Astro@Radin Mas Toastmasters Club: Colour, Legacy, & a Story Worth Fact-Checking

On 7^th November 2019, I was at Astro@Radin Mas Toastmasters Club as Language Evaluator, my 112^th club visit on the 130^th day of the Toastmaster year.  Julie Ong, DTM, served as Sergeant-at-Arms.  Tony Tan served as Toastmaster of the Day.  Hendri Chandra served as Table Topics Master.  Loy Hoo Keong served as Timer.

The Speeches

Jhony Chandra spoke on managing his cell group, a subject demanding the same quiet discipline as managing any team where attendance is voluntary, and motivation cannot be mandated from above.

Junie Seow spoke on the psychology of colour, drawing on her own research into how colour influences perception and mood.  Her presentation matched its subject matter, colourful and informative in equal measure, a rare instance of a speaker's visual delivery reinforcing the argument rather than merely decorating it.

Varun Pant spoke on leaving a legacy, citing the story of “Easy” Eddie, associated with the mobster Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone.  As Varun Pant told it, Easy Eddie decided to set an example for his son and turned Capone in, and was shot to death in return.  He then segued into a second story.  During the Pacific campaign of the Second World War, Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare became the first naval aviator to earn the Medal of Honour, before going missing in action after being shot down on 26^th November 1943.  Chicago’s O’Hare Airport carries his name, as do several other sites and a naval vessel.  Lieutenant Commander O'Hare was the son of Easy Eddie, whose real name was Edward Joseph O'Hare.

A brief correction is worth adding here, in fairness to the historical record.  Edward Joseph O’Hare worked as Al Capone’s lawyer and business associate, managing his racetrack and slot machine interests, rather than serving as his accountant.  He was shot dead on 8^th November 1939, a week before Capone’s release from Alcatraz, and while the preponderance of evidence points to Capone’s organisation ordering the killing in retaliation for O’Hare’s cooperation with federal investigators, historians note that O’Hare’s decision to turn informant likely owed as much to avoiding his own prosecution as to any sudden attack of paternal conscience.  None of this weakens the speech’s point.  A legacy built through redemption, however mixed the original motive, still produced a son who became the Navy’s first flying ace of the Second World War.  It simply means the version worth repeating is the one closest to what happened, not the tidiest one.

The Evaluators and Results

Belinda Lee, Adeline Yeo, Julie Ong, DTM, and Tony Lim, DTM, served as Project Evaluators.  Best Speaker went to Junie Seow.  Best Evaluator went to Julie Ong, DTM.  Best Table Topics Speaker went to Jennifer Lim, DTM.  A club producing a speech on colour psychology, a reflection on cell group leadership, and a legacy story precise enough to reward a second look at its sourcing has done more with one evening than most clubs manage in a month.

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

Astro@Radin Mas Toastmasters Club: A New Executive Committee Takes the Stage

On 1^st August 2019, I was at Astro@Radin Mas Toastmasters Club as Project Evaluator, my 22^nd club visit on the 32^nd day of the Toastmaster year.  The meeting opened with the installation of the new Executive Committee, conducted by Area D1 Director Lim Chang Jing.

The New Executive Committee

Li Shan Shan, DTM, took on both President and Secretary, a demanding double appointment for anyone to carry simultaneously.  Hendri Chandra took Vice-President, Education.  Jhony Chandra took both Vice-President, Membership, and Treasurer, another double appointment within the same small committee.  Loy Hoo Keong took Vice-President, Public Relations.  Tan Chian Huay took Sergeant-at-Arms.  A committee this compact, with two members each carrying two portfolios, tells its own story about a club still building the bench strength to distribute responsibility more evenly, and that is not a criticism.  It is simply the honest state of a growing club, carried by the people willing to double up rather than letting a role sit vacant.

The Speeches

Li Shan Shan’s, DTM, presidential address doubled as her own project speech, addressing Toastmasters mentoring, a genuinely fitting choice for a new President to open her term with, given that mentoring is the mechanism by which every other speech in that room eventually gets better.

Jhony Chandra spoke on managing time, drawing on his own younger struggles with procrastination.  A speaker willing to admit a personal weakness this specific, rather than delivering time management as an abstract productivity lecture, gives the audience something they can recognise in themselves.

Sam Chou spoke about knowing ourselves before knowing others, a principle with real grounding beyond motivational cliché.  Socrates’ own maxim, “know thyself,” inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, has anchored two and a half thousand years of philosophy on this premise: that self-awareness is the prerequisite for genuine understanding of anyone else, not an optional add-on to it.

Naveen Giri spoke on change management, a discipline where the research is unambiguous about the scale of the challenge.  Studies on organisational change initiatives have repeatedly found failure rates in the region of 60% to 70%, driven overwhelmingly by poor communication and inadequate stakeholder buy-in rather than flawed strategy.  A speech on change management delivered inside a Toastmasters club, an organisation built on communication as its core discipline, is addressing the variable that determines whether change succeeds or joins that majority that fails.

The Rhetorical Devices Primer

Eric Tan, DTM, served as Language Evaluator and opened the meeting with a short presentation on rhetorical devices, deliberately timed so every subsequent speaker could apply the techniques immediately rather than merely hearing about them in the abstract after the fact.  Teaching a tool and then handing the room the chance to use it within the same hour is more effective than teaching it in isolation and hoping it survives until the next opportunity to practise.

The Evaluators and Results

Hendri Chandra, Ivan Lee, DTM, Lim Chang Jing, DTM, and I served as Project Evaluators.  Best Speaker went to Sam Chou.  Best Evaluator went to Lim Chang Jing, DTM.  Best Table Topics Speaker went to a guest.  A club that installs a new committee and produces a Best Speaker win for a guest-attracting performance in the very same session has started its term with genuine momentum, not merely ceremonial box-ticking.

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

Astro Toastmasters @ Radin Mas TMC as Project Speaker, 04th July 2019

On the 04^th July 2019, I was hosted at Astro@Radin Mas Toastmasters Club, as a project speaker.  This was my 3^rd club visit, on the 04^th day of the new term.

I gave my icebreaker for the Dynamic Leadership pathway, since I have already completed my Visionary Communication path.  I spoke about my first voyage in the merchant navy, as a deck cadet, and some of my misadventures.

The venerable Katherine Kang was actually the first speaker.  She spoke about the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and her impression of it, as a little girl.  It was a riveting account of history relived.  She also mentioned, briefly, the death of his brother, Robert Kennedy.

Li Shan Shan gave a humorous speech of the types of travellers that bedevil tour operators, and some of the lengths people go through to get a bargain.  Being the sort that would prioritise convenience and comfort over cost, it was an insight into the minds of other kinds of travellers.

Naveen Giri spoke of the time, long ago, when he was in the Army.  It was a story of pain and regret, when he was stung by a giant centipede during his jungle training after forgetting to check his boots before wearing it.  Such was the way he wove the story, we all felt his pain.

After the voting, the results were as follows:

Best Prepared Speech: Myself;

Best Evaluator: Aaron Ting King Hean; and

Best Table Topics Speaker: Steven Yap.