On the 11th July
2019, AIA Toastmasters Club held its Installation Night for its 16th
Executive Committee. It was also a
celebration of AIA Toastmasters Club being a President’s Distinguished Club
since its inception, having achieved this accolade every single year since,
fifteen years in a row. President’s
Distinguished status is not a participation trophy. It requires a club to meet at least nine of
the ten Distinguished Club Programme goals set annually by Toastmasters
International, spanning education, membership, training, and administration,
while also maintaining a minimum membership threshold. Missing that bar once is common. Fifteen consecutive years without missing it
is not, and any club claiming otherwise should be asked to produce the paperwork.
This would not have been
possible without the support of AIA’s executive management, including our Chief
Executive Officer, Patrick Teow, who himself set the example by being a member
of the club. This would not have been
possible without the support of the Toastmasters community in Singapore, who
turned up in force to support us.
The Performers of
the Evening
Our Toastmaster of the evening
was the peerless Jackie Lin Feng, who sets the standards for the role. He was charming, witty, borderline
irreverent, and always lively. This is a
man who makes a living thinking on his feet and making everybody around him
look good.
Our Language Evaluator was
John Sih, DTM, who is the master of wordplay and the rhetorical faux
pas. He is the language evaluator’s
evaluator, in an audience replete with accomplished language evaluators.
The Farewell
Address
Our Immediate Past President,
and the true Toastmaster of the Year, Eric Tan, DTM, took the stage to
address us for the last time as President.
It was a poignant moment. It is
not often emphasised how warm, magnanimous, and humble he is. He could have listed off a litany of
accolades the club accomplished under his steady leadership, and he would have
been right about it. Instead, he took
the opportunity to explain what made us great: family. He took the opportunity to share with
everyone, from all the different clubs, how they are part of this journey. He took this opportunity to tell each and
every one of us to step up. And he said
it with understated humour.
The Work behind
the Curtain
We pay tribute to the creative
team of Joy Chow and Cindy Gan for all the audiovisual work. They spent sleepless hours getting the
montages done, and that work of love showed.
The Installing Officer was
none other than our Toastmasters International District 80 Director, Ernest
Chen, DTM. This is a man who has
more than double the time in Toastmasters than our club has been around. He has seen the scene change, and he was one
of the forces shaping it for the better.
He lends gravitas and dignity to a carnival of words.
The New President’s
Inaugural Address
Our President, Jack Sia, gave
his inaugural address. In it, he shared
the challenges he will face, living up to the traditions and accomplishments of
previous presidents. He expressed his
confidence in his team, his club, and the wider Toastmasters community. We wish him the best in this journey, and we
give him our support.
Table Topics and
Awards
Kenneth Ng, from NTU
Toastmasters Club, was our Table Topics Master.
His Table Topics session took the form of an interactive PowerPoint
presentation, a genuinely inventive spin on a format most clubs run identically
year after year. Marshall Cooper won
Best Table Topics.
The following awards were
given out: Recruiter of the Year went to June Lee. Newcomer of the Year went to June Lee. Toastmaster of the Year went to me, an honour
that still requires acknowledging the people who made it possible, which I will
come to shortly.
Triple Crown Achievers for the
year were Joy Chow, Eric Tan, DTM, Ivan Lee, DTM, Jack Sia, June
Lee, and me.
The New Executive
Committee, 2019/2020
President: Jack Sia
Vice-President, Education:
Terence Nunis, DTM
Vice-President, Membership:
Ivan Lee, DTM
Vice-President, Public
Relations: Cindy Gan
Secretary: Joy Chow
Treasurer: Frances Goh
Sergeant-at-Arms:
Mandy Poon
Immediate Past President: Eric
Tan, DTM
A Personal Note
Personally, I would like to
thank AIA Toastmasters Club for voting me Toastmaster of the Year. Without the support of then-President Eric
Tan, DTM, I would not have been where I am.
Terence Nunis, DTM | Division Advisor, District 80 Division M | Club Advisor, AIA Toastmasters | Past President & Founder, Awesome Toastmasters
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