International Speech Contest

Today, we hosted our second set of Spring Contests, the International Speech Contest! Christine was the Contest Chair while Tie served as the Chief Judge. In the past, we've had some trouble recruiting and encouraging members to compete at these contests. I was really happy to see that we had 5 contestants today, one of which decided to compete from the floor and deliver an impromptu speech! I wish I can get to that level of confidence as well...!
Because many of our members decided to compete, we struggled a little bit to organize the judging team. But, our members helped out by doing double duty.
The International Speech Contest requires members to have completed minimum 6 projects from their speech manual. It doesn't require speech to have a specific theme, except that it should leave the audience inspired/motivated. The contest started on time. I went first and spoke about my experience as a volutneer at a hospice few years ago. I re-purposed this speech from last year because I didn't think I did justice to it. Marcia went in next and spoke about the defining moments in all our lives and the significance of it, whether big or small. Anil inspired the audience to respect the 'gold nuggets' in our lives. Melrose spoke about what 'home' means to her, and that would be Jamaica! Anthony delivered an impromptu speech and shared a story about how moms know the best. I was so proud and happy for all contestants. We all have come a long way in our journey as Toastmasters. These speech contests further polish our speech capabilities. I am sure the judges had a hard time with the results. Melrose placed first, I placed second and Marcia placed third. Melrose will now represent our club at the Area 5 Contest!

Please click on the contestant name to view their speech:
Aanchal
Marcia
Anil
Melrose

Mardi Gras

Today's meeting started with the introduction of 'Carnival' theme! Sundeep (a first time meeting Chair) shared more info about Carnival and how it's also celebrated as Pancakes Day. Ummm, I want some Pancakes right about now...! I guess the winter blues got to some of our members. We only had about half of our members attend the meeting today. But that didn't let our spirits down. We participated in the meeting as if we were sitting in New Orleans or Rio amidst the Carnival festivities!
Azura finished her project # 3, Get to the Point, by talking about the benefits of Watching your own speech video. As her mentor, I might be biased in saying this, but I truly believe that she has come a long way with the 3 projects she has already completed. Azura paid attention to the feedback she received and implemented it in this current project by slowing down her pace and adding more of body language. She emphasized that being a Toastmasters members is a journey and that we should implemtent gradual changes for a long term improvement. She also stressed that we all have our 'shining' moments that we should continue to polish while building ourselves as a better speaker and communicator. See her speech here. Since we had 1 speaker today, Anthony expanded the Table Topics session so that everyone was able to participate. It's always fun when Anthony is behind the lectern as he brings a lot of fun and entertainment to his sessions, an extension of his personality! Marcia and Jefferey tied for the Best Table Topics Speaker for today. Afshan conducted the General Evaluation section of the meeting and Sundeep wrapped the meeting just in time.
Looking forward to the International Speech Contest next week... But before that, don't forget to LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!!

Meridian Toastmasters - Speech Evaluation Contest

We kicked off the Winter Session of the contest season today with our Speech Evaluation Contest. Running a contest is a great example of showing team work and leadership skills. Our Chair, Tie Feng, and Chief Judge, Anil Lad, made sure the team was picked out well ahead of time. However, the weather got to Anil and he fell ill the day before the contest. Our President, Geoffrey Chen, stepped up the plate and filled in the role of Chief Judge at last minute's notice. Now this is what I call leadership and team work!
I always have fun competing at the contests, I guess I've become a default face! That's a good and bad thing!  :P We had 2 first time contestants and new members, Pam and Sundeep, join in and be brave to step up to participate! Jerako, our Target Speaker and Division A Governor, was a tough one to evaluate. But hey, what's the fun without a good challenge!
The remainder of the contest ran smoothly. I guess I'm going to be representing Meridian Toastmasters at the Area Contest in March. :)

Seeing is Believing

Geofferey Chen, our club President, opened the meeting today with the theme Seeing is Believing. We had 1 new guest and 2 returning guests at the club meeting. Tie Feng added an interested spin to his Thought of the Day. Tie questioned the validity of the theme and talked about the importance of questioning the status quo and curiosity, in general. He went on to say that 'seeing' should not directly translate to 'believing' without proper investigation! I guess he put on his hat as an Information Security Analyst!

Pam and Sundeep presented their second speech from the Competent Communicator manuals. Sundeep talked about conquering acrophobia, the fear of heights. Her speech was based on her recent trip to Blue Mountain where her family forced her to try Ziplining for the first time! She used an interesting set of visuals and articulated her feelings throughout the journey very well. Interestingly, Pam opened her speech by talking about her experience in Costa Rica. Her opening slide was also a shot of her ziplining through the hills. What a coincidence! Pam went on to describe her other exciting adventures in Costa Rica. She teased the travel bug in me through the vivid imagery on her presentation!


