Thomson Toastmasters Club

We're having a Christmas Party. Save the date!!

Hi all! Apologies for the long hiatus. Our VPPR has been a bit busy these past few weeks. Do join us today for our final chapter meeting of 2021.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82394904114?pwd=M1dLcjZ6YzRUdGtyLzNTM3lQd0pDQT09

Meeting ID: 82394904114
Passcode: Thomson

Hi all for our final post today do tune in this Saturday, 23 October, at 1:45pm for the area s1 contest where our members will be representing our club in in the international speech, table topics and evaluation contests! Your support would go a long way.

Topic: Area S1 Speech Contest
Time: Oct 23, 2021 01:00 PM Singapore

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84859698113?pwd=eENodHNuZjhxMUdJZHNaWlAyOVdPZz09

Meeting ID: 848 5969 8113
Passcode: 23oct1pm

Have a great week and weekend ahead 🙂

Our meeting on 19 October featured many of our members and long-term Thomson friend, Vincent. Vincent took on the language evaluator role and the word of the day was "buoyant" (meaning: cheerful). The word of the day gelled well with the introductory sharing by everyone about what was something to be cheerful about for the day in line with the meeting theme "cheers".

Our first prepared speaker, Ray, shared about having the choice to change with conviction (3Cs) between the journey of birth and death (ie B and D), and so the 3Cs between B and D. Ray spoke about taking action to prepare for unfortunate and unforeseen events which might occur. He masterfully incorporated images to tell a story using his zoom background to assist him in conveying his message.

Simin, the other prepared speaker, spoke about her love for gaming and shared about the mobile game "Genshin Impact". She highlighted how gamers were upset with the rewards given during the game's anniversary and reacted very strongly. Thus, her sharing highlighted how games can sometimes cause us to get carried away.

Shaun Aw helmed a very interesting, unusual and fun table topics session where he showed speakers superhero pictures and asked them to speak about the given superhero. The catch however, was to give wrong answers and so speakers were to not speak of the hero's actual story and origins.

Our evaluators, Alvin and Elvina, highlighted the importance of raising the speech's message at the beginning instead of raising it towards the end. Elvina also suggested having visual aids when the subject matter of the speech might not be well understood by everyone in the audience.

Vincent displayed his astute listening skills during his language evaluation when he highlighted the many good uses of literary devices by speakers such as personification, onomatopoeia, metaphors and alliteration. He also highlighted the importance of not rushing when pronouncing words so that the right pronunciation can be achieved. The effect achieved through the use of synonyms was also highlighted as Vincent gave the example of how "desires" is a stronger word than "wants".

Lastly, we had an intriguing insights session, suggested by Larry, where Dinesh and Bee Wee (who both had no appointment roles) shared a few things they learnt from the session.

All in all it was a great meeting! We look forward to seeing y'all at our next chapter meeting on 2nd November!

After a short hiatus from facebook we are back with three back-to-back posts! First one would be on our chapter meeting on 5 October 2021. We had a small, cosy and interactive session among several members and guests.

There were two prepared speakers: Dinesh and Laura.

Dinesh spoke about various leadership styles and how the application of different leadership styles is dependent on the context.

Laura spoke about the importance of active listening and one important tip she shared was that non-verbal cues such as a disinterested expression can impede active listening. Another tip she shared was to write a summary at work when important information is shared to enable better retention.

As part of Laura's project, she also took on the role of table topics master. Her topics were centred around trying to make sense of our emotions which got everyone thinking critically.

Dominic took on the role of language evaluator and during his short and succinct sharing he provided useful tips such as avoiding the use of pause fillers such as "so" and always bearing in mind that what we say might not be what we have in mind. As such starting from today's session we shall be using the live caption feature for our zoom meetings which provides live transcription of what is said. In this way we will be able to appreciate if what we believe we are saying is being conveyed to the audience.

Hi friends! Our previous meeting themed "Compassion" on 21 September was a joint one with Bukit Timah CC Toastmasters. Many ideas were floated around about how we can display compassion and what compassion means.

For the prepared speech segment there were four prepared speeches: two from Thomson TMC and two from Bukit Timah CC TMC. Zhi Long shared about the development of movies throughout the years from the Lumiere brothers who devised the cinematograph to current motion pictures. Dinesh shared about overcoming the fear of speaking (ie glossophobia) through rewiring our brains, practicing frequently on focusing on one's breathing. Ranjith spoke about the various negotiation styles: competing, accommodating, avoiding, compromising, or collaborative and shared how negotiation enabled him to maintain good relations with his neighbours. Lastly, Ray shared about how life is a journey from B to D (birth to death) and in between there is C, the choices we make that determine you have a "good" life or a "bad" life. Ray was awarded the best prepared speaker title.

