First-Timer Evaluation Workshop

Yet another fruitful day at Cheng San Toastmasters Club. Although I have been in the club for more than 6 years, I am humbled by this experience at the First-Timers Evaluation Workshop. We never had this during "my time". And having to see the enthusiam from the members in learning a new skill is heartening. New members - Sam, Bak Kia, Venkat, Ben and Slyvia had their fair share of practising their skills. Xin Hong is an experienced member but it's also his first try at doing an evaluation. Well done to all. Many thanks to Lani, Chay Buay, Daniel and Wendy who were there to mentor the freshies. Of course, thank you to our trainer, Albert Chan for his efforts in conducting this workshop. If you have benefited from this workshop, do sign up as an evaluator for the next chapter meeting.

Gwen

VPPR

Ushering the New Year

Our Club President, Daniel Kwek has made us write down our Toastmasters resolutions for the term 2009/10. Do you still remember what they are? And have you tried your best to fulfill them?

I remember mine was to take up appointments whenever I attend club meetings and to organise at least 1 activity each month. Hmm... guilty as charged for not doing the first, however the PR team tries our best to do the latter. We look forward to planning more fun-filled and educational activities for the next 6 months before we usher in the new term.

Pulau Ubin 14th Nov 2009

"It's going to rain only at 6 O'clock!"

This was Ivana's promise as we head towards Ubin on the bumboat on a cloudy morning. My last visit to Ubin was 6 years back during my University days. Stepping on the island once again brought back sweet memories of being a student going on a treasure hunt and trying to avoid ghostly entities.

Ubin is in essence, the last village in Singapore. A peddling through the rustic roads of Ubin takes you back to Singapore in the 1960's with the simpler pleasures of life. Some viewed Ubin as a mosquitoes feasted island and its favourite delicacies were the island’s visitors. However, as we cycled towards Chek Jawa, we were greeted by military commandos and Ubin Volunteers who were preparing for the arrival of the APEC guests. The trail was peppered with unforeseen road obstacles but everyone pressed on before we stopped for some coconut drinks and to marinate ourselves with sunblock. And when we were hungry, we went to our "Kachang Puteh" Mingcai for some tidbits who also provided us with loads of entertainment along the way. Of course, how can we forget about the photo-taking whereever we went? Ben was our official photographer and did I mention he is also a potential Man-hunt model? It was a fantastic nature cycling trail as we managed to catch the mini mudcrab migrating, the Nipah also known as "Attap Chee", jelly fish and wild boars! It was indeed a very enjoyable getaway from the hustling and bustling life on mainland Singapore.

On top of our Great Singapore Nature Trail, we went on our Great Singapore Makan Trail! Alike the Taiwan food tasting entertainment television series, we took a bus from Changi Point to Geylang Lorang 35 for the 24 hours daily Bean curd store and back tracked to the famous fermented toufu at the junction of Geylang road and Katong! It was an amusing sight watching Tricia trying the toufu for the every first time and downing barley water to kill the stinky breath. To save time, we took a bus to Lorong 18 where we tried to catch a glimpse of the shady red-light district. To our surprised, we were tailed by a mentally disturbed man who wanted to befriend me! Who else was to save the day other than our President, Daniel Kwek? He walked up to the man and scared him off with a glare and a baritone voice warning him to stay away. Our hero was rewarded with a plate of spicy stingray and a delicious frog leg’s porridge as Mingcai re-enacted the whole scene telling us he was so ready to teach that senile man a lesson if Daniel has not bravely come to the rescue.

At the end of the day, Tricia was a bit toasted from the sun. Daniel became a hero. Ivana's weather forecast came true. Mingcai was the ultimate entertainment provider. Ben was our security officer making us feel safe and secure. And I felt like I have gone through an unsuccessful weight lost programme, but it felt absolutely fantastic.

Thank you Ben and Mingcai for organising this outing and making us feel so safe throughout the trip. Never forget Ben’s slogan: Your Worries are Our Concern.

