The inspirational story of the frog race to the top of the tower kicked off the meeting demonstrating to us the impact of negative opinions on our lives. It was a very well crafted and meaningful story which summed up that the ultimate winner is one who is deaf to the negativity around oneself and strives towards greater heights. Most certainly, the audience greatly benefited from hearing this heartening story.

A very insightful speech was presented by Haryono Fu, explaining the social plight we face with the advent of technology. He presented his views on how technological advancement was able to overcome boundaries and change paradigms of social communication; yet at the same time create different boundaries to overcome such as addiction to one’s mobile communication devices. It provided us a fresh new perspective of how we should use technology to our advantage and be mindful of the detriment that it can bring. Want to know what goes on behind the scenes in district level competitions? Kim Loon presented us with insider information on the intricacies of speech contest judging. It was very enlightening and provided us greater insight into the criteria for winning- more importantly to encourage us to capitalize on this knowledge to improve our public speaking. One would be easily moved to tears hearing Liang Siah’s story as a financial advisor to a young lady stricken with cancer and a harsh reminder to the reality of life- that each day we live, we are cheating death. To this he encouraged us to cherish our days as well as our health. A very rousing keynote speech was presented by Glenn and the moment he spoke, it was as if the meeting room transformed to a auditorium of fresh eager graduates moved and inspired by his words. Imparting his gems of goal setting and motivation with great enthusiasm he invigorated the audience to strive for more.

The evaluators for the evening presented precise and fair appraisal of the prepared speeches, giving the audience a greater understanding and key points on how to improve speech presentation.

For the table topics segment of the evening, the Table Topic Master Kim Ling took charge and the topics were chosen from recent news events. Zhen Chong presented on the global debt crisis citing the knowledge that he had obtained from his brother who studies economics. The floods in South East Asia was another interesting table topic presented by Mitram who brought a very pertinent point that the floods in Singapore are nothing compared to those in Thailand and Cambodia, yet we created a lot of fuss and commotion about them. A very humorous and lively speech was presented by our guest Ibrahim who presented interesting and innovative ideas on how to make train rides irresistible. Richard was given the topic on the possibility that Fish Spa users are at a higher risk of infections which he dissected and put forth his views in a very calm and insightful manner. Allergy causing a 26 year old to look like a 76 year old was a topic that Kenneth presented, providing the audience an understanding of allergy and possible solutions to ameliorate this condition.

The delicious food was kindly provided by Richard; who has been assiduous in ensuring that no one, whether member or guest to Queenstown Toastmasters Club leaves the room hungry. We thank him and the many others who also assist in preparing the meeting room for the evening.

Overall it was a very productive and enjoyable evening in which the members and guests had a delightful time interacting and gaining new perspectives.

Check out the photos in the photo gallery.

Written by Kenneth

20th July 2011 was an exciting day for Queenstown Toastmasters Club as it was our Installation Night. For food, we had delicious pizzas, chicken wings and onion rings, ordered by Sam. Thanks to Zhen Chong who also brought fruits for the desserts.

Our Guest of Honour, the MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, Dr. Chia Shi-Lu arrived 15 minutes before the start of the meeting. Liang Siah kicked off the event, and we were also treated to an entertaining slideshow prepared by Terence and Zhen Chong.

Immediately after the slideshow, Melissa gave her opening speech, which is her last one as the Club President. She thanked everyone and also gave chocolates to the previous Exco committee members. Initially she asked Kim Loon on how she should show her appreciation for the Exco team. Kim Loon suggested that she give them kisses… and he meant Kisses chocolates. The club presented Melissa with a plaque to show our appreciation for her efforts.

Next up was the address by our Guest of Honour, Dr. Chia Shi-Lu. He jokingly mentioned that it was intimidating to give a speech to a group of Toastmasters. He appreciated the efforts taken by Toastmasters to promote public speaking. He mentioned that public speaking is an important skill that is slowly disappearing. He also mentioned that with the advent of social media, people are losing their memory capabilities! Why remember something when you can Google it?

Next up was the inaugural speech by our incoming President Tracy Wong. She told the story of how her Toastmasters experience helped her when she had to teach Health Education to a group of Primary 5 children despite having no training. Her main message to us was to participate actively in Toastmasters in order to learn something from it. We were motivated after her speech!

Liang Siah pointed out that research has shown that our attention span is only around 45 minutes, so we proceeded to have a refreshment break.

After the break, we had our in-house magician Jimmy performing a magic show for us. We were amazed as he gave us an impressive performance with flowers, ropes and magical rings.

Next up was Terence with a special game. It was similar to Table Topics, but with many differences. Firstly, we had to talk for 2 to 4 minutes instead of the usual 1-2 minutes! Secondly, there was a bag full of interesting objects to choose from and Terence made it more challenging by proposing different scenarios and even allowing the audience to ask questions. The speakers were funny and entertaining, and the audience had a great time.

The brave souls who took up the challenge were Ting Chee Kheong, Robert Ng, Patrick Oei, Kim Loon and Rose. We thanked the Area D5 Governor, Division D Governor and Lt Governor Education & Training for coming to visit our Installation Night. They were Ting Chee Keong ACB CL, Robert Ng DTM and Patrick Oei DTM respectively.

Before our President’s closing address, Patrick Oei encouraged us to do our projects. He had completed his CC several times and he said that speech content was not too difficult to find, for example we could talk about people we observed on the MRT, or even about why there were flowers in the conference room.

Tracy gave her first closing address as the Club President. She thanked everyone for their help and also talked about her own experience at the Toastmasters Convention. She urged everyone to go and experience it, by relating to us her own wonderful experience.

Written by Sam Kouk