Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

12 August 2010 - Chapter Meeting/ Exco Installation

2010-08-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome again to the Toastmasters meeting at The Serangoon.

This week, we had a special meeting with the installation of the new executive committee for the Toastmasters@The Serangoon.

Sammy Soh - Secretary(From left to right)

Darren Tay - Area S3 Governor,

Roy Chia - Vice President (Public Relations)

Elizabeth Leng - Treasurer

Chua Shu Mei - Vice President (Education)

Daryl Neo - Immediate Past President

Diane Chui - Vice President (Membership)

Madeline Neo - President

Leela Kalwani - Division S Governor

With her maiden speech as President, Toastmaster Madeline encouraged everyone to continue learning and thanking the past EXCO for contributing so much to the success of Toastmasters@The Serangoon.

After which, the meeting proceeded with the installation of Darren Tay, ACS, ACL (Bronze), IPP of Punggol TMC as the Area S3 Governer by Leela Kalwani, Division S Governer. A round of applause please!

Up next, we had 3 exciting prepared speeches and evaluations. Sammy Soh presented his project 3 and shared with us the 6 human needs. Roy Chia did his project 5 and showed us the tools of an electrician. Diane Chui shared with us the tips to enjoy Universal Studios with her project 2. And Thiru (Punggol TMC), Leela Kalwani and Chua Shu Mei evaluated for our prepared speakers. Here are the exciting pictures

After the prepared speeches, it was once again the exciting and unpredictable table topics session hosted by Yap Yee Tharm, CC. And here are some of the pictures of the action.

As we close the meeting, here are the award recipients for this chapter meeting. Roy Chia for Prepared Speech, Thiru for Evaluator and Mike Chia for Table Topics Speaker. And join us for our next chapter meeting, a Humourous Speech Contest on the 9th of September 2010, at The Serangoon Community Centre. Let's achieve greatness together!

A New Term Begins

2009-08-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

Every July marks the start of the toastmasters’ calendar. In our chapter meeting for July, we have installed in the new club Executive Committee (EXCO) for 2009-10. Special thanks to our Area S3 Governor, Leela Kalwani, for gracing the ceremony and installing the EXCO.

With the installation, the EXCO took up the challenge and pledged to make this club strong, dedicated to helping people from all walks of life to listen with sensitivity, think creatively, and speak in an effective manner.

Let us welcome the EXCO for 2009-2010!

EXCO @ The Serangoon, 2009 - 2010
President: Daryl Neo
VP (Education): Emmanuel Guiang
VP (Membership): Madeline Neo
VP (Public Relations): Isaac Neo
Secretary: R. Udhayakumar
Treasurer: Yap Yee Tharm
Sergeant-At-Arms: Elizabeth Leng
Immediate Past President: Mike Chia

ANNOUNCEMENT OF UPCOMING Events
American writer, William Arthur Ward, once said, “A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.” Humor creates laughter and light hearted moods. Humor is a cure to many stresses of modern day life. Come, laugh and be humored at the Humorous Speech Contest.

Mark Twain advised that “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” The Speech Evaluation contest gives an opportunity to hear different views and feedback. Come and learn how to give feedback at the Speech Evaluation Contest.
If you have what it takes, come join the 2 contest. Contest registration now open, till 31 July 2009. Kindly direct your participation requests to theserangoontmc@gmail.com. (Titled your email: I WANT TO JOIN) Contest only open to members of Toastmasters @ The Serangoon.

Contest Dates:
Club: 3rd Sept (Tentative, on demand)
Area S3: Sept 26, At The Serangoon (Tentative)
Divisions: October, At Whampoa CC (Tentative)

Please find the latest edition of our newsletter attached.

Regards,
Editorial Team 2009/2010
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

Preparing Ourselves for the Future

2009-03-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

The world is in a recession caused by the meltdown of the financial industry. It started from the subprime mortgage crisis only affecting America, slowly building up winds with impenetrable clouds of dust and sand until becoming the perfect hurricane. For the last 6 months, this financial hurricane has caused great damage to our economy, threatening to bring down big names like AIG, Ford and more. It is still in full steam driving ahead, tearing down everything in its path. Reports after reports, companies are downsizing and retrenching staff to keep operations alive, companies are seeking government bailouts and companies needing to file for bankruptcy. There seemed a never ending stream of bad news.

