Chapter Meeting – 15 Apr 2021

This was our third Combined Chapter Meeting of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club and Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club for the year 2021, held on 15

April 2021. In this chapter meeting, we celebrated Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club’s 23rd Anniversary.

The President’s Opening Address was given by Triggi Chan, CC, the President of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club while the President’s Closing Address was given by Bizon Pesi Marfatia, CC, MS1, the President of Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club.

President’s Opening Address

Triggi kicked off her opening address by asking how many of us have used our SingapoRediscovers Vouchers. She moved on to share how using her SingapoRediscovers Vouchers had led her to discover the many beautiful places in Singapore that we have overlooked.

She related her experience to how as someone who has travelled out of Singapore for more than 30 times, she had failed to appreciate the beauty that lied within the island, Singapore, itself. It took a pandemic like COVID-19 to make us realise the little things that are always around us that we have neglected, like each other, and we have not been able to meet physically for our chapter meetings for a little over a year.

Table Topics

This Chapter Meeting’s Table Topics Master was Daniel Sun, CC, who gave the theme: When You Wish Upon A Star. Anyone who has ever dreamed will be able to speak easily on any of these topics. The content need not be close to reality. The more far-fetched, the fancier, the more entertaining. 5 brave souls came forward to shared their dreams and fantasies on the following topics.

1. If you could travel back in time, where and when would you want to go to?

2. Which celebrity would you wish to marry?

3. If you were the current President of USA, what would you do?

4. If you were a musician, who would you want to be?

5. If you were an emperor/empress or a king/queen, who would you want to be?

If you could travel back in time, where and when would you want to go to?

Speaker: Bizon Pesi Marfatia, CC, MS1

Bizon shared that he would like to travel back to India to meet his parents and his siblings as he misses them during this COVID-19 period. As a nature lover, he would also want to travel to the mountains and the alps to be at the top of the world looking down towards the earth beneath. Somehow he missed the point that he could travel back in time before this COVID-19 period. Perhaps he is treating time here as a complete time-space continuum.

Which celebrity do you wish to marry?

Speaker: Yoong Ee Chuan, ACB, CL, MS1

Ee Chuang shrewdly evaded the topic by saying that he would prefer to be single in the attempt to live his life differently from a married life that he had already experienced. However, towards the end of his speech, he eventually did give his preference to be the Taiwanese model, actress cum television host, Lin Chi-Ling.

If you were the current President of USA, what would you do?

Speaker: Xerxes Ghista, PM1

Xerxes stated that the previous president of United States had set US back in many key issues particularly, the climate issue, the pandemic issue, and had caused the economy to regress. If he could be the president of US, he would want to get the vaccination for COVID-19 going and get the economy back on track. He would also like to tackle key issues, like the climate, and have US leading the world once again on the global stage.

If you were a musician, who would you want to be?

Speaker: Ann Luo Jinyu

Ann could not make up her mind who she wanted to be. A little while, she chose the Chinese composer who wrote the song, “A Better Tomorrow (明天会更好)”, a little while, she wanted to be Beethoven. Helter-skelter, and she did not know the name of the musicians nor the name of the songs written. Even then, she also said that she did not want to be a musician but would rather be a more practical person with practical skills that could earn her a living and support her family. Somehow, she failed to realise that many successful musicians are very rich, such as our local song writer, Dick Lee.

If you were an emperor/empress or a king/queen, who would you want to be?

Speaker: Dawn Yee, ACB, CL, EC3

Dawn did not wish to be an emperor in the actual sense of the word. Instead, she wants to be an empress of the commercial world of business. She was of the opinion that historically emperors were self-centred and cruel and she did not wish to be someone like that. She would prefer to be an emperor who would lead the people to live a happy life instead. Actually if she really wanted to be an empress of the commercial world of business, she could wish to be the Grand Master of the Freemason.

Prepared Speeches

1st Speaker: Xerxes Ghista

Pathway Project: Presentation Mastery Level 2 Project 1, Understanding Your Communication Style

Title: This Is How I Speak

Evaluator: Yoong Ee Chuan, ACB, CL, MS1

Xerxes told us that he did some reading and reflection on different communication styles and tried to deconstruct his own communication style. He went on to say that speaking is nothing but talking and engaging in verbal communication. He identified these communications are mainly:

1. with oneself;

2. one-to-one (self to another person);

3. one-to-many (self to many people at the same time).

