Ruwi Toastmasters Club: Session 151

This was a slim and stylish session, this session 151.

The session was kicked off before time by TM Raja, who was standing in for TM Viswa, with a lot of energy.

TM Chaitanya delivered the welcome address, relating the story of Tanaji, the military chief under Shivaji, who completed the commitment of conquering a fort against heavy odds because he had committed to his king and to his mother that he would do so. Therefore, members, do take inspiration from this and carry out a speech or a role once you have committed to it.

TMOD Swati, resplendent in red, soon put of a red cap to complete her enactment of Secret Santa, who came bearing gifts for everybody. Her theme “Surprise” was also a surprise. She introduced all role players conveying their answers to what was their biggest surprise and which surprise in their life turned into a shock. We were also treated to a host of revelation.

Timer TM Sumesh explained the timing criteria very efficiently for all the roles.

Wordmaster MTM Sandhya introduced the word CRISP to the audience, very relevant in the Toastmaster milieu, where our communications are expected to be succinct.

Jokemaster TM Bhaskaran related some real life funny situations from his childhood student days, which was a change from the litany of internet jokes.

There was an ACB level speech scheduled today: Interpretive reading of Poetry. MTM Vidya Rani from SAB Toastmasters Club described the criteria of this project, wherein the speaker was supposed to understand and analyse a poem and then read out the same in order to communicate effectively the poet’s thoughts and emotions.

TM Rajat delivered this project speech, by reading a poem titled “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noys, a romantic ballad. Being a narrative, it was an interesting story of love, adventure and betrayal, set in pleasing rhyme and rhythm.

Table topics were conducted by MTM Vaishali, who provided topics based on the theme of surprise.

Evaluator MTM Vidya Rani gave her feedback on the project speech, applauding the choice of poem, effective reading of the descriptions and conveying the free flow of narrative. She suggested enhancement of the drama further through vocal variety, given the scope of the poem.

Grammarian MTM Panna gave detailed feedback of word-of-the-day usage. Ah-counts, good and bad usage of English.

GE MTM Rita diligently gave crisp feedback on all role-players. She had the following suggestions:

Timer – To hold up card in addition to the lights, to aid visibility.
Jokemaster – To give a pause between the funny stories.
Table topics – To read out the topics himself/herself. Also, to put the pull-out slips in an envelope for easy handling.

TM Chaitanya conducted the business session, volunteering to be the next TMOD.

President Rajat wrapped up the session with the following announcements:

With the last COT2, the club now had 7 points and has become a Select Distinguished Club.
As Ruwi Club had sponsored a new club (Assyad), we have received a Founder’s Award ribbon, which went up on the banner.
TMs Saleem, Bhaskaran and Sethuraman had been part of a cricket team (Manager was TM Raja) that had taken part in a cricket tournament last Friday and reached the Semifinals. TM Saleem showed a small video clip of the same while AD Murthy presented TM Raja with a small gift.