Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club Singapore | For Better Listening, Thinking and Speaking

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noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Cheng) — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 20:04:00 +0800

Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 18:31:00 +0800

It was a belly-aching night as Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club held its Humorous Speech and Evaluation contest just last Thursday night.

WOW.

No doubt was the night packed with laughter as everyone couldn’t stop giggling from all the amazing humorous speeches which left us all a step closer to our 6 pecs body. The Evaluation Contest was also filled with solid evaluations as they satay-ed the test speaker (gently) one by one.

Thank you to all who came down to support us that night! We hope we kept you entertained!

Before we begin, we would, as always, love to thank all our appointment holders who are as follows:

Organizing Chair: You Xiao

Co-organizing Chair: Tia Maria

Contest Chair: Mohanapriya D

Chief judge: Shaun Aw

Timers: Linda Lee and Joshua Tan

Tally Counters: Ng Cher Khim, Jyoti Soni and Naveena Methani

SAA: Muralidhar R and Andrew Chen

Photographer: Lau Kheng Soon

Food Committee: Gladys Tye

Without them, our contest wouldn’t have been made possible.

And now, on to the contest!

What is humor?

As much as we love to know the secret techniques in creating humor; there isn’t.

Humor isn’t science; but an art. Ok, I made this up myself.

But to please some of you hungry scientists out there; here are some examples of what humor COULD look like.

Humor could be honest. Toastmaster Ashish gave us a very sincere and authentic story of his life and about how he ended up in Singapore, not to fix computers, but as a Biomedical Engineer. He also shared some tips on how you can whitewash your way to the top. And it only works if you’re charming.

Humor could be erotic. Toastmaster Yee Yuen painted almost-erotic-yet-innocent pictures to showcase his past stories. Moaning and groaning together in the library? Oh, they were just moaning over all their upcoming examinations and assignment deadline. His twists and turns got all of us in a daze. If your relationship doesn’t work out. Let go; and create your next almost-erotic-yet-innocent relationship.

Humor could be trendy. Toastmaster Abigail shared her experience on being single and meeting single-minded guys on dating apps 'catching em all’. She certainly does not want to catch them all. Most of them were too focused catching Pokemons. She’s probably looking for fit guys in real gym. Joseph Schooling, perhaps.

Humor could be caring. Toastmaster Joe Wan was filming an action movie. He was starved. You see, how could the main cast in an action movie stayed inaction? Sometimes, in life and in love; an extra question like “Honey, do you want me to throw the rubbish for you?” could grant you some serious actions at night. Yes, even if it is dark out there. Yes, even if there’s no moon. And yes, even if you can’t see a glimpse of hope in your failing relationship. This extra question certainly will reward you some honey, with your honey, without the moon. And of course, without honeymoon trip expenses.

Humor could be vulnerable. Toastmaster Hyder, also known as, Micheal Junior, “Tao-Gay” or Beansprout. Call him whatever you like. His blazer was bought to stuff your mouth. He shared his transformation journey from bones to blazer and from small to big minded. Looking weak certainly creates some humor. But being vulnerable transform humor to respect. I don’t know. Maybe you can actually change the world by bullying people. Many victims who survived emotionally actually changed the world — not by doing what I just suggested you to do, of course. (PG Alert).

Humor could be shamelessly embarrassing. Artistic Toastmaster Kapil shared his secrets in making fabulous art, aka, Fart. He inspired all of us to be the F-artist of this generation. He meticulously articulate how it is like when inspiration is coming your way, towards your gateway, wanting to be free, to be applaud by your audience. FabulousArt restore humanity. It encourages people to credit one another. It shows us what equality really is. Each of us, F-artist, have the power to move our mankind forward. Now, let your inspiration change the world.

Humor could also be perfection. Toastmaster Shaun showed us the importance of “How you say it” and being a proud BS employee, he sure knows what he is talking about. He gave us invaluable tips backed up with personal stories on why and how we should say certain things to avoid miscommunication and misconception.

After the short break, our test speaker came up to give us some tips on how to craft a humorous speech. How ironic is that! Maybe it was all part and parcel of his humor.

As the evaluators came in one by one to satay, barbeque and “goreng” our test speaker, all of us also learned a great deal on how we can better our future speeches.

The list of our splendid evaluators are as follows:

Joe Wan

Nathaniel Koh

Shaun Li

Hyder Taufik

Ho Yee Yuen

And finally, here we have….. our winners!

Humorous Speech 2nd Runner up - Abigail Lee

Humorous Speech 1st Runner up - Hyder Taufik

Humorous Speech Champion - Kapil Pareek

Evaluation Contest 2nd Runner up - Joe Wan

Evaluation Contest 1st Runner up - Nathaniel Koh

Evaluation Contest Champion - Shaun Li

And to everyone who participated, a round of applause for all your efforts and courage!

Also, we had our inaugural ribbons: Most Enthusiastic Member!

Our ribbons for this month went to 2 of our younger members of our club, who although has only been with our family for a short few months, yet have put in tremendous amount of work and has shown much initiative and enthusiasm in their Toastmasters journey thus far!

Ho Yee Yuen

You Xiao

Let's all continue to strive for excellence here at Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club!

It was indeed a great night for everyone!

Written by Mu Ming and Abigail Lee

531st Chapter Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 16:11:00 +0800

National Day is just around the corner! And what better way to liven up our chapter meeting than to come all decked out in our national colours! We love you Singapore!

Thanks to our lovely ladies, Vidhi and Naveena who tirelessly came early to help our SAA for the evening, Tia, the room set up and decorate in line with our theme for the evening! We appreciate your hard work ladies! #girlpower

After having a share of the sumptuous dinner that Her Majesty, Cheng Lee, had to kindly volunteered to prepare for us, everyone’s tummy was satisfied and all were ready to start the meeting.

With the bang of the gavel, our meeting was called to order by our lovely SAA Tia.

We had many guests that night, both fellow toastmasters and visitors, who stood up to give a brief introduction about themselves.

Next, the stage was passed on to our Toastmaster of the evening, passionate Priya, who introduced each of the appointment roles and holders as well as enlightened us on the importance of each of these roles.

The appointment holders for the evening are as shown below:

Sergeant-At-Arms: Tia Maria

Toastmaster of the Evening: Mohanapriya

Listening Master: Chong Cheng Lee

Ah Counter: B.R. Muralidhar

Timer: Ryan Loanda

Table Topics Master: Tan Mei Yee

We even had a brand new appointment role called the “Listening Master” whose job was to listen very intently to everyone who will be speaking during the meeting and would later on, come up to give us a little quiz to see if we were all paying attention. A listening comprehension of sorts.

Our beloved president, Joe Wan, then came up to give his opening address. He touched on National Day and left us with a quote by our late Minister mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, which goes

Next up on stage was our capable Vice President Membership (VPM) Naveena, who shared some of the initiatives of the VPM team are planning to engage in in the coming year during "The Exco Speaks" segment in efforts to keep our Tampines-Changkat family growing and yet well bonded.

Apart from just leading and speaking, as toastmasters, we must learn to listen as well. Thus a “Voice Box” was created to allow members to voice out their concerns or ideas to the VPM team with regards to club activities and issues.

(More information on what was being shared will be up soon! So keep a lookout for it!)

We then moved into the exciting segment of prepared speeches. What an array of wonderful speakers and speeches we had last night!

Angela shared with us some of the good, the bad and the ugly ways of being a cheapskate.

You Xiao reminded us about our New Year Resolutions and how we can attain and fulfil our by planning the S.M.A.R.T. way.

Soon Tong let us in on some of his bedroom secrets and boy was it interesting!

Vincent entertained up with his inspirational yet informative and slightly humorous speech on how to keep up with our New Year Resolutions.

Next came the birthday celebrations for our August babies! We all love cake and presents! Thank you VPM team!

After our short break for refreshments and mingling, we jumped straight into our next exciting segment which were the Prepared Speeches Evaluations. Many valuable insights and learning points were gleaned from this purposeful segment. As they say, the wise man learns from the mistakes of others. And at Tampines-Changkat, we’re all here to learn and grow.

Our evaluators for the night were Yee Yuen, Choon Kiat, Matthew and Junic who evaluated the prepared speeches in the respective orders.

Moving on, Table Topics! Everyone’s favorite segment! Our lovely Table Topics Master, Mei Yee, prepared such an array of interesting items that we could talk about, all of which were “Singapore-themed”, in lieu of National Day. She managed to add a little twist to our usual Table Topics segment and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it.

And at last, our Listening Master, Her Majesty, came up to give us a little listening comprehension. It was so much fun and really well received by everyone albeit it being a brand new appointment role and segment for the night!

Hands shot up as members fought their way to answer the questions put up by Cheng Lee. Flying toblerones were seen and much laughter was heard. It was a truly amazing segment.

Finally, Murali enlightened us with his ah count of everyone’s erms, ahs, and ums for the night.

It was an absolutely fantastic and sparkling evening of learning, sharing and growing with family and friends!

And to end it all off, the awards ceremony!

Congratulations to Vincent for Best Prepared Speech, Yee Yuen for Best Evaluator and to Kelvin for Best Table Topics!

Some of our dear guests also gave us very positive feedback on their experience:

"It was really warm and welcoming. I felt really at home and comfortable as everyone was very friendly and the whole meeting wasn’t overly serious."

- Priscilla-

"The chapter meeting was super fun and full of activities. I learn a lot. Highly recommend any of my friends to visit Tampines Changkat TMC."

