It’s finally time for the long-awaited recess week in NUS! Even though it’s a declared break from school, a large numbers of our members still turned up to enjoy the night with fellow Toastmasters. Coming to Toastmasters chapter meetings is certainly much better than flipping through boring channels on TV at home!

On 23^rd September 2014 in YIH room 4, we witnessed three newly recruited toastmasters step forward to take on their very first Toastmaster Project: Breaking the ice. Suet Mei, Amanda, and Wenxi all broke the ice fantastically.

Mdm President Teo Hui Juen also gave an inspirational opening address and encouraged the audience to share about what’s outside our comfort zone. Alyssa was the table topics master, whose topic revolved around Pokemon, and she had all the toastmasters fighting to participate for her topics. Weiliang also gave a fantastic and uplifting general evaluation and commended on the upbeat atmosphere in room 4.

We had Suei Mei kicking off her speech with a melodious tune, Amanda sharing with the audience about her experiences and support from her parents when she lost her sight, as well as Wenxi who talked about her high school which was 2053 years old! We also had Kah Thong who shared with us his ideology of using a Solowheel in NUS!

Tonight’s best table topics speaker was Ken (our friend from Vietnam), best prepared speaker was Amanda who has truly inspired us, and the best evaluator was none other than our writer, Lie Ken!

In Yusof Ishak Room 3, the evening was also one not missing on feels and thrills as our writer, Jun Han took on the mantle of the time keeper. The word of the day was ‘fastidious’, courtesy of our assiduous Language Evaluator, Perry.

Today’s show was hosted by our SAA Yi Wen, TME Derek and facilitated by VPE Nathaddeus, and starring Fuk Kin, Ai Xin, Yong Kee and Heidi for the prepared speeches segment. Their evaluators were Srivatsan, Jaysree, Kay Seng and Daryl Lee respectively. Our participants for table topics, prepared by our ‘chunky’ Yi Feng, were Ivan, Wei Ze, Hari, Daryl and Zi Xin.

Table Topics Master Yi Feng took us on a journey across the world with the theme of holidays. Ivan illuminated his view on poverty tourism with his OCIP experience. Wei Zhe opined about ‘voluntourism’. Hari enchanted us with the opportunities for both locals and foreigners to take a vacation in Singapore. Next, we had Daryl sell us the idea of minimalism and travelling light with his love-hate relationship with his luggage. Zi Xin rounded up the Table Topics segment with her view on travelling alone, an adventure that many people hesitate to attempt.

Segment 2 saw Fuk Kin, Ai Xin and Yong Kee breaking the ice, and Heidi on her project 3. It was a pleasure to know more about our fresh members. Fuk Kin recounted his days in ‘archi-torture’, and why he decided to move on to greener pastures after his time in architecture in his polytechnic days. Ai Xin shared numerous facts of herself with us. Yong Kee spoke about his interests of swimming and movies. Lastly, Heidi enthralled us with her speech about keeping our towel, to never give up.

The session drew to a close after segment 3, with nifty evaluations from our punctilious evaluators. It was great to have been witness of yet another remarkable chapter meeting, to learn from our fellow toastmasters.

Mdm President wrapped up tonight’s meeting with her closing address. Coming in first in the area Z1 humorous contest, Hui Juen also offered her thanks to all the members who came down to support Lim Zhen and her in the area contest! Congratulations to Hui Juen, Lim Zhen (runner-up for Area Z1 Evaluation Contest) and Ken (Champion of Area A5 Evaluation Contest)!

Article by Chin Jun Han and Lie Ken, Edited by Koh Shi Ting and Photos by Cool Clickers