Ruwi Toastmasters Club: Session 143

Good news for the day...

We added two more members to our club - TM Srinivas and TM Lawrence. Welcome. May all your goals be fulfilled.

SAA MTM Rita (stand-in for Viswa) kicked off the session on the dot at 3.15 pm.

TM Chaitanya gave the welcome address, relating the story of a lady who embarked on a share-maximization drive on a box of cookies against a stranger, thinking that it was her box whereas actually it was the stranger's. Think before you jump to conclusions is the takeaway message. Good story, acting President.

TMOD role was played by TM Rajat, who had chosen the theme of "Habits". He introduced every role-player, asking them what habit they wanted to stop, to start and to continue, which made for lively interviews.

Timer role was played by TM Shanavas, who explained the time criteria to all.

TM Muthu was the Wordmaster, introducing the word IMPECCABLE to the audience. Round robin was an easy challenge as the audience had had two days to prepare a sentence. A friendly word, easily applied in a variety of situations.

MTM Rita embarked again as Jokemaster, regaling us with a series of amusing situations.

MTM Swati who was the evaluator for the upcoming Icebreaker speech, explained her expectations to the audience.

TM Sumesh delivered his Icebreaker speech titled "Ëxplore, Dream, Discover", following the Pathways manual. He talked about his growing up through childhood and adult life, his challenges and victories. He talked about his hobbies and dreams, ending with a quote from Marco Polo. A lovely speech TM Sumesh, and may you go from strength to strength.

Table topics were conducted by TM Chaitanya, who gave topics related to the theme, as if the speakers were trying to deal with a habit. An imaginative approach, which made for interesting speeches.

MTM Swati gave a feedback on TM Sumesh's speech, praising his ease on stage and sharing of life details, while suggesting that he could have related small personal stories as well and used the stage a little more.

For the first time in the club, we attempted a feedback session for the Table Topic speakers. Veteran TM G Kumar had been roped in for the purpose and he gave tips on how to make TT more memorable. He also gave individual feedback to the speakers on their efforts. Good job TM Kumar.

Grammarian MTM Panna gave a knowledge-rich feedback on Ah-counts as well as the usage of English - both good and bad.

TM Chaitanya conducted the Business Session, tying up the main roles for the next session - TM Ram as TMOD and TM Shanavas as speaker. We hope to get another speaker too.

We had as guest a leadership coach and motivational speaker Mr Hiten Bhatt, CEO of BE GREAT training centre based in the UK. He is in Muscat to promote a couple of training programs. It was interesting listening to him, since he was a very good speaker as well.

President TM Rajat closed the session with the announcement of awards.