Would the economic situation improve? Definitely it will. It’s only a matter of time.

I want to share with you a fable called The Ant and The Grasshopper?

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.

"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"

"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same."

"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; we have got plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.
Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for the days of necessity.

The moral of this story is to prepare for the days of necessity. Will you be prepared when the economy improves?

Definitely! I have this conviction that Toastmasters prepares us for challenges. Therefore, starting this month, we are instituting changes in our chapter meetings to prepare us to grow as Toastmasters, positioned for the future.

1. Chapter Meetings
a. Feedback Sheet
Giving feedback is one of the skills that we practice in toastmasters. If we are serving as an evaluator, we give feedback to encourage the speaker. Sometimes we shy away from giving feedback because we are not used to doing so. Therefore, in our chapter meeting, we will be distributing feedback sheets. With the different speeches (projects/evaluation speeches), if you want to encourage the speaker, you can fill in this sheet and pass it to the relevant speaker at the end of meeting. We want to create an environment that supports learning through feedback to one another.

b. Guide to “Serving as Appointment Holder and Making Greetings”In order to help us serve better our roles as meeting appointment holders, we have prepared a guide of things to do. This guide will be given to the appointment holders during the chapter meeting, which serves as a handbook to remind us of the demands of the appointment.
Similarly, we have prepared a guide to making introduction. This guide will be placed at the lectern. For anyone coming up to the lectern to speak, we can use the template so as to learn how to greet at a Toastmasters meeting.

c. Target for Project and Serving as Appointment Holder
Goal setting is extremely important to motivating us towards success. Therefore, starting from April, there will be a roadmap worked out for each of you.

What is this roadmap?

This roadmap will be your project presentation schedule, where you book your project presentation slots in advanced. The target that we are setting for each member on the competent communication track to complete a minimum of one project every 2 months. For those on advanced communicator track, to complete at least one project every 3 months.

Serving in different appointment roles at chapter meeting will train us in various aspect of communication. As an AH counter, we practice listening skills, catching all the pause fillers used in speeches. As a timer, we learn the importance of keeping timing in speeches. As an evaluator, we learn the art of motivating people through our feedback. Likewise, to encourage us to learn the different skills through participation, we will work out a chapter meeting appointment schedule with all of you. The target is to have you serve as an appointment holder whenever you are not doing any projects.

2. Mentors
Learning without guidance can be difficult, especially if you are new to toastmasters. How to do your projects, what topic to select, how to say it? Learning cannot be tougher than that. Knowing this, we have Jun Peralta and Randy Sng offering to be mentors. They are both experienced toastmasters, who are willingly to share their experience with us. Therefore, if you are doing your projects and need guidance, you can drop them an email.

Fellow toastmasters, let us embrace these changes and prepare ourselves for the future as motivated toastmasters!

March Club News
We wish to thank Randy for motivating us with his sharing on Sir Edmund Hillary. The club would like especially to thank, President Nathan of Braddell Heights TMC for lending us support as Table Topics Master and Project Evaluator at our meeting. Congratulations to the following members for completing their projects.

Project 4 - Elizabeth Leng
Project 6 - Madeline Neo
Advanced Project 3 - Jun Peralta

What Can We Do During These Times?

2009-02-22T06:59:00.000-08:00

We have the recession, and we asked what the government of this country could do for us.

And so the government has responded in the 2009 budget by giving Singaporeans:

Additional GST credit
Service and Conservancy Charges Rebates
Tax assistance to households
Increase in additional CFP housing grant
Financial assistance for students and a few others….

We have jobs instability, and we asked what our company could do for us.

And so our companies responded by offering the employees to retain our jobs:

Using the Job Credit Scheme and/or
Shorter work week
A pay-cut across the board

We have our Toastmasters club and we asked what the club could do for us.

Our Club provides:

a conducive environment where members meet up once a month to practise public speaking techniques
Mentors to guide you through your Competent Communication manual, which is a series of 10 self-paced speaking assignments designed to instill a basic foundation in public speaking.
a chance to learn leadership skills by taking on various meetings roles and serving as officers at clubs and district levels, and by working in the Competent Leadership manual and the High Performance Leadership program.
a feedback process by asking members to evaluate one another presentations.

Despite all these offers of solutions, we often question if what they have done are enough.

We always feel that the government should do more... our companies should do more and our club should do more too.

