On 14th July 2019, I visited
Chong Pang Toastmasters Club as Project Evaluator, my eighth club visit, on the
14th day of the Toastmasters year.
Congratulations are due to the newly installed Executive Committee. With Chang Soek Khim as the new President, I
am confident they will build on the good work of previous committees and
continue to grow. Division Z Director
Michael Yonathan, DTM, served as Installing Officer.
The new Executive Committee stands as
follows:
President, Chang Soek Khim.
Vice-President, Education, Tony Tan.
Vice-President, Membership, Loo Guan Yee.
Vice-President, Public Relations, John
Tan.
Treasurer, Kok Yee Keong.
Secretary, Benjamin Poh. Sergeant-at-Arms, Yuvraj Aher.
Immediate Past President, Kelly Gelvezon.
Tony Tan also served as Toastmaster of the
Day, a demanding double duty for a newly installed Vice-President barely
settling into one role before taking on a second for the same evening.
A Difficult Project, Delivered Well
Shirley Tham, DTM, undertook a
challenging project: a keynote address, accompanied by PowerPoint slides, on
change management within a bank, addressing the room as an imaginary board of
directors. She covered considered points
across both macro and micro levels, and her arguments were cogent and
persuasive throughout. This subject
deserved that level of rigour. McKinsey’s
own research finds only 30% of banks report successfully implementing their
digital transformation strategies, with 70% of large-scale change programmes
failing to meet their stated objectives, a failure rate that has held steady
across industries for years despite technological advancement. A speaker capable of persuading a room of
Toastmasters, playing the role of a sceptical board, that a specific change
agenda deserves approval has demonstrated a skill harder than the topic's dry
subject matter suggests, precisely the skill that separates the 30% of banks
that succeed from the majority that do not.
A Speech Worth a Second Look
Yi Wen gave a speech on the need for
financial planning and passive income, detailing insurance coverage, and the
case for adequate protection. At the end
of her speech, she revealed she was not a financial services adviser and had
never been one. This detail deserves
scrutiny rather than a passing mention.
Financial planning delivered with conviction, from someone without
professional qualification or regulatory obligation behind the recommendation,
is a different proposition from the same content delivered by a licensed
consultant bound by the Financial Advisers Act’s requirement for a financial
needs analysis before any recommendation.
Within a Toastmasters speech, framed as practice rather than
professional advice, this is appropriate, and her reveal at the close was the
responsible move, distinguishing rhetorical exercise from regulated advisory
service. It remains worth noting because
financial content, delivered persuasively, carries weight regardless of the
speaker’s licensing, and an audience should always know to which category they
are listening.
Three Icebreakers, and a Vibrant Club
The next three speeches were icebreakers
delivered by new members. For first-time
speeches, they were good, a testament to the vibrancy of this club. A club producing strong debut speeches
consistently is not benefiting from lucky recruitment. It is benefiting from a mentorship culture
that prepares new members properly before they ever step up to the lectern.
The Results
Best Speaker went to Shirley Tham, DTM. Best Evaluator went to me. Best Table Topics Speaker went to a
guest. A meeting spanning an executive
committee installation, a bank boardroom simulation, and a financial planning
speech candid enough to disclose its own limitations covered more ground than
most first-time visits to a club typically reveal.
Terence Nunis, DTM | Division Advisor, District 80 Division M | Club Advisor, AIA Toastmasters | Past President & Founder, Awesome Toastmasters
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