TMOD Role for 6th January 2021: Passing The Parcel

 

Passing The Parcel

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. Think about it, I will come back on it in the last session.

Explaining the Theme of the meeting!

“Success and failure are a part and parcel of everyday work life’s highs and lows. But the memories of working with an inspirational team and that will never go”. Also, as SAA TM Nikita Binnai said “The beauty of all the first ever experiences is that you will never get to feel the same next since the second time you will have pre-assumptions attached😊

If you have attended the ceremony, today new sets of leaders have taken over. The past year had many ups and down due to pandemic, but we still kept going and today its not just the first meeting of the year 2021 but a new team behind this meeting. It takes lot of planning and effort for every single Toastmasters meeting and hopefully this goes on forever. Everybody out here teaches something important. I have learned a lot which really helps me to become a better person. Thank you.

Good evening fellow toastmasters and my dear guests.

I welcome you all to this 644th Meeting of Infosys Pune Toastmasters Club with our theme for today being “Passing The Parcel”. Is it mandatory to finish a race?

I don't have any trouble with not finishing; the main thing is to get started and have those first layers or foundations built. Then you keep passing the baton down to the next generation, and they build another bridge. I love promoting the new ones and mentoring them. But I also get mentored by them, even if they don't realize it. Yes, as theme is about “Let us pass the parcel of responsibilities and take a step towards creating new leader.

Let me now quickly explain the structure of a Toastmasters meeting:

The structure of a Toastmasters meeting is designed in such a way that the Toastmasters helps us in improving our communication and leadership skills and we in turn help each other to further improve upon it. Our meeting consists of three sections:

1.Prepared speech sections, wherein the club members deliver their prepared speeches or rather attempt projects from their pathway manuals.

2.Then, we have a very interesting and thought-provoking Table Topics Session (a kind of Impromptu Speaking Session) in which a topic would be given to you by our Table Topics Master and all you have to do is come up and speak on it spontaneously. This is a session especially for our esteemed guests to help them experience the art of public speaking. Also, you stand a chance of winning the Best Table Topic Speaker award complemented with our 100 Rs Amazon voucher.

3.Any lastly, we have our evaluation session wherein the Individual Evaluators evaluate the prepared speakers and the General Evaluator with his TAG team evaluates the entire meeting in general.

 

Now, let me introduce someone, who would be evaluating every little thing of the meeting. Our General Evaluator for today someone I also look up to and carefully hear all of her talks. Which are full of sayings TM Ashwini. " She always aspired to be a good speaker. TM gave her an opportunity to work on that and She grabbed the same.😊. A huge round of applause for TM Ashwini. 

TM Ashwini is not alone; she has her three helping hands along: the TAG team. Where T stands for Timer, A stands for Ah Counter and G stands for Grammarian. 

Our Grammarian for today, TM Amrut will help us in improving our grammar and vocabulary. Tm Amrut say “Since childhood, he  always aspired to learn swimming skill and when he got the opportunity to learn this skill few years back he was so much proud of myself thinking that  now I will not drown under water😂 and even can swim with multiple style😁  

Join me in welcoming our Grammarian!!!

Our Ah Counter for today is TM Sanjukta. she would be noting any overused words or filler sounds, crutch by anyone who speaks during the meeting.

I asked her question “You aspired to do something and one fine day you got that opportuinty. What was it like, doing something which you never did before”?

“I have aspired to be a brilliant (not just good) orator ever since I was little. But I used to be too shy and hesitant to speak up even in front of a group of more than 3 people. But now, since joining toastmasters, I am speaking up in every meeting in front of a group of almost 15-20.”

She is ““Someone working hard for future aspirations” Join me in welcoming our Ah Counter, TM Sanjukta

Final member of TAG team, our Timer, TM Anang (IPTMC)would be monitoring the time for each meeting segment and each speaker.

He always wanted to organise an event in my college. His dream came true in 2nd year when we organised a cultural event called aikya. It was a wonderful experience working with people from different states and getting familiar with their customs and art forms. This event was a beautiful representation of unity among diversity that our country is always known for.

Now it’s time to start with the first section of today’s meeting that is the today activity Section. 

Listener and Talker Activity

The talker’s job is to describe what he or she wants from a vacation without specifying a destination. The listener’s job is to listen attentively to what is being said (and what is not being said) and to demonstrate their listening through their behavior. After a few minutes of active listening, the listener should summarize the three or main criteria the talker is considering when it comes to enjoying their vacation. Finally, the listener should try to sell the talker on a destination for their vacation.

 

Memory Test Activity

I am going to read a list of words to test your memory. Listen carefully, and you cannot write down any of the words. Tell them you will test them later to see how many of the words they can remember.