Our evaluators provided useful feedback for our speakers such as striking the right balance between use of words and images in powerpoint, having adequate pause fillers and having good vocal variety. To enable the speaker to better connect with the audience suggestions were given such as using hand gestures and positioning the camera properly. As only two evaluators were within the time limit of 2-3 minutes, there was no voting for best evaluator.

Table topics took the form of thought-provoking "if you could..." questions such as "if you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?". Adeline, a guest from another toastmasters club, was crowned best table topics speaker.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the meeting would be Jonathan's role in conducting the memory report. Jonathan tested the audience's memory of what transpired during the meeting through a series of questions.

Our next chapter meeting is today at 7:30pm. Do join us for an evening filled with fun and learning.

Thomson Toastmaster Chapter Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82394904114?pwd=M1dLcjZ6YzRUdGtyLzNTM3lQd0pDQT09

Meeting ID: 82394904114
Passcode: Thomson

Have a great week ahead!

Join us for our joint chapter meeting with Bukit Timah CC TMC at 730pm today!

Our meeting on 7 September, themed "How's your Journey" was a busy one with three prepared speeches, three evaluations, table topics and a breakout session where members had the opportunity to interact with each other in smaller groups of four members.

Sze Jia who was one of the prepared speakers aptly but coincidentally, without knowing the meeting theme before hand, spoke on "Choosing happiness". During her sharing she demystified the elusive concept of happiness noting that happiness is a choice and it is everywhere if we choose to see it. Through positive thinking and avoiding negative thoughts, we have the power and choice to choose happiness even when facing adversity.

Takalah, one of our most veteran members, shared with us about how his life long dream of writing his own book was coming to fruition as he had been approached by a publisher and was offered assistance by several friends. His book will document his journey following a life changing injury and some of the lessons he has learnt along this journey which he is still on (like Sze Jia's speech it was very apt for our meeting theme). One of the key takeaways for readers is that one's choice is in one's own hands which is similarly but coincidentally one of the key messages in Sze Jia's speech. Do check out our former post on November 20 last year if you would like to have a brief read on Takalah and his background. If you are able to help or know anyone who might be help Takalah achieve his dream of writing a book please do drop us a message. It will be greatly appreciated. Also keep an eye on this page for more news on Takalah's book.

One of our newest members, Sze Min, was the table topics master and her topics were thought-provoking and varied such as: "Do you believe in the supernatural or science?", "A book which you recently read", "What worries you about the future?"

The final segment of the night was the breakout session where members shared about the journeys we were on, how did we embark on these journeys and what are some of the highs and lows of our journeys.

To sum up, the chapter meeting on 7 September was a night of inner reflection, sharing and learning. Do join us tomorrow for our joint chapter meeting with Bukit Timah CC toastmasters club at 7:30pm! Stay tuned for more details. Have a great week ahead!

Our meeting on 17 August had as its theme "Can I have your Attention Please". During the sharing about the meeting theme, our members and guests, among many things, shared about how in this current online environment it is more difficult to sustain the interests of others when speaking and that as audience members it was important to give the speaker our full attention. Tips such as looking at the desktop/laptop camera instead of looking at the screen were shared.

We had two prepared speakers for our meeting. Club president, Brandon, shared about his plans for the club and how the exco members were going to achieve the goals set for the new term during his L5P1 High Performance Leadership speech. Club secretary, Laura, shared about the personality quadrant. She shared about the various personality types and the characteristics of the different personalities. For the evaluation segment, both evaluators were guests from other clubs who shared useful tips for the speakers to improve their speeches.

Our table topics session conducted by table topics master and vice president (membership), Larry Yap, got people cracking their heads as the topics were a series of hypothetical questions. Questions include what would you do if there was a long queue at the airport and were late for your flight and what would you do to escape an island you were stranded on.

For language evaluation club mentor Raj shared among many things the useful tip of reading the news for at least 30 minutes every day. Interestingly, instead of one word there were two words of the day: "myths" and "legend" which were shared by Raj at the beginning of the meeting.

Our next meeting will be on 7 September at 7:30pm. Do keep an eye on this space for more details or drop us a message if you would like to know more. Have a great weekend ahead!

Join us for our chapter meeting today 17 August at 730pm!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82394904114?pwd=M1dLcjZ6YzRUdGtyLzNTM3lQd0pDQT09

Meeting ID: 82394904114
Passcode: Thomson