First 4 Months Updates from the President

Dear Friends,

The new exco 2011-2012 has just completed it’s first 4 months into the year and I wanted to provide a quick update in terms of what has been accomplished so far as well as invite feedback and suggestions from club members on how we can improve.

1. We actually started the new term by organizing a Project Day on July 16 with 6 speakers and we had our bitter-sweet moment with Toastmaster Li Dan acting as a TMD for one session which was to be one of the last occasions for many of us to see her before she moved to the USA in her new job. Our VPPR Adinda Praditya also launched our new look web site and we certainly look forward to new updates from him!
2. Next we had our July 30 Chapter meeting and we also had our Installation ceremony for the new exco. We had a big turnout of guests including senior district officers and DTMs. I also launched our vision and theme for the club, namely to strive and continue to be a President’s Distinguished Club and having Dynamic and Delightful meetings as our way to attract new members and retain existing ones. We introduced voting slips for those present to rate the quality of our chapter meetings in terms of those attributes and we received a score of 6.7 out of 10 as our first score.
3. In August, we held another Project Day on the 13th but our plan to have the speech contest was disrupted by the Presidential Elections on the 27th August and that was moved to the following month. We also received notification of the increase in TI dues effective October as well as the rebranding of the TI logo and the exco members discussed and sought suggestions from our past presidents. After deliberation, we then moved forward to align our club fee structure with the increase of fees also effective in October. We have ordered our new club banner and ribbons and expect to receive them in November, so members should see our new banner unveiled at the next meeting!
4. September Project Day was held on 3rd September and the following week, Sharanya ably organized the club’s Humorous Speech and Speech evaluation contests. Our club humorous speech champion was of course Competent Communicator Cheng Kok Beng and he went on to become Area B5 champion before finishing second in the Division B Finals. Clarence Cheong our new member finished 1st runner-up in the club speech contest and Vipula 2nd Runners-up. In the club Speech Evaluation Contest, Competent Communicator Vipula Manukularatne emerged as the Club Speech Evaluation champion with Terry Teng second and Tay Hong Kiat third.

   On September 24th, our Muslim members led by Division B Governor Azizah Bte Sapari helped to organize our Hari Raya Special Event and we had wonderful fun with the Saddiq twins as TMD and TTM respectively. Our VPM Flex Tio also presided over the New Members Induction Ceremony and we all had much fun during the event, so much so that our Dynamic and Delightful rating went up to 8.2. Sharanya Ramachandran also published her first newsletter for the club during the event and it was certainly a refreshing read. Well done Sharanya!

5. In October, we held our series of 4 Speechcraft workshops organized by myself and we had the help of many members and trainers that included Richard Sng, Andrew Chew, Patrick Sehoo, Michael Chang and Anand Jude Anthony. In all, we had a record 14 participants registered including 4 of our new members. The quality and energy from the Speechcrafters was simply amazing and many of us involved are inspired from the event. In between we also organized a Project Day on October 8th and of course we recently concluded our 85th Chapter meeting on October 29th.

What comes next?
For the rest of the year, due to the Semi-Annual Convention November 11-13, we will be having our 86th Chapter Meeting on November 19th. This is a bit unusual but it was also to space out the events in December with the Christmas and New Year holidays fast approaching. We will next be having our Outdoors event on December 3. This time we will having our Project Day in the afternoon followed by a barbecue where you may bring your family members and loved ones along (yes kids invited too J). For our Muslim friends we will have a halal food section as well. This will be held at the condo of 2 of our members at 61 Hume Avenue, Hillview Green Condominium function room, so do look out for our special invite! Next up will be the Chapter Meeting on December 17 which will be a special Christmas celebration Event.

The Club Needs You
As with any club, our success is dependent on you-our members. Here’s how we hope you can contribute:

1. Attend and support our events. We want to see more of you come and attend regularly, booking your prepared speeches with our VPEs-Yeh Ming, Joyce and Clarence or helping out as appointment holders-TMD, Ah Counter, Timer, Speech Evaluators or even to help organize our club special events (we need volunteers to help organize the December 3 outdoors event and Christmas special events.)
2. For those of you who have still not done so, please renew your club membership before the grace period runs out.
3. Help us bring in new members into the club and volunteer to be a mentor to our new members.
4. Give us feedback. Let us know what you like or conversely don’t like. I assure you the exco will always be willing to listen to feedback and improve.

We expect to reach our goal of nearing our President’s Distinguished Club goals in December itself but while that would be an achievement, the soul and spirit of our club is in all of you. Ever forward-ever upward-Excelsior!

Alan Ong, CC
President NTUA TMC
2011-2012