Repeat each of the following words slowly, pausing briefly between each word:

dream

sleep

night

mattress

snooze

sheet

nod

tired

night

artichoke

insomnia

blanket

night

alarm

nap

snore

pillow

When you finish reading the list of words, distract your participants by talking about something else for at least one full minute.

 

I hope you guys enjoyed this communication activities.

Now it’s time to start with the second section of today’s meeting that is TTM Section. To conduct it let me invite.........

And now it’s time to those who have been meticulously scrutinizing the meeting, our  TAG team and General Evaluator to take over. …… 

Before Signing off: I would like to say something:

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. I am sure, we somewhere around inspire other, even we don’t know.

I would like to thank education team to come up with such a theme.

Please help me in welcoming our very new Secretary: Ashwini.

A huge round of applause for General Evaluator of the day,

Accept it and you will enjoy it…make it your own.. Find out things that are in your control and things that are not.. Learn from each and every experience, own it.. Life is yours and you are Life.

 

Dear Toasties, 

Here is the WOD and IOD for today's meeting. Do make it a point to positively use it and make it a part of your vocabulary. 😊 

 To relinquish: to give up (as a position of authority) formally

Eg:the retiring CEO relinquished his position to the company's vice president with very mixed feelings

Idiom of the day:

pass the buck:to blame someone or make them responsible for a problem that you should deal with

Eg:She's always trying to pass the buck and I'm sick of it!

Role takers for 6 Jan 2021

MEETING 644

Virtual  meeting

🎤 Theme:  Passing The Parcel

💂🏻‍♂️ SAA - TM Nikita B

⏸️ Ah-Counter - TM Sanjukta

⏰ Timer - TM Anang 

📰 Grammarian - TM Amrut 

🎭 Table Topics Master - TM Nikita J

👑 TMoD -TM Nageshwar

👨🏻‍⚖️ General Evaluator - TM Ashwini

MY ICE-BREAKER SPEECH

For your first speech project, you will introduce yourself to your fellow club members and give them some information about your background, interests and ambitions. Practice giving your speech to friends or family members, and strive to make eye contact with some of your audience. You may use notes during your speech if you wish. 

OBJECTIVES:

 To begin speaking before an audience.

 To discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention.

Time: Four to six minutes

TITLE: Breaking Ice Again

Opening                                                                                                                                  

 Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on the earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. 

------------------- Good Evening Fellow TM and dear guest ----------------------- 

●     Today, I will re-initiate what I started long back but ceased on the way before it could reach its correct Milestone.

 

BODY

MAIN POINT #1

 

When I was a child, teachers used to say “he is very studious and silent”. I knew the value of One(1) single mark long back, when I missed my rank in 2nd class. However, my mother never understood that silent compliment which I got. In her words “He is silent, do visit our house someday. He is the most Notorious among his siblings”.  That evening I found myself, fighting with my brother with cushions and all the cotton came out of cushions. It was true indeed, but in school it was different. Standing out of the crowd was so difficult. 

For an oral exam, I had to go and recite poetry in front of the entire class. As soon as the teacher called me on the dais, all the eyes were on me. This made me forget everything and created a phobia in my mind.

 

MAIN POINT #2

However, I Ioved solving math, learning answers by heart in the history class and performing Experiments in science. I went to stage first time for a Quiz Contest in 7th class and won it. All motivated, Next year I participated in an Elocution and Extempore contest but failed miserably. This frightened me and I again forgot everything. It was a De javu’ moment for me. Many years passed, but the fear in my mind was still there and still the same My teacher was disappointed with me. I never tried to give a speech in school again. I gave my first proper speech in front of whole Class in my first year of engineering. I got a standing ovation and gladly didn’t get stuck in between. It was a moment of Eureka. I had failed a few times in the past but the only reason was that I had never tried enough. I started looking for more opportunities to learn and develop public speaking skills. At the Same time, I came to know about an organization (I3- Influence Inspire Impact) and there I got plenty of opportunities for public speaking. We had many social projects to do, and one project was Y2C.

 MAIN POINT #3

IN young to Children motivation project, we had to motivate children and make sure we made an Impact on their lives. At first, I was not sure a school would allow me or not to interact with their kids. I tried in a few schools nearby but was given later dates, some said exams are on and gave many such reasons. I faced rejection everywhere. However, some allowed on the spot, to interact with the kids. It was fun and learning for me. On approaching one school, the principal cheered us for the initiative and said, "You can can come on friday. We will make sure students are gathered together in a hall with Mike and speakers set up." This was more than I had expected. It was a big opportunity for me but bigger responsibility to make an impact. I called my team who had done such Y2C project but no one had done on such a large scale. I took the lead, they joined me.

