The TrophyThe glass trophy in the middle of the Toastmasters trophy shelf just arrived from Toastmasters International, not for me, the Immediate Past president and current PR, but for the whole of Braddell Heights Advanced Club.
This is not the first time the club has received this rare accolade, with the help and advice of longstanding member DTM Kan Kin Fung.
However, it is a wonderful achievement as we faced the challenge of Covid 19. We started the year at the Community Centre with VPE Faith, Treasurer John, VPR Elsa and KKF and Renu providing fruit and sensible food with delicious cakes from Faith and others.
As the year progressed we had speech contests with club winners fabulous Faith, Arinjay showing a magic trick and Sylvia Ang, the balloonist.
At meetings was had more memorable speeches from Jun Xian and train enthusiast Chin Teck who was VPM.
Supporters included TMD Joan. She later thanked us on Learncool.
Speech evaluators and language evaluators included Lisa who impressed me with her inventive DIY write on wipe off evaluation form.
We ended the year with more members, including Mike Ma who is now our VPE, and our incoming treasurer James.
COVID19 Challenges
We went online, with help from busy but efficient Willie Loh on busy Zoom on Saturdays. But Saturdays we are always competing with other clubs and Area events.
LearncoolFriendly, patient Yudy of Learncool helped on Wednesdays and then we eventually moved to using learncool all the time. Yudy listened to our requests and constantly added new features.To carry us over the changeover period we temporarily increased meetings to every Wednesday.
WorkshopsOur Wonderful Wednesday Workshops included those from Thomas Chen and Ng Kin Foong.Other supporters included our Area Director Siva who I recall stepping in to take up a table topic and winning a ribbon.
He remarked on how amusing and innovative we were. We had a joke session.
Once you have a bank of people you can call on, you can easily arrange the next few meetings of the following year.
Behind the scenes, Div Director S Jessica was always available to lend a listening ear.Thank you to all members and supporters. We also had two club coaches who checked every last detail such as the phone number on the banner.
LESSONS LEARNED
Along the way we learned all sorts of unexpected things. For example, the CC must grant permission to change the phone number on the banner. They will print the meeting agenda and will display a poster advertising a workshop only after their head office grants permission, and you must have their logo first, top left.
CALL TO ACTIONS
1 We still have space for a VP Membership on the committee. Being a committee member is great for networking and several club have had romances. (We had one committee members' romance and one members' wedding.)2 To those busy people who keep meaning to come along, please do. First Wednesday evening each month, and third Saturday afternoon. But ask to join our Whatsapp group to be sure to hear the latest. All welcome. Come along, and send a friend.
3 Log into learncool ready to attend meetings and meanwhile watch some of the highlights of the year. You can also see some of the Learncool meetings on Youtube.
Useful Websiteshttps://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://www.learncool.sg/
GlossaryACG Advanced Communicator GoldALB Advanced Leader Bronze
About the authorAngela Lansbury Immediate Past President of Braddell Heights Advanced, ACG, ALB, PM5, is
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