Meeting Recap: “Watch Your Back” by Syahnur Nizam

Meeting Recap – 21st July 2020

Tuesday, 21st July 2020 was a busy day for Brunei Speaker’s Club as we had 3 prepared speeches, hence timing was of paramount essence. And we were able to start exactly on the dot at 7:30pm.

 

1st Part of Meeting: Role Players Introduction

As per tradition, we started off the meeting with the introduction from our Sergeant-at-arms (SAA), Wilson Kong, Visionary Communicator Level 1, who gave an introduction to what toastmaster is all about, giving us a walkthrough of the pathways available for us to choose to work on, listing the house rules, as well as having guests introduced themselves.

 

 

The meeting was then proceeded with the introduction of our Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), Syahnur Nizam, Persuasive Influence Level 4, who took over the meeting and started it off with the introduction of the different role players and their respective tasks.

The roleplayers for the night were:
Sergeant at Arms: Wilson Kong, VC1
Toastmaster of the Evening: Syahnur Nizam, PI4
Table Topic Master: TM Lawrence Pow
Table Topic Evaluator: Ted Jee, PM4
Grammarian: Lai Ling Ling, PM5, TC1
Ah-Counter & Who-Said-What: Ari Jeffry, IP2
Timer & Tips: Wong Hui Ting, EC2
General Evaluator: Heidi Rahman, CC

Syahnur also shared with us his thought of the day which was “Watch your back”, which he encouraged everyone to stand and sit straight so we can all have good posture.

 

 

First role player, Toastmaster Lawrence Pow, introduced his role as a Table Topic Master with his theme for the night centering around the ‘Happiness’ topic. Table topics is a session where random members or guests, will be called up to the stage to provide an impromptu 2 minutes speech on a random topic given on the spot. It’s a fantastic exercise to test the ability of the speaker to formulate their thinking fast on their feet.

 

With a table topic session, we will definitely have a Table Topic Evaluator, and the evaluator for the night was, Ted Jee, Presentation Mastery Level 4. The role of a Table Topic Evaluator was to carefully listen to the table topic speakers and evaluate them based on a pre-set guide, which Ted stated he will be looking for an effective structure such as clear opening, clear body, and a proper close to the speech. Ted also challenged the speakers to make an impactful close to their speeches.

The next role player to make an introduction was Grammarian, Lai Ling Ling, Presentation Mastery Level 4 and Team Collaboration Level 1, whereby she introduced the word of the day, “Bemuse” and encouraged all the speakers to use the word as much as possible during the night. Ling Ling also explained her other task which was to look out for effective and ineffective use of the English language.

 

 

Ah-Counter and Who-Said-What was up next, and this role was filled by Ari Jeffry, Innovative Planning Level 2, where he explained his 2 tasks, firstly to keep track of crutch and filler words from the speakers. Crutch and filler words inhibit the effectiveness of the speakers such as “ah, erm, you know” and so on. His second task was to present a quiz to test the listening skills of the audience members based on the spoken information throughout the evening.

 

Next up was the Timer & Tip by Wong Hui Ting, Effective Coaching Level 2, where Hui Ting explained the time allocated for the different speakers, evaluators and role players, as well as explaining the lighting signal to indicate the run down of time.

 

The last role player to introduce herself was the General Evaluator (GE), helmed by Heidi Rahman, Competent Communicator. A GE takes charge of the 3rd part of the meeting leading the team of evaluators who will present their report, and Heidi will further give her feedback to the evaluators respectively.

Heidi’s tip for the night for all the evaluators was to be specific about the comments being given, so that everyone can benefit, not just the evaluated speakers.

 

2nd Part of Meeting: Speeches

We started off the 2nd part of the meeting with table topics, and we had a total of 4 table topic speakers.

 

First speaker was Hazwan, who’s topic was: “What is the colour of happiness & why?” Hazwan shared his working experiences in various sectors and how we was initially unhappy and eventually found his happiness in his current position, and shared his view point of living in multitudes of colours as part of happiness.

