Guest Night/Training Meeting 14.10.2008

People often ask, “What do you do during a Toastmasters meeting?”

Well, a typical meeting format is like the Guest Night/training meeting held on 14.10.2008: -

1. Sergeant-at-arms (SAA) Violeta signals for the meeting to start.

2. President Dunstan calls the meeting to order – Toasts, Opening remarks, introduces guests and the Toastmaster of the Evening (TOE)

3. TOE Siew Yan introduces the role players:-

[Click on the video to see/hear the TOE explain the theme of the meeting: Guests Night]



· Grammarian: Tan Hong Mui
· Word Master: Siew Yan
· Ah Counter: Angeline Tiong
· Timer: Zaiwin
· Table Topic Master: Dunstan
· Table Topic Evaluater: George Fricker [Note: Due to time constraint, TT evaluation was skipped that evening.]
· General Evaluator: Victor
· Record Master: Angeline Tiong

[The TOE explaining the role of the Record Master]



4. Word Master introduces the ‘Word-of-the-day’ – The word master explains the word and encourages members and guests to use the word as often as possible during the meeting.



5. Manual speeches – ‘Assignment’ speeches from the Toastmaster manual(s)

· Avril Soon: Goldilocks and the 3 bears

· Rebecca Chieng: Child development



· Violeta Chan: The signs of time

· Tan Hong Mui: The winning proposal

6. Speech evaluation – Each manual speech/speaker is assigned an evaluator to provide feedback, advice(s) and suggestion(s).

· Avril: Derbe Tang

· Rebecca: Julie Fong

· Violeta: Amy



· Hong Mui: Fauzi

7. Table Topics – Training session for impromptu speeches. The TT master will introduces a topic/ item and the speaker is given 1-2 minutes to speak off the cuff on it. Guests have the right to decline but members do not : )



· George Fricker: You can lead a horse to the water but you can’t force it to drink.



· Li Yen: If you can only choose 1 colour, what colour would you choose and why?
· Shirlina: You won a free holiday. Where would you go and why?
· Chui Song: What is your favourite animal?
· Wui Ling: What is your favourite movie/show?
· Chee Ming: If you can travel back in time, which period would you visit?

8. Table topics evaluation

9. General evaluation – The general evaluator calls for reports from the role players such as the grammarian and gives his/her assessment of the meeting in general.



10. TOE wraps up the meeting and hands back to the President.

11. Club business and reports.

12. Supper!

[Note: Click on the videos to view snippets.]

To our 12 guests that visited that night, Thank You for coming. We look forward to seeing you at our future meetings : )

FY 2007/08 Installation Night

A belated post for the installation night for the FY2007/08 (i.e. Fariah's term).

Here's some vids of the (then) out-going President Henrick and in-coming President Fariah entertaining the members with their rendition of some songs from the musicals.

Big thanks to Gerald for the videos : )

"Tonight tonight"



"All I ask of you"

Area D1 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest

The Area D1 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest was held on 4.10.2008. The winners are: -

Humorous Speech
Champion – Anthony Chukwuma from INTI College
1st Runner-Up – Ivan Purnomo Tjhin from Connections
2nd Runner-Up – Ng Kam Loong from X-FAB Sarawak

Speech Evaluation Contest
Champion – Stephen Chin from X-FAB Sarawak
1st Runner-Up – Ivan Purnomo Tjhin from Connections

Congratulations to all winners! The champion of the 2 categories will represent Area D1 in the Division Contest to be held on 18th October 2008 (Saturday).

Evaluation Contest

Date: 23.9.2008
Venue: Telang Usan Hotel
Theme: Evaluation Contest

TOE Victor started the meeting with a run-down of the judging criteria.



Mystery speaker Derbe then kick-started the Evaluation Contest.

The contestants delivering their evaluation of Derbe's speech:-

1. Fauzi



2. Rebecca



3. Andrew



4. Henrick



5. Avril



And the winners are:-

3rd place: Fauzi



2nd place: Henrick



1st place: Rebecca : )



The second session of the meeting consisted of tables topics. TOE Victor introduced song titles from the 80s as table topics. I'll let the expression of the speakers 'speak' for themselves.
(My apologies, I forgot the song title of Jennifer's Table Topic. Could someone please drop me an e-mail or comment on this ~ derbe)

"Love me for a reason"




"She drives me crazy"


"No woman, no cry"


"The sound of silence"


"Total eclipse of the heart"


"You decorate my life"


"I believe I can fly"


"The winner takes it all"


For more pics, click here: -



Visiting guest, Dr. Teo

Evaluate to motivate

A man walked up to a newly crowned dart champion and said, in full hearing of everyone in the pub, “I bet I can beat you in the game of dart”. The Champion was taken aback by the audacity of the claim and the crowd hushed into silence in amazement

“You only need to give me a handicap. As soon as you throw the dart I will blindfold you and will only let you see again when the dart had been removed. We each will have three darts.”

