Welcome to West Coast Toastmasters Club!

Our club believes in developing and enhancing one's communication, public speaking and leadership skills through building upon one's confidence.

To do this, we not only provide an atmosphere filled with genuine support and encouragement, but also comfortable environment so one can feel at ease.

If you have the 2nd or 4th Saturday afternoon of the month free, pay us a visit!

Each day you interact with many people in numerous situations. You deal with people at work, your family, your friends and people you don’t know. You may be called upon to calm an upset customer, convince an accountant to refund your money even though you don’t have a receipt, persuade your children to clean their room, or negotiate a raise with your employer.

Do you understand the differences between the male and female species? Do you know that men and women listen, think and communicate differently? Learn the art of communicating and enhance your relationship with your family, friends, colleagues and those people around you now.

The speaker for the workshop, Mr. William Lim T.C., is a cultivator of human potential and has trained thousands of people in Asia Pacific for the past 10 over years. He is the author of Are You With Me? How To Get The Message Across And Win Them Over which Toastmasters in Asia classified it as the bible for presenters, trainers and public speakers.




Venue : West Coast Community Club
Level 3 Conference Room
Clementi West St. 2
Singapore 129605
Date : 11th October 2008
Time : 2.00p.m.
Cost : Free!

This workshop is also open to the public.

Register TODAY to avoid disappointment! Call Mr. Yew at 97713098 or email to terenceyewmenghau@hotmail.com

The Club met again on a Saturday to select the club representatives for the Humourous and Evaluation Contest. The presiding Chief Judge for that event was the Division Z Governor, DTM Stanley Chen. Together with his team of judges, they assisted to select the club representatives.

The contest started with a humourous speech from DTM William Lim on standing up and speaking up, followed Toastmaster Yew Meng Hau speech on the increasing lack of mannerisms displayed. Toastmaster Nicole Tuo shared with the audience on her experiences as a student and a teacher, to end off the first half, Competent Leader Mike Lian rounded it up with a speech about Emotions and Logic.

The second half of the Contest saw the Evaluation segment and for this event, the test was Toastmaster Kevin Foo from IFPAS Toastmaster Club. His speech was titled 'Big Mistake' and it was about his marriage and the process. There were 5 evaluators who provided their respective feedback at the end of his speech.

At the end of the day, the Club selected Competent Leader Mike Lian to lead the Club for the People's Association Challenge. DTM William Lim will represent the Club for the Area Humourous Speech Contest and Toastmaster Yew Menghau will represent the club for the Area Evaluation Contest. The Club would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Chief Judge and his panel of judges, Area Governor Johnny Teo and Contest Chair Cindy Ang for their invaluable help.

The Club congratulates the repective representatives and wish them all the best for the upcoming contest which will be held this Saturday (060908) at Zhenghua CC.

Once again, the club met again on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon for a meeting. The meeting was kicked off to a rousing start as Club President Yew Meng Hau presented 2 awards to the outstanding members : Distinguished Toastmaster William Lim and Competent Leader Mike Lian. DTM William Lim completed a momentous feat by achieving his second DTM Award and in recognition, Toastmasters International presented him with a plaque deserving of his stature. CL Mike Lian also completed his Competent Leader Manual and received a commenmorative ribbon from the District Office.

The Club President's opening address was on the fast moving times and that, what may seem like expert opinions given at a particular time may soon turn out to be wrong with time. With that, the first session of prepared speeches got underway.

There were 4 prepared speeches that afternoon and each of the speakers brought something to the stage. Toastmaster Tan Hong Yue, in her maiden speech, introduced herself to the club and shared with us about her love for dancing and shopping. Toastmaster Deepak taught the club about the SCUBA method to handle troublesome email and improve productivity whereas Toastmaster Sathappan added it with his speech on simplifying issues and making life simple. Finally, Toasmaster Yew Meng Hau summed up the session with his speech on Game Theory.

During the evaluation session, each of the 4 evaluators provided insightful evaluations to the individual speakers to improve on their speeches.

During the table topics session, each of the speakers picked an item from Table topics Mistress Nicole's Wonderbag. Their task : to promote and advertise their item. Items ranging from tissue paper to a pen, a notepad to torchlight, nothing was to mundane that cannot be sold.

At the end of the meeting, the Club President gave out the ribbons for the best speakers. The Best Prepared Speech Ribbon went to Toastmaster Deepak, The Best Evaluator Ribbon went to CL Mike Lian and last but not least the Best Table Topics Speech went to Gregory Chan. The Club President then closed the meeting with a speech reminding members to strive for higher ground.