Long, Cheng San TMC -

Let's go club hopping~!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 2 Aug 2016 14:33:00 +0800

Club visits can be a daunting task, so why not do it with a friend? :) We encourage our members to grow by stepping out of their comfort zones and attend chapter meetings from other clubs. Not only will you learn how to network, make friends and expand your contacts, you will also be able to experience more and get more out of your toastmasters journey!

We want to help you take that first step by accompanying you.

Do PM your VPPR for the link to the dates and clubs that some of our members will be visiting this month. Check it out and add your name in if you're keen to join us! The more the merrier!

We hope you find this useful!

Much love from your Exco. <3

530th Chapter Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jul 2016 22:20:00 +0800

Nothing ever happens if you stay in your room

Nothing ever happens if you leave the party too soon

Never be a winner if you're not in the game

And nothing ever happens if you always play it safe

Make a little space and get out of your own way

Sparkling Changkat Toastmasters started the session with an energetic Mini Zumba.

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club held its 530^th Sparkling Leadership meeting on 21st July, 2016. This meeting was as usually unusual and was well planned by our VPE, Tia Maria.

The appointment holders for the evening were as follows:

President: Joe Wan

Sergeant-at-Arms: Nur Mhmd

Toastmaster of the Evening: MohanaPriya

Language Evaluator: Hyder Taufik

Table Topic Master: Carl Wong

Ah Counter: Jyoti Soni

Time: You Xiao

The meeting began with highlighting the importance of “Racial Harmony” by Nur. She handed over the mic to TME Priya. Priya kept the energy of the program on and engaged the audience throughout.

Hyder, our Language Evaluator for the day, introduced an unparalleled word of the day with syllable, in his unparalleled style.

The next item of the meeting was the opening speech by President Joe Wan.

He introduced a new segment “The ExCo Speaks”.

Next, the prepared speakers got the ball rolling on the stage. All speeches were truly unparalleled.

Title of the Speeches and the speakers:

Emotional Vs Logic, (Tan Mei Yee)

Why is it hard to make friends as Adults (Ashish Kundra)

This is my Year (Diederik Karssen)

Move Over Kitty, The Monsters Have Landed. (John Lee)

Struggles of a Cat Owner (Amirul Syaffiq)

After the break, started the most important segment of the meeting, The Evaluation Segment.

Evaluators:

1. Vidhi Sarkar

2. Ng Cher Khim

3. Ho Yee Yuen

4. Shaun Li

5. Naveena Methani

Next, interesting table topic session was hosted by Table Topic Master was Carl Wong. He declared he got converted to watch Hindi Movies and the theme of the table topics were based on the Hindi Movie “Sultan’s” Plot. He prepared 36 topics for this segment. Truly commendable effort by Carl.

Language Evaluation followed the table topic segment. The good uses and misuses of the language was graciously adorned by Hyder in his usually unusual unparalleled style.

Then comes the entry of the most awaited segment, with the drums rolling, the Awards Announcement Segment.

Winners:

Best Speaker – John Lee

Best Evaluator – Ng Cher Khim

Best Table Topic Speaker – Kelvin Cheng

After the Awards and Announcement, the meeting was officially closed with a beautiful closing address by the president. The day did not end for many toastmasters as we can see many walking towards the coffee shop nearby. There was fragrance of joy lingering in the air.

Do join us for the next National Day Theme chapter meeting; and

Do not forget to join us for the next National Day Theme chapter meeting.

Adorn the meeting with your presence; and

Come dressed for the occasion – National Day Theme Meeting.

Nothing ever happens if you stay in your room

And nothing ever happens if you leave the party too soon

Nothing ever happens if you don't get hurt

And nothing ever happens if you never get dirty

Make a little space and go on, get out, go on get out

You and you only who can make a little space and

And get out of your own way!

Written by MohanaPriya

529th Chapter Meeting or “Carl and the Talking Cockroach”

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 09:38:00 +0800

Note: The “Cockroach” character in this blog post is made up, to facilitate dialogue and not make Carl look like he’s crazy. Pretend that Carl caught a cockroach and kept it in a mobile phone-shaped cage, so no one knows he has a cockroach with him. This cockroach can talk and understands English.

Cockroach : Where are we?

Carl : We are at the Tampines Changkat Toastmasters meeting. Before you ask, Toastmasters is a public speaking and leadership club.

Cockroach : I wasn’t going to ask that. Everyone knows that the Toastmasters was started by Dr Ralph Smedley in 1924. Even cockroaches.

Carl : I’m Sergeant-at-arms today. I’m starting the meeting today and conducting the Ice Breaker today. I’m asking the Guests for their Name, Profession and...

Cockroach : Favourite author! Mine’s George Langelaan, author of “The Fly”

Carl : OK, mine is Jeff Olson, who wrote “The Slight Edge”.

Cockroach : Psst, What’s TMD?

Carl : Toastmaster of the Day. He’s the emcee for today.

Cockroach : Nice. He’s really handsome. <swoon>

Carl : You’re not his type. Here comes the Club President, Joe Wan, ACS/ALB with his Opening Address.

Cockroach : What’s that? ACB/ALB?

Carl : Advanced Communicator Bronze/Advanced Leader Bronze.

Cockroach : Nicee. He’s reminding us of our “Sparkling Leadership” for this term. And we have to discuss with each other who our favourite leader is, and 3 qualities of that leader.

Carl : You keep quiet. I’ll discuss with Ashish.

Cockroach : Hahaha!

Carl : Shut up! The only reason I’ve never done that is because I have not considered that career path.

Cockroach : Ashish is now introducing our Prepared Speech Segment. P2 (Organize your Speech) by You Xiao. Speech Title is “The Best Investment”

Carl : I’m impressed, Mr Cockroach. You were listening intently and paying attention.

Cockroach : Shh! You Xiao is speaking. He’s talking about investments that have high returns, yet safe. Invest in yourself. Instead of Toto.

Carl : Yeah, good point. Bravo!

Cockroach : I like to invest in my SHELL. I break the old one and grow a new one, haha!

Carl : Listen! Abigail Lee is doing P6 (Vocal Variety), titled “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” She’s talking about how one Thursday, it rained so heavily and water started coming down through the roof, and the roof collapsed.

Cockroach : Whoa! And it was an indoor waterfall! She and her colleague were moving buckets around to catch the water. When their supervisor came back, she put all the stock out of the reach of the water and wrapped it in plastic. Nice. I love waterfalls. When the surroundings are damp, we cockroaches reproduce like crazy.

Carl : Must be fun for you! MuMing’s next. Doing P3 (Get to the Point), his project speech title is “How to Live your Passion”. There’s a difference between “Wants” and “Needs”. When he worked in retail, his employer asked, “What do you want to do in life?”. Cos to succeed big, you first need to do the small things well. “No mud, no lotus” and “No plank, no sixpacks”

MuMing: “Ultimate business skill is to learn to be human”

Cockroach : <Shows off segmented body> Hey look Carl! I got sixpacks effortlessly.

Carl : I’m not an insect.

Cockroach : Hey! Pijush is speaking. AP1 from the “Humorously Speaking” Manual. Title is “From no time to no time”. Very odd title.

Carl : Shh. Save your commentary for later. He’s talking about the time his boss was fired, and he was “equally liberated” in between jobs.

Cockroach : That’s the euphemistic term. Haha, so he was cleaning up photos, and started creating copies of copies of copies of photos on Google Drive, Google Photos, local Windows PC, Ubuntu PC and external hard disk... Wah! He has more photos than I have eggs.

Carl : Yeah, it’s hilarious because we all do that. But I wouldn’t promise “5 minutes” to my wife.

Cockroach : You don’t have a wife... yet.

Carl : Exactly! Listen. Mohd Sufian is doing his P1 (The Ice Breaker). “Letting you know who I am” What a unique title!

Cockroach : Yeah, seems like he’s a rebel. “A is not for Apple, it’s for Astronaut”?! Engineer, spent some time working in Bangkok. If you don’t pay taxes, then you don’t exist. Because the Government does not have your records.

Carl : Yeah he says here in Toastmasters, we don’t have different cultures and religions. We’re just ... Toastmasters. He wants that bright future for his 4 year old son, Raihan.

Cockroach : Now it’s time for our July Babies’ Birthday Celebration.

Carl : Yeah our new Vice Presidents of Membership Kapil and Naveena are conducting it.

Cockroach : Birthdays of Cheng Lee, Joel, Chia Choon Kiat, Juanna, Pijush, Sachin and Mohd Sufian.

Carl : I like this picture of everyone singing!

Cockroach : Now it’s break time! Yay! Nice cake!

Carl : The Evaluators are spot on and offering helpful advice. Project Evaluators offer useful advice and feedback on the Project (Prepared) Speeches we heard earlier, and tell them how to improve, as well as what worked well.

Cockroach : Yes! Naveena, Andrew, Chia CK, Jaric and Shaun!

Carl : Next come Table Topics. Impromptu speaking to practice speaking on our toes and think quickly!

Cockroach : So fun! Chee Wai, Ryan, June, and Erica speak...

Carl : ... about “What’s necessary vs what’s possible”, “Start wherever you are”, “Leadership” and “The beginning is the most important part of the work”

Cockroach : Yay! We’ve reached the end of another fruitful meeting!

Carl : See you next meeting. It’s been fun, Mr Cockroach. Here are some awards and announcements.

Club President Joe Wan receiving his Triple Crown Award (for completing 3 educational awards in a single term) from Area Director Ng Kin Foong.

