Lively strains of rock music greeted us as we gathered for the November meeting of Tanglin Toastmaster’s Club (TMC). Savitri, as A/SAA, called the meeting to order and got us to introduce ourselves and also our preferred style of dancing!

The first hat that Wayne wore at the meeting was that of the Toastmaster of the Evening (with a familiar carrot tie!) He briefly explained the meeting’s agenda and invited Judy to give the President’s address which doubled as a project speech from the advanced manual Special Occasion Speeches; Presenting an award. Judy spoke about the inspiring journey along the Toastmasters’ path of a certain member of our club and presented her with the “Most inspiring toastmaster of the year” award. A smiling Patricia Tan came up to receive the well deserved award. Way to go, Patricia and Judy!

Visiting toastmaster Kam Choo Choo from Dennis Wee TMC gave us several words of the day as a prelude to the language evaluation scheduled later in the evening.

There were 2 other prepared speeches, both advanced, in the first part of the programme. Suanny gave her third project from the Public Relations manual on the Persuasive Approach. In continuation of her Go Green theme from previous projects, she spoke about the advantages of walking and public transport in a speech picturesquely titled,’ 4 wheels good, 2 legs better’

This was followed by Vinata’s speech, also Project 3 but from the Humorously Speaking manual, titled ‘What is Art?’ She tried to define modern art with the help of humour and hoped that the audience would be better informed than the two little boys who wandered into a modern art gallery and ran out fearing they would be accused of having made the ‘mess’ that was displayed on the walls!

After a lively break for refreshments, fellowship and dancing (chief culprits: Savitri and Choo Choo!) we gathered again for the rest of the programme. Savitri evaluated Judy’s speech, Judy evaluated Suanny’s speech and visiting Toastmaster Golam Hossain from SRC TMC evaluated Vinata’s speech. All three evaluators gave good advice as well as highlighted what they appreciated in the speeches. Thank you!

The Table Topic Master’s hat was the second one that Wayne donned that evening. A bag full of children’s toys were the topics for impromptu speaking. A wonderful idea that brought back childhood memories for all the participants! BTW everyone around the table had a go.

Choo Choo gave kudos for good use of language and especially for the frequent use of the words of the day. She gave a special award to Savitri for being the only one to use ‘When I was younger’ rather than ‘ when I was young’

Judy presented the award ribbons – best project speaker to Vinata, best evaluator to Judy and best table topics speaker to our second time guest and second time TT winner – Mervyn

When asked for feedback on the meeting by Judy, another guest - Maureen, an ex-toastmaster from Canada, gave a real compliment to our club – she said the meeting made her wonder why she was no longer in Toastmasters!

The next meeting will be a joint meeting with Dover TMC on Dec 10th at Dover CC. (Please note: We will NOT meet at Tanglin CC on Dec 20th as previously scheduled.)

~ Vinata ~