Ruwi Toastmasters Club: 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.