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.

|

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.