More never seems to be enough.

We have the recession, and we asked what the government of this country could do for us.

We have jobs instability, and we asked what our company could do for us.

We have our toastmasters club and we asked what the club could do for us.

You see, there is never an "ENOUGH" in life. Our success in life depends on how we respond to life's challenges. We have a choice. We can decide to continue to passively wait for things to happen, or decide today to be proactively seeking to make a positive difference to our life. It is only by doing so that we can create a positive and bright future together.

Let's us start to ask ourselves, "What can I do better?"

Let's not ask what the club can do for us but what we can do for the club.

And how exactly can we do so? We can by:

Faithfully attend the monthly chapter meeting
Completing our Competent Communicator Manual and/or the advanced manual
Learning leadership skills by taking on various meetings roles and serving as officers at clubs and district levels
Learning from a different perspective by evaluating members.

Let's start to embrace challenges together and contribute!

February Club News

Let us praise a number of our members who achieved significant milestones in our February meeting. Congratulations to Joan for completing her 10th project. Congratulations as well to Dave who did his first project. Congratulations also to Edison who bravely did two projects in one night.

We wish to thank our club members like Mike, Peng and Jun who served as evaluators. We also thank Madeline who served as the toastmaster of the evening. Also the club was honored to have a pioneer member attend the club meeting - Asha.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2009-01-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

We wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2009. The incoming Year of the Ox is generally considered a fruitful year. From our club perspective, this year maybe the best time to work on your projects and grow into a more confident communicator and leader.

So prepare for an exciting year ahead!

Club News for January 2009:

In our last club meeting, one of our new members Emmanuel did his first project and Joan Wong also completed her project 9. Let's congratulate them on a job well done.

We also welcome our newest member Dave Tang who participated in club activities like table topics. Congratulations also to Mike Chia who was voted the best table topics speaker of the evening.

All in all, it was a good start of the year for all.

How to be a Good Conversationalist

Have you ever come to a social event like a party and felt awkward? Do you have problem striking a conversation with complete strangers? Do you have trouble having a conversation with people you don't know?

Many people think that the art of good conversation is to speak in an interesting and arresting fashion, to be noted for your humour, ability to tell stories and your general knowledge of a variety of subjects. Many people feel that, if they want to be better at conversation, they must become more articulate, outgoing and expressive. They must become better talkers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The most important skill is listening, to learn about the other person. So try not to dominate the conversation. Try to let the other person speak more and listen to him. So the trick is the art of asking good and well-formed questions.

Ask Open ended questions. These are questions that attempt to let the other person talk more. These are questions that do not require an simple answer of YES and NO. Ask questions that begin with 'WHAT', 'HOW' and 'WHY'. This will encourage the other person to speak more.

The art of good conversation centers very much on your ability to ask questions and to listen attentively to the answers. You can lace the conversation with your insights, ideas, and opinions, but you perfect the art and skill of conversation by perfecting the art and skill of asking good, well-worded questions that direct the conversation and give other people an opportunity to express themselves.

In order to be an excellent conversationalist, you must resist the urge to dominate the discussion. The very best conversationalists seem to be low-key, easy-going, cheerful, and genuinely interested in the other person. They seem to be quite content to listen when other people are talking and they make their own contributions to the dialogue rather short and to the point.

Some helpful tips in having successful conversations:
- have a positive attitude
- believe you will learn something
- believe you can offer something as well
- know about current events
- listen always to the other person

Developing effective conversational skills is an investment in your future. By improving your conversational skills you talk with confidence. You have the ability to talk to almost any person attracting friends and business clients twice the rate as you would without such skills.

(To view presentation materials used in Advanced Project by one of our members, please double click on the link below.)

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dcj9g43c_27cd5sr7fq

A Time of Happiness

2008-12-21T19:11:00.000-08:00

December is a happy time where companies evaluate performance and contribution. Goals and targets are also set for the start of the New Year. Rewards are also given for the previous year's effort. Have you done any review recently on your own performance? That is not just limited to your professional work but also in your own resolutions or goals that you may have set up for yourself, at the start of the year.

In 2003, Bennett Burrus, became one of the oldest high school graduate from Richmond High School, at the age of 97! To her, it marked the fulfillment of a dream that she had since almost 90 years ago. That was ever since her education was cut short in the fourth grade. This dream could have continued on as an unfulfilled dream, until she decided to begin taking action in fulfilling this dream.

