94th session - Area 08 joint session

Today's was a special event.

What started off as an Education Session being organised by Area 08 turned out to be a joint session as well of the four area clubs, viz SBG, Ruwi, Muscat Airport and Sur. Well, Sur being 200 km away precluded them from attending a session on a Saturday afternoon, but the other three clubs enjoyed an evening of shared fun and camaraderie.

For the information of all, the Area 08 team comprises the following:

• TM Babu Srinivasan - Area Director
• TM Rajat Ray - Program Quality
• TM Ajith Kumar - Public Relations
• TM Subratesh Chakraborty - Membership
• TM Raja Subramanian - Treasurer & admin

The session, being both a normal session as well as an education session, started a little earlier at 2.45 pm. SAA TM Raja enthusiastically flagged off the session with a big cheer to the three Club Presidents who were attending.  

The welcome address was given by TM Sankara Subramanian (MATC) who spoke about synergy and teamwork as the means of success and getting ahead in life.

The baton was taken up by our TMOD MTM Roman, who had chosen as her theme "Ïnventions". She went on a pleasant and intriguing tangent to talk mostly about weird inventions that left the audience vastly amused at the follies of the intellectual class. Although presented with a large audience of senior toastmasters, she delivered the session to us in a balanced, coherent and interesting manner, with good time management. Kudos to you MTM.

The Timer role was played by TM Nagesh who explained all the rules with total clarity. His parting shot was "Earlier nobody had watches and we all had plenty of time. Now we all have watches but no time." Nice one.

The Wordmaster was played by TM Sankaranarayanan (MATC) who introduced the word SYNERGY to the audience. It was a simple but powerful word and in the round robin, members of the audience could apply the word in various contexts. Even the role-players popped it in in various portions of their speech.

Jokemaster TM Venkat, as usual, reeled off a series of funny ones. Some of them must have been new, because he also laughed with us!

There was a P-9 speech scheduled today and TM KSN Murthy (SBG) laid out the ground rules for this speech which is supposed to Persuade with Power. In fact, as an evaluator, he displayed great eloquence and raised the expectations of the audience.

P-9 speech was delivered by MTM Panna. Titled "An Eye for an Eye", the speech dealt with the need for raising awareness about organ donation and how this simple gift, which takes just 5 minutes and does not cost a penny, can give the gift of life to eight people and the benefit of better health to 50 more. It was a persuasive speech and I am sure many of the audience were convinced.

Table topics were conducted by TM Katta (SBG), whose topics were pithy sayings that had to be expounded upon. They were good topics, but sometimes it needed a few seconds to fathom. Ultimately all five speakers gave it their best shot and made a lot of sense out of them.

Feedback on the speech was given by TM Murthy. While lauding the subject and the coverage of MTM Panna, he suggested a little heightening of the emotional pitch by more personal examples. He also commented on a technical glitch in the AV. This is in fact a difficult speech to deliver - to keep a balance between pleasantness and portrayal of emotions. Good luck to all P-9 aspirants.

The Grammarian, played by TM Chaitanya, gave meticulous feedback on the usage of English and points of improvement.

The General Evaluator was played by DTM Robin Anand (SBG) and he gave a number of excellent suggestions:

• The session had started a little late, on account of late arrival of GE. But SAA should not wait.
• For the TMOD, he suggested that in mixed club gatherings like this, the role-player introductions should be a little more detailed.
• He suggested to the speaker that this speech could be tried even without a video clip, portraying the scene directly. That may have conveyed even deeper emotions.
• The Grammarian can perhaps group the suggestions under sub-categories like singular/plural, tense problems, syntax etc.

TM Rajat Ray was called upon stage and he announced the release of the first Newsletter of RTC club. One print copy (apparently printed and couriered from Amsterdam!) was revealed by the Division Director and the guest speaker, while the digital version was flashed on the projector for the audience. A good achievement, to be kept up in every quarter, for which article-chasing starts from tomorrow!

Now was the time to start the education session on Personal Investments. TM Ajith Kumar (MATC) introduced the guest and the subject of his presentation and invited him to start the session.

