Ruwi Toastmasters Club: 66th session

Contest fever was upon us. Today's session was not the fever itself, but a slight cough and cold. Which meant it was not the contest itself but a mock run for the evaluation contest. 13 future contestants took part in the run, which coupled with the normal session events, turned the run into a marathon.

SAA Ramalingam declared the session open at 3.16 pm and handed over the session to the President.

President Aji Bhaskar welcomed all of us with an inspiring speech as to how a good deed done without expectation of reward, propagates to others, much on the lines of the film "Pay it forward."

Master of Ceremonies TM Kaushik brought in the theme of St Valentine and his history as 14th Feb was a few days away.

TM Alma, as Timekeeper, declared the time norms. Ironically, she had been late in arriving today.

There was a P-5 speech scheduled today and TM Vignesh as evaluator explained the criteria. P-5 speech was about using body language effectively.

TM Nagesh delivered his P-5 speech "Disposal", based on his experience of a bomb scare at an Indian airport.

TM Aji conducted an education session on evaluation which was very useful to the contestants participating in the mock run today.

TM Vigesh delivered the evaluation of the P-5 speech.

Now it was time for the evaluation fest to begin. Test speaker TM Rajkamal delivered a speech titled "The Trap". Delivered as an international speech, this was the one all contestants would evaluate.

The 13 contestants were then taken to the segregated Green Room and then led back one by one for them to give their evaluation on the test speech.

TM Aji gave a detailed feedback to each speaker on their strengths and weaknesses, which benefited everyone individually.

After this TM Aji gave the concluding remarks which included a BIG TWIST. TM Aji was relocating to Dubai by 22nd Feb 2017. It would of course be an irreparable loss to RTC as Aji had been the guiding force since inception, being the founder president. We anyway wish him all the best in his venture.