Saturday, January 19, 2019

Jan 19, 2019 Toastmasters Meeting - Manage Projects Successfully, First Speech

It was our first regular club meeting for the year 2019 today, although we just met at the recently concluded Club Contest last Jan. 5, 2019. Some of us even met each other in the recent Club Officers Training 2 last Jan. 12, 2019.

Those who attended in today's meeting were (L-R): Lorenzo Vergel de Dios, me, Nona Hermogenes, Leah Catapia, guest Tess, guest Atsuko, Bea Indonto, Loise Banez, Ed Ramirez, Marlon Sanchez, Jude Ola, Russell Santos and Ching Bognot.

(photo credits: Marlon Sanchez)

We started on the dot in today's meeting. Pres. Ching banged the gavel at exactly 2 pm. Unfortunately, without the benefit of a printed program, it was difficult to proceed.


Two First-Time Guests at the Meeting

Today, we had two guests attending the club's meeting for the first time. There was Atsuko (below-left) and Tess (below-right).


Atsuko came a few minutes after we started and she even had a chance to participate in Table Topics hosted by Marlon. The theme of the day was "Making 2019 our best year ever".

The table topic given her was "Name one thing that would make 2019 your best year ever." Atsuko gamely stood up to answer and mentioned her finding better ways to raise her 3-year old daughter who's growing up so quickly.

We later learned that Atsuko is a Japanese stay-at-home mom in Alabang to her husband who works in Sta. Rosa. Our other guest, Tess, we learned, works in the Real Estate industry.





Four Prepared Speeches

We had four prepared speakers today and nobody backed out. I was second in the list and I delivered a short Level 4 Innovative Planning speech. This is the First Speech in the Manage Projects Successfully project.

The short speech was to be timed at 2 to 3 minutes only, but the Timer mistook it as 5 to 7 minutes. No wonder I didn't see the green light as I would have expected. Nonetheless, I just elaborated on the Contest Chair role just to lengthen the speech a bit.

It was DTM Nona Hermogenes, our guest General Evaluator, who evaluated my speech.


Grammarian Role

It was a rare instance today when I took on the Grammarian role. Without the benefit of an early program, I failed to note the word-of-the-day, "Accolade". I would've printed it on a couple of sheets for everyone's easy viewing.

But it was a welcome role for me to note the few lapses on grammar as well as noting the idiomatic expressions that were used.


Educational Awards and Others

What a better way to start the year in our first regular meeting than to give out more awards! This time, it was the education award pins from the traditional or legacy program of Toastmasters.

Division Director Dolly endorsed to me three pins (during the Club Officers Training 2) and a trophy (during the Club Contest). She had intended these to be given by me to the awardees on her behalf.

The first item was the awarding of the Headliners of Tomorrow championship trophy to Renzo Vergel de Dios (below-left) which he won at Division H's first ever Rookies Contest last Oct 27, 2019. Renzo, as part of his prize, also won a free 6-month membership renewal with Toastmasters.


(photo credits: Jude Ola)

Then came the educational awards. Immediate Past Area Director Jude Ola completed his Advanced Communicator Bronze award this Toastmaster year (above-right).

Next was Ed Ramirez who received his Advanced Communicator Silver award with me putting the ACS pin on his collar (below-left). And then finally, I gave a Leadership award, and this was the Advanced Leader Bronze award to Club President Ching Bognot (below-right).



One final group photo with all of today's awardees shown below.



What Do Champions Do?

We had a fun time in today's meeting. When Pres. Ching reminded everyone of their membership renewals, I took off from there and asked the audience what Freddie Mercury and Queen had to say about champions. "What do champions do, according to Freddie Mercury?", I asked.

Naturally, many said, "they keep on fighting till the end".

I said, "No, what did he say about membership renewals?" Nobody had an idea. So I said, the clue is in the first line of the song "We Are The Champions." "Whoever can sing the first line of "We are the Champions" gets a prize.

New member Bea blurted out the first line. Sure enough, she was right: "I paid my DUES, time after time..." For her prize, I gave her a nice laminated bookmark from Toastmasters International as shown on the left.


Shown below is a copy of today's meeting program with Loise replacing Ching as Table Topics evaluator.


And that's... a wrap!