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Mr G Swaminathan, an investment banker by career, is currently advisor to a high net-worth individual in Oman. But he also has a long and deep experience in the Indian investment market. After giving an overview of the investment tools like gold, FDs and stocks, he gave a runthrough on the expectations from the Indian economy and the stock market in the near future and what is the most savvy way to understand entry and exit. He ended by specifically recommending 8 stocks that are likely to do well in the next 2-3 years (and why). It was an informative presentation and definitely interesting to many in the audience who are keen on investing. Mr Swaminathan's passion and knowledge in the subject was never in doubt. Thanks once again.

TM Subratesh thanked the speaker for devoting his time for this session and appreciating his inputs.

TM Rajat Ray took the stage once again, this time in his Area role, to give a glimpse of the events that the Area team is thinking about. That included a Bowling Competition, a Skit Competition, an Education session on Evaluation and Table topics as a preparation for contests and an Annual Quiz Contest. Details have to be worked out in conjunction with the clubs but should be fun, right?

Area Director TM Babu Srinivasan wrapped up the session by thanking all concerned for making the first Area event a success. He distributed the day's award and dissolved the session for a group photograph and snacks.

The awards were:

• Best Table topic :    TM Vignesh
• Best Evaluator:        TM KSN Murthy (default)
• Best Speaker:           MTM Panna (default)

See you all at the next session on 7th Oct 2017.

92nd session

As one young guest at the last session said: "I like the club experience here because people are quite involved".

No doubt. And young... and enthusiastic... and colourful.

TM Raja was back in town and happily donned the mantle of SAA once again.

The session was opened by President MTM Panna who this time moved away from her usual story to talk about her experience at the recent Teacher's Day celebrations at her school. This time the function had been held on two different days - one day of fun and games with only teachers and another evening gathering at the auditorium where people dressed to their heart's content. It is only by seeing people in different situations that we get a total picture of their personalities and this builds a closeness among the staff. Similarly, in Toastmasters, we must take care to project our true selves through our speeches (not borrowed material and opinions) so that our personalities also become evident to the group and it becomes a close-knit one. A different sort of message Prez, and very welcome.

TMOD role was played by MTM Vaishali and what a vibrant show it was with her theme of "Colours"! She played Holi with the theme throughout the speaker introductions, describing their favourite colours and related personality traits and giving us little snippets of information about colours. A well-designed script MTM and a confident presentation.

Time criteria were explained by MTM Roman, who decided to  indicate red flags to the TMOD as well.

Wordsmaster TM Vishwanath introduced the word CADENCE to the group, meaning rhythm. A new word to most of the audience, the round robin was a learning experience for all.

Jokemaster TM Kamil related a few well-chosen non-spouse jokes, which were well-appreciated.

There were two speeches scheduled today - a P-7 and a P-5. The P-7 criteria were explained by TM Rajat.

TM Venkat delivered his P-7 speech titled "Oil Drop". P-7 encourages the speaker to Research the Topic. TM Venkat had done well to choose a topic of interest in this part of the world and he found it easy to produce data to support his points. 

Criteria for the P-5 speech were explained by TM Ramalingam. Being a Body Language speech, he had had us in splits as he started his speech with many body movements.

P-5 speech was delivered by MTM Kaviya, titled "Once Upon a Time", who was repeating her performance in order to improve the same from last time. It was an engaging speech about story-telling and the influence it has on everyone's lives. There was scope for body language, which was used by the speaker well.

Table Topics were conducted by MTM Swati, who had prepared topics on coloured slips, the topics being based on the theme of Colours. Perhaps the best one was "Colours are the smileys of nature". Good job there, MTM.

TM Rajat and TM Ramalingam gave their feedback to the respective speakers, praising their efforts. As usual there will always be room for improvement.

Harkmaster TM Mathen played off the left field against the right field and his questions did proper justice to both the sides. We will not declare the winners here!

Grammarian TM Nagesh found very few mistakes in grammar; in fact he lauded a lot of good usage of English. However he made the point that the word of the day could be more usage-friendly as very few speakers could include the word in their speeches.

General Evaluator TM Raja started off by congratulating SAA Raja on having done a perfect kick-off! To be fair, he praised almost all the role-players and repeated the comment of the Grammarian regarding the word of the day.