Have you fulfilled the resolutions that you have set at the start of the year yet? Have you started to work on fulfilling these resolutions?

I want to share with you a fable called The Crow and the Pitcher.

A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it.

He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher.

At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.
What's the moral of this story? Little by little does the trick.
Fellow toastmasters, we can reach our goals just by doing little by little. Have you already started to realize your dream? What's your toastmaster's goal for the New Year?

Start achieving these goals by doing your projects, by being an appointment holder and doing them, little by little, but consistently. That is the surest way to reaching your goals.

Carpe MOMENTO! Let us seize the moment and enjoy every moment of this wonderful year!

Club News for December 2008

The following Members have completed their projects in our last December meeting. Congratulations!

Elton Lim - our newest member for completing his 3rd project

Joan Wong - for completing her 8th project. Joan's speech was voted the best prepared speech of the evening.

Change can happen!

2008-11-13T19:23:00.000-08:00

In September 2008, there are reports of at least three infants that died and more than 50,000 sick, from prolonged drinking of the contaminated milk in China.

On September 15, Lehman Brothers, an investment bank in USA, filed for bankruptcy. Within days, AIG, the largest insurer in the world, announced threat of bankruptcy. This marks the start of a global financial market crisis with Dow Jones, Frankfurt stock index, Nikkei stock index, LSE, SGX, Hang Seng, all falling by 30% to 50%.

Last Wednesday, Barrack Obama, wins the election and becomes the 44th President of the United States of America. He is the first black leader of the country.

Last Sunday, in Singapore, once able to shop non-stop for hours without need to stop for rest, Estelle, my wife, now suffers from backache and tired feet from 30 minutes of shopping.

In China, once a leading producer of foodstuff, now all china food products are ordered out of the shelves. In the global front, a year ago, people are still spending money, now, people are saving, companies are retrenching. In US, it was Bush, now it’s Obama. In Singapore, Estelle, wonder shopper in her 8th month of pregnancy, is now a tired shopper with an extra 11 kg on her.

What does all this tell us? Change can happen!

Whether you realize it or not, managing Change is the key to life, at work or in leisure, in businesses, and even for a toastmasters club. Some basic questions that we can ask to deal with change are:-

What works well and needs maintaining?

What doesn’t work well enough, and needs changing?

For many of us, we come here to master our fears of speaking to a crowd. Some come to learn how to interact with people, how to make small talk. Some come here to learn how to be better communicators, better leaders. While we come here for many different reasons, the primary reason for coming here is to learn by doing and from one another.

For this, we are introducing, starting from this month, 2 new changes to our activities.

1: Newsletter

We have now issued issue 1 of our club’s very own newsletter. For the 1st newsletter, we shared an article by Tony Jeary, titled, Life is a series of presentation. It shares that to be a great presenter, we need to reach a level of unconscious competence.

The idea is to share with you good articles, good quotes and ideas. The idea here is simple, we want you to send any interesting quotes or articles that you come across and send it to our club email theserangoontmc@gmail.com under the title [Article to Share] / [Quotes] / [Anedocotes]. We will do simple editing and send it out to benefit our members. In this way, we can improve ourselves and our way of life through collective sharing and learning.

2: Evaluation at Chapter meeting.

Next, we have evaluation at our chapter meeting. Tonight, we are trying something different. Usually, evaluation is done by an evaluator. Today, we will do group evaluation on the speaker. All of you will become an evaluator.

Jun has volunteered himself to undergo the group evaluation. At Toastmasters, it is not just about making speeches, it is also about learning to give constructive suggestions.

However, many of us do not try before we claimed we have never done it before. But the truth is that, we have! When you listen to a speech, you automatically evaluate whether it is good or bad.

That's human nature! So tonight, you have an opportunity to experience a no pressure group evaluation on “Brave Jun”. This is to encourage some of us here who have never delivered an evaluation to have a first experience of evaluation. So do participate.

Fellow toastmasters, we are in this world where change is a constant and we are constantly evolving.

The changes that I have shared are like a patchwork quilt of little things, and each of us are the little thread that holds them together to make a beautiful quilt.

Let's work together, Let us learn together and embrace change positively.

