This was our fourth Combined Chapter Meeting of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club and Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club for the year 2021, held on 20 May 2021. It was also the second last meeting for the term July 2020 to June 2021. Towards the end of this meeting, Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club will be holding its election for the next Executive Committee Members.
The President’s Opening Address was given by Bizon Pesi Marfatia, CC, MS3, the President of Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club while the President’s Closing Address was given by Triggi Chan, CC, the President of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club.
Table of Contents
President’s Opening Address
Bizon was not only our Toastmaster of the Evening for the Chapter Meeting of the day, but he also took on the role of Sergeant-At-Arm.
Instead of giving us his usual “stern lecture” for his opening or closing address, Bizon decided to give us a riddle for a change.
The One Word Riddle
What nine-letter long common word in the English language is still a word, when each time you remove a letter one at a time from it, it still remains an English word … from 9 letters all the way down to a single remaining letter?
ANSWER: STARTLING
- STARTLING
- STARTING (L removed)
- STARING (T removed)
- STRING (A removed)
- STING (R removed)
- SING (T removed)
- SIN (G removed)
- IN (S removed)
- I (N removed)
Table Topics
The chapter meeting proceeded with our Table Topics session. Yoong Ee Chuan, ACB, CL, MS1, our Table Topics Master gave us a list of quotes by celebrities and other famous people he had selected from as our table topics of the evening. We had 6 volunteers for the following topics.
- Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. (Dr Seyss)
- The purpose of our life is to be happy. (Dalai Lama)
- There are no regrets in life, just lessons. (Jennifer Aniston)
- Life’s tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid. (John Wayne)
- Find people who will make you better. (Michelle Obama)
- Make each day your masterpiece. (John Wooden)
Don’t Cry Because It’s Over, Smile Because It Happened
Speaker: Xerxes Ghista, PM1
Xerxes shared of his conflicting emotions during his schooldays when he was glad that each day was over because he was free to do what he wanted to. Ironically at the same time he cherished those moments he shared with his schoolmates. Looking back then, those days were over and he would never be able to re-live those moments ever again.
The Purpose Of Our Life Is To Be Happy
Speaker: Jane Pang, CC, CL, VC2
Jane began by saying that whatever we do in our life say, working hard at our job so as to buy the things we want was, is to make ourselves happy. Having said that, she became introspective and argued that whatever material possessions we get a hold of will not make us happy for long.
Even if a man were to be married to the prettiest woman in the world, this would not satisfy him. Very soon he would begin to turn his eyes elsewhere. Jane concluded by saying that it is more important for us have to look inwards and develop a sense of gratitude for whatever we have.
There Are No Regrets In Life, Just Lessons
Speaker: Francis Goh, ACS, ALB
Looking back during this period of COVID-19 pandemic, Francis felt that he has learned many lessons. He urged everyone to just go ahead in our attempt to accomplish any goals that we may have as we will learn from our actions and experiences despite the outcomes. Francis also felt that he has learned to love people even though he may have made mistakes along the way.
Without making these mistakes, he may not have learned how to love others. Finally, he felt that it is alright to make mistakes as the saying goes, “What is worse than making mistake is to think that you are always right.”
Life’s Tough, But It’s Tougher When You’re Stupid
Speaker: Alvin Ho, DTM
Alvin began by saying that there are many stupid people in the world and sadly these people are in positions of authority. He related a recent incident where politicians in a certain region lifted the lockdown that was put in place since November 2020.
This led to an uncontrollable outbreak and spread of infections. On the other hand, he argued that from another perspective, these politicians are not really stupid because they are doing what they needed to do which is to win votes. So what they are doing is not that stupid after all.
Find People Who Will Make You Better
Speaker: Hamsa Priya Selvem, DL5
Hamsa recalled her recent conflict with her partner at home where she continued nagging her partner over things that he should be doing. He in turn told her that she was trying to convert him into becoming a clone version of herself. If she succeeded in doing that, it would be very boring for her to live with someone who were exactly the same as herself.