Business session was conducted by TM Mathen, who was shocked to find that there were suddenly no speeches ready for next week in spite of so much prior planning! Luckily TM Raja stepped in and volunteered and TM Venkat decided to repeat his P-7 speech, so we have two entries slated, thank God!

President adjourned the session after announcing the awards:

• Best Table topic    :     Bhaviya (guest)
• Best Evaluator:           TM Rajat
• Best Speaker:              MTM Kaviya

There is a Toast Fest organised next Saturday morning at ABA school, which is a Division event. Please do roll up with lots of guests. 

Afternoon, we will have our session as usual.

91st session

Every session, something new happens at RTC. This is perhaps the most energising thing about our club. And weekend timings. And casual dressing. And gender equality.

The session started bang on time, thanks to SAA TM Ramalingam.

President MTM Panna Rashmi Ray gave a motivating opening speech as usual, talking about the importance of being positive and maintaining a non-blaming mindset, exemplified by the story of a couple losing their small child accidentally. Thanks Prez, for that small and thought-provoking speech.

TMOD role was taken up by TM Kamil, who had chosen as his theme "Common sense", which is supposedly not very common. TM Kamil disagreed and throughout the session, pointed out instances where common sense and common emotions had driven people and nations. A nice theme, TM Kamil and quite innocent questions at the role-player introductions.

Timer role was played by MTM Swati, a past master at the game. She was challenged a little by the different timing rules for the Table Topics round, but finished smiling.

Wordmaster MTM Usha introduced the word LOGICAL to the group, in keeping with the theme. The audience had an easy time making sentences in the round robin as their efforts followed a logical progression around the hall.

There was a P-8 speech scheduled today and DTM Rajendra Varma explained the crieria for this project, which was to support the speaker's communication with visual aids like powerpoint, charts, props etc.

TM Rajat delivered his P-8 speech titled "The Road Less Travelled". It was a light speech on the difficulties of fixing up a travel plan during Eid holidays, ending with a different inner journey.

Table Topics were conducted by MTM Roman, who introduced a number of novelties. Firstly it was a 20 min session, sending shivers down everyone's spine. Secondly, the seating was in a semi-circle, like a parliament floor. Thirdly, the timing was reduced to 1.5 mins to accommodate more speakers (more shivers). Fourthly, the theme was to provide comments on the recent gender discrimination controversy raised by Google Inc. It was a serious discussion by Table Topic standards. Kudos MTM Roman, for having tried something different!

Evaluation for the speech was conducted by DTM Rajendra Varma. While praising the delivery skills and smooth demonstration of visual aids, he said he had wished for more substantial contents and structure. Anyway, a good P-8 presentation.

Harkmaster role was played by MTM Shobha, whose quiz on the session was easily answered by the assemblage. Nowadays nobody sleeps at parliament, it seems!

Grammarian role was played by TM G Kumar, who mentioned a few instances where the language usage could be improved. However, he commended the group on the overall improvement in usage of English and word fluency.

TM Mathen acted as General Evaluator and by and large lauded the session. He expressed a doubt whether Table Topics timings could be modified the way it was and the group was advised to call such different sessions Round Robins instead. He also requested people to reduce cross-talk during role plays and to remember to switch off the microphone when putting them on or off.

The major event of the session was the launch of the official website of RTC, designed following the guidelines and tools provided by TMI. This would make prospective members easily familiar with Toastmasters, club session happenings, club officers, location and timings of the club, member details and so on, raising some interest in the club even before he or she visited the same. So members, please promote the website to friends and colleagues and encourage them to visit the club.

TM Mathen conducted the Business Session and fixed up the next day's roles in a jiffy.

TM G Kumar took the floor and requested all members present to ensure higher attendance in the club sessions. RTC is a name to reckon with and the quality of the club can only improve with higher attendance. (Video of the speech has been posted in the Whatsapp group for the benefit of members who were absent today).

The President adjourned the session.

Today's awards went to:

• Best Table Topic:       MTM Usha
• Best Speaker:              TM Rajat (default)
• Best Evaluator:            DTM Rajendra Varma (default)

See you all on 16.9.2017.