Flushed from his recent victory the Champion said “You are on!” The room was abuzzed with pundits laying hasty bets.

With his first dart the Champion aimed for the triple 20. As soon as the dart left his hand the challenger blindfolded him and thus he was unable to see if his aim was true. Then he was given the second dart and was subjected to the same blindfold treatment. Not knowing what his first score was the Champion was confused. By the third dart he had lost total confidence and shot way out of the dart board. The challenger went on to make a modest score and won the bet.

The fact is that in all our endeavours we need the guidance of feedback to give us the necessary information to make adjustment for improvement.

However, evaluations which are given at large tend to focus predominantly on the areas of weakness, and also can be too comprehensive. Consequently most people fear evaluations and criticism, even constructive ones. It is a case of too much analysis giving paralysis. Consider the case of a novice tennis player being harangued by an amateur coach. “Racket back, turn your shoulder, eyes on the ball, bend your knee, lock you wrist, etc.” That is way too much information and the poor player would just freeze.

Toastmasters is an educational organisation for self development through its primary activity -- public speaking. The process of giving feedback to the speaker in Toastmasters is called Evaluation. The Toastmasters Evaluation places strong emphasis on highlighting the strong points of the performer while the negative aspects are given sparingly.

The recognition of the good points of the speaker makes sense because many a times the speaker tends to fail to recognize his own strengths. And when being made aware of the fact the speaker will have the confidence to build on them for his future tasks.

When being sparing in pointing out the areas that need improvement the evaluator is practicing “progressive teaching”. In Toastmasters the members follow a course in public speaking training, starting a series of 10 speeches in the Basic Manual and progressing through scores of specialized speeches in the Advanced Manuals. Therefore it is not necessary (and indeed it would be counter productive) to point out each and every shortcoming of the speaker in one go. The poor fellow may be so overwhelmed that he would just stop trying.

The principle belief of Toastmasters is that people “learn by doing” Thus a key objective of a Toastmasters Evaluation is to motivate. So the Evaluation will have a liberal dose of positive comments, and the negative parts when given, are couched in such encouraging language that the receiver will motivated to try again as soon as possible. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”.

Evaluation Contest - 23.9.2008

(L) Sandra Tang (R) Henrick Lau

Past Contest winners

The Hornbill City Toastmasters Club will be holding a Training Meeting as follows:-

Date: 23.9.2008
Time: 7.30pm (for a start at 7.45pm)
Venue: Telang Usan Hotel

Theme: Evaluation Contest

The Evaluation Contest tests the contestants’ skill in evaluating a mystery speaker. The Evaluators would be judged on their ability to give constructive and positive feed-backs.

With over 8,000 public speaking clubs worldwide, Toastmasters is the leading movement in improving leadership and communication skills. The mission of Hornbill City Toastmasters club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth. Each training meeting usually features an impromptu speaking session, prepared speeches and insightful evaluation of each speaker.

Members of the public are more than welcomed to join as guests. Entrance fee is RM10 (inclusive of a simple supper). Do come and join us!

Glossophobia

Glossophobia: The fear of public speaking or speech anxiety

The word glossophobia comes from Greek. Glosso = tongue and phobos = fear.

It is believed to be the single most common phobia and it has even been ranked above the fear of death. Jerry Seinfeld once said "The average person at a funeral would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy."

Tired of being scared? Tired of being limited by this fear? Tired of being speechless in front of a crowd?

Believe it or not, this fear can be controlled and even mastered. Toastmasters the world over are learning this every day.

Why don't you give us a try? Join us at our meetings! Together, we can conquer glossophobia!

For other tips on managing the 'fear factor' of public speaking, click on the link below: -

http://www.toastmasters.org/MainMenuCategories/FreeResources/NeedHelpGivingaSpeech/FearFactor.aspx