Upon reflection, Hamsa somewhat agreed that we need to find people who will bring that difference, the charisma and the energy, whether it is positive or negative, so long as it is not going to the extreme where it is someone who is going to challenge you all the time nor someone who agrees with you all the time.
Make Each Day Your Masterpiece
Speaker: Triggi Chan, CC
Triggi looked back at her life and felt that if she was to regard her life as an art piece, it would look more like random scribblings instead of a masterpiece. She illustrated this with an episode of her life during schooldays. You would have thought that during those moment when you have done a perfect piece of job in your assignment and that would be a masterpiece.
Nevertheless, your so-called perfectly done assignment looked no different from another classmate’s perfectly done assignment. Triggi argued that a picture which is a masterpiece is made up of many small components that in and of themselves are not masterpieces and may in fact look a little boring.
However, together they make up what is perceived to be a masterpiece. Triggi would prefer to live life the best that you can each and everyday. However, not everyday is going to be a masterpiece. Instead looking at your life as a whole, may it be a masterpiece.
Prepared Speeches
1st Speaker: Avinash Narasimhan
Pathway Project: Mastery Level 1, Project 3, Research and Presenting
Title: Empathy – The Most Underrated Emotion Presentation
Evaluator: Francis Goh, ACS, ALB
Avinash brought to our attention that our society has become increasingly apathetic towards others and focused on self-care. Apathy is harmful and does not foster harmony in our society. In our attempts to achieve our goals, we have put self in the first place and have forgotten to empathise with others.
Avinash went on to define what is empathy. It is an understanding of other people from their perspective and feeling how they feel.
Avinash shared about some research done by psychologists that classify empathy into 3 types:
- Cognitive Empathy
- Emotional Empathy
- Compassionate Empathy
Cognitive empathy is an understanding of what the other people are talking and understanding their thoughts. Developing cognitive empathy is beneficial in making negotiation. However, there is no emotional investment.
In emotional empathy, one is extremely interested in the other person emotionally. You invest your entire physical sensation in the other person. However, one who is emotionally empathetic tends to be overly involved and invested in another person which may be devastating in the end.
Cognitive empathy and emotional empathy are on two extreme ends of a spectrum. Cognitive empathy tends to be self-seeking in its motivation while emotional empathy tends to put oneself at risk.
The third type of empathy is compassionate empathy. In compassionate empathy, one understands the person and is able to feel his/her feeling and is ready to take action for the other person. However, it does not get oneself emotional involved and attached like it does in emotional empathy.
Avinash shared an experience of a role-play exercise where they have to empathise with one another and would say things to make another person feel better. From that experience, people came out feeling positive. From this experience, Avinash felt that it is essential to have a positive environment where you care for each other and we should make an effort to make our environment a more positive one by having more empathy for each other.
2nd Speaker: Zaw Myo Tun, PM1
Pathway Project: Presentation Mastery Level 2, Project 2, Effective Body Language
Title: Till You Feel, Free And Easy
Evaluator: Yoong Ee Chuang, ACB, CL, MS1
Myo Tun brought us on a wild goose chase from his struggle with his work, tapping feverishly on keyboards, learning new softwares and lamenting over his challenge of coping up with his work and his part-time study.
Alright! So what was he getting at?
So he finally sort of came to what he wanted to say: we are fighting for our future while neglecting our mind and body.
He then asked us what would we do when have a headache. Perhaps he was waiting for someone to say, “I will grab a Panadol,” and finally someone said that.
Oh, I finally saw it. He was going to tell us how to relax our mind and body to cure a headache. At least that was his way in doing so.
We were then invited to do a breathing exercise along with him.
He began by asking us to breathe in deeply and then release our breath slowly – 3 times.
Next, he asked us to tug in our chest and then nod our head like in saying, “Yes”.
Then again, he asked us to moved our head and looked from side to side as if we were shaking our head, saying, “No”.
Finally we ended by rolling our head. Oh, I don’t mean roll our heads on the floor. I think he meant, rotating our head about our neck. Maybe I heard wrongly.