Katrina hosted the TT session and encourage the speakers to talk about generic topics about belief. Our guests participated as well! Marcia took over the General Evaluator role for the first club. She was very specific in her feedback providing opportunities of improvement as well as complimenting the individuals for their roles well done.

The contest season begins next week! Watch out for the summary of the Speech Evaluation contest on Feb 10!

See Pam's speech here.

Old is Gold

Today was a Special Event for Meridian Toastmasters. We hosted our first Open House for 2015!

Currently, we are 23 member strong and we would like to see new faces join our club every few months. With a teamwork display promoting the Open House, we had 6 new guests join us at our Open House.

As the VP of Public Relations, I decided to Chair the meeting, plus it had been a while I took up the meeting manager role! I chose the theme of "Old is Gold" which is saying that has been around for a while. To me, it reflects the importance of valuing the 'old' things in your life. Living in the age of instant gratification, we fail to acknowledge the value of being content. I find always find myself running after the next big thing, the newest phone, the new gadgets and so on. "Old is Gold' reminds me that just like a bottle of red wine, certain things increase in their value over time. There's only so much Nicki Minaj or Jay Z or Kanye West I can listen to. The classics of Doris Day, The Carpenters and the likes are timeless. Somehow, these 'timeless' beings help me slow down when I'm surrounding by everything that is so fast paced. 

The meeting ran smoothly. Afshan present Speech #6 on Vocal Variety. She talked about her recent trip to Mexico and shared her learnings about the Mayan culture. When I hear Mexico, I think of beaches and sunshine. So, I was very educational for me to listen to the history and facts about their culture. Melrose did quite well as Table Topics Masters by bringing us fortune cookies and making the members practice impromptu speaking by sharing their thoughts on their 'fortune'. She also encourage our guests to participate and 2 of them obliged! 

The meeting seem to have ended pretty quickly. As they say, you don't realize how fast time goes when you're having fun. And I had a lot of fun indeed!

See Afshan's speech here.
See the evaluation of Afshan's speech here.

Speech Evaluation Workshop

Meridian Toastmasters Club is composed of members with varying levels of experience. Such diversity offers an interesting playground where members learn, not just from the club programs, but also through interactions with each other. I feel lucky to be part of a club that offers a warm and nurturing environment through the seasoned toastmasters. The newer members bring an influx of energy and perspective that keeps it fresh for the 'oldies'. :P

Today, our club hosted a special event to learn more about providing confidence building evaluations. Karen Goodyear, DTM has been facilitating this workshop for many years now. The workshop format was structured similar to a speech evaluation contest. Karen talked about key elements of a confidence building evaluation. Marcia was a target speaker and 3 newer members volunteered to be the test evaluators. After each evaluation, Karen offered her thoughts on the 'evaluation' itself. It was a win-win situation because the speaker received 3 helpful evaluations and the evaluators also learnt about specific techniques they could use to improve for next time.

This will be good practice for the upcoming Speech Evaluation contest on Feb 10!

Click here to view to video of the workshop.

Hakuna Matata!

We kicked off 2015 with our first meeting today! Tie Feng, our VP Education, was the Chair of the meeting. Returning to work after the holiday season is always tough. But, our skilled VP Ed managed to get all roles filled and conduct another successful meeting. I was happy to return to that familiar club environment and the welcome chatter before the meeting begins. Though, this time I was nervous because it was my turn to deliver a speech.
It was a full house as Tie hit the gavel on the lectern and started the meeting with an upbeat note of Hakuna Matata! Sherry connected her Thought of the Day very well with the meeting theme by talking about the holiday season, being conscious of healthy eating and living a happy life! I presented a Monodrama from the Interpretive Reading manual. It was the park bench scene from the movie, Good Will Hunting. It went well for most part, except when I lost my track towards the end. In a monodrama, you are required to get into the skin of the character and emulate the scene. I had to constantly remind myself not to look at the audience, but to the imaginary person sitting on my left. Melrose, my speech evaluator, picked up on this and offered a positive feedback.
We had a few firsts at our meeting today. Sherry as Thought of Day, Pam as Grammarian, Marcia as TT master and Wendy as Timer. All 4 new comers server their role very well. Marcia stuck to the theme and asked all of us about our take on the Hakuna Matata song as it relates to our life. Pam went a step further in her role and mentioned a few noteworthy uses of English language used during the meeting. Wendy was quick to understand the timing device. Karen rounded up the meeting by offering her valuable tips as a General Evaluator.
It's going to be an exciting, and busy, month at Meridian Toastmasters. Our Speech Evaluation workshop will be held next week and the Winter Open House on the 27th.

See my speech video here.