Naveena gets her ACB and CL pins from Area Director Ng Kin Foong.

MuMing, our Best Prepared Speech for the evening!

Shaun Li, ACG/ALS, our Best Evaluator Winner

Erica, our best Table Topics Speaker, who talked about our initial conception process in a humourous way!

Here are some testimonials from some of our Guests:

"This is my second time joining Tampines Changkat TMC and I'm already looking forward to my next visit! Everyone there is friendly, fun to be with and supportive of one another. Thank you for having me! I'm looking forward to join the family! <3

- Erica Lim

“ I had an fun and informative time at the Tampines-Changkat TMC. The members were v spontaneous and supportive of one another. Great club and keep up the good work!”

- Dazzling

Written by Carl Wong

Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club Installation Night 2016, 30th June 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 4 Jul 2016 23:56:00 +0800

A wonderful evening to cap off a wonderful term! The much anticipated Installation Night 2016 of Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club took place on the final day of the term.

Changkat meetings are always filled with much joy and energy but today’s meeting was even more special because we would be witnessing a renewal of leadership.

A mighty salute goes to our leaders who have served us ever so faithfully in the past year and a big welcome to our incoming exco!

Before we kicked off proceedings, we were treated to a tantalizing array of delicious food that certainly whet our appetites.

Also, what is a meeting without some fellowship and fun?

The theme of the night was “The Olympics” where everyone was encouraged to come dressed in any one of the 5 colors of the Olympic Rings.

The theme was chosen because we, in Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club, strive to embody the persevering spirit of the Olympic athletes. Also, The Olympic motto is the Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger."

TampinesChangkat will indeed soar to greater heights!

With the swift bang of the gavel, the meeting was called to order by Sergeant -At-Arms, Ho Yee Yuen, and we were good to go. It’s always a pleasure to have our very own magnificent Michael Wee kick start proceedings.

Our now Immediate Past President Gladys Tye delivered a beautiful opening address that touched upon what the past year meant to her as well as thanking everyone who had helped her along the way.

Then, we had our guest of honor Mr Desmond Choo, MP of Tampines GRC, drop by in very modest attire. It was heartwarming to know that we are always in his heart and that he would have made it in time had there not been an accident along the TPE.

He was only able to take part in our celebrations for a brief period of time before having to leave for other commitments but that was all he needed to leave us with a few great words of wisdom: If we had to pick a best generation, let it always be the next one.

The Executive Committee of 2015-2016 has finally been discharged of all further duties! Thank you for all the hard work, time and love every single one of you have put in for our club!

Dressing smart is the Changkat way to go!

The tokens of appreciation for the outgoing Executive Committee, Toastmaster of the Year award and Most Improved Toastmaster award were then given out in recognition of our members’ dedication to our club.

Our Toastmaster of the year, Jia Hong, was deeply grateful for his achievement and was remarkably candid about it when he shared what it meant to win the award. Congratulations Jia Hong! You deserved it!

And who else to win our Most Improved Toastmaster award than our very own trailblazer Naveena!

She’s been on fire over the past term and has been contributing phenomenally to both club and self. Keep your flames of passion burning strong Naveena, we’re right behind you!

Our dear Kin Foong was charming and eloquent as ever as he brought us through his 5 years of experience in Toastmasters and with Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club, how we went from strength to strength with each year that passed. He let us realize just how blessed we were to have had strong leaders for the past 24 years of the club’s existence. No matter who’s in charge now, we’ve got to carry our Changkat banner with pride and fervor! Truly, it’s sharings like these that explain why we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on a Thursday evening.

Next up, was the installation of the incoming Executive Committee for 2016-2017!

Citius, Altius, Fortius!

Joe Wan then gave his inaugural address as President of Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club on what leadership is and how the new Executive Committee with strive for more than just leadership[ but sparkling leadership.

With that, a toast was made to the new Executive Committee with sparkling Ribena.

What kind of initiatives, when revealed, would make members not want to come for future sessions? You won’t get no answer from Joe because you just got to come see the Sparkle for yourself! This evening we welcomed Joe as our new club president and he sure got us real excited with his promises of juicy creativity!

Next, we had Vidhi our Game Master who invited us into her world of feet bondage and whacky races.

During the finals, there was even some entertaining horseplay by our gladiator Diederik to further liven up our evening!

Who’s a cheeky fellow?

Following that, we were left simply awed by Nathaniel’s educational segment on Leadership. He was a sage, who through amazing use of visage and adage, thoroughly captivated us.

We are indeed very fortunate to have heard his valuable insights, each taking home our own lesson(s) for the night. Our words cannot adequately express how wonderful his sharing on Leadership was, so here are his own.

Finally, President Joe wrapped up the meeting marvelously with his final address and a group photo.

Our wonderful evening would also not have been possible without the hard work of the Organizing chairs as well as all our capable appointment holders.

Kapil Pareek - Organizing Chair

Lau Kheng Soon - Organizing Chair 2

Kelvin Cheng - Audio Visual

Raghin Raghavan - Audio Visual

You Xiao - Sergeant-At-Arms

Ho Yee Yuen - Sergeant-At-Arms

Angela Tan - Registration

Vidhi Sarkar - Games IC

Junic Kee - Photographer

Ashish Kundra - Photographer

Yong Mu Ming - Photographer

Pijush Kanti Mukherjee - Timer

We would also like to thank all those who have helped out in one way or another behind the scenes without any specific appointment role. Thank you all!

Thank you to all the guests who have made the time to come down and show your support in our Installation Night! We hope you had fun as well as gleaned some gems in the midst of it all!

Our pleasant evening had come to an end and we were left with excitement as well as the best kind of regret: Regret that this meeting did not last longer and excitement in knowing that things will only get better henceforth.

For more pictures and updates, do visit our Facebook page via the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/tampines.changkat.tm/

Cheers to everyone for a great year ahead!

Written by Ho Yee Yuen

Our Executive Committee 2016/2017

noreply@blogger.com (Kelvin Cheng) — Mon, 4 Jul 2016 10:16:00 +0800

2015-2016 End Term Celebration!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 13:33:00 +0800

How amazing has the past 12 months been?! They say that time flies when you're having fun and the past term has truly passed by in the blink of an eye! What better way to end off the term with a bang! The Tampines-Changkat way of course. :D

We had our end-term celebration at Aloha Loyang Resort last Saturday in order to gather our huge Tampines-Changkat family in a single location for a final hoorah before installation night.

And what a night of fantastic Thai food, superb company and of course, an abundance of snacks!

A big thank you to all who came with food!

Homemade jellies prepared by Naveena, cupcakes from Mu Ming, and a red velvet cake for our June babies as well as our end term celebration which was sponsored by Vincent!

We really want to express our heartfelt thanks to the organizing chair, Shuzhen for planning and executing the event flawlessly as well as all those who helped out in the facilitation of games; Vincent, Yee Yuen, Mei Yee, Abigail and Diederik.

Thank you all our Changkat members for being so enthusiastic about these games albeit getting all sweaty and sticky out in the backyard.

We also uncovered some hidden talents in the art of acting and singing of some of our members.

Be sure to catch the action here: https://youtu.be/Y1JhVtfrf6g

I am so glad that our members put aside time despite their busy schedules on a Saturday night just to celebrate with our family!

See you all at installation night!

528th Chapter Meeting: 16th June, 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 23:31:00 +0800

It was the final chapter meeting of the month for Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club. It too was the final meeting for the 2015/2016 exco term. We had a very interesting line-up of speakers and appointment holders for the night!

Sergeant-at-Arms: Mohanapriya

Toastmaster of the Evening: Kapil Pareek

Timer: Amirul Syaffiq

Ah Counter: Ashish Kundra

Table-Topic master: Yong Mu Ming

The meeting started with the bang of the gavel by SAA Mohanapriya who got everyone in and ready on time before paving the way for a smooth transition to the hilariously funny TME Kapil Pareek. The moment Kapil came on stage and he tickled everyone’s funny bones. His introductions were humour-packed and the audience were laughing all the way into the night.

Joe Wan, the stand-in president of the meeting, gave a very deep and thought-provoking opening address. As we near the halfway point of the year, we often think we should start preparing for what is to come in 2017. ‘HOLD YOUR HORSES!’ Joe bellowed, ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!’ And it’s true, there is six more precious months where make amends for the time wasted in the first half of the year, so make them count!

Tia Maria then came up and we were swooned by her gracefully crafted educational speech titled ‘What’s Up with Meeting Roles?’ She explained the roles of each appointment holder in a Toastmasters meeting, which was very apt as she is the incoming VPE for the next term. She also enlightened us about the benefits of each role and what’s in it for us if we took it up.

The highly-anticipated prepared speech segment came immediately after that. Diederik gave us a spontaneous cock-up moment that cracked us up; Andrew taught us how to negotiate better in business and relationships, particularly useful for married men ;) Naveena brought us to tears with her touching personal story once again. Overall, all speeches were of finest quality and everyone were on the edge of their seats.

We then inducted our new member Ho Yee Yuen and welcomed him into our Tampines-Changkat family.

During the second half of the meeting, we were all in for a treat because the line-up of the project evaluators was equally superb. The final and favourite session of the night was the table topics session conducted by our creative Table Topics Master Yong Mu Ming.

We then ushered in the General Evaluator Jaric Ng to help bring the club meeting experience to another level with his useful tips garnered from his numerous visits to various toastmasters clubs in Singapore.

