|
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 |