So that was his speech, “Till You Feel, Free And Easy”.
3rd Speaker: Xerxes Ghista PM1
Pathway Project: Presentation Mastery Level 2, Project 2, Effective Body Language
Title: Learning to Speak from a Mime
Evaluator: Annabelle Yong, DTM
Xerxes shared with us that in his toastmasters journey which he began several months back, he wanted to know how to spice up his speech. One of those things he noticed was the use of body language.
He began observing other people’s body language when they speak from YouTube. People such as Martin Luther King in his speech, “I Have A Dream”, Steve Job’s introduction of iPhone to the world. Everything from the way they talked, the way they walked, how they moved their hands, how they stood and how they sat.
Xerxes was of the opinion that good speakers have really good body language. He then went to the extreme of examining people who delivers their message solely based on body language – MIME.
He went on to give us the definition of a MIME, which is a performance where the performer delivers the message completely without uttering a single word during his/her performance. Xerxes also traced the Greek origin of the word “MIME”, which is Mimos – imitator.
Xerxes added that culturally, apart from Europe, Japan and India too have mimic art in the early days because during then, there was no standup comedy and they used their body language to make people laugh.
Xerxes even went on to watch Charlie Chaplin and wanting to imitate Charlie Chaplin, he decided to add more hand gestures to his speech delivery.
Xerxes carried an experiment where he had to gave a presentations on the same topic to two groups of people. To one group he would use a lot of hand gestures and to another he would not use any hand gesture.
The end result was that the presentation which he used a lot of hand gestures, the audience’s attention was greatly drawn to his hand gestures instead of the speech itself. As a result, there was no question asked at the end of the speech which probably meant that nobody knew what was his speech about.
On the other extreme where he had no movement of his hands, both the audience and himself (the speaker) were extremely bored.
Finally, Xerxes realised that he should not learn body language from MIME performers but instead from good speakers.
4th Speaker: Chay Wen Liang, DTM, VC3
Pathway Project: Visionary Communications Level 4, Project 1, Communicate Change
Title: Telok Blangah Pte Ltd Office Updates Due To COVID Measures Announced by Government
Evaluator: Hamsa Priya Selvem, DL5
The project “Communicate Change” focuses on creating a communication plan by gathering evidence to support the need for change and communicating change with your audience.
Wen Liang pretended to be the Head of Human Resource of a hypothetical organisation, Telok Blangah Town Hall. In this speech he communicated the upcoming changes after the COVID-19 pandemic that they would be adopting a hybrid system where on certain days, some employees will be working from home while on other days, some employees will be working in office.
His speech to his hypothetical workers focused on 3 areas.
- Fixed space to co-working space
- Conversion of rooms
- Schedules and plans
Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club Executive Committee Elections
Wekie Tay, DTM conducted the Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club Executive Committee Elections. The following members from the Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club were elected to the following positions.
President – Avinash Narasimhan
Vice President Education – Zaw Myo Tun, PM1
Vice President Membership – Bizon Pesi Marfatia, CC, MS1
Vice President Public Relation – Krishnan
Secretary – Ann Luo Jinyu
Treasurer – Dawn Yee, ACB, CL, EC3
Sergeant At Arm – Jane Pang, CC, CL, VC2
Best Speakers
Best Table Topic Speaker
Hamsa Priya Selvem, DL5
Best Evaluator
Annabelle Yong, DTM
Hamsa Priya Selvem, DL5
Best Speaker (Prepared Speech)
Xerxes Ghista, PM1
President’s Closing Address
Triggi, the President of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club thanked all the guests and everyone who made the meeting a success. Triggi shared with us a little science lesson, telling us that new neurons continue to be formed in our brains even as adults.
Therefore, we can and shall continue to learn and to improve ourselves even as adults. Thus, we are to continue learning from each other at any age.
Triggi ended her closing address by congratulating the Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club on the elections of their new Club Executive Members. The next combined Chapter Meeting of The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club and Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club will be held on 17 June 2021, the 3rd Thursday of the month of June, 2021.
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