Meeting Recap – When You Learn, Teach. When You Get, Give. (1 October 2019)
Written by: Syahnur Nizam
The meeting started off at 7.30 pm as usual with a total of 9 guests (returning and new comers); Nurin, Amal, Nabilah, Izzah, Nadia, Ahmad, Khai, Adli, Awfa
Happy Guests. Happy Club.
Toastmaster of Evening
After the Sergeant at Arms’ (SAA) meeting and guest introduction are completed, the SAA handed over the floor to the Toastmaster of Evening, Allen Ang, DTM. Allen started off the meeting by hyping up the audience. He then proceeded by telling the audience, he asked for favourite quotes from the roleplayers before the meeting to spice up the roleplayers introduction.
Table Topic Master – TM Jocelyn Obina
“Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it’s the time when they most need to think” – Bill Clinton
As the TTM, TM Jocelyn is responsible for hosting the table topic session by inviting members from the audience to the stage for delivering short impromptu speeches.
Table Topic Evaluator – TM Supatra Lee
“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let fom things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.” – Marilyn Monroe
As the TTE, TM Supatra will be evaluating the table topic speakers to provide them value for them to bring back home and learn from their speeches.
Grammarian – David Lim, VC1
“Man know thyself” – Socrates
David is responsible in sharing the word of the day to the audience, note down any outstanding usage of English and provide feedback during the evaluation session.
Word of the Day
Collegial (adjective)
Relating to or involving shared responsibility, as among a group of colleagues.
Example:
- Company lunches are designed to instill a collegial spirit among co-worker
Ah Counter & Who Said What – Nabil Abdul Kadir, PI1
“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” – Confucius
Nabil is in charge of noticing catching for speed bumps (crutch words and filler sounds) in speakers’ speeches which might affect the smoothness of the speeches. He is also will be testing the audience attentiveness by questioning the audience any interesting facts mentioned by the speakers.
Timer and Tip – TM Wilson Kong
“If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Ghandi
Wilson keeps track of the time and ensure the meeting starts and ends on time. He also shared his Timer Tip: Relax, breathe, and stretch before your speech to ease up your nervousness. Thanks Wilson!
General Evaluator – Ihzash Ahamed, SR1
“The distance between your dream and reality is called action” – Ihzash Ahamed
Ihzash will facilitate the evaluation session of the meeting and invite evaluators to provide their feedbacks and reports. He will also evaluates other evaluators, provide comments on the general setting of the meeting, and other details of the meeting,
Aziman Nasir’s Speech Evaluator – Rozana Yunos, ACG, ALB.
“Life is too short, so live your life to the fullest” – William Shakespeare
Sharon Lim’s Evaluator – TM Macalister Mak
“You either control your emotions, else they will control you.” – Macalister Mak
The roleplayers, evaluators, and prepared speech speakers
After introducing all of his roleplayers, Allen shared with us his thought of the day:
“When You Learn, Teach. When You Get, Give.” – Maya Angelou
From my understanding, this quote reminds people to give back to others whatever they received from others. For example, when someone taught you new knowledge, it is your duty to teach others a thing or two to others as well. In this way, you will help others to grow like how others help you to grow as a person.
Prepared Speech Session
In tonight’s meeting, there were two speakers attempting their prepared speech from Pathways
The Most Unforgettable Trip by Sharon Lim, PM1 attempting her Level 1 Project 2 – Effective Body Language
In her speech, Sharon shared with us her experience when she visited two cities of Cambodia (Krong Siem Reap, Phnom Penh) with two of her friends way back in 2016. Krong Siem Reap, a city famous for its historical ruins with different shapes and sizes.They visited a ruin shaped like a mini pyramid. In that particular ruin, Sharon shared how they exhaustedly climbed up the mini pyramid ruin by scrambling through the pyramid blocks (where each’s height is up to Sharon’s waist height) only to find out stairs with railings leading to the top of the pyramid. Over the course of her and her friends’ journey in Cambodia, they visited places like Bayon Temple and Angkor Wat. They couldn’t wrap around their heads how amazing and beautiful were the views of nature and centuries-old buildings offered in Cambodia. They continued their journey to Phnom Penh. There, they visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. She described every gruesome details exist in the museum, from the torture chamber to the tortured victims. There was also a makeshift prison by the regime, where the captives were not given access to toilets. They also visited The Killing Fields, where there were trees in the fields were used to kill toddlers less than two years old. Her experience in Cambodia taught her two lessons; it made her grateful for what she has in life, and humans are capable of creating extraordinary creations and also destroy human lives.