As we draw the curtains to a close, it was time for the results:

Best speaker: Naveena Methani

Best evaluator: John Lee

Best table topics: Ho Yee Yuen

Our next meeting will be the Installation Night happening on 30^th June 2016 where we will be welcoming the incoming Executive Committee for the next term. So be sure to be there for another fun and awesome night!

It’s been good. It’s been real. Stay tuned!

Written by Jaric Ng

AIA and Tampines-Changkat Joint Chapter Meeting Edition II: 2 June, 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 5 Jun 2016 22:59:00 +0800

When you ask the common man on the street “what does 1 + 1 equate to?”, most will reply 2. However, all those who were at AIA and Tampines-Changkat joint chapter meeting last night will tell you that the answer isn’t 2, but an integer that is more than 2!

No, it isn’t because we are terrible at math (half the people in the room are Financial Services Consultants, mind you!) but we all knew what SYNERGY is, and boy was there STUPENDOUS SYNERGY when these 2 powerful clubs came together at the humble premises of Tampines-Changkat Community Center, home ground of Tampines-Changkat Toastmaster Club.

Just to recap, about 2 months ago, a joint meeting between these two giants was held at AIA premises.

AIA and Tampines-Changkat Joint Chapter Meeting Edition I: 14th April, 2016

The idea of an exchange meeting was adopted from the exchange programs the best universities in the world has. The objectives of such programs is enable students and teachers to glean outstanding practices from the other university.

The result?

World-class standard and top-notch universities.

AIA Toastmasters Club and Tampines-Changkat Toastmaster Club, although already two very powerful clubs, were humble and willing to take a step back to see how the other club ran their meetings so that they could share and adopt the best practices from one another and thus, elevate their own standard of practice.

During edition 1 of this joint venture, AIA Toastmasters Club members hosted the meeting and provided speakers while Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club members took up appointment roles.

In last night’s second episode, the reverse was done. Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club members hosted the meeting and provided speakers while AIA Toastmasters Club members took up appointment roles.

However, before I go into detail about how splendid last night’s meeting was, the appointment holders for such an important meeting should be mentioned:

Sergeant-at-Arms: Joe Wan

Toastmasters of the Evening: Abigail Lee and Linda Lee

Table Topics Master: Margrette Lo

Timer: Ngoh Seh Suan

Ah Counter: Alan Woo

At 7:25pm, the room was filled to the brim! The atmosphere was buzzing with excitement as everyone awaited for the meeting to begin. 7:30pm sharp, the sound of the gavel silenced the crowd as the Sergeant-at-Arms to call the meeting to order.

We had a mother-daughter duo who were our Toastmasters of the Evening! 2 love-Lee ladies; Linda Lee from AIA Toastmasters Club Abigail Lee and Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club who gave the meeting an interesting twist!

A thought-provoking opening address was giving by our beautiful Madam President, Gladys Tye, who convinced us that inner beauty is so much more important than external beauty.

The next segment was the Prepared Speeches segment. 5 amazing speakers took stage and captivated us with their inspirational, insightful and invigorating speeches!

Project 1 - The Ice Breaker
Ho Yee Yuen, CC

Project 8 - Get Comfortable with Visual Aids
Hyder Taufik

Advanced Project 3 - The Roast (Special Occasion Speeches Manual)
Arjun Chakrabarti, ACB, ALB

Advanced Project 3 - Make Them Laugh (Humorously Speaking Manual)
John Lee, CC, CL

Advanced Project 1 - Mastering the Toast (Special Occasion Speeches Manual)
Kapil Pareek, CC

What an array of projects! From an Ice Breaker speech, to Visual Aids, followed by some humor from the Humorous speech, and it ended off with a Roast and a Toast.

At Tampines-Changkat Toastmaster Club, members are family and thus birthday celebrations are of utmost importance! Vice-President of Membership, Zhuo Shuzhen led in the birthday celebrations of the June babies! Cakes were cut, candles blown and songs were sung.

On top of that, the exco presented Arjun Chakrabarti, our beloved Vice President of Public Relations with a token of appreciation. Arjun has been such an amazing member and contributor in our club, however, he will be leaving us very soon in pursue of his future studies in the States! We will miss you very dearly Arjun!

It was such an emotional segment especially when Shu Zhen dedicated a song of her own to our beloved VPPR.

After a short break, we invited the amazing evaluators from AIA to evaluate each of our speakers during the Prepared Speeches Evaluation segment. What insightful evaluations were they!

Our evaluators for the night were:

Project 1 (Ho Yee Yuen) - Anson Cheng, CC

Project 8 (Hyder Tuafik) - Gayathri Subash, CC

Advanced Project 3 (Arjun Chakrabarti) - Oh Cheng Kok, ACB, ALB

Advanced Project 3 (John Lee) - Alan Woo, CC, CL

Advanced Project 1 (Kapil Pareek) - Zhuo Shuzhen, ACS, ALS

Top-notch evaluators from AIA! I can say, with much confidence, that EVERYONE took away something from the evaluations that will help bring their own speeches to the next level.

Finally, everyone’s favourite segment of the night; Table Topics! Table Topics Master, Margrette Lo, did such a fantastic job and prepared such an interesting Disney-themed topic that was to be delivered in the form of a eulogy! There was not one dry eye in the meeting while each speaker was giving his eulogy…. Because we were all laughing so hard that tears came to our eyes! What a hilarious twist each speaker had for their topic!

Finally, it was time to announce the results and present the ribbons to our winners.

Best Speakers (tie)- Toastmaster Hyder Taufik and Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti

Best Evaluator: Toastmaster Oh Cheng Kok

Table Topics: Toastmaster Ng Kin Foong

Also, other awards such as the Triple Crown award as well as the PQD Speech Challenge award were given out to members to have done us proud and achieved various milestones in their Toastmasters Journey.

As in the first exchange, there was much to be learned from both clubs and it was a real eye-opener for all members as well as guests during this special joint meeting.

Special mention must be made of Toastmaster Zhuo Shuzhen who is a member of both the clubs and who therefore got the most cheers and claps as she was instrumental in organizing the meeting.

It was indeed an eventful night filled with much fun and fellowship as well as many lessons to be learned.

Tampines-Changkat goes to Bangkok! (12 May - 16 May 2016)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 25 May 2016 17:26:00 +0800

Tampines-Changkat TMC is a club where members are viewed upon as family. Each year, in efforts to strengthen the bond between members, apart from the usual chapter meetings as well as family outings, a club retreat is also planned to bring members beyond the shores of Singapore!

In order to make the retreat more meaningful, it is usually planned in conjunction with a toastmasters event overseas. Last year, our family headed over to Palawan, Philippines, where they attended the annual conference of Philippines while enjoying the beautiful beaches and babes.

This year, we headed off to bustling Bangkok, the land of a thousand smiles! And a thousand smiles did we receive! Not only did we attend the spectacular annual conference of District 97P which consisted of 5 countries (Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam), but also attended the chapter meetings of one of Bangkok’s more vibrant clubs; Siam Toastmasters club!

It was indeed a wonderful time of bonding, learning as well as exploring in the city of Bangkok.

Be sure to check out our video as well!

Tampines-Changkat Toastmasters Club Retreat 2016!

Three cheers for Siam Toastmasters club who were so warm and welcoming to us!

Opening ceremony of the Annual Conference in Bangkok "Excel through GREATNESS."

Amazing Conference!

Games at the Gala dinner.

Having fun at the Gala dinner!

And of course, bonding time!

Karaoke ~

In TCTMC, we also teach you how to levitate.

Till next year! <3

Christmas Celebrations: 17th December, 2015!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 May 2016 23:43:00 +0800

Since the last two posts have been dedicated to the past, I thought of continuing the strain with a post about the Christmas Celebrations last year. Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club decided to celebrate Christmas on 17th December, 2015! It was a fun time with games, food, drinks and gratitude cards. However, let us go step by step.

The party was organized at Toastmaster Magdalene Thia's condominium at Astoria Park. The club thanks Toastmaster Thia for her contribution. The place was beautiful with a fabulous room, poolside food arrangements and a tennis court. Toastmasters John, Tiffany, Vincent and Arjun took advantage of the court and started an impromtu game of tennis. Soon after, people started arriving and the party started.

The first agenda of the evening was games. Game masters were Toastmatsers Zhuo Shuzhen and Tia Maria. They organized two very interactive games. The first involved teams on the opposite sides of the curtain having to guess the closest member at the other end the moment the curtain drops. This was made especially interesting with team members attempting carious tricks to mae themselves unrecognizable.

The first game was followed by a fantastic dinner comprised of Chinese as well as Indian dishes. This was followed by a second round of games where several conditions such as "Favourite colour is blue" or"read twelve books this year" were laid out in rows and columns and members had to find others with these traits and fill up the rows and columns. It was again a very interactive game that helped members know each other better.

The second round of games was followed by drinks and a session of members writing gratitude cards for each other. This was extremely nice because everyone was made to feel special by others. The gratitude session was followed by musical chair and other similar games which enabled other members to make one member perform tasks. Toastmaster Michael Wee was asked to propose marriage to Toastmaster Cheng Lee as part of a task: AND SHE REFUSED!

The final session involved Club president Toastmaster Gladys serving a cake that she had baked herself. Vice-President, Public Relations, Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti, when interviewed, went on to say, "This is the best blueberry cheesecake I have tasted in Singapore. No, scratch that, it is not the best in Singapore, but the best EVER!"

The evening was full of fun, frolic and a lot of alcohol. Yes, we know how to let our hair down but that never stops us from continuing the endeavour towards becoming better speakers and better leaders! Keep watching this space for more news, views and stories about the most exciting Toastmasters club in Singapore.