Life is a Series of Presentations

2008-11-02T02:56:00.000-08:00

According to Tony Jeary, the author of the book, "Life is a Series of Presentations', daily life is actually a series of making one presentation after another. Every time you talk to someone, you're making a presentation; whether the person is your wife, your boss, your children or even the coffee seller at the kopitiam. Every human interaction is a presentation. So every time you talk to someone, you're presenting yourself, pushing your image, trying to convince them to see you in a special way, trying to persuade him or her to see your point of view.

As described in the book, Tony Jeary is a well known coach to America's top CEO's. He says that great presenters have a few things in common:

* careful about their appearances
* prepare their presentations
* understand skill and hardship are important
* study the audience to understand it's members
* seem emphatic and caring

To master the skill of being a great presenter requires a level of 'unconscious competence.' This level means that it's second nature to you and comes naturally. But how does one get this skill? Tony Jeary described in his book the essentials needed in becoming a master presenter. Example of these essentials are: know your audience, find out the purpose of the presentation, do your homework, conquer your fear, lead the audience gently and be flexible. Tony writes that one should develop habits based on these essentials and to practice these presentation skills to both large and small audiences.

We believe this level can also be achieved by joining Toastmasters! Getting this skill requires a program of communication and practice that Toastmasters have in abundance. By joining Toastmasters and diligently completing the manuals allows anyone to achieve this level of 'unconscious competence'. Great presenters are in fact great communicators! We believe that Toastmasters is an easy way to achieve the skills mentioned by Tony Jeary. So don't waste time, be a master in life by being a successful presenter to all the people in you life. Join Toastmaster now or if you are already a member, continue doing your projects.

Contest Winners of Area S3 Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation

2008-10-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Fellow Toastmasters!

Thank you to all who made our Area S3 Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest a resounding success! It was an afternoon filled with laughter and insight from the speeches of our contestants.

It is with great pleasure that I announce to you the Winners of the Speech Contests.

Area S3 Humorous Speech Contest
Champion: Michael Leong (Braddell Heights 2)
1st Runner-Up: Cheng Wei Yi (Braddell Heights 2)
2nd Runner-Up: Jun Peralta (Toastmasters @ The Serangoon)

Area S3 Speech Evaluation Contest
Champion: Benjamin Cheng (Braddell Heights 2)
1st Runner-Up: Cheng Chia Yi (Braddell Heights 2)
2nd Runner-Up: Georgia Tan (Punggol)

The Champions of both contest will represent Area S3 in the Division S Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest on the 18th October 2008!

Let us give the contest winners and participants our warmest support!

Once again, thank you for your support!

Daryl Neo
On behalf of Organising Committee
Area S3 Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest 2008/09

Area S3 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest on 27 Sept.'08

2008-09-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Fellow toastmasters!

"Area S3 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest 2008/09" is going to be held this coming Saturday at The Serangoon.

Come and experience an afternoon promised of fun and laughter from the Humorous Speeches.
Come and learn that there are more to one way to provide feedback from the Speech Evaluation.

And come and join us in the fun, the contest meeting information is found below:

What: Area S3 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest 2008/09

Where: The Serangoon, 10 Serangoon North Ave 2, Level 5 Room 5-01

When: 27th September 2008, Contest registration starts at 1.30 p.m.!

Club Presidents:Please kindly forward this invitation to your club members.

Daryl Neo

Organising Chairman

Area S3 Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest 2008/09

Winners of Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest

2008-09-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

Fellow Toastmasters and friends!

Thank you for your participation in the recent Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest (11 Sept 2008)!

It is my pleasure to announce to you the contest winners!

Humorous Speech Contest Winners
Champion - Jun Peralta
1st Runner Up - Edison Juan

Evaluation Speech Contest Winners
Champion - Estelle Chew
1st Runner up - Edison Juan

Congratulations to Jun Peralta, Edison Juan and Estelle Chew, they will represent Toastmasters @ The Serangoon in our Area S3 Contest on 27 Sep 08 at The Serangoon from 1.30 pm to 5pm.

Do come on 27 Sep 08 to The Serangoon and provide continuous support to our winners ! We are looking forward to seeing you again.

Cheers!Daryl Neo
Organising Chair

Humorous Speech Contest and Joint Speech Evaluation Contest 2008

2008-09-05T02:34:00.000-07:00

Is Humor all about tell a corny joke or tickling a toe? Is Criticism the best form of feedback?

