Leaders

Monday 29^th April

Theme: Leaders

Word of the Day: Inspire

Facilitators: Ah-counter- Michael Hung, Time keeper- Jonathan Mok, Grammarian- Ben Fung

We started the evening off a little differently due to feedback received from last meeting’s General Evaluator. Below is a list of people, what is the first word that comes to mind?

1^st- Ghandi

2^nd- Winston Churchill

3^rd- Steve Jobs

4^th- Sir Richard Branson

5^th- Your boss

6^th- Your mum

7th^h- Your mentor

8th^h- Michael Boynton

What do all these people have in common? Leaders, I sense you thinking. Our TME is someone who exhibits genuine leadership qualities of an effective leader, his commitment to the club as last year’s Vice President of Education and this year’s Vice President of Membership has helped our club retain its status as one other clubs should model themselves on. Our Leader of the Evening was Michael Boynton.

We were then asked to put up our hand if were thought certain people were good leaders. This interactive way of kick starting the meeting loosened ourselves up as we sat back to enjoy some great speeches.

Our first speaker was new member Lawrence Wong who took us back to the time when he was 10 in his CC1 speech “When I was 1”0. For his icebreaker speech, we went on a nostalgic journey of Sham Shui Po. At a time when his parents worked like “honey bees,” Lawrence had to find crafty ways to entertain himself. His charming story helped us warm to him even more.  Next in line was Alice Wong who gave us invaluable advice if considering skiing for the first time in her CC5 speech “Some Tips for the First Time Skier.” The speech included a variety of gestures, body language and facial expressions, all which supported Alice’s hilarious story of trying skiing for the first time. So write these tips down if you’re contemplating on trying this not-for-the-faint-hearted-but-exhilarating sport. #1- Learn to ski when you’re young. For some reason, the older you get, the more painful falling is plus being on a bunny slope at an older age is not cool. #2- Go skiing with people that care about you because they’ll have more patience when you fall, get lost or even better, go with someone who is at a similar level.  Alice gave a very vivid image of her being trapped in the safety net of the ski field arms and legs at unnatural positions for some time and we sensed how scared she must have been if nobody had known where she was. Thirsty for more speeches? Well get set for Matthew Lee’s CC7 speech- “What’s coming out of our taps? Part 1- The Untapped Myth”. Besides the clever use of pun pulling us in, I was also interested in what exactly does come out from our taps. If you’re thinking just water, Matthew would ask you to THINK AGAIN! What the water services department tell you and what Matthew researched, the information seems inconsistent however we can all agree that keeping our kidneys free of infection and cancer is highly important to our health. By investing in a water filter, good health is one less thing you have to worry about.

Best Prepared Speaker: Matthew Lee





Table Topics time, a highly anticipated part of our meetings. Tonight Gladys Chan had the chance to pitch the questions all to do with the theme of “Leaders.”  First up for the challenge was Sergio who answered the question of whether he was a leader or follower. The answer is to be both but know what your comparative advantages are. The second question was a little controversial being “How can we make our bosses better.” Martin Wong stepped up and demonstrated the idea of asking reasonable requests of our staff and to build trust within the team. Guests have been welcomed to volunteer to do a table topic speech and tonight, guest Kenny, was so inspired that he had to make one.  His question was “How can we improve our leadership skills?” According to Kenny, the way to do that is to think outside the box to inspire others and motivate others to follow you. To round off the session, Ernest Mak had to tackle and even more controversial question about our Chief Executive, C.Y Leung. Applying his diplomacy skills, Ernest was able to answer this question in a objective manner. 

Best Table Topics Speaker: Sergio Agurrie

Evaluating our speakers tonight we had strong members taking these roles. Ernest Mak evaluated Lawrence outlining the good structure and drawing an audience in using rhetorical questions. Tip here was how to use a story about your past and how it can be used to shape your present. Ai Ai Ong gave feedback on Alice’s speech and highlighted Alice’s use to vivid imagery but to go even further in a CC5 speech of using gestures, we can use exaggerated expressions and even dress up according to the speech’s theme. Rita Tsui introduced her evaluation of Matthew’s speech with a quote from Matthew’s which reiterated the speech’s main message. Asta finished off with her evaluation of the table topics section praising Gladys and all speakers with a job well done as well as giving us all something to improve on for the next meeting.

                                                                Best Evalutator: Asta Lee

But that’s not all, Edwin Lui was our General Evaluator tonight who oversees the entire meeting taking notes on everything from the layout to the facilitating and even the evaluators are evaluated. Our next meeting is coming up soon on the 6^th of May. Make sure you’re there for the much anticipated presidential election!