Executive Committee Rewind: VPE Joe Wan

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 May 2016 22:23:00 +0800

Greetings, dear readers! Today we shall continue the build-up to the Annual General Meeting and look at the work of another extremely important member of the Executive Committee: The Vice-President, Education. This individual has the responsibility of making sure that the educational growth of the members is carried on at a consistent and yet comfortable level. This is a difficult job in itself because education consists not only of the Communication Track but also the Leadership Track. As a result, the VPE has to ensure that members get adequate speaking slots as well as other appointment slots. A third complex factor involves the involvement of some external project evaluators at meetings so that our club also gets to learn from outside talent. This is, of course, in addition to applying for educational awards, taking care of trainings, collaborating with other clubs for joint meetings, assigning mentors for new members and, most importantly, arranging for replacement speakers or appointment holders for last minute dropouts. One of our veteran members had once famously quoted: “VPE is the Ring of Fire, which, when crossed, ensures the member is worthy of being the Club President and leading Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club to greater heights”.

You all know that our Vice-President, Education, Toastmaster Joe Wan, has done a fantastic job this year. He has not only ensured a good balance of speaking slots – with every meeting having a healthy mix of new speakers and seasoned speakers as well as of basic manual speeches and advanced manual speeches – but he has also ensured that members fulfil appointment roles and go ahead on their leadership track. In fact, Toastmaster Joe has been an extremely dedicated member of our club, coming to meetings all the way from Jurong. However, let us have a look at what he had promised at the beginning of the year when interviewed by the Vice-President, Public Relations:

1. Why did you accept to join the Executive Committee?

What is a better way to love the club than to serve the club and all its wonderful members? I have learnt a lot from Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club and not only have I gained oratorical skills but also great friends. It is time that I step up to an Executive Committee role and thereby help other members discover the joy of becoming better speakers and more competent leaders.

2. What you want to gain from your role as Vice-President, Education?

The Toastmasters movement makes you learn both the art of speaking as well as the art of being a good leader. Through my role as VPE, I want to improve my leadership skills, especially that of motivating fellow members to achieve their goals of joining Toastmasters.

3. How you plan to help the club through your role as VPE?

I plan to understand the members’ goals by meeting up with them and discussing about what they want to achieve. Accordingly, I shall design a plan to help reach their destination in the fulfilling path of the Toastmasters journey.

4. Do you want to convey any other thought?

Leadership is about influencing people to share your vision. I want to walk with the members, to empower them to lead themselves for better results and a better future.

As we go through the interview of Toastmaster Joe, we realize that he has definitely lived up to his promises. Several members have completed not only their Competent Communicator and Competent Leader manuals but also their Advanced Manuals. Many of our members have earned Triple Crown, Four Crown and even Golden Gavel Awards, which will be presented this year at the District Conference. In addition, several of our members have completed the Program Quality Director’s Quality Speech Challenge and earned their places in the PQD’s Hall of Fame. Our club meetings have been organized like clockwork and we have also seen good external evaluators. In addition, we have had quite a number of good trainings this year. All in all, we can say that Toastmaster Joe has done a thoroughly good job as VPE. We congratulate him on his success and wish him all the best for his future endeavours.

Keep reading our blog for more news, views and trivia on the most exciting Toastmasters club in Singapore!

Executive Committee Rewind: SAA Shunwei See

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 May 2016 14:50:00 +0800

Greetings, readers! Today we shall take a step back and look at the actions of the Executive Committee 2015-16. Instead of focusing on the the actions of each and every committee member, which will be presented anyway in the Annual General Meeting next week, we shall take up one or two members at random and look at their promises at the beginning of the term.

I shall focus this article on the Sergeant-at-Arms. This role is one of the most important roles of the committee because this individual is responsible for the presence of all the necessary items, be it ribbons, papers, club pins, stationary, electronics and food. Taking this appointment is in itself a lesson in management. Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club gives members the option of taking up the role of SAA in meetings even if they are not the designated SAA of the Executive Committee. In fact, this is one of the best appointments that one can take up in the meeting in order to learn leadership.

The SAA this year is none other than Toastmaster Shunwei See. Let us look at what he said at the beginning of the year:

"The journey in Toastmasters is an enriching and fulfilling one which I am truly glad I had embarked upon. Through my new role in Ex-Co, I wish to grow exponentially, for both the club and myself.

It takes constant efforts and commitment to carry out the Toastmasters journey. With the Ex-Co role, it adds a new sense of responsibility and commitment towards Tampines Changkat and my own personal growth progress. In the new role, I am targeting to achieve greater proficiency in listening, organizing and problem solving abilities. It is also a memorable step-out of my comfort zone to take on greater challenges. The opportunity to work with different amazing Ex-Co members is another enticing proposition as it blends together different strengths and forte to tackle wide-ranging issues. That's what teamwork is all about.

Together as one team, we believe we can bring greater value to every member in the club. To grow together as one united club. No mountain is too tall to scale."

As we read through Toastmaster Shunwei's plans at the beginning of the year, we realize that he has kept his promise. We have seen excellent management of each and every commodity owned by the club. We have never fallen short of any item and all meetings have been smoothly organized. In addition, food quality has been consistent and good throughout the year, with a variety of Bee Hoon, Fried Rice, Thai Chicken and even Pizza. Special mention must be made of the fact that although he was out of Singapore for some time due to work constraints, Toastmaster Shunwei has never neglected his responsibility towards the club.

We congratulate him on his successful term in the Executive Committee and thank him for his dedication to the club. In addition, I wish to encourage all new members to take on the SAA role and learn more about leadership.

525th Chapter Meeting: 5th May, 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 10 May 2016 08:10:00 +0800

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club held its 525th Chapter Meeting on 5th May, 2016! This meeting had Club President Gladys was coming back after a hiatus of a few meetings. In addition, Toastmaster Ng Kin Foong had promised a very unique Table Topic Session. All-in-all, it was going to be an exciting meeting. However, before we go on to the actual proceedings, I shall introduce the appointment holders who ensured that the meeting was successful:

Sergeant-at-Arms: You Xiao

Toastmaster of the Evening: Tia Maria

Timer: Hyder Taufik

Ah Counter: Chia Choon Kiat

Table-Topic master: Ng Kin Foong

The meeting started with SAA Toastmaster You Xiao conducting an ice-breaking session by making people introduce themselves and sharing what they had done during the long weekend. The stage was then handed over to Toastmaster of the Evening Tia Maria. It can be definitely concluded that that night was perhaps Tia's best performance as Toastmaster of the Evening. She was energetic, funny and extremely efficient.

The President's opening address, which came next, was extremely interesting. We could all proudly say that Toastmaster Gladys was back! She gave us her views on minimalism and imparted the message of borrowing instead of buying.

It was now time for some excellent speeches. There were six speakers that night and it was going to be tough competition. The speakers were as follows:

1. Yong Muming

2. Ashish Kundra

3. Lau Kheng Soon

4. Mohanapriya

5. Jaric Ng

6. Naveena Methani

Each and every speaker was unique in style and kept us captivated with their stories, experiences and thoughts. People were thoroughly inspired with each and every speech subject, be it interacting with random people, embracing vegetarianism, internet of things, fun facts and trivia, lessons from bungee jumping or the art of acupressure. All six speakers delivered as per expectations and inspired the audience.

The Prepared Speech segment was followed by the birthday celebrations organized by Vice Presidents Membership Toastmasters Zhuo Shuzhen and Jaric Ng. Toastmaster Shuzhen sang a birthday song with guitar accompaniment by Toastmaster Abigail Lee. The lyrics of the song were composed by Vice President Public Relations, Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti. The lyrics were as follows:

It’s Thursday again for you

Y’all surely know what we’ll do

With Cakes, Guitars and Singing

We will entertain You

Handsome, bright, young and tall

Countless ladies in his spell fall

Basic and Advanced Clubs he is in

Our lovely and energetic Kelvin

One of our new friends out here

Public Speaking he doesn’t fear

His Speech made us go Oh Wow

Let us all wish dear You Xiao

She is pretty and fair

With her lovely hair

Impressive to every man

Here's wishing Angela Tan

All In All This May

What We Want is to say

Toastmasters wishes all of you

A very Happy Birthday

The birthday celebration was followed by the break and bonding where people enjoyed the birthday cake as well as Pizza. The break session energized everyone and they came back for the Evaluation Session. The evaluators for the night were:

1. John Lee

2. Kapil Pareek

3. Law Jia Hong

4. Nathaniel Koh

5. Marshall Cooper

6. Arjun Chakrabarti

Extremely effective evaluations delivered, the audience was once again at a loss when it came for choosing the best evaluator of the night.

The final session of the evening was the Table Topics session. This session was conducted by Toastmaster Ng Kin Foong and he had a unique range of topics. He chose phrases at random and based on a speaker's choice of numbers, he combined these phrases to craft challenging topics. A few examples of topics were:

I hate insulting policemen with Joe Wan while at work.

I love eating bananas while driving with my mother.

Several toastmasters attempted the topics and it was a hilarious session.

The meeting almost over, it was now time for the results. The results were as follows:

Best Speaker - Toastmaster Jaric Ng

Best Evaluator - Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti

Best Table Topic Speaker - Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti

Having attended the meeting, the author of this blog can clearly say that this was one of the best meetings in terms of the standard of speakers and evaluators. I would urge you to attend Toastmaster meetings and learn the art of oratory as well as leadership. The next meeting is the Annual General Meeting on 19th May and only paid members can attend this one.

