Summary of Apr 4 2011 Meeting

G’day mate! That’s how one of our new members, Matthew, who is as Aussie as they come, greeted us in delivering his ice breaker speech last night. A very well done speech peppered with lots of Australian slang. We learned a lot about him and what a fair dinkum Australian guy he is playing rugby.

Amy shared with us her experience getting a scuba diving certification. She said that she learned from this experience that the way to achieve is to conquer your fear, not to be afraid to fail, and to be determined to succeed.

Ben taught us how to handle an argument and to remember that the good communication skills that we learn in Toastmasters could help us avoid unpleasantness. He artfully showed us the unfolding of an argument between his friends Mickey and Minnie and what could be done to save them from misunderstanding. Let us all congratulate Ben for his achievement in completing the Competent Communication (CC) manual.

Clement conducted a very creative table topic session. The questions were really well thought out-- short and simple allowing a lot of room for the speakers to expand on. We heard from Aaron on innovative house, from Diana on innovative trip, Thomas on innovative meal, from Martin on innovative costume, and finally, from San on what she would do if she was Doraemon – the most creative cartoon. We had a lot of laughter during this session as all the answers were very creative and entertaining. Martin told us that he wants a costume that can make him invisible so that his mum can not find him during his day off at home. San told us that if she was Doraemon, she would create a 3D virtual audience that one could rehearse speeches in front of, overcoming stage fright. But then that would mean no need for Toastmaster meetings, yes? no?

From our evaluators, we learned about SMS, UFA and CRC. What are they? They are all techniques that we can employ when doing evaluations. Thanks especially to Andrew for encouraging us all to do General Evaluations and for demonstrating to us how to perform one using the CRC (Commend, Recommend, Commend) sandwich technique.

Our Toastmaster of the Evening, Paul, kept being referred to as the "Toastmaster". Referring to Paul as the Toastmaster was half correct because he is indeed a Toastmaster like all our members, but he should have been called the "Toastmaster of the Evening" or "TME".

The recipients of the ribbons for the evening were:

Best Prepared Speech – Martin Lee
Best Table Topic Speaker – San Sze
Best Evaluator – Joanne Chuk

Best regards,

Ong Ai Ai
President
HKTMC 2010/11

PS. Please do remember that the Division Contests will be held on this Saturday, April 9th, from 2pm at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Please come and support Andrew and Benjamin as they represent our club at the contests. You will also get a chance to see how to further improve your public speaking skills.