It’s the season for laughter (humourous speeches) and fun (evaluation). The day started off with much buzz and excitement for this first basic and advanced clubs joint bi-annual contest. There was many participants (7 participants for both the humourous speech contest and the evaluation speech contest), many external officials (judges and appointment holders) and many supporting members and guests. Despite the hustle and bustle, the contest started punctually with Edwin Tan – the contest chair announcing the start at 7.33pm …

Lets see who draws the most laughter….

First up was the humourous speech contest and the lucky number 1 to start was Kelvin Tan who shared his encounters with divine ‘help’. Coupled with nifty card tricks, he extended his humourous speech into a small magic show.  Next up was Club President Peter Nguyen who never failed in surprising us with his out-of-the-world stories. For this contest, he shared his secret potions to address an intimate concern for all toastmasters-that is the antidote to trembling legs on stage. He further shared the 3 different potions for the 3 different toastmaster levels, all attractively priced.

I shall not divulge detail information about this potions here, but fellow toastmasters who have a similar problem can approach him in person and I am sure he will be able to prescribe the RiGhT antidote for you! The third contestant was Sunny Chong who shared with the ‘INs and Outs’ of his experience. Very enlightening but most importantly hilarious was this speech, that eventually bagged the first prize(basic club).

The forth contestant, also the first contestant from the advanced club was  club-mentor Yeo Chai Tun who coaxed the audience to have more children and to do national service for the country. It was indeed a timely speech in the month of the national day that was aligned to the bigger interest of the country! Next, was one of the proud toastmasters of the club-Yvonne Tan (last year’s club and area evaluation champion) who presented on ‘grandmother stories’. Highly animated

speech, punctured with punches and kicks (literally), Yvonne brought much laughter to the audience and was to be well rewarded as the champion at the end of the day. I especially like her statement that she uses to describe her tertiary football club that did not win any tournaments and did not have adequate support – ‘it was like an old bra-without the cup and adequate support’. The last contestant was Pei Chin, who presented a candid story about her own blurness like walking onto obstacles and coming to toastmasters meeting on the wrong day. What was more inspiring was her story of challenging herself to do the humourous speech series in her advanced track when this is the toughest for herself.

Time to evaluate or be evaluated….

The 2nd half of the contest (the evaluation contest) started with the test speaker – Tony Tang from Vietnam giving a close-at-heart speech about ‘Do Singapore still need immigrants?’ This was followed the evaluation contestants of Angus, Kelvin, Evan, Victor, Pei Chin, Yvonne and Chin Boon taking turns to evaluate the speech, while being evaluated themselves by judges on their evaluations itself!

And the winners were….

The meeting concluded with the presentation of prizes the to contest participants and the chief judge – Michael Wee, DTM. The results and the winners for this contest are as follows. All the best to the club champions who will represent the clubs in the upcoming area contests.  We wish that the club champions will continue to do the club proud in the upcoming area (basic-A2, Advanced-A3) contests.

Humourous Speech

Basic Club

1. * Sunny Chong
2. Peter Nguyen

Advanced Club

1. *Yvonne Tan
2. Yeo Chai Tun

Evaluation Contest

Basic Club

1. *Victor Ng
2. Kelvin Tan

Advanced Club

1. *Yvonne Tan
2. Lim Pei Chin

Notes: 1.*  denotes the champions for each contest who will represent the club in the area contests (Area A2 – TPCTMC, and Area A3- TPCTMC (Advanced). In an event that the winner is unable to represent the club, the 2nd runner up will replace her to contest in the area contest.

10^th August marks the inaugural chapter meeting of TPCTMC (Advanced)! This special occasion was graced by our immediate past District Governor – Edward Ma, Division A Governor – DTM Albert Lim, and our area A3 Governor – Kandi Mathi, ACS ALB. The meeting was called to order with the presentation of Toastmasters International certificates to charter members, possibly a once in a lifetime event for most of us.

Special programme (I)

DTM Tay Yiang Ping, a.k.a. MAD mama delivered an inspiring speech on the history of the TPCCC toastmasters clubs and strategies of how the 2 clubs can work together to better meet the needs of its members. She further assuaged members that there is little risk of dilution of the club spirit as we are essentially one club, with separate groups taking care of basic and advance programmes.

The 2^nd speaker of the night, DTM Kris, shared with us tips on tackling the storytelling manual in “Truth and stories.” Laden with childhood anecdotes and folk tales that drew bouts of laughter from the audience, it’s not what you say that it’s important, it’s what the audience remembers. As she shared, “no one likes to listen to the naked truth. They’d prefer to listen to hear the truth, clothed in stories.”

Projects and evaluations

We had 2 project speakers for the night. Kelvin attempted project 1 from the storytelling manual. In sync with the first day of the 7^th month of the lunar calendar, he spooked the room with a recount of his “special” encounter, sharing thoughts on the vanishing traditions/beliefs held by some groups of the Chinese community. The audience will definitely hope that “it’s out of sight, out of mind.”