Keep watching this space for news, views and opinions on the most exciting Toastmasters club in Singapore!

Division S Contest: 7th May, 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 8 May 2016 15:39:00 +0800

The Division S International Speech and Table Topics Contest took place on 7th May, 2016. This was special because the best from the Club level contests go to the Area level and the best from the Area level go the Division level. The winners of the Division Level contest move up to the District level. As a result, the standard of the competition is really high. This was also special for Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club because one of our members, Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti was representing the area in the table Topics contest.

The day was bright and sunny and a similar atmosphere was reflected at the venue, Thomson CC. The audience felt a sense of electricity and excitement because nothing pleases a group of toastmasters than the promise of amazing speeches. The first contest was the International Speech Contest. The five contestants, in speaking order, were:

1. Chai Pei Shan

2. Sathiyaseelan Murugaiayh

3. Richard Sng

4. Eddie Suwandi

5. Harsh Gopal Khandelwal

Each and every speech had a character of its own. While Chai Pei told us to find the inner giant, Sathiya inspired us to create ripples in our daily lives. While Richard asked us to be grateful, Eddie told us to be confident and take the plunge. Finally, Harsh inspired the audience to create their own luck.

The next session was the Table Topics session. This was especially interesting because excellent speakers would be thinking on their feet and the audience wanted to know how they would handle the pressure. The speaking order was as follows:

1. Arjun Chakrabarti

2. Ganank Srivastava

3. Richard Sng

4. Shawn Aw

5. Ang Wee Yong

The topic of the day was:

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

The speakers had various perspectives as they handled this topic. The speeches were short, crisp and full of life. Everyone did a great job. Our member Arjun used the platform to show his gratitude for club superstar Distinguished Toastmaster Michael Wee and for his friend Toastmaster Vincent Chen.

The contest was now over. However, prior to the results, some of the announcements regarding club standing were made by the District Officers. Tampines Changkat was recognized for being a Presidents Distinguished Club. In addition, several members of Tampines Changkat were recognized for having qualified into the Program Quality Director's Hall of Fame.

It was finally time for the results. The were as follows -

International Speech

Winner: Harsh Gopal Khandelwal

1st Runner-Up: Richard Sng

2nd Runner Up: Eddie Suwandi

Table Topic

Winner: Richard Sng

1st Runner-Up: Arjun Chakrabarti

2nd Runner Up: Shawn Aw

It was a good day and definitely a cause for celebration. Therefore, some of our club members decided to head off to Orchard Road for a good dinner followed by drinks at the Black Nut bar and Alley Bar.

Once again we congratulate our club and especially Toastmaster Arjun for having brought laurels to the club.

Keep following this blog for more news, views and trivia on the most interesting club in Singapore!

524th Chapter Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 4 May 2016 23:22:00 +0800

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club held its 524th Chapter Meeting on 21st April, 2016. There were two phenomena in this meeting that were out of the ordinary course of events. Firstly, this was a Speech Marathon which meant that the Table Topics section was replaced with more speaking slots for some amazing speakers. Secondly, Vice-President Public Relations, Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti presided over the meeting since Club President Gladys Tye was unable to make it. What was ordinary, however, was the extra-ordinary Thursday energy levels of the club members. The meeting went well and keep reading to know the rest of the events.

Every meeting is heavily dependent upon the appointment holders. For this particular meeting, the appointment holders were as follows:

Sergeant-at-Arms: B.R. Muralidhar

Timer: Ashish Kundra

Ah-Counter: Tia Maria

Toastmaster-of-the-Evening: Naveena Methani

Language Evaluator: Abigail Lee

The meeting started with an excellent ice-breaking session by Sergeant-at-Arms Toastmaster Murali, after which Toastmaster Naveena displayed her fantastic compering skills and kept the audience charged and excited. Then followed the Acting-President Arjun's opening address which mentioned the importance of going to first principles and remembering why we joined Toastmasters in the first place. His emphasis on proper dressing and continuing to strive towards one's goals was well-received by all and his speech was greeted with a standing ovation by the audience.

It was now time for the excellent speeches of the night. The speakers were as follows:

1) Amirul Syaffiq

2) Tan Mei Yee

3) Sarvanaraj Rathinam

4) Hyder Taufik

5) Ray Oh

6) You Xiao

7) Mervin Chan

Excellent speeches were followed by excellent and lengthy clapping. A lot of the speakers like Toastmasters Amirul, Raj, You Xiao and Hyder delivered prepared speeches in the club meeting for the first time and the audience was very appreciative of their efforts.

After a good speech session, the members bonded over food and chit-chat. The next segment of the meeting was Evaluation of the prepared speeches. The meeting had excellent evaluators, both in-house as well as external. The list of evaluators is presented below:

1) Andrew Chen

2) Chia Choon Kiat

3) Vincent Chen

4) Jaric ng

5) Kapil Pareek

6) Salma Begum

7) Ng Kin Foong

A great evaluation session is marked by the amount of suggestions that the audience can retain and take back after the meeting. The evaluations of the night were of such high standards and gave the audience enough thoughts and knowledge to carry back home. However, there was one more interesting session before the audience could begin their homeward journey. This was the Language Evaluation session by Toastmaster Abigail Lee. She was taking up this role for the first time and yet her confidence and performance showed that she has a fantastic grasp over the English language.

It was now time for recognizing the best speaker and evaluator of the night. The results were as follows:

Best Speaker: Hyder Taufik

Best Evaluator: Salma Begum

The meeting had finally come to an end. Acting President delivered the closing address and officially closed the meeting. However, as you all know, this just signaled the beginning of the bonding session. The members moved out to the coffee shop and had a great time over coffee, tea, drinks and food.

If you want to participate in the fun, frolic and education, please feel free to join our next meeting on 5th May, 2016. Till then, keep reading the blog for more news, views and trivia on the most exciting Toastmasters Club in Singapore.

AIA and Tampines Changkat Joint Chapter Meeting Edition I: 14th April, 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Apr 2016 23:41:00 +0800

Innovation and improvement are the two keys to being the best. In order to constantly improve, we sometimes need to take a step back and see how others are playing the game. This is the reason that the best universities in the world have exchange programs so that students and teachers can learn from other universities. It was with a similar idea that two of the best toastmasters clubs in Singapore, Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club and AIA Toastmasters Club, decided to conduct a joint meeting so that both clubs could see the others in action and adopt the best practices from each other. This exchange was planned in two stages. For the first stage, AIA Toastmasters Club members would host the meeting and provide speakers while Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club members would take up appointment roles. In the second phase, the reverse practice would be done.

The aforementioned first phase of the joint meeting was held on 14th April, 2016. As per the usual track record, both clubs delivered as expected and it goes without saying that the members went home with a lot of fun, entertainment and education. The meeting, as with any toastmasters segment, comprised Table Topics, Prepared Speeches and Evaluations. However, before I go on to that, the appointment holders for such an important meeting should be mentioned:

Registration: Catherine Chia

Sergeant-at-Arms: Jason Lim

Toastmaster of the Evening: Joe Wan

Language Evaluator: Joni Seah

Table Topics Master: Naveena Methani

Timer: Saravanaraj Rathinam

Ah Counter: Amirul

The first segment was the Table Topics Segment where Table Topics master Toastmaster Naveena prepared several interesting topics for members to think on their feet. She gave alternate chances to members of Tampines Changkat and AIA and got the crowd into a healthy competition mode. Guests also participated and had a good time.

The interesting and extended Table Topics segment was followed by the Prepared Speech segment where five excellent speakers from AIA moved the crowd with their inspiring stories. Some of the stories were so touching that some of the audience was forced to shed tears. Special mention must be made of Toastmaster of the Evening Joe Wan who kept the crowd alive with his interesting comments about each speaker after he or she had left the stage.

The next segment of the night was the evaluation section where evaluators from Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club delivered excellent evaluations and helped both the speakers and the audience learn about the several aspects of public speaking.

The final segment was language evaluation by Toastmaster Joni Seah who in a mere ten minutes explained the most interesting usage of the English language followed by how speakers could have refined their usage even further. This is always a very interesting segment that helps speakers refine their skills of spoken English.

At the end of the meeting, both clubs realized that they had much to learn from each other. Tampines Changkat saw how things were differently done at AIA Toastmasters Club what with the Registration counter, different order of proceedings, fantastic organization, digitized presentation and real-time updates on the screen. AIA Toastmasters Club saw the fabulous quality of the participants and was of course inspired by the infectious energy. However, the actual learnings were discussed among some of the members of the Executive Committees of the two clubs after the meeting.

Special mention must be made of Toastmaster Zhuo Shuzhen who is a member of both the clubs and who therefore got the most cheers and claps as she was instrumental in organizing the meeting.

It was finally time for the results of the night. The Best Speaker ribbon was presented to Toastmaster Alan Lim. The Best Evaluator ribbon went to Toastmaster Hyder Muhammad Taufik and the best Table Topics ribbon went to Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti.

Everyone had a fun night. In case you missed it, please feel free to visit the second leg of the meeting which will be held on 2nd June at the Tampines Changkat CC from 7.30 pm.

523rd Chapter Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 11:54:00 +0800

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club celebrated its 523rd Chapter meeting on 7th April, 2016. The meeting, of course, was made even more interesting with a special birthday segment and a performance by Vice President - Membership, Toastmaster Zhuo Shuzhen. However, more on that will be discussed in the later paragraphs.