Come and appreciate humor at its best!
Come learn how to offer feedback without being offensive!

Yes! The annual Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest @ The Serangoon is happening again. This year, we will be holding a Joint Speech Evaluation Contest with Braddell Height TMC.

Come and join us in the fun, the contest meeting information is found below:
What: Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest 2008
Where: The Serangoon, 10 Serangoon North Ave 2, Level 5 Room 5-01
When: 11th September 2008, Contests start at 7pm!

Daryl Neo
President, Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

Toastmasters at Serangoon Installation Chapter Meeting

2008-07-06T19:28:00.000-07:00

Fellow Toastmasters and Friends!

This coming thursday, 10 July 2008, our club will be having our regular chapter meeting as well as Club Officers' Installation Ceremony. Be present to congratulate the outgoing ExCo for their excellent work in the past year and witness the commissioning of the incoming ExCo!

There will be a light dinner served before the meeting, starting from 1845hrs onwards. Meeting will start at 1915hrs punctually. The meeting agenda will be sent out to you in the next days. In the meanwhile, reserve this time to come and enjoy yourself with us @ The Serangoon.

On behalf of the ExCo, I wish you a exciting weekend!

Kind regards,
Daryl Neo
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

[Toastmasters] Thank you for your support!

2008-06-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Fellow Toastmasters!

On behalf of the club, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Mike Chia and his ExCo, for their dedication in providing their services and support to our club in the toastmaster term of 2007/2008.

It is also my honour to be elected to serve you in the coming 2008/2009 term as President of our club.

The mission of a 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.

This year, we celebrate our 15th year anniversay since founding in June 1993. "Communicate Effectively" was chosen as our club focus for 2006 to 2008. It was chosen as communication effectively is the key to fostering a supportive and positive learning environment. For our
club, this positive and supportive climate is definitely present. This fact is reinforced with comments and praises heard from guests and new members, to the club .

Therefore, I would like to congratulate everyone for making our club a wonderful place to grow in!

In this coming term, we will be focusing on personal growth for our members. Recognising that working in teams, big and small, are a common thing in our society, the focus we have identified is still valid. Moving forward with this, we will continue to focus on effective communication, argeting team communication. Since the spirit of learning in toastmasters is done by doing, we will be building a support structure within the club to promote this, i.e. communicating effectively in teams.

In the coming months, there will be small teams being formed, looking at specific focus topics, of which include ideas to make our meeting more conducive for practising public speaking. I will update you with more details on the focus topic plans and invite you to participate into making our club, an even successful one. With these we hope to create a climate of growth for you and I invite your input and participation to make our focus for communicating effectively in small teams, a successful initiaitive!

Lastly, I ask for your support in achieving success for our club, together!

Daryl Neo
Incoming Club President, 2008/2009
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

On behalf of (Incoming) ExCo 2008/2009,
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon
President - Daryl Neo
VPE - Madeline Neo
VPM - Jun Peralta
VPPR - Randy Sng
Treasurer1 - Elizabeth Leng
Treasurer2 - Mary Loh
Secretary1 - Wong Chang Sing
Secretary2 - Edison Juan
SAA1 - Frederick Poon
SAA2 - Janet Loh
IPP - Mike Chia

February Club Meeting

2008-02-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow Toastmasters and Friends,

Happy Valentine's Day! Let's celebrate this day with our love for public speaking and leadership!

Please join us for our regular chapter meeting on Thursday, 14th February at The Serangoon. Kindly find attached the programme for the coming meeting. See you all there!

Meeting details as follows:
Date: 14th February 2008
Venue: Room #05-01, Level 5, The Serangoon
Attire: Office Attire

Thanks a lot for your support!

Best Regards,
Jun Peralta
VP1(Education)
Toastmasters at The Serangoon

Toastmaster January 2008 Meeting

2008-01-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

You are invited to join us for our regular chapter meeting on 10th January 2008 @ The Serangoon.

Meeting details are as follows:
Date: 10th January 2008 (1st Meeting!!!)
Venue: Room #05-01, Level 5, The Serangoon
Attire: Office Attire

Registration starts from 1930 hrs and meeting starts at 1940hrs.
Finally, on behalf of the EXCO, I wish you a successful and joyful 2008.

Of course, you can be assured higher probablility of success in 2008 by making SMART goals. How can we make our goals SMART?

When making your goal, apply the following....