Once again, remember to turn up for the next meeting which will be the CLUB CONTEST !

It was a warm and sunny afternoon as the club convened for another fantastic meeting. The meeting was kicked off by our newly-promoted Competent Communicator Liu Lie, who served as the Sergeant-At-Arms. Following which, our club president gave us an inspirational opening address on leadership and planning. The language evaluator, Advanced Communicator Silver/Competent Leader Lim Seh Leng gave us the word of the day : HORIZON.

The prepared speech session was kicked off by Toastmaster Arunachalam Sathappan, who gave a speech on minimizing worries, afterwhich, Toastmaster David Wang, showed that he was still able to give an impactful speech after his debut return to the club. His speech on being an unreasonable man was very well-received by the audience. Toastmaster Yew Meng Hau introduced a portion of Game Theory to the audience as he proposed a solution to end nuclear weaponry. Toastmaster Amelia Chang (from NUSS TMC) spoke about lighting up the fire in our life and discovering our passion. Last but not least, Competent Leader Mike Lian rounded up the session with a speech on saving the environment, reminding all of us to A.C.T.

The evaluators went on to give precise and advice to the respective speakers. The advice not only benefitted the speakers but also to the audience as well, who learn many useful tips for jazzing up their speeches and craft it to greatness.

The theme of the Table Topics was : Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire and what a fun time the participants had, as they all tried to out-lie one another to prove that they were the biggest liars. The topics ranged from lying to your parents to lying to the police for traffic offences. It was surprising that guests, who had NO prior experience in giving impromptu speeches were able to deliver a short 2 minute speech on the spot. It was no surprise that the audience lapped it up.

The language evaluator, Advanced Communicator Silver, Lim Seh Leng, delivered her evaluation on our usage of the language and provided many useful feedback for everyone to spice and jazz up their speech.

The General Evaluator, Advanced Communicator Bronze, Wong Kok Wah, gave us crucial and concise feedback on how to improve the club meeting. At the same time, he gave high praises to the Timer, Toastmaster Deepak Bhaskar, Ah-Counter, Toastmaster Tan Hong Yue, Toastmaster of the Day, Toastmaster Kenneth Tham, for a job well done. However, he mentioned that the club have a lack of writing papers and that some of the Table Topics question were tricky. He praised the Club President for giving an inspiring speech, one which he has not heard from Club Presidents for some time.

The meeting ended on a high note as the Club President encouraged everyone to take action and to learn and be inspired from the speeches spoken that day. The Club also sucessfully signed up a new member, Miss Loo Lin Jy. We welcome her on board the club. Due introduction will be posted shortly.

The Club would like to thank the following for their contributions as guest evaluators : Competent Leader Cindy Ang, Competent Communicator Gabriel Chen, AC(B) Wong Kok Wah (Open Alumni Toastmasters Club) and AC(S)/CL Lim Seh Leng. Our next meeting will be on the 26th of July. So do remember to come on down for another fun-filled meeting !

In our last meeting, 2 toastmasters stood out for their 'firsts': Niole - serving as Acting President and Hong Yue - serving as a Timer. Liu Lie and Nicole achieved the status of Competent Communicator (CC), ensuring that the club attains the status of President Distinguished Club. Two members from other clubs (AIA Changi, Chua Chu Kang) also achieved CC.

It was indeed an inspiring meeting with 5 inspiring speeches given. Song Lang gave a speech about himself. Nicole spoke about the need for proper time management and why some people are always busy, while Liu Lie touched on the connection of Kung Fu Panda and Asian Values. Rubel spoke about dealing with our fears and Mohamad motivated us with his speech on why the pursuit of materialism is meaning less.

And it was not just about the speeches. The evaluators also gave us a very insightful and useful evaluation on improving the speakers speeches.

The word of the day is Zest, and it was with full of zest that the speakers used the word, making the meeting full of zest and energy.

The general evaluator Fernando Young felt that the speeches are not inspired enough, so he gave some tips how to make a speech inspired:
1. what is your dream
2. how to oversome obstables
3. what will life be if we do not fullfill how dreams
4. what will life be is we succeed
5. call for action
6. give words for encouragement: you can do it, everybody can do it
7. inject more vocal variety and body language

On the whole, the meeting was very interesting and exciting. To top off such a fantastic meeting was the views and comments provided by our Language Evaluator, Advanced Leader (Silver) Rebecca Lee and General Evaluator, Advanced Leader (Gold), Fernando Young. The club would like to congratulate all the speakers who have attatined the rank of Competent Communicator and would also like to express our gratitude to the following evaluators : James Keok, Stanley Chen, Delia Wong, Jave Zhou, Lim Chung Wei for their help. Our next meeting will be on the 12th of July. So come on down for another meeting !