The appointment holders for the evening were as follows:

Acting President: Shunwei See

Sergeant-at-Arms: Abigail Lee

Toastmaster of the Evening: Tia Maria

Table Topic Master: Arjun Chakrabarti

Ah Counter: Mei Yee

Timer: Law Jia Hong

The meeting began with a good warm-up session by beautiful and eloquent Sergeant-at-Arms Abigail Lee who, along with the introductions, required the guests to choose his or her favourite flavour of ice-cream. She soon handed the mike over to the elegant and equally funny Toastmaster of the Evening, Tia Maria. Toastmaster Tia kept up the energy of the program and kept people engaged throughout the meeting with her charming smile and witty comments.

The next item of the meeting, was the opening speech by Acting President Shunwei See, who was standing in as Club President Gladys Tye could not make it due to her examinations. Toastmaster Shunwei spoke about taking the leap and going for tasks without worrying about it. Although a very inspiring speech that moved the audience to muster the courage to attempt difficult tasks, what the audience most enjoyed was his concluding statement: "You were expecting a queen but tonight you have a king!"

It was now time for the Prepared Speech segment of the meeting. There were four speakers tonight. The order of speeches was as follows:

1. Soon Tong

2. Mohana Priya

3. Carl Wong

4. Ashish Kundra

5. Vincent Chen

The speeches were fabulous and engaging and comprised various topics ranging from backpacking to minotaurs to procrastination, laziness and even human potential. The audience was thoroughly entertained and uplifted with the quality of the speeches.

After the speeches, it was time for Birthday Celebrations. This special segment was organized by the Vice Presiedent, Membership Toastmaster Zhuo Shuzhen. Along with the cake cutting and regular Happy Birthday song, Toastmaster Shuzhen sang a special song dedicated to the birthday babies who were present that day. The lyrics were contributed by Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti. The birthday babies present that day were:

1. Andrew Chen.

2. Ray Oh.

3. Law Jia Hong

4. Amirul

The lyrics of the song are as follows:

We have reached that time once again

When we forget sorrow, worry and pain

And together then we all say

April babies Happy Birthday

He’ll make you laugh till you’re sick

With his humorous table topic

He is smart, handsome and so cool

Our dear little brother Amirul

The next young man in line

Is wonderful and equally fine

His list of achievements is long

Super-human toastmaster Jia Hong

This awesome dude likes to jive

With the fishes during his scuba dive

He dresses smartly every day

Changkat family member Oh Ray

This man we all look up to

All club roles he will happily do

Perfect with tie and with pen

Our Co-opt member Andrew Chen

Now I wanna tell these young folks

We may have said a lot of jokes

But what we really want to say

Is a very Happy Birthday

The break session involved fantastic Fried Rice, Bee Hoon and cake. This was followed by the Evaluation Section. Evaluations are an extremely important section of the meeting because both the speakers and the audience get to benefit from knowledge of the good parts of a speech and from tips on how to improve the speeches. The evaluators of the night were:

1. Vincent Chen

2. Jaric Ng

3. Andrew Chen.

4. Chia Choong Kiat

5. Yee Yuen

The final section of the night was the very interesting Table Topics session. Table Topic Master was Toastmaster Arjun Chakrabarti. He openly declared that he was going to provide easy topics for guests and quite difficult ones for members. He was true to his word and members were challenged with his choice of topics. However, Tampines Changkat members do not back down from challenges and they tackled Toastmaster Arjun's topics with expertise.

After Table Topics, the final section of the night was the distribution of ribbons to the winner. The winners of the night were as follows:

Best Speaker - Vincent Chen

Best Evaluator - Vincent Chen

Best Table Topic Speaker - Lau Kheng Soon

The night was good. People had fun. There was laughter, joy and jokes. However, if you want more, do join us for the next chapter meeting.

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club is having a joint meeting with AIA Toastmasters Club in order to share and learn the best practices of the two clubs on 14th April, 2016. DO join us there for more fun, frolic and learning, Feel free to contact Toastmaster Zhuo Shuzhen (90274183) for more information.

522nd Chapter Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 3 Apr 2016 15:49:00 +0800

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club conducted its 522nd Chapter Meeting on 31st March, 2016. This was a regular chapter meeting and yet, for all members of the club, it was the special day of the week, the energetic Thursday. People turned out in good numbers and there was an excited buzz in the air as this one was a speech marathon and six speakers would be speaking along with a special speech segment. Without further delay, I shall move into the proceedings.

The appointment holders for the night were as follows:

Sergeant-at-Arms - Arjun Chakrabarti

Toastmaster of the Evening - John Lee

Timer - Kelvin Cheng

Ah Counter - Diederik Karssen

General Evaluator - Naveena Methani

The meeting started with SAA Toastmaster Arjun calling the meeting to order and performing an ice-breaking session by asking members to talk about the most recent book that they read. This was followed by the energetic and entertaining Toastmaster John Lee who graced the stage in the capacity of Toastmaster of the evening. The Acting President for the night, Toastmaster Kin Foong then shared the story of how a pushing a cow off the cliff helped a family lose their dependence on the cow and become successful. As usual, Kin Foong mesmerized the audience with his oratory and went on to inspire people to move out of their comfort zones.

The meeting being a speech marathon, it was now time for the seven speeches. The first one was the special speech segment where Toastmaster Joe Wan spoke about The Successful Club Series and inspired everyone to visit other clubs. This was followed by ice-breaker speeches by Toastmasters Y. Mu Ming, Mervyn Chan and Mei Yee whereby the club got to know the new members in a deeper way. These speeches were followed by speeches by Toastmsters Murali and Subra who did their P3 Speeches from the Competent Communication Manual: Get To The Point. The final Speech of the night was performed by Toastmaster Abigail Lee who did her P4 Speech from the Competent Communication Manual: How To Say It.

The Prepared Speeches segment was followed by the induction of new members whereby Vice President Membership, Toastmaster Jaric Ng inducted the new members into the club withe the oath of Toastmasters International which was followed by their mentors presenting then with induction pins.

The last section before the break was the first advertisement of the training by Toastmasters Coen Tan and Ng Kin Foong titled "Push The Cow Off The Cliff". Within minutes, the limited twenty-seater workshop was eighty percent full showing the reputation of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club trainers.

Break-time consisted of fantastic Fried Rice and Bee Hoon as well as a special Thai Green Cury Chicken dish from Club Secretary Vincent's father Mr. Lawrence Chen. Mr. Lawrence is a beloved friend of the club who often mesmerizes us members with his fantastic culinary skills.

The evaluations of the night were excellent. The star evaluators, Toastmasters Zhuo Shuzhen, Jaric Ng (delivering his maiden evaluation), Andrew Chen, Tia Maria, Shaun Li and Vidhi Sarkar did fabulous jobs as evaluators. They encouraged the speakers and pointed out where they could improve further.

The final segment of the night was General Evaluation by Toastmaster Naveena Methani and in a span of eight and a half minutes, she mentioned how the club had fared well and how the club could become ever better.

The segments of the meeting over, it was now time for results. First, the three toastmasters who had delivered their maiden speech were presented with Ice-Breaker Ribbons by Acting President Kin Foong. The winner of the Best Speaker Award was Toastmaster Abigail Lee and the winner of the Best Evaluator Award was Toastmaster Vidhi Sarkar.

The meeting was now officially concluded but that was not all. As you all know, we members of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club never end so early. We moved on to the coffee shop for a further session of Water Chestnut, Chicken Rice, Beer and Table Topics.

The next meeting of the club is on 7th April, 2016. Keep Watching this space for more news, views and stories of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club.

Program Quality Director's Hall of Fame

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 3 Apr 2016 15:34:00 +0800

Program Quality Director (PQD) Distinguished Toastmaster Patricia Lum recently announced the results of the Quality Speech Challenge. This Challenge required speakers to have completed any speech title within 31st March, 2016 with at least two Best Speaker Ribbons. The rewards would be a District Excellence Pin, a special collection T-shirt and a name in the PQD's Hall of Fame. The award was open to the first 50 recipients. 32 people got the award. Of these 32, 7 members belong to Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club. We congratulate these champions for bringing in laurels to our club. The champions are:

Naveena Methani

Law Jia Hong

Arjun Chakrabarti

Vidhi Sarkar

Pijush Mukherjee

Joe Wan

Jaric Ng

Let these guys be an inspiration to all members of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club to bring out the best in you.

Area S4 International Speech and Table Topics Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 17:15:00 +0800

Area S4 held its International Speech and Table Topics Contest on 26th March, 2016. There were several clubs that participated in the contest and as usual, Tampines Changkat sent its Club Contest winners to represent the club in the Area Contest. The representatives from our club were:

International Speech Contest: Hyder Muhammad Taufik

Table Topics Contest: Arjun Chakrabarti

The battle was gruesome and veteran speaker Michael Wee commented that even at the area level, the quality of speeches was fantastic and the competition was fierce. People were excited to see their club representatives go for gold. All clubs sent members to support their representatives. Once again, as usual, Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club turned out to be the most enthusiastic of the lot by sending an entourage of screaming and excited supporters. In addition, members like Toastmasters Joe, Michael and Murali had taken up the roles of Contest Chair, SAA and Tally Counter respectively.

Contest Chair Joe Wan kept the audience entertained and on the edge of their seats with his flair, flamboyance and natural sense of humour.

When time came for the International Speech Contest, people were mesmerized by Toastmaster Hyder's speech titled "The Natural". Hyder had poise, style and used excellent vocabulary. He mesmerized judges and audience alike with his story of becoming a confident speaker. It seemed that he was definitely one of the contenders of the first prize. Of course, his competitors Michelle and Harsh were very good as well.