Specific - Set specific goals
Measure - Set a measure for the outcome/success you desire
Action - Make an action plan with the required steps needed to achieve your goal
Realistic - Assess the plan. It's SMART if it is realistic, else drop this.
Timeframe - Finally, set a deadline for this goal.

Regards,
Daryl Neo
VP2(Education)
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

Toastmasters Program for 13 December 2007

2007-12-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

The coming of the new year will soon be upon us. Our last chapter meeting is next week so let's end this fruitful year with a bang!

Please join us for our regular chapter meeting on 13th December 2007 @ The Serangoon. It's likely the last time in 2007 to complete your projects or be an appointment holder. So please reply to Daryl and myself on your proposed participation. We need volunteers for appointment holders and evaluators.

Meeting details as follows:
Date: 13th December 2007
Venue: Room #05-01, Level 5, The Serangoon
Attire: Office Attire

Thanks a lot for your support!

Best Regards,
Jun Peralta
VP1(Education)
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

Toastmasters Program for 15th November 2007

2007-11-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

Fellow Toastmasters and friends!

Wishing all a Happy Deepavali!

You are invited to join us for our regular chapter meeting on 15th November 2007 @ The Serangoon. The meeting program is seen above. Double click to enlarge.

Meeting details are as follows:
Date: 15th November 2007
Venue: Room #05-01, Level 5, The Serangoon
Attire: Office Attire
Registration starts from 1930 hrs. Meeting starts at 1940hrs. See you soon!

Regards,
Daryl Neo
VP2(Education)
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

Toastmasters Activities in the coming weeks

2007-10-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Fellow Toastmasters and friends!

Toastmasters Activities in the coming weeks

1. Division 'S' Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest 2007/08
Witness the best of Division 'S' in the Annual Division 'S' Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest @ AIA Changi on the 27th October 2007.

Venue:
AIA Changi, 160 Changi Road, Singapore 419728
Date/Time:
27th October 2007 / 1400hrs to 1800hrs

For tickets, please contact our Area S3 Governor, ACS Amy Ng. (christianamy2003@yahoo.com.sg)

2. Club Chapter Meeting for November is postponed to 15th November 2007.

As the 2nd Thursday of November happens to be Deepavali (8th November), our regular chapter meeting will be postponed to the 15th November 2007. We are accepting project and appointment holder requests for the chapter meeting, send them to me today!

Regards,
Daryl Neo
VP2(Education)
Toastmasters @ The Serangoon

Chapter Meeting for 11 October 2007

2007-10-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

See above chapter meeting program for this thursday, 11 October 2007. Double-click to enlarge the schedule.

All are welcome!

Reflections from a Speech Contestant

2007-10-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

"Let's put our hands together and welcome our first speech contestant. Daryl Neo."

Taking a deep breath, I walked up to the speaking area as the contest chairperson announced my name. I shook her hand as she announced again my name, "Daryl Neo".

"Congratulations!" That was my first word, spoken as the speech evaluation contestant. This very same word sums up my thoughts and feelings about the contest. I certainly had much to congratulate myself for making the right choice, to spend the afternoon at the contest and benefit from the many well thought of and well prepared speeches.

I am happy that I made it.

Area S3 Humourous Speech & Evaluation Contest Schedule

2007-10-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

See above updated contest program for this Saturday, 6 October. Double-click to enlarge the schedule. Everyone is invited. Come on down and enjoy the contest.

Area S3 Humourous Speech & Evaluation Contest on 6th October

2007-10-01T18:15:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the winners of Toastmasters@TheSerangoon:

Humourous speech contest held on 25th sep who will be representing Toastmasters@TheSerangoon at the Area s3 contest on 6th Oct 2pm at TheSerangoon.

1st place winner Mike Chia
2nd place winner Randy Sng

Evaluation speech contest held on 25th sep who will be representing Toastmasters@TheSerangoon at the Area s3 contest on 6th Oct 2pm at TheSerangoon.

1st place winner Jun Peralta
2nd place winner Daryl Neo

Kudos to all our winners and to all the speech contest contestants for all the hard work they have put in to make the speech contest a success.

Thank you for all the appointment holders for your invaluable assistance: Madeleine, Janet,Georgia, Fatt Weng,etc.

