Night of social media

Hello everyone! It’s time for another BSC recap today!

It’s me, your friendly neighbourhood Ling Ling, here to escort you through the particulars of the evening on 19 September 2017. But this time, I was the Table Topics Master. (I was previously Toastmaster of the Evening in August. Link: https://bruneispeakersclub.com/2017/08/by-all-means-paint/)

The star of the evening was our one and only Rano Iskandar, ACB, ALB. His theme for the evening was “Social Media”, his bread and butter, and it permeated throughout the whole meeting.

The night opened with TM Hajah Haryati Haji Abdul Gafur as our Acting Sergeant at Arms (SAA). It was her very first time to give the opening address so she was understandably nervous, but she soldiered on and did her best, including keeping her SAA introduction within 5 minutes – a feat that even experienced SAAs can struggle with.

We had one guest that night who came to visit Brunei Speakers’ Club (BSC). She was drawn to SEAMEO VOCTECH after seeing an Instagram post about BSC, so never underestimate the power of social media!

Rano took the stage, and boy oh boy, was he charming as ever! Everyone was a little low on energy after the contest last week, but they soon perked up with Rano in command. As expected of our Vice President of Education (VPE)! He was on the ball and had already briefed me on the theme of the night, so when he called me up next, I was able to get the audience ready for our tête-à-tête.

Sandy Tan, CC, was the Table Topics Evaluator, my partner in crime, and her explanation of her role that night was textbook. Our Grammarian was Hazwan Kamarulzaman, ACB, ALB, and he was perfunctory as ever. The word of the day was VACUOUS! Our Ah Counter & 'Who-Said-What' was Geneviève Lai, DTM. Battle-hardened Geneviève was definitely not vacuous in delivering her role that night! Toastmaster Jidun Dollah came next as our Timer and Tip, and he cheerfully demonstrated the traffic-light system to indicate duration of speeches and evaluations. Last was our General Evaluator, Aziman Nasir, ACB, ALB, who kept an eagle eye on the meeting throughout the night.

Our first speaker of the night was TM Safarul Hassan with his Level 1 speech in Dynamic Leadership Pathways, “29 and Intrigued”. There to explain his project was first-time evaluator TM Sophiana Chua, who handled herself with poise and precision. Safarul then guided us through the chapters of his life, beginning with his adoption from Malaysia that lead him here to Brunei, to trying to be his own man and migrating to Australia, to returning once again to Brunei to us here in Brunei Speakers' Club. Beautiful speech and an absolute joy to have him here in the club.

Our other speaker of the night was Rahmat Tarsat, CC, who was also doing a Level 1 Pathways, and she was evaluated by TM Supatra Lee. Her speech, "Lesson Learnt", was breathtakingly descriptive, lyrical and almost heart-breaking. She wove her speech with fire and talked about how she repeatedly burned herself when she drew her classmates ire with her enthusiasm for science, when she picked the majors she loved instead of the majors she was good at in university, and when she attempted to share her love for Toastmasters with her colleagues and was shunned. But, like a moth to a flame, she never stopped, because it is her nature to reach out and we are all the better for it. She was definitely well-deserving of her 'Best Speaker' ribbon of the night!

First to be called up to the stage was Gerald Goh. His question was “If you were going to be an online personality, how would you promote yourself using social media?” Gerald needed no prompting and gleefully declared that he has always wanted to be known as a world-weary globetrotter, dominating the online world with phenomenal pictures of the places he’s been.

Next was Heidi Rahman with her thoughts on being friends with relatives on social media. She trod carefully, saying we all need space, but ultimately admitted to not being friends with family on Facebook – something we can all relate to!

After Heidi was Suneeta Pathak! She came up to the stage, eager and enthusiastic, and was given “What age do you think children should be exposed to social media?” As a mother herself, this question hit home and she had a concrete answer! 14, at first, but with moderation, and the full Monty at 18.  Mum always knows best!

Reuben came next and, as an avid user of social media, he was hit with “Would you rather have thousands of followers on social media or none at all?” He was flustered and flabbergasted at my ludicrous question. If he had no followers at all, that wouldn’t make it a very 'social' media now, would it? So, ALL the followers, he decided!