AON Singapore Toastmasters: A First Term Meeting

On 26^th July 2019, I dropped by AON Singapore Toastmasters in my capacity as Area Director, Area A2.  I was also listed on the programme sheet as General Evaluator.  This was their first meeting of the new term, drawing a healthy number of non-Toastmasters in attendance.  It marked my 17^th club visit, on the 26^th day of the Toastmasters year.

A Speech That Earned Its Laughs

Penny Radcliffe gave a humorous speech about her misadventures in cooking for guests.  She was animated, dramatic, and unflinchingly explicit, walking the room through the horror she inflicted on unsuspecting dinner guests, all delivered over copious amounts of wine.  She was hilarious in her own understated British manner, the kind of dry delivery that lands harder precisely because it never oversells the joke.

A Return to Sobriety

Subhash Chandra, the Immediate Past President, followed with a more reflective speech, explaining why he chose his Pathway, Effective Coaching, and how he arrived at his own self-realisation about his style of dealing with others and with stress.  A leader willing to examine his own coping mechanisms in public, rather than presenting only the polished version of his leadership, gives room to learn from more than a highlight reel ever could.

Table Topics Built around Identity

Carmen Chan ran the Table Topics session, putting effort into a presentation built around interesting questions formulated on the theme of identity.  What stood out most was the number of newer members willing to try their hand at speaking off the cuff.  Impromptu speaking is, without question, the hardest discipline in the entire Toastmasters programme, since there is no script to hide behind and no rehearsal to fall back on.  A room full of newcomers volunteering for exactly that discipline, in their first term, signals genuine potential rather than mere enthusiasm.  This club has good speakers, and I look forward to watching their ability and confidence grow.

Why Corporate Clubs Exist at All

I gave a short address as Director, Area A2, explaining how corporate clubs use Toastmasters and the Pathways programme as a form of continuous executive training in leadership and effective communication.  This is not a peripheral employee benefit.  It is a structured investment in the exact communication capability that determines whether a promoted manager can lead once the promotion arrives, rather than simply survive it.

The Results

There was no voting for prepared speeches or evaluations, since only two speakers took part in each.  Best Table Topics Speaker was me, a modest footnote to what was, on balance, a genuinely promising opening meeting for a new term.

---

Terence Nunis, DTM | Division Advisor, District 80 Division M | Club Advisor, AIA Toastmasters | Past President & Founder, Awesome Toastmasters