With Warmest regards
Amy Ng
Ipp Toastmasters@TheSerangoon
Area S3 governor

Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest

2007-09-29T15:55:00.001-07:00

The secret to humour is surprise. - Aristotle

The club had an exciting speech contest last Tuesday. The humorous speech contestants each gave their speeches which everyone there enjoyed. Estelle, Mike, Randy and Elizabeth each gave wonderfully funny speeches to the satisfaction of the club members, judges and guests who were present. The dinner was also great, thanks again to Elizabeth and her family who helped prepare the food.

The evaluation contest also went well. Mike, Daryl and Jun each evaluated the speech of Bernard, the mystery speaker for the event. It was a smoothly running event as the club has held this contest every year without fail. Thanks to all the guests, judges and appointment holders who came to make the club contest a success at the Serangoon.

See more pictures of the event at http://tmserangoonphotos.blogspot.com/

Fun-filled Club Meeting

2007-09-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

The Toastmasters @ the Serangoon had a fun-filled meeting last Thursday, 13 September. The members had an exciting time learning about a secret recipe to cook Kueh Salat and create toy angels. A vision on club excellence was also shared during the speeches.

Congratulations to Mary (See photo on the left) and Janet for winning the best speech project for the evening. Mary and Janet have just completed their project 8 with the objective of using visual aids. Former club president Amy also engaged the members on her speech on club excellence.

The table topics was also exciting and enjoyable with Estelle giving interesting questions to the members. She poised an interesting question to her husband, Daryl who responded with his usual charm.

Rounding out the evening was the speeches of our guest evaluators Kin Fung and Gerald.

The next club activity is the humorous and evaluation contest in 25th September. Come on down and watch the show.

To see our members in action

2007-09-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

You may want to view our photo album here.

Toastmasters Special Announcement

2007-09-05T03:01:00.000-07:00

Important Announcement:

During the past few days (beginning on Saturday, September 1, 2007), many Toastmasters have received a fraudulent e-mail purportedly sent from seller@toastmasters.org with the subject line: Big sell off from Sep to Christmast Day.

The e-mail was not sent from Toastmasters International.

It contained a request that the recipient follow a link to what appeared to be a legitimate Toastmasters page. On this page, personal information was requested, including detailed credit card data.

This illegal practice is called "phishing." For more information about phishing and how to identify this type of fraud and other internet fraud, visit this link on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Web site: http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/phishing.htm.

To the best of our knowledge, the only information taken from Toastmasters International was a list of e-mail addresses from online store customers.

If you submitted your credit card details via the phishing scam, your credit card information may no longer be secure and we advise that you contact your bank(s) as soon as possible.
Our security team is continuing its investigation in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

As additional relevant information becomes available we will provide it on the Toastmasters Web site.

Note: The timing of this fraudulent e-mail is not associated with the transition to the new Toastmasters Web site. You'll receive an e-mail when the new site is launched: one section of the site will be for the general public (toastmasters.org) and another specifically for members (members.toastmasters.org). The fraudulent e-mail is entirely unrelated to the new Web site.

Donna H. Groh
(via newsletters@toastmasters.org)

Executive Director
Toastmasters International
P.O. Box 9052
Mission Viejo, CA 92690-9052
949-858-8255

September Activities

2007-09-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

September is an exciting month with loads of activities. We will be having a speech contest, and renewing our pledge as Toastmasters.

1. "Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest"

Great news! Our club is organising the annual club contest for "Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest"! Our 14th year in organising this contest and YOU are encouraged to participate in this event. Currently, the contest is to be held on the 25th September 2007. For this contest, we are targeting for 4 humorous speeches and 8 speech evaluation contestants. As there are limited places available, you are greatly encouraged to send in your requests to me, daryldotneo@gmail.com asap! Participation request is served on a first come first serve basis.

Timing is what make a joke great, so does your timely participation requests. Therefore, submit your participation request to me today, to avoid disappointment! Join now!

2. Toastmaster Renewal Activity

The timely collection of club membership dues will aid the club in obtaining 1 point for our Distinguish Club Program (DCP) goals. We will be starting collection on our membership dues, for the period of Oct'07 to Mar '08, and the renewal amount will be $80/-. You may either submit the payment through our treasurer, Estelle or pay direct to Mr Dennard Lee @ The Serangoon Community Club by 25th September 2007. For payment tracking, if you decide to submit direct to the CC, please drop an email to Estelle at reheruc@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your active cooperation!