Summary of Nov 22 2010 Meeting

The Word of the Day from our grammarian was rapport (meaning harmony, fellowship, understanding). In the context of our theme Generations X,Y,Z the word was successfully used many times during the night, emphasizing the importance of maintaining rapport among the different generations, even with the differences in their values and experiences.

We learned from Emma, with evidence to show, that she was able to trade up from the humble paper clip to a whole array of things, including speakers, a ladies purse, picture frames, and more. The secret of how this was achieved? Through passion in what you do, setting big goals, and having the commitment to succeed. In the US, someone successfully traded up from a paper clip to a house. Go figure.

Eng Wah was so absorbed in his delivery of the tragic and sad saga that unfolded in the HK tourist hostage episode in Manila that for the first time I noticed he lost most of the unnecessary sounds and pauses that usually embellish his speech. The mood in the meeting became very somber after hearing this sad story again.

Since most of us in the audience were from Generations X and Y, we had not heard a fairy tale for a long time. But thanks to Uncle Andrew, we all became young children again and listened in awe to the Cinderella story, with its evil stepmother, lazy step sisters, magnanimous fairy godmother, and charming prince; and let's not forget the glass slipper. Andrew, keep up the waltz. Fantastic.

We had a number of newcomers participate in the table topic session. It will be a session to watch in the coming meetings with the keen interest in it displayed by our new members recently.  

Our evaluators all went overtime as they were very enthusiastic in giving their valuable feedback to the speakers. The grammarian, in pointing out to us the good use of language, taught us a thing or two: We use the "personification" technique when we give an object living characteristics, e.g., "a cursed pink purse"; we “concretize” a word when we transform an abstract idea/thought into a concrete/tangible object, e.g., "he took justice in his hand". Don’t you agree that there is some great use of impactful language at our club? 


Yet another packed night, as we had 17 guests at the meeting. More chairs had to be brought in. 

I announced that our Christmas Party will be held on 11 Dec (please check out details on our website). I look forward to our members coming to the party so that we have the chance to foster greater rapport.

Due to the Japanese Club venue again not being available on 13 Dec, we are holding another joint meeting this year with the Gammon Toastmasters Club at their office in Tai Koo Place on 15 December (a Wednesday). This will be our last meeting for the 2010 year because the 27th  December is a public holiday and many of our members will be away to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, and we will not be holding a replacement meeting for this.

Joanne Chuk will be delivering her Project 10 speech from the Competent Communication manual in this upcoming joint meeting. Hers will be the first CC for our club this year. Please come and show your support and celebrate her achievement. There will also be some refreshment served at the meeting.

Last, but not least, here are the night's winners:

Best Speaker                         Andrew Yeung

Best Table Topic Speaker    Jennifer (Guest)

Best Evaluator                       Asta Lee

Best regards,

Ong Ai Ai

HKTMC President 2010-11