The meeting started off with the President’s opening speech. Aziman Nasir, ACB, ALB thanked last term’s executive committee for their effort and members who voted. In his inaugural speech, the president shared his hope to continue the vision of excellence for the benefit of all BSC members. He also hoped that the club will make members’ experience worthwhile.
The meeting continued with the introduction of the TME – the bubbly and humorous Syatrah Roslan, SR2. The role players were Rahmat Tarsat, CC a.k.a Aunty Rahmat as the TTM, cheesecake & tapak kuda lover TM Awfa Nawawi as TTE, the one who loved everyone’s open house TM Supatra Lee as the Grammarian and TM Sharon Lim who loves green tea was The Ah Counter and Who Said What. The Timer, TM Jidun Dollah, made the audience go aww because he has found someone to share good Hari Raya food. The General Evaluator, Aziman expressed happiness in handing green packets to children.
The WOTD was the noun “aplomb” which means complete and confident composure or self -confidence.
The TOTD was “Let’s rock and roll” which is Syatrah’s motto when she has a lot on her plate and needs to get down with business.
Using her credibility, logic reasoning and emotions, Lai Ling Ling PM2, persuaded the audience to read the news more than once before forming an opinion. Lai Ling Ling started her speech by taking the audience back to her childhood when her parents still bought Borneo Bulletin and when she fell in love with The Straits Times. Nowadays, her family relies more on Facebook and whatsapp for news.
That doesn’t sit well Ling Ling, who believes that we should keep an eye on the kind of news we bring into our sphere. She reasoned that news can be malicious in intent such as those that were created to direct traffic to ad revenue generating websites. An example of such news is the horror inducing headline in 2014 which stated that Ebola carrying immigrants were entering the US. The fake news was planted hard core nationalists who intended to turn away immigrants. To filter out fake news from our sphere, Lai Ling Ling encouraged the audience to ask questions about the credibility of the source and seek a second opinion. These steps are necessary since the news shape our thinking and affects how we form our opinions.
In Table Topics, Aunty Rahmat asked the audience pesky questions. Speakers had to evade answering the question by giving a motivational speech instead.
The first speaker, Hazwan Kamarulzaman, ACB, ALB was asked if his guest was the same girl he took to open houses the previous year. Hazwan cleverly responded that Hari Raya is more fun and you would enjoy your company even more if we stop having expectations and attaching labels. He was praised for his structured speech.
The second speaker, Pranika, ACS, ALB, was asked when she is getting married. Her answer was she would rather stand on her own two feet first as advised by her grandaunt. Her vocal variety and good eye contact drew the audience in.
TM Kelvin Lai shared his trick of talking quite fast if he were asked about gaining weight.
TM Philip believed that it isn’t about how much money one makes but how much happiness is generated in one’s life. He motivated the audience to decide to be happy. His speech captured the audience’s attention from the start.
TM Farhan would answer, “just enough to get by” if he were asked how he did in his exams. He was praised for his smile and good eye contact.
Congratulations to Pranika for winning Table Topics and well done to Awfa for winning Best Evaluator.
Before the meeting ended, Rahmat talked about enhancing the relationship between mentor and mentee. Members are to sit together with their mentor to discuss what kind of support is needed.
The meeting was closed by the president who advised members to restart their journey at the new term by reassessing their goals.
Written by TM Haryati Abd Gafur
Photos by TM Sophiana Chua