (VPE)
He/she is plans each and every meeting by getting the role players and speakers. He makes ensure that the members get a fair chance to complete their projects and allocates mentors to help the members with their roles or speeches. He schedules meeting assignments, charts members’ accomplishments, addresses members’ needs and guests’ questions after each meeting.
- Vice President Public Relations (VPPR)
He/she generates publicity to attract guests through flyers posted social media or newspapers. The club gains visibility because of the PR work. The VPPR prepares and distributes newsletter and maintains a website for the club. A group can also be created on Facebook which gets periodical updates about the club’s events.
- Vice President Membership (VPM)
He/she brings new members to the club, reports on membership-building activities, coordinates induction ceremonies for new members and greets guests and answers their questions. He’s the first person whom the guests reach out to join the club. And after the guest becomes a member, the VPE will take care of the rest.
- Secretary
He/she maintains the minutes of the meeting. The minutes are uploaded to the TI website after every meeting and are also circulated to the club’s distribution list. The secretary also circulates an attendance sheet to keep track of the members and guests for the meeting.
- Treasurer
He/she transacts and reports on all financial matters, collects dues, issues checks to World Headquarters for supply orders and presents financial reports as required
Gerald concluded by reminding us that only by participating then we then learn. After a break, Table Topic Master, DTM Genevieve Lai, started off by asking TM Jidun on “How you would travel by? A car, A ship, A train or A plane? Without hesitation, Jidun replied that he experiences motion sickness in all choices given except for travel by air. It’s because he can book a seat online whereas car, ship or train, you can’t book the seats. He concluded that you would find him moody after he travelled when travelling because of the motion sickness.
Our second speaker, Pooja Shivanand, “Who do you resemble the most in the family? Why?” Pooja paused for a while to think about what she wanted to say. she told the audience that she resembles like her father and she inherited his genes. Everyone would say that she looks like resembles her dad. She is happy to carry her father’s name “Shivanand”. There were times her father would create havoc in her life by just asking simple questions such as “No job yet right?” or “When will you get a job?” followed by “Losers doesn’t have a job”. Despite the differences, Pooja thinks she is very much like her dad.
Next speaker, Hafizah, “Do you think the future with excitement or fear”. Hafizah replied both! She fear she’ll be in the next 10 years. Like everyone else she has an aspiration. Have and dreams. In conclusion, she said that despite having fears, she is trying her best.
Fifth Speaker, TM Awfa Nawawi, “What is the biggest question in life? The future?” Awfa told the audience that she’s experiencing a life crisis. She’s wondering what to do after finishing her exams. She is concerned about finding a job. However, she’s still embracing the unknown
Final Speaker, TM Derby, “What technology do you want in life? “
Since derby has issues walking, she wished for a hover board to get her places. A hover board that alleviated her pain from walking.
That’s all for that meeting. It was definitely a fantastic meeting. Wonderful speeches from our prepared speech speakers and table topic speakers. It’ll be a hectic week for members preparing for the conference taking place next weekend. We’ll need all the support and participation from public.
Written By: TM Dalton Lim