Despite nursing a sore throat, Florence inspired us with her story of a girl who grew up in an abusive family. Her hoarse voice lent sorrowful feelings to the speech, further evoking sympathy in the audience. As much as we enjoyed the emotional variation of her voice, we hope that Florence will recover from it soon.

The speakers of the night were critically evaluated by Eskay and Kris, both skillfully dissecting each speech to provide insightful suggestions of improvement.

Special programme (II)

DTM Tay Yiang Ping took to the stage once more, to share info on “How to survive the TI Advanced communicator track” with an overview of the various manuals categorized by interest, e.g. sales manuals, specialty speeches, technical/management speeches, entertaining speeches. Do check your mails as Yiang Ping has sent a copy of the slides to your email addresses registered with us. For more info on the leadership track, do visit http://www.toastmasters.org.

Induction of the new committee

The first committee of the advanced club was inducted by our immediate past District Governor, Edward Ma. The committee were read out roles and had to take an oath to fulfill their duties.

President: Yeo Chai Tun, DTM

VPE: Derek Tan, CC

VPM: Jenny Au, ACS, CL

VPPR: Gillian Chiew, CC

Secretary: Kris Tay, DTM

Treasurer: Lim Eng Beng, CC

The eventful and enriching evening ended with the cherry on the cake as our charter president, DTM Yeo Chai Tun shared his plans for the club. The club aims to hone speaking techniques e.g. persuasion, entertainment, technical presentations.  The clubs will be managed centrally with a shared website, funds and contests, allowing members to benefit from common resources. Chai Tun also enlisted all members to feedback on what they’d like to have as part of the educational programme for this term. Before ending off, he reiterated that learning goes beyond club meetings with “ask not what the club can do for you, but what you can do for yourself.”

As a toastmaster once said this, you don’t have to be good to start. But to be good, you have to start. Even as the advanced members perfect their skills, the members of the basic club and guests can draw inspiration from these more proficient speakers. Do drop by at our TPCTMC (Advanced) chapter meeting in a combined meeting with TPCTMC on 12 October 2010, or on every 2nd Tuesday and 4th Thursday for TPCTMC chapter meetings.

For any feedback/inquiry, you contact us at vppr-adv@tpctmc.org.

Hope to see you soon!

For the past months, our charter president, DTM Yeo Chai Tun and the mentors of TPCTMC toiled behind the scenes to bring us the TPCTMC (Advanced). As the basic club ballooned in membership, spinning off an advanced club will better serve the needs of members who may want to take their individual development further to become better speakers.

I joined TPCTMC in mid-2008. More than just a platform to continually hone your speaking skills, I’ve chalked up many “first experiences” – participating in contests, organizing contests, clubbing (visiting other clubs), attending workshops on speech crafting, evaluation, language usage, judging criteria, and even leadership training. Membership at TPCTMC has been synonymous with fun, fellowship and food – thanks to our diligent SAAs (and occasionally our beloved club mentor, Jenny’s famed sour plum and tomatoes) who keep our tummies filled as meetings lasted till 10pm.

Beyond fostering the great friendships and having more food, the advanced club aims to focus on developing advance skills.  While the basic club trains members in fundamental speaking skills, the advanced club uses more tailored manuals to address specific speaking techniques e.g. persuasion, entertainment, technical presentations. With higher expectations, evaluations also consist of sharper critiques.

I can go on extolling the benefits of the toastmasters programme, but there are some experiences which you have to go through yourself in order to reap the most benefits. This is one of them. Where can you find a place outside school, outside work that you can stumble in the midst of achieving mastery, and still get away with it?

It’s only the beginning for TPCTMC (Advanced). There’s so much to explore, if only you are willing to see more, hear more and want more. Take the leap with us to achieve greatness together.

You really got to catch us at:
Toa Payoh Central CC Toastmasters Club (TPCTMC)
Meetings: 2^nd Tuesday and 4^th Thursday of each month
Venue: Toa Payoh Central Community Centre (opposite Toa Payoh hub), mini theatre
Time: 7.30 to 10pm
Website: www.tpctmc.org
Facebook: Toa Payoh central cc toastmaster club (Singapore)

Toa Payoh Central CC Advanced Toastmasters Club (TPCTMC Advanced)
Meetings: Bi-monthly, 2^nd Tuesday, at the same venue and time as above.

Toa Payoh Central Community Club

93 Toa Payoh Central
(Opposite Toa Payoh Community Library)
Meeting Room :
#03-03 The Mini Theatrette

Toa Payoh Central CC Toastmasters Club

Meeting Time: 7:30 p.m. to 10.00 p.m.
Meeting date: every 2nd Tuesday & 4th Thursday of the month
Club Status: Open to all
Email: vppr@tpctmc.org

Toa Payoh Central CC Toastmasters Club (Advanced)

Meeting Time: 7:30 p.m. to 10.00 p.m.
Meeting date: every 2nd Tuesday, bi-monthly (from August 2010)
Club status: Membership eligibility criteria applies
Email: vppr-adv@tpctmc.org