18th October

The meeting started off with first time SAA, Cassandra, asking everybody to introduce themselves as well as share with the audience on what's so special about themselves. 

After the introductions, John took over the stage to give his presidential address. Taking the cue from the SAA of the morning, he centred his speech on being different and making a difference, and how we should keep trying to fight off indifference. In addition, he also took the opportunity to remind the audience to attend Division W's humorous speech and evaluation contest on this coming Saturday, 25th October. 

Next up, Toastmaster of the Morning, Book Keong, took over. He gave a brief history of Toastmasters International before asking the Grammarian of the day, Jason Lim, for the Word of the Day. The Word of the Day was epitome, which was, for the first time, used more than a few times throughout the meeting. 

The meeting then proceeded with the Table Topics session, conducted by first-time Table Topics Master, Ka Chuan. He did an admirable job, giving a brief introduction of the session for guests and new members before moving on with the session. 

The first speaker was yours truly, Pui Yee, who was 'rewarded' for her courage (ahem) with a topic called 'Donkey' (thanks a lot TTM). Yours truly went on to babble about cute donkeys and stubbornness, and ending the speech with a useful piece of advice – don't be a donkey. 

The second brave soul was Jee Aik, who attempted the speech topic, 'Great minds think alike'. He gave a interesting twist to the title, provoking the audience's thoughts by saying, 'Great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ'. 

After that, the third speaker, Abel, took the stage. His topic was, 'You have invented the first time machine, what would you do with it?'. Surprisingly, he said that he would travel back to the era of World War II to see the movers and shakers of the world who altered the course of human history forever. 

Last but not least, Jason Lim, who gave an amazing performance when he talked about 'How I wish to be the opposite gender'. His speech prompted laughs and entertained the audience so much so that he was voted the Best Table Topics Speaker. 

Next up was the evaluation session, conducted by the always animated Jason Moi. 

The meeting proceeded with the assignment speeches. Ka Chuan, doing his CCM#2, gave a thought-provoking speech titled, 'Do you think what you think you think?', in which he questioned our very existence. 

The second speaker, also doing CCM#2, was Cassandra. She gave a hilarious speech titled, 'I promised to be safe'. She recounted her experience in learning how to drive and although it was funny, it was a good reminder for the rest of us to be careful while on the roads. 

The third speaker was our regular guest from UEM Academy, Hedzrin. He also gave a humourous speech titled 'Why so shy?' from the AC manual.

Last but not least, our very own Immediate Past President, Ernest, gave a speech from the AC manual titled 'You can be a better communicator'. He was awarded Best Assignment Speaker. 

by Evon Low