 

Second speaker was Sheng, a returning guest, who’s topic was: “Happiest time of your childhood.” Sheng shared his childhood memories of catching frogs and playing in his mother’s homeland.

 

Third speaker was our newest member, Nazri, who’s topic was: “How can you become happy again when you are sad?” Nazri shared his favourite thing to do when he’s sad was to hit the gym and that’s how he got his muscular build as a result.

 

The last table topic speaker for the night was UBD toastmaster, Jonathan, who’s topic was: “Do we have to work hard now to be happy later in life?” Jonathan shared with us he’s already happy as his source of happiness is his family, and he need not wait till later in life to find his joy.

 

After the table topic session, we next move on to the prepared speeches.

First speech was from Toastmaster Lim Chee Rong, who was attempting his Level 1, Part 2b project and his speech title was, “Here to Win”.

Before Chee Rong presented, we heard from his evaluator, Syatrah Roslan, Strategic Relationships Level 3, about the speech objective and what she will be looking for in the prepared speech.

2 key lessons that Chee Rong shared in his speech were:
1) Embrace failure to ensure success – don’t be afraid to try for trying is the essence of which success comes about
2) teamwork makes the dream work – all goals or ambitions can be achieved, when you have the right people in your team

 

 

The second speech for the night was by Sharon Lim, Presentation Mastery Level 2, where she attempted her Level 3, Part 1 project on using presentation software. Sharon’s speech title was “The Five Love Language”.

Before Sharon presented, we get to hear from her speech evaluator, Ihzash Ahamed, Strategic Relationships Level 2, who explained what the speech objective was, and what he will be looking for.

The 5 love languages that Sharon shared was:
1. Word of affirmation
2. Physical touch
3. Quality time
4. Act of service
5. Receiving gifts

 

 

The last speaker for the night was by our Immediate Past President, Allen Ang, Distinguished Toastmaster, who’s presenting his Level 2 Part 3 project titled: “My Speech Contest Mentor”.

Allen was evaluated by Megat Arif, Effective Coaching Level 2, where he shared the speech objective and what he will be looking out for.

The speech by Allen was a journey into his speech contest a few years back and how his speech mentor coached him to get into the district finals.

 

 

With the conclusion of all the prepared speeches, we cut to a 5 mins break before resuming the next part of the meeting.

 

3rd Part of Meeting: Evaluations

The 3rd part of the meeting started and was led by our General Evaluator (GE), Heidi Rahman, Competent Communicator.

 

First evaluator is Table Topics Evaluator by Ted Jee, Presentation Mastery Level 4.

 

We then move on to the presentation of the best table topic speaker and it was won by Hazwan.

 

Next evaluation was prepared speech evaluation by Syatrah Roslan, Strategic Relationships Level 3.

 

Up next was prepared speech evaluation by Ihzash Ahamed, Strategic Relationships Level 2.

 

The last prepared speech evaluation was by Megat Arif, Effective Coaching Level 2.

 

Up next is the report by our Grammarian, Lai Ling Ling, Presentation Mastery Level 4 and Team Collaboration Level 1.

 

Ari Jeffry, Innovative Planning Level 2, then presented his Ah-Counter report, and also quizzed the audience members and guests with the who-said-what segment.

 

Hui Ting, Effective Coaching Level 2, presented her timer report next, and informed us of who were the eligible evaluators based on adherence to allotted time frame.

 

With the completion of the evaluation portion of the meeting, the floor was taken over by our president, Rano Iskandar, which his closing remarks.

 

During the closing remarks, the best evaluator was announced, and it went to Syatrah Roslan.

 

The evening also came with an initiation of a new member to Brunei Speakers’ Club, Nazri.

 

The meeting overall ended on a high note as we’ve achieved more than 70% members participation which was a fantastic turnout, and judging from the laughter, and smiles, everyone seemed to have had a great time with fun filled learning.

 

Contributed by:
Ted Jee (Writer)
Wilson Kong (Photographer)