22^nd July was our last holiday chapter meeting and a wide plethora of speeches, from the Competent Communicator (CC) manual to the advanced manuals, were delivered in PGP function rooms 3 and 4. It was a regret that CC, CL, Lui Wei Jian could not join us because he had lost his voice as I was really looking forward to hear him speak!

The Sergeant-at-arms (SAA) of room 3, Jaysree, warmed up the room notably, with a game of “whose line is it anyway?” which got everyone all hyped up for the table topics session conducted by visiting toastmaster from Nanyang Technological University Toastmasters Club (NTUTMC), VPM, CC, Liu Yi Xiang.

The best table topics speaker award for room 3 went to our dearly-missed CC, Khoo Yi Feng (who answered the question – “Is marriage heaven or hell?”) and our new member, Neo Tse Wei (who answered the question – “Who is one person who has shaped your life the most, and how?”) Yi Feng talked about how marriage is heaven in hell and even invited CC, Wang Shuai’s mum (who sat in to witness his son give his general evaluation) to answer his question! How clever of Yi Feng to get an experienced, been-through-it person to offer her views on marriage! Tse Wei, on the other hand, shared with us how his grandfather taught him to be himself and to be grounded. He definitely inspired many in the audience.

For the prepared speeches, we had Praveen Kumar doing his project 1 icebreaker speech on the importance of making a decision rather than to not make one at all. It was a very impressive project 1 speech which got him very close to securing the best speaker ribbon. But old hands are indeed better than green horns, as Andy Yik won the best speaker ribbon ‘effortlessly’ with his exciting speech on planning for one’s marriage. (CC, Nathaddeus Tan would like to thank him for reminding him how costly Singapore’s HDB flats are).

In a similar fashion, Club Mentor, DTM Wekie Tay and venerated ACB, ALB Darryl Lee gave the best evaluations in their respective rooms.

CC, Khoo Yi Feng sold us the idea of how we should all stop phubbing, an issue that is commonplace and pertinent but is not being addressed as we would hope to. Phubbing is the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention.

Just next door, things were equally as exciting. The word of the day was “Repugnant”, aptly chosen by CC, Lee Shi Hui, our language evaluator that night to describe most of our feelings towards the end of the holidays.

Table Topics Master, Lee Yueh Jia has obviously been doing much reflection in her personal time and is trying to prompt us to do the same, with topics like “What is your ambition and how far are you still away from it?”, “What is the main core value in your life?”, “What’s your plan in the next 5 years and how do you plan to achieve your goal?” It was visiting toastmaster, CC, VPE of NTUTMC, Claire, whose reflection was the most deep-seated, who emerged the winner of the table topics session.

For the prepared speech segment, we had Loh Kah Thong pulling all stops to ensure his maiden speech went well. He sang, he impersonated and he got everyone laughing till it hurts. Kah Thong has this to say about NUS Toastmasters which I penned down as a must-share, “The light of toastmasters just shone on my darkness”. Koh Shi Ting, after a long break from her project 1 speech, shared with us in her speech on the consequences of Tobacco and CC, Goh Wei Ling spoke in admiration and respect of our endearing Club president, CC, CL, Teo Hui Juen while Hui Juen told us the story of a father’s sacrifice for his daughter. Last Year’s humorous speech contest 1^st runner up, CC, CL, Lie Ken charmed the audience through with his story which taught us the importance of maintaining composure in the face of adversity and won himself the best speaker title. It was a moment of triumph not only for Ken, but also for his mentee and timer for the evening, Andrew Tjoa.

Shi Hui ended the meeting in room 3 with her informative and educational language evaluation where she engaged the audience to correct grammar misuses which she managed pick up during the entire meeting. She introduced a variety of rhetorical devices – alliteration, anaphora, analogy, and many others to our members. Shi Hui also advised members to use their five senses when crafting their speech so that the audience can visualize the characters and scenes more vividly. It was indeed an eye-opening evaluation for many of us!

This concludes the last chapter meeting of the holidays.

Wishing everyone luck in bidding for their modules for the upcoming semester!

Article by Goh Wei Ling, Edited by Teo Hui Juen and Photos by Cool Clickers.