It’s Happening. Office Merge by Aziman Nasir, DL3 attempting his Level 4 Project 1 – Effective Body Language
Aziman started his speech by recalling the camaraderie moment he had with his fellow office mates, which the unit was established back in 2015. Earlier this year, there was a rumour, where his department will be merged with other department due to changes and top management direction. Aziman’s management were assigned to manage the merging. Along with his bosses, Aziman brainstormed a plan on how to distribute the incoming new manpower into his office, and assured everyone involved will be able to adopt the change and provide them options to keep everyone happy. Everyone got to choose whether they want to stay working at something they are good at or have the opportunity to work in different areas to gain new experiences. Aziman gathered all the feedback from everyone, which surprised him how his colleagues wanted to shuffle around and do different things. After compiling all the responses, he showed the new organisational structure to everyone, some were happy, some were somewhat satisfied, but he assured them the decision was made with the intention for the best for everyone in the office, and each department’s manager will ensure everyone will learn and able to produce their best work.By the end of his speech, he shared with us how important it is to keep everyone happy which will maximise the results.
Table Topic Session
In this session, our Table Topic Master TM Jocelyn Obina invited several people from the audience to attempt impromptu speeches.
Our first speaker was Lai Ling Ling was asked to share the opportunity she missed out when she was young. Ling Ling shared with us her missed opportunity to travel to Ibiza (Island in Spain) due to her schedule didn’t allow her to when she was in England. She ended her speech to encourage the audience to
Next, our speaker was, Aditia Salalu, he was asked to show how he’s pursuing his dream. He shared with us, he’s unable to pursue his dream at the moment since it’s far fetched for him. What he did instead, he made some changes to himself to make him prepare to pursue his dream. He tries to accept new ideas, trying out new things, and hanging out more to boost his self confidence.
Next was our first time guest, Adli Manan, was asked, beside monetary gain, what did he gain from his job. He started telling the audience he just graduated from UNISSA but he’s already doing business since he was 13. He shared with us how doing his business has helped him strengthen his relationship with his family by learning a few tips from his father to grow his business. To him, happiness with his family is what he gained from doing his business.
Next is our newest member, Nasrul, was asked, what inspires him. He shared with us his humourous and also hopeless romantic moment he had way back when he was overseas. It was about the most beautiful girl in his life he met on a train who caught his eye. The audience sympathise with him as he further shared with us how he didn’t manage to talk to her at that time, which till this day this girl always on his mind. Then he concluded his story and told us it was actually a plot from Indecent Proposal.
Lastly, our third time guest, Izzah, attempted the table topic for the first time, and she was asked, what valuable lesson she got from her parents. When she was young, she always got financial support from her parents, however, this made her uncomfortable because she doesn’t want to burden her parents as she grew up. She is committed to be more independent to the point she earned her money by working three part time jobs when she was in her university.
Evaluation Session
In this session, everyone who delivered a speech will get evaluated by their respective evaluator. Our Toastmaster of the Evening, Allen Ang handed over the floor to Ihzash Ahamed, SR1, tonight’s General Evaluator, to host the session.
Lai Ling Ling won the Best Table Topic Ribbon presented by her own mentee!
Congratulation to Lai Ling Ling for winning the Best Table Topic Ribbon! Hopefully you will get your chance to visit Ibiza in the future!
After the end of Evaluation Session, Allen Ang expressed his gratefulness towards the audience for attending tonight’s meeting and the roleplayers who made the entire meetings ran smoothly. He then pass over the stage to the President of Brunei Speakers Club, which is, Allen Ang himself!
Congratulation to Rozana Yunos, ACG, ALB for winning the Best Evaluator Ribbon.
Tonight’s “Any Other Business”
- Brunei Speakers Club will be using CIC room from 6 October until 16 December 2019
- Brunei Speakers Club requested permission from its members to have the rights to post members’ videos on social media. Any member who wished not to have their video posted may tell the exco members regarding this matter.
- Brunei Advanced Speakers Club will be having its monthly meeting on 4th October 2019 at Rizqun Hotel from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm. The Toastmaster if Evening will be Liyana Sidek.
President Closing Remarks
Allen shared with us the quote from our table topic session which touched his heart, which is, “I’m not pursuing my dream, I’m changing myself”. He reminded us to have clarity in our mind and not be bothered by noises around us for us to achieve what we want. He further challenged us to take the steps needed to reach closer to what we want. If we don’t know what we want,
have we tried our best to figure it out? We are in a fortunate position because we have options to choose from and able to make decisions based on the options. We could choose to let ourselves plateau our personal growth and stay comfortable where we are, or we could choose to improve ourselves individually, and we can do that by attending to Brunei Speakers Club every Tuesday 7.30 to 9.30 at SEAMEO Voctech.