We were team of 5 on D-Day. Everything was planned. We had fun activity, inspiring anecdotes, shayri and many more such events. The host had decided to introduce every speaker in a creative way. I was wondering how would he introduce me? The session was rocking. Teachers seemed so delighted that principal allowed such a session to take place/to be organised. I was the last speaker of the day. I felt my speech would be a mere formality, as the sessions had already been awe-inspiring and applauds made it obvious. I had to give my speech and then interact with the kids, if they were facing any problems in studies and suggest solutions by my personal experience. The host introduced me as "Now it’s time for you guys to hear thoughts of our leader, we are here because of his sincere efforts and hence this wonderful session is happening”!! I felt nervous after such kind words, but confidently held the mike probably for the first time and addressed the gathering. I enjoyed every moment that day and kicked off my public speaking Journey. 

Restate the Main Points:

 When I lost my rank by mere 1-mark, I studied harder next term and I got the rank back. But when I forgot few lines while reciting poetry, I didn’t try.

When I won Quiz contest, I was motivated and participated actively Next year. Again when I failed in Elocutions or Extempore, I gave up on trying to give speech in school.

 You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to. I had to give speech as a part of my curriculum in my first year of engineering so I tired but this time I had the right mental attitude. I didn’t let lack of opportunity of public speaking, affect this time. If, Opportunity didn’t knock, I had to build a door.

 I took me a lot of time to give my Ice breaker, I correctly remember that day I entered a hall in Mysore and someone was delivering his speech. I never thought I would be so late. Back when Lockdown started I had in mind that virtual Meetings won’t be worthy enough but when I took up a role, it was other way. I wanted same experience of my Ice breaker speech in a HALL same like the one I had witnessed, But Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal.

 

I WILL CONCLUDE BY SAYING “You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

Evaluator:     TM Nikita Binani

Mentor:         TM Nikita Nandwani

Draft Edited by Nikita and Ayushi

Theme: Make hay while the sun shines, Role: Timer

Role takers for 1 April 2020
MEETING 603
Virtual zoom meeting

Theme: Make hay while the sun shine,

Break an hourglass into sixty pieces.

Pick each one up and see if you've lived them through every minute.

Have you harvested the seasons passing or have you succumbed to the frozen times?

Whatever your calling, join us to know how to make hay while the sun shines.

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On my first day in mysore, I meet a girl. We had a decent conversation which started with we telling our names to each other.  After hearing her name, I had curiosity to know the meaning of her name, which as per her meant “Sunshine”. Few days later, when we were allotted Desktop, luckily she was my partner. Of course, I didn’t remember her real name but only sunshine, which I call her till date.

Good Evening Fellow TM and dear guest!

She had many of her favorite quotes starting with sun shine all signifies different aspect of life. I made those in my quotes bucket list. Those help me in various phase of life. -- If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun” by Dr. A.P.J  Kalam motivates me to work hard. --At times when I am away from my loved ones and lonely, the quote “Sun is alone to but it still shines” keeps me going. At my time of adversity the famous quote “We all will see Sunshine after Moonlight.” Helps me.  But the most favorite which tells importance of time is “Make the hay while sun shines”.  We are always bound by time constraint whatever act we are performing in life. So when sun shines upon us is I believe the time when universe wants us to collect as much hay as possible.  I can go on and on but time constraint won’t allow.

My role is also about making sure the meeting sticks to the time lines. So being a time keeper of the meeting, I would be noting down the time taken by all the speakers in the meeting and will notify the speakers how they are doing with their time.
Usually Toast Master’s take up various project and delivery prepared speeches. We don’t have any prepared speech today instead we have a 20 min activity being conducted by TMOD . For the activity, when 2 min of your allocated time is left I will be displaying the Green Screen. When Last 1 minute is left I will be displaying the yellow screen. A red screen is shown When the time is up. 30 seconds of grace time is given to the speaker after which the speaker must stop

In the Table topic section time duration for an impromptu speech is 2 minutes. When 1 min is remaining I will be displaying the green card. When 30 sec is left I will be displaying the yellow card and red card when the time is up. After this, 30 seconds of grace time is given to the speaker after which the speaker must stop. For the table topic sections if the participants exceed the time limits allocation to them they will not be eligible for the best Table Topic speaker award. 
In the end, I would be presenting the Timer’s report and inform whether they were over the time limit or not. Best of luck to the all speakers.

Wishing everyone a good luck, Participate actively, adhere to timelines and Enjoy the session.

That’s