Xerxes stated that what characterises the way we talk are our styles and our personalities. He went on further to state that every individual has 3 different personalities:

1. the personality that we share with everyone;

2. the personality that we share only with those whom they trust;

3. the personality that we share only to ourselves.

He also gave us the 4 different communication styles as spelt out by the Toastmasters manual:

1. The direct style

2. The initiating style

3. The supportive style

4. The analytical style

Xerxes combined the 3 personalities with the 4 communication styles, and said that there are thus 12 different that we speak to different people. He believed that we take on different personalities and styles as we speak to different people in diverse situations. Ultimately, Xerxes concluded that we have to reflect on our communication styles as to whether have they been effective in communicating with the right kind of person in various situations.

2nd Speaker: Ann Luo Jinyu

Pathway Project: Leadership Development Level 1 Project 3, Researching and Presenting

Title: Effective Communication

Evaluator: Triggi Chan, CC

Ann began her speech by comparing and contrasting her previous supervisor with her current boss. Her previous supervisor was very harsh with her particularly in his reply to her inquiries and requests for guidances. In contrast, her current boss was very patient and kind with her, guiding her hands-on personally.

Ann gave us 4 guidelines on how to communicate effective:

Be An Engaged Listener And Avoid Interrupting

Understand the emotion and not just the words being communicated. When you are an engaged listener, not only will you understand the other person better but you will also make the other person feel heard and understood. In the process, you will help other people to have a stronger connection with you.

Smile When You Are Communicating

Make smiling an exercise. The facial muscles that are involved during a smile will relief the stress your body is having. Manage your body language, tone of your voice and your eye contact with your audience.

Keep Calm And Keep Your Stress In Check

Stress will cause your emotion to get out of control and lead you to misinterpret what others are communicating.

Encourage A 2-Way Feedback Between Parties When Working In Teams At Work

Having a 2-way feedback between administrators and workers, offers the two parties opportunities to self-evaluate. Keeping a record of the feedback will also increase overall effective communication and productivity. Compliment and congratulate team members for good idea and present tokens of appreciation.

3rd Speaker: Yoong Ee Chuan, ACB, CL, MS1

Pathway Project: Motivational Strategies Level 2 Project 1, Understanding Your Communication Style

Title: How I Communicate

Evaluator: Chay Wen Liang, DTM, VC3

Ee Chuang covered the following in his communication style.

• What is his preferred communication style.
• How is his communication style affecting his professional relationship with other people.
• What he needs to adapt his communication style in order to improve relationship with others and to match the situation.

Ee Chuan shared that his communication style are primarily supportive and analytical according to the Toastmaster Pathway’s survey on communication styles.

Coming under the analytical style, he is someone who likes facts and figures, as well as preferring to be specific.

On the downside of having an analytical communication style, he appears to people to be fussy and nitpicking. He sees that he needs people whom he can trust and these people should be able to offer him reassurance to feel comfortable. He is also a person who needs longer time to make decision.

As a result, Ee Chuan sees that he needs to be more open with changes and feel less frustrated with more complex environment. Having an analytical style of communication, he will also have to try to ask for more information and details for analysing in order that he can feel comfortable so that he can analyse.

Being an analytical style communicator, it also means that he tends to be less emotional. Thus he also see that he needs to network and socialise more with people to improve his relationships.

4th Speaker: Dawn Yee, ACB, CL, EC3

Pathway Project: Effective Coaching Level 4 Project 2, Improvement Through Positive Coaching

Title: Positive Coaching

Evaluator: Wekie Tay, DTM

Dawn began by emphasising the importance and advantage of coaching by highlighting Joseph Schooling who became Singapore’s first Olympic Gold Medalist because of the coaching he received.

Dawn defined coaching as a developmental process where individual needs to clarify goals, deal with potential stumbling blocks and improve their performance on a regular basis. She believes that coaching has to be done on a one-to-one basis over a period of time that occurs regularly like once a week. Coaching works on improving specific skills over a short period of time.

In contrast, Dawn compared coaching with mentoring where she stated that mentoring occurs over a longer time frame like years whereas coaching is specific, short-term and focused, She also states that a coach needs to establish rapport and nurture relationship.

In her prepared speech, Dawn shared about her relationship with a new teacher who has been observing her and following her to classes regularly. Her speech was about how Dawn coached this young teacher to improve on her competency.