The next part of the contest was Table Topics. The topic was: "Leadership is born and not bred". Toastmaster Arjun did a fantastic job entertaining the audience while delivering a clear message. As any member of Tampines Changkat would know, Arjun specializes in using props on stage and this contest was no different. The other contestants were also extremely competitive and provided him with a good challenge.

The program went well and now it was time for the results. Both members of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club did win medals but only one came first and got his chance to move to the next level. The results were as follows:

International Speech Contest -

Champion: Harsh

Runner-Up: Hyder Taufik Mohammed (Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club)

Table Topics Contest -

Champion: Arjun Chakrabarti (Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club)

Runner-Up: Michelle Lobia

The club members were extremely happy with the results and are looking forward to the Division Contest. Make sure you are present to support Arjun on 7th May, 2016.

Public Speaking for Beginners Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 11:50:00 +0800

Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club, in collaboration with Tampines Changkat CC, undertook an initiative to help the general population in the art of public speaking. As a result, we had the workshop titled "Public Speaking For Beginners" on 28th January, 2016. The workshop was conducted by master trainer Toastmaster Ng Kin Foong. However, before we get into the details, I believe that it is my duty to inform the reader of the credentials of the trainer.

Toastmaster Ng Kin Foong runs a training company titled Radiant Owl Consultancy Services where he trains people on different aspects of communication and interaction. Having several years of this experience under his belt, he is extremely popular in the toastmasters circuit as a mentor, speaker and evaluator. He has achieved the titles of Advanced Leader (Bronze) and Advanced Communicator (Bronze) in the toastmasters circuit and has also been awarded the Triple Crown award last year. In addition, Toastmaster Kin Foong manages a make-up training company, thus proving that he can manage his time extremely well.

Let us now jump into the main course of tonight's meal: the training. The training was free of charge since Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club and Tampines Changkat CC were aiming to help the public. It was a general walk-in event. Naturally, the attendees ranged from seasoned toastmasters to residents of the Tampines area walking in to see if they could learn how to interact with large crowds. Needless to mention, there were a lot of people and, knowing Toastmaster Kin Foong's reputation, this was not unexpected.

The evening started with Organizing Chair Toastmaster Zhuo Shuzhen introducing trainer Ng Kin Foong, followed by Kin Foong's famous "Chickie Introduction". For those not familiar with this introduction method, Toastmaster Kin Foong specializes in helping the audience break the ice by making them use a prop to introduce themselves. This method has always proven highly effective in helping the audience quell their nervousness when speaking before a crowd for the first time.

The introduction session was followed by the theoretical session where Toastmaster Kin Foong spoke about how to go about the art of public speaking with special emphasis on the different methods of speech organization. One of the main attractions of the workshop was the promise that the audience would learn how to craft a speech in fifteen minutes. Trainer Kin Foong shared the tips and tricks of the trade and provided handouts to help the audience generate ideas to speak. This was followed by a very interesting exercise. The audience was made to write a speech in about ten minutes. Then, they were divided into two groups and made to deliver the speeches to each other in the presence of the trainer and other experienced toastmasters. This exercise proved to be a great success and quite popular with the audience. The final portion of the training involved some guidelines on body language and vocal variety since these are essential tools for a public speaker. In addition, trainer Kin Foong shared further follow-up material with the audience via email.

The workshop in itself was a great success. However, what was more successful to watch was the growth in confidence of the attendees, especially the first-time speakers who never thought that they could craft and deliver a speech. This is the kind of confidence that trainers yearn to build and that Kin Foong has helped build time and again. Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club and Tampines Changkat CC have been extremely successful with the workshop.

In case you feel that you need improvement with your public speaking skills, please feel free to drop in to our club. We meet on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm. Keep watching this space for more news, views and opinions on Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club.

521st Chapter Meeting and Chilli Crab Party

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:20:00 +0800

17^th March, 2016 was a special day to members of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club for several reasons. Firstly it was the third Thursday of the month and that could mean only one thing: Chapter Meeting! This one was the 521^st Chapter Meeting of the club. In addition, this meeting was indeed special because it was the time of the month when the Birthday Celebration segment of the month was planned. However, that was not the only reason that over fifty people joined the club meeting that night. Five members of the club were celebrating their recent achievement of the Competent Communicator title by treating the rest of the members to a Chilli Crab session! For the uninitiated, this club has a tradition of members celebrating their coming of age – read Competent Communicator Certificate – by having a get-together at the nearby coffee shop with a humungous dinner comprising Chilli Crabs and beer! The members throwing the party that night were Toastmasters Pijush Mukherjee, Jaric Ng, Kapil Pareek, Naveena Methani and Vidhi Sarkar.

The meeting that night started with Club President, Toastmaster Gladys Tye setting theme of the meeting – Kindness- in her opening address. She spoke about several act of kindness and kept the speakers mesmerized with her oratorical ability.

The next segment of the meeting was, of course, the prepared speeches. Toastmaster of the Evening, Joe Wan, made sure that the introduction of the speakers was energetic, engaging and hilarious. The first two speeches were quite serious because Toastmasters Pijush Mukherjee and Vidhi Sarkar delivered their P-10 Speeches of the Competent Communication Manual. This was followed by one of the most hilarious speeches in the history of Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club. The speaker was none other than Toastmaster Tia Maria. The final speaker of the night was Toastmaster Ashish Kundra who delivered his Ice Breaker speech in an extremely out-of-the-box fashion involving crowd interaction, humour and absolute lack of notes. This was extremely commendable because it was the first time that he as delivering a prepared speech. Needless to say, each and every speech was followed by a standing ovation.

Tampines Changkat meetings move in a wavy fashion. Just like a wave has crests and troughs, this club makes sure that its meeting has alternating educational and fun activities. The second activity of the night was the Birthday Celebration segment organized by the Vice Presidents (Membership), Toastmasters Zhuo Shuzhen and Jaric Ng. The birthday babies present that night were Toastmasters Joe, Joshua, Abigail, Christina and Linda. Toastmaster Shuzhen first rendered a solo performance of the Happy Birthday song. This was followed by Toastmaster Jaric’s guitar which accompanied the crowd as they sang the Happy Birthday song for the birthday babies. This was followed by a special performance by Toastmasters Arjun Chakrabarti and Ng Kin Foong who used the Happy Birthday tune to sing a song that was tailor-made for the Birthday Babies present that night. The lyrics, written by Arjun, are as follows:

“Tis a day of Sunshine

My mama said make hay

But here we all are present

On this blessed meeting day!

She sells you reading glasses

Soon westward she’ll set sail

Tonight we’re going to wish her

Our darling Abigail!

Now to our VPE

Always driving in the sun

To buy nice gifts for Vera

Handsome emcee Joe Wan!

Someone I’ve never met here

But one I vouch for sua

I tell you that he’s too cool

Calm and sexy Joshua!

With her love for language

This LE I can’t miss

She is so hot and stylish

Yet sweet, little Chris!

Looking into her eyes

The boys now forget Tinda

Don’t you dare to woo her

She’s taken, lovely Linda!

To all the little sweethearts

Changkat can only say

May God bless you always.

Happy Awesome Birthday!

The post-break segment of Speech Evaluations was fated to be a difficult one because the birthday cake had made driven speeches and evaluations out of the members’ minds. However, the presence of master evaluators like Toastmasters Haresh, Kin Foong, Christina and Ted immediately brought everyone’s attention back to the meeting. Each of these evaluators is extremely competent and naturally, just listening to them translates into a growth in the learning curve of the audience.

The final segment of the night was the Table Topics Segment. This is the section where the participants have to think on their feet and speak impromptu. Table Topics Master Raj set the topics in line with the theme of the meeting: Kindness. He decided to conduct things differently and instead of reading out topics, he showed pictures and made the participants speak on the topic. Members Amirul, Nicole and Arjun as well as a visiting toastmaster participated in the session.

We all know that club meetings end with ribbons recognizing the best performers in each segment. This is done with the sole purpose of encouraging speakers to perform better and keep improving. The winners of the ribbons in this meeting were:

Best Prepared Speech – Pijush Mukherjee

Best Evaluation – Ted Chong

Best Table Topic – Arjun Chakrabarti.

A formal end to the meeting did not mean that the night was over. It was now time for the Chilli Crab Session. The members moved out of the Community Centre and met at the coffee shop close by. The menu comprised Rice, Omelette, Fried Tofu Sauce, Chilli Crab, Buns, Mixed Veg Sauce and lots of Beer! If you have never attended a Chilli Crab session organized by our club, make sure that you join and attend this. The sounds of laughter and jokes can be heard from few hundred meters and it is a known fact that we end up being the loudest bunch in the coffee shop. The session is a hub of positive energy and people enjoy to the utmost. People ate and chatted till 11.30 pm and then left for home. However, four members decided to extend the night further. Toastmasters Kapil Pareek, Vidhi Sarkar, Arjun Chakrabarti and Ashish Kundra showed that they can party harder than most and stayed back till 2am and chatted away to glory. They had nothing to gain from this chat session but it just shows the level of camaraderie and bonding that is formed when one joins Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club. The night finally ended but was born was a fresh batch of toastmasters looking to earn their Advanced Communicator Bronze titles. Once again, Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club wishes Competent Communicators Jaric Ng, Kapil Pareek, Vidhi Sarkar, Pijush Mukherjee and Naveena Methani all the best in their further oratorical adventures!