Dear Fellow Indrahanians,
We saw today’s meeting (September 28) chalking up a good attendance, and overflowing with both members and guests. Perhaps this has something to do with the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration. 
With lanterns and mooncakes showing up – the 24 of us who came lit up with celebratory pomp and joyful gaiety. To kick off the meeting proper, this time around, Kay told us a story about the rivalry between the sun and the moon. The former bathed the landscape with her rays of life and so, the sun felt a great sense of self-importance. Still, the moon could not be sidelined. When darkness descended, it was the moon that reclaimed her place in the sky to illuminate the terrain. Even wailing babies frightened of nightfall were pacified. And what’s more, the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival which falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month is when the heat of the summer has given way to cool autumn weather. At no other time is she so luminous.
With lanterns and mooncakes showing up – the 24 of us who came lit up with celebratory pomp and joyful gaiety. To kick off the meeting proper, this time around, Kay told us a story about the rivalry between the sun and the moon. The former bathed the landscape with her rays of life and so, the sun felt a great sense of self-importance. Still, the moon could not be sidelined. When darkness descended, it was the moon that reclaimed her place in the sky to illuminate the terrain. Even wailing babies frightened of nightfall were pacified. And what’s more, the Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival which falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month is when the heat of the summer has given way to cool autumn weather. At no other time is she so luminous.
Once the presidential address was over, the Toastmaster-of-the-Evening took control and we were indeed privileged to have Ho Fong Ming to host this meeting. There’s something about her when she presided over the meeting – she stands tall and empowering, so full of grace, aplomb and decorum.
Given that we did not have a Humor Master today, we had an Open humor session and Teresa shared her comical experiences in the classroom, which was quickly accompanied by airline jokes from Thian Seng. Riotous laughter reverberated throughout the IJM Cobra Club.
Project speeches came next, and three speakers, Durai, Victor and Thian Seng gave their all. Durai impressed us with his meticulous planning to interesting Medan, Victor galvanized and awakened words to form “the beautiful language”, and Thian Seng did a fascinating 3-in-1 speech titled “Religion, Politics & Sex”. This was followed by Table Topics, and this session was ably led by Jen Wong. The topics were all related to the Moon Festival and four speakers stepped forward to make their impromptu speeches lasting not more than 2 minutes (well, if we want to split hairs, it’s actually 2 minutes 30 seconds). And, then, it was evaluation time. Jade, Alice and Yeoh provided the essential feedback, and Jade spoke for all when she said she experienced both “pleasure and pressure” to do a good job – given that the project speakers were elaborately eloquent. Still, the evaluators surpassed themselves – including our technical evaluators: the language evaluator (the beautiful and elegant Chrristine), the Ah Counter (the gentlemanly Koon Kow), and the Timekeeper (the quiet but efficient Olga). And Han Lee Hwee who was our General Evaluator and who chaired the evaluation segment of this meeting wrapped it up by giving us all the usual but necessary pointers and reiterating the importance of passion as the driving force in Toastmastering.
Very soon the meeting was about to come to a close. But before that, the audience marked their ballots, the votes were counted and Kay presented ribbons to the Best Table Topics Speaker, the Best Project Speaker and the Best Evaluator – won by Constance (guest), Victor and Jade respectively.
I am sure all of us have enjoyed this meeting and I cannot wait for our next one, scheduled for October 12! See you soon!
Vice President Education 2010-2011
Taman Indrahana Toastmasters Club
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