Words Have Power

We had had fabulous meetings, amazing meetings... but this last one on Feb. 18th was truly extraordinary...

It proved that words have power. Extraordinary being the Word of the Day set the mood and defined the atmosphere of the meeting.

The meeting was opened at 7 p.m. sharp.

Carlo, did an exemplary job as TOM (Toastmaster Of the Meeting/MC), showing us how to master the ceremony properly. His booming baritone voice was music to our ears, and so wonderful to hear it again after an extended absence. His liberal use of the Word of the Day was contagious, resulting in repeated use by all the members except one or two, including yours truly.

Attended by sixteen people: 14 members, 1 Toastmasters guest and 1 member to be, the energy, the power and the attention to the meeting was so extraordinary, that everyone left the meeting feeling happy and uplifted.

The program was commenced by Table Topic session led by Noni. It was a fun one, with a variety of real life topics for the speakers to ponder upon. The impromptu speakers were Cok Ratih, Suardana, Karen, Amran & Miranda Karen did a superb job telling us, and showing us, what to do if we're being followed by a robber. It was extremely entertaining that Karen was voted as the Best Table Topic Speaker.

We had four prepared speakers, Vaughan, Nanda, Cok Ratih and Carol... and what GREAT speeches they delivered. Each topic was interesting, rich in content and well thought out.

Doing his second project about 'How to organize your speech' Vaughan spoke eloquently and expressively about the rising price of land in Bali, and magically, his ah/ers were almost non-existent now. It just shows that the quickest cure to speech distractors is to be made aware of them. Vaughan is definitely a formidable speaker in the making.

Also doing her second project, Nanda was and is, as she claimed, a born marketer... always seeing business opportunity in anything she laid eyes on or thought of. Her humorous entrepreneurial anecdotes kept us in stitches. Another potential great speaker to keep a watch on.

Cok Ratih did her 6th project - How to use Vocal Variety. Cok was poised and eloquent in her delivery about Rabies and the Bali Dogs. She used the vocal variety superbly, combining the use of finger clicking to raised voice calling or reprimanding dogs. She has continuously demonstrated impressive progress from one project to the next, and this last speech was done with hardly any mentoring, which made it doubly impressive.

Carol, our visiting Toastmaster, showed us her experience and expertise in crafting a speech. Employing superb delivery techniques, her speech on the history and benefits of Montessori Education was moving and truly awe-inspiring. It was a hard choice to choose the Best Speaker between the four speakers, but Nanda won by a slight margin over the other three. Well done, Nanda!!!

The evaluators: Amran, Adi, Strong and Reski were no less formidable. They have raised the bar on the quality of the club's level of evaluation. Everyone took their role seriously and put a lot of effort to encourage and motivate the speakers.

I have to say though that Reski had the hardest job; it could be intimidating evaluating a seasoned speaker like Carol who has been a Toastmasters longer than any of our members, and whose occupation as a teacher no doubt gives Carol plenty of opportunities to practice. Undaunted, like every other role she took on, Reski, gave her all and gave an eloquent evaluation, detailing Carol's strengths as well as giving her a suggestion of improvement.

Reski won the Best Evaluator, and deservedly so.

Suzanne was General Evaluator and did an amazing job. Showing a propensity to details and precision, Suzanne once again exemplified what good, effective general evaluating should be.

Grammarian was Karen. It was such a perfect task for Karen who majored in English. Our club is so lucky to have a grammarian of Karen's calibre who not only has superb listening skills, but also can provide such thorough evaluation of our grammatical errors and to show how they can be corrected.

As promised, the meeting was adjourned at exactly 8.30 p.m. It shows that where there is determination and effort, we can conquer jam karet also known as Bali Rubber Time.

Stay tuned more our next meeting commentaries.... Or better still, come and check out the meetings...

Toast!
Miranda Suryadjaja CC, ALB
VP Education
Bali Toastmasters Club