In the process of coaching this younger teacher, Dawn showed the young teacher through modelling with her own actions like how to get the students to work in groups, motivate the students and helping the students to consolidate their learnings.

Dawn says that she finds coaching is most effective in address 2 areas: solving problems and improving performance.

In solving problems, she did so by listening to the young teacher and letting her suggest her solutions followed by helping her to fine tune her solutions. This was followed by helping her to be consistent in implementing the strategies until the desired result is achieved.

In the area of improving performance, Dawn believes in giving constructive feedback if things are not going the way it should. Dawn went on to illustrate on how she coached this young teacher in several areas of managing students by helping her to solve problems and improving her performance.

Dawn concluded by saying that coaching helps both the coach and the person who is being coach gets better and better at doing things together.

5th Speaker: Elaine Tan, ACB, CL, DL4

Pathway Project: Dynamic Leadership Level 5 Project 1, Lead In Any Situation

Title: My Experience As A Volunteer Manager

Evaluator: Annabelle Yong, DTM

Elaine began her speech by telling her about her previous job as a debt collector before becoming a volunteer manager. She found the job as a debt collector having to take proceedings to put people into bankruptcy was very disheartening. She then decided to change her job to accumulate good karma to cancel the bad karma she has accumulated as a debt collector.

However, Elaine faced many challenges as a volunteer manager because she could not adapt to the different status and the authority that she used to wield as a debt collector. She holds no power and authority over the volunteers unlike a debt manager but instead she has to motivate her volunteers.

As a result, she began acquiring the following skills to perform better as a volunteer manager:

• to create a climate of giving and set clear expectations for volunteers,
• to manage teams,
• sharpens her communication skills to listen more attentively and give appropriate feedbacks that are timely and constructive,
• to motivate people,
• to encourage volunteers to take up more challenging tasks,
• how to prioritise her time,
• to channel her volunteers to more important tasks.

Upon reflection and receiving feedback from her volunteers, she learned that her strong points are in motivating people and arousing their interests and passion to do things wholeheartedly. Nevertheless, Elaine still feels the need to learn how to prioritise her time and there are so much more for her to learn. Most importantly, she needs to acquire knowledge such as problem solving skills and how to make decision in times of need, how to allocate resources and planning in advance.

Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club Birthday Quiz

Jane Pang, CC, CL, VC2 prepared a 10-question quiz in celebration of Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club’s Birthday.

1. Where is the Head Quarter of Toastmasters Club?

2. Singapore belongs to which District of Toastmasters International?

3. Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club belongs to which Division?

4. Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club belongs to Area Z2. True or False?

5. Which year was Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club chartered?

6. Who is the Club Advisor?

7. Who is the Club Mentor?

8. Who is tonight’s Toastmaster of the Evening?

9. Bizon Marfatia is the Club President for this term. True or false?

10. Which is the friendly club that we are having joint meeting with every month?

Wekie Tay, DTM was leading all the way until the question was asked about who is the Club Advisor and the next question about who is the Club Mentor. The Quiz Mistress had the answers to these 2 questions all mixed up. Both Wekie Tay, DTM and Chay Wen Liang, DTM pointed this out to her that Wekie Tay, DTM is the Club Mentor whereas Chay Wen Liang, DTM is the Club Advisor and not the other way round. Hahahaha … it was very funny!

Winners Of Birthday Quiz

Overall Winner (1st): Pranav

2nd: Chay Wen Liang, DTM, VC3

3rd: Daniel Sun, CC

Best Speakers

Best Table Topics Speaker

Xerxes, Ghista, PM1

Best Evaluator

Wekie Tay, DTM

Best Speaker (Prepared Speech)

Yoong Ee Chuan, ACB, CL, MS1

Elaine Tan, ACB, CL, CL4

President’s Closing Address

Bizon once again congratulated Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club on its anniversary. He also thanked The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club for the support and unconditional contribution given for the past few years.

Finally, Bizon thanked and congratulated Wekie Tay, DTM for winning the following for the speech contests in representation of Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club:

• Champion of Division Z Humorous Speech Contest
• Champion of Area Z2 Humorous Speech Contest
• 1st Runner Up of Area Z2 International Speech Contest
• 1st Runner Up of Area Z2 Table Topics Contest
• 1st Runner Up of Area Z2 Evaluation Contest

The next combined Chapter Meeting of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club and Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club will be held on 20 May 2021, the 3rd Thursday of the month of May, 2021.