From Ordinary to Extraordinary

Ever had a bad day at work where by the end of the day you just felt so tired, moody and listless?

On such days, go to a Toastmasters meeting, guaranteed, you’ll soon feel uplifted, zestful and energized. You’d come home wondering, what happened, what changed from bad to great? What’s extraordinary about these meetings?

Toastmasters meetings, due to its collective positivism, heaps of appreciations, and 2-3 hours of focused mutual empowerment, will have everyone focused on seeing and uncovering the greatness instead of what’s unsavory in their fellow humans, and having it returned likewise many folds over. Like ripples in still water; the positivism rises and multiplies creating a vortex of energy enveloping and affecting everyone within its sphere of influence.

Well, truth be told, this may not be a norm in ALL Toastmasters clubs, since there are over 12,000 Toastmasters clubs on this planet, but ever since I first stepped inside the club in 2008 it never failed to produce this kind of result.

Our last meeting was no exception.

Choosing District 87’s theme for the year: Dare to Shine, we chose the word of the day ‘Extraordinary’ with the intent of installing the new Executive Committee members into office. As the day of the meeting drew closer, for some mysterious reasons 5 of the 7 EXCOM members were called away out of town, out of the country, to a wedding preparation. Furthermore, the other members were occupied with the delightful consequence of living in a beautiful holiday destination like Bali during peak season: having to entertain out-of-town vacationing friends and relatives.

Albeit the low attendance, Toastmasters and delightful guests and pressed on.

The executive officer installation was canceled, but the theme was kept.

The meeting was opened by the new club president: Amran Hidayat, who’s trying the size of his new shoes. It didn’t take him long to demonstrate his charisma and powerful presence; that’s why he’s the president.

Toastmaster of the Meeting Miranda explained the theme briefly, saying that if we, ordinary people, put a little extra care, effort and attention to anything we do, the result would be extraordinary. When that’s done on a regular basis, then shining would not be a required effort, it wouldn’t be a matter of daring to shine, rather, simply a consequence of putting in the extras. With that she asked the audience to commit to doing things with extra care, extra attention and extra effort so that all would enjoy an extraordinary meeting.

Novi began the meeting in earnest by leading the Table Topic Session. Stefani, the first Table Topic Speaker spoke about what she would do if she woke up alone in the dessert during a beautiful time of the day. Stefani struggled slightly with the answer but finished it gracefully as her Toastmaster experience got her thinking on her feet.

Faisal, our long lost member spoke about the present reality of the dreams he had as a child. He spoke eloquently about how his dreams had shifted and grown over the years. Then with great passion he shared the wonderful things he’s now experiencing in life as the result of having dared to dream.

To the question ‘what is your opinion about white lies’ Amran the president said: “Sometimes we need to a be a white-lier if we don’t want to hurt someone we love or care about”. He made us reflect on the merits of such deeds.

Izul, our delightful english teacher guest, was asked if he were a superhero what superpower would he like to have. His “To be a superhero I must eat a lot of Supermie" (a brand of instant noodles) drew instant laughter. He went on to say: “As a superhero, my power would be the ability to make people always says ‘yes’”. He demonstrated this power by rapidly firing a series of questions to Amran which Amran could only say ‘yes’ to.

The prepared speech session was initiated by Michele, who did her 5th project Your Body Speaks. An eloquent native speaker Michele has a well modulated voice that is easy on the ears. She spoke on her discovery of a modality using chakra healing which in her opinion can help people heal their emotional scars instantly. Michele was evaluated by Ina who commended her on her good gestures and interesting topic.Ina suggested that Michele looked at the audience more peripherally instead of focusing on one side of the room and to take into consideration the wooden parquet floor which make loud clacking noise from the wooden heels she had on.

Novie followed with her 6th project Vocal Variety speaking on how motorbike accidents were not only what she often witnessed, but had had personally experienced. It only cost her Rp. 30,000 to repair the bike but a whopping Rp.15,000,000 to have her shoulder operation as a result from the motorbike accident. “Unlike cancers and heart attacks which can come out of the blue, motorbike accident is something that you can prevent by wearing helmets, riding carefully and simply complying with the traffic regulations”. Novi was impressive on her use of poignant pauses which really drove the message home, as well as on her utilization of effective contrasts in volume, cadence, pace and pitch. A beautiful and rich speech, indeed. Amran evaluated Novi, and suggested that to accentuate some points, she could use more gestures and body movements, - which, in her focus on vocal variety seemed to have gone missing.

Miranda did Robert Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ monodrama for her Interpretive Reading project. This project requires that she analyzes, interprets, plans and reads the literary work using mostly vocal variety to convey the actor/writer’s intention and emotions behind the writing. She was evaluated by Olga who said while it was hard to evaluate such unfamiliar form of communication that involved totally new skills, she enjoyed the reading and considered Miranda’s use of pauses really effective. She suggested that Miranda allowed the evaluator to read the work in advance to better evaluate the delivery.

Our last speaker was a late addition to the roster of speakers. Yudha is a member of the newly chartered Magical-Bali TMC. Not one to shy away from challenge, Yudha agreed to do give his Ice Breaker Speech on the day of the meeting, at the wee hours, in the aftermath of the Germany-Spain World Cup semi-final. But what a speech it was! Titled ‘Dancing with the Orang Utan’ Yudha was so nimble on his feet throughout the whole speech (a fact, he later admitted, resulting from his nervousness) he appeared dancing. He spoke of his experiences and fond memories working as a vet to rehabilitate the Orang Utans in the forests of Borneo. He opened his speech with “Do you know that animals can talk to you?” and ended the speech with a blow kiss when he had to say goodbye to the Orang Utans. The audience was thoroughly entertained and touched by the speech. Yudha was evaluated by Michele. Duly impressed by Yudha’s natural delivery skills, she considered them far beyond what’s required for an ice breaker speaker.

Yudha was Best Speaker, Amran Best Evaluator, and Izul the first time guest, was Best Table Topic Speaker. The President awarded them with tokens of appreciation from the Club.

With only 7 members and 6 guests present, President Amran in his closing remark felt that everyone had put that extra effort, care and attention resulting in an extraordinary meeting. Indeed, once again, it was another uplifting Toastmasters meeting filled with warmth, laughter, appreciation, encouragement and the exhilarating joy of being with likeminded people who share the passion to learn.

Do you want to have a taste of the fun we’re having? Or simply curious about what’s going on in our Toastmasters’ meeting?

Wait no more, come and join us at our upcoming meetings:

Magical-Bali Toastmasters Club: Saturday, July 17th (1st & 3rd Saturdays). 2-5 p.m. at Jl. Hang Tuah 43, Sanur. Contact: Miranda Suryadjaja 081 2367 45423

Bali Toastmasters Club: Thursday July 22nd (2nd & 4th Thursdays) 6.30 – 9 p.m. at Jl. Batur Sari 22B , Sanur. Contact: Amran Hidayat 081 2376 2000

NOTE:
Bali TMC and Magical-Bali TMC are sisters club, or rather, Bali TMC sponsored Magical-Bali TMC. Therefore, although the clubs have different organization and officers, the meetings are interchangeable and similar in culture and feelings. Members from both clubs attend and support either club meetings.

For more information about our clubs visit the facebook groups under Bali Toastmasters Club and Magical-Bali Toastmasters Club. To read previous meeting commentaries, go to Discussions. To learn more about Toastmasters go to www.toastmasters.org

Toast!

Miranda Suryadjaja ACB, ALB

President - Magical-Bali Toastmasters Club