More photos on chengsantmc.multiply.com

Written by Gwen

Happy Birthday Mr President Kwek

SORRY to strain your necks... =P

Chapter Meeting - 12th August 2009

If you haven't been able to attend chapter meetings regularly, don't feel left out. The door to Cheng San Toastmasters Club is always open for you!

Here's a snapshot of the chapter meeting, by our dear VPE, Fui Long.

Thanks to Tricia for taking up the roles of TME with many last minutes changes and disruptions, she pulled through despite physically drained with so many recessions going on at work. I knew she wanted to polish her mastering-the-ceremony skills, indeed she had grown and discovered many more opportunities for improvements through yesterday's session. Tired, Tough and Tremendous effort! Hi Tricia, Cheng San will always be a place for you to DE-STRESS and BE AFFIRMED!

Thanks to all the speakers, Ming Cai, Ronald, Daryl for putting the effort to prepare for the speeches. Daryl made us clearer that we were blessed to live in Singapore. Ronald, the BEST Speaker, certainly prompted us to check our Type of Output in the toilet! Ming Cai, for rushing over to chapter meeting after work to tell us a story that touched us.

Thanks to Lani coordinating the Table Topics session with the theme "I Love SPORE". And Mr. Table Topic was Guan Hau again....with SAM telling us why SIA was a great way to fly. Kumar on why Singapore would not win world cup, Xin Hong on why Singapore is an ideal home and Ivana looking forward to opening of the IR but not the Casino.

We all benefitted from our newly appointed Resident Language Evalutor Sylvia Ang who lead us to "PLEDGE" the WORD OF THE EVENING. We also learned that "ZERO" is not "GERO". Well Done!
While we were having fun, we missed Albert(staying at home), Cheng Lin(busy), Shuling(down with fever) and Chay Buay(staying back at office till late evening....., Steven Sim (busy at work) and many of you not here with us.

The next meeting will be on 26 Aug 2009. It will be the birth of 2 Cheng San Champions! Please be here to celebrate! See ya!

Cheng San-Seletar GRC National Day Dinner

Cheng San Toastmasters and friends

Cheng San members with Guest-of-Honour, Dr Balaji Sadasivan

Gwen co-hosting with the professional

One People, One Nation, One Singapore... It is a joyous occasion for all as the Cheng San residents celebrated National Day @ Blk 504. I was invited to be the host for this important event!

It's amazing how things are different when you are on stage facing 1500 people.

The professionals have to handle not only the crowd but also coordinating with the organisers, the sound systems and making sure that they engage the audience! A rehearsal and microphone testing is always a must in order for the programme to run smoothly!

I was not nervous in particular when I stood on stage, however, it's the reading of the recipients names that got me uptight as I was handed the name list 5 minutes before going on stage! I am pretty complacent when it comes to hosting a Toastmasters Chapter meeting. However, for a National event like this, we have to think on our feet; joke, sing songs and just continue talking in order to stall for time! Nevertheless I had friends from Cheng San Toastmasters Club, who encouraged me throughout the programme. I even got tips from the professional emcee, Adrian from That's Innovative! How lucky I was! Then of course I had the honour of taking photos with our Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Information, Communications and the Arts. and Advisor for Cheng San-Seletar GRC, Dr Balaji Sadasivan!

It was a once in a life time experience. I would like to give special thanks to our Cheng San Community Centre Management Committee Chairman, Henry Tan and CSTMC Club advisor, Leslie Yong for the dinner invitation. And Special people - Daniel, Sylvia, Lani, Fui Long, Han Wen, Simin, Hwee Ling, Hung Bin and Hung Jui for the 110% support!

Happy 44th Birthday Singapore!

Written by Gwen Goh, VPPR

More photos on:

http://chengsantmc.multiply.com/photos/album/61/Cheng_San-Seletar_GRC_National_Day_Dinner_01082009#

Our 2nd meeting for July

Yet another wonderful evening with visiting guests from different clubs.

Thank you Kok Wah for being our first GE for this new term. It's really amazing to us that you keep an Evaluator's archive and that you still have our General evaluation from the past 4 years! Kudos!