It was a sunny Saturday at Zhenghua CC where Division B held its Club Officer Training for all new club officers. West Coast Toastmasters Club sent out 4 representatives : Club President Yew Meng Hau, Vice President (Membership) Deepak Bhaskar, Vice-President (Public Relations) Daniel Tan and Secretary Gabriel Yee.

Besides learning about the responsibilities, the club officers were also able to pick up tips from Distinguished ToastMaster John Sih and Distinguished ToastMaster Kan Kin Fung for our speeches. Here are some of them :

1. Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Practice! Practice! Practice.

You start off first with a purpose, then you research before preparing, and practicing.

2. Own your speech.

A good speech is a part of you, something you share from your heart.
This then leads to credibility. Walking the talk and "how am I inspired to inspire you".

Content and delivery of a good speech comes to together.
A little gesturing will make a lot of difference.
He comments that Singaporeans lack a certain drama in their speeches.
So he encourages to watch Ortis Williams Jr, Les Brown and other champions to learn what is good gesturing, good body language, good content delivery and good vocal variety.

3. Using props and anecdotes.

THE PARABLE OF THE PENCIL

The wood on the Pencil represents our chronology.
The lead depicts the actions we do in our life.
After some time, we become 'blunt out' and that's when we need to sharpen ourselves once again.
In our lives, we sometimes we create bad memories, so we use the eraser to remove these marks in our lives.
Sometimes, not all the marks go away, but are marks bad? No. Unless you don't learnt anything from it.
So at the end of the wood, when your lead is used up and your eraser is half used, what have you done with the markings you've made?

There are 3 types of people in the world:

The Smartest : Learn from Other People's Mistakes.
The Smart : Learn from your own mistakes.
The Silly : They do not even know they have made a mistake.

What do you want to be ?

Use props to make messages come alive

Sincerity is everything

Lastly, memorise quotations, you never know when you'll need them.

5 steps to be a great leader

Goals
Responsibility
Encouragement
Action
Teamwork

Furthermore, the club received a special mention for the Past District Governor Distinguished ToastMaster Poh Kim Siong for contributions to the District. All in all, the members were able to pick up many invaluable tips that will definitely serve the club well in the future.

Why should you join a Toastmasters Club ? What is a Toastmasters Club, anyway ? Before the questions are answered, consider the following situation :

You are an engineer/accountant/civil servant/... and you have been appointed/tasked/conferred... to do a presentation to your superiors which could mean the difference between getting that landscape cityview office room or being stuck in that cramped cubicle of yours, cluttered with all the mess.

As you are not too sure about how to go about giving A Winning Proposal/Selling the Idea/The Technical Presentation/..., you decide that the best thing to go is to give your presentation a Powerpoint makeover. Cramming every available information you have on to the Powerpoint slides, you end up with 113 slides consisting of the most technical jargon and ideas.

Proud of your achievement in getting all the slides done, you decide to add in some sound effects and visual effects that will spice up your presentation. Before you know it, all 113 slides have some kind of effects. Now, you are really proud of yourself, giving yourself a pat on the back (thinking what is so difficult about a presentation), then getting back to sleep.

The next day, in front of your superiors and subordinates, you present your masterpiece. Line by line, word for word, slide by slide, you start reading from the Powerpoint with all the sound effects. Rather than capturing the attention of the audience, you notice that they are drifting away to their BlackBerry or Palm. Desperate, you slow down and keep your tone neutral, hoping they will look at your slides but to your horror, they look tired now ( and you seem to catch your subordinate yawning as well ).

You try your best to trudge on, but it is too late. Your superior cuts you off, tells you that the time is up and there is another agenda to move on. You look at your slides, you are not even halfway through and it is over. Silently, you sit back in your chair, wondering what went wrong. A week later, your superiors decide to take another plan from another executive. The executive gets the project and a few months later, he gets the cityview landscape office as well while you lay slumped in your cramped cubicle.

What went wrong ? Well, quite a lot. This is where a Toastmasters Club can help. A Toastmasters Club is a club whereby members give speeches/presnetations to improve their communication skills. It is also a place that provides a mutually supportive and positive learning environment where every member has the opportunity to develop communication skills and foster self-confidence. If you interested in joining West Coast Toastmasters Club, you can contact the WebMaster at West.Coast.TMC@gmail.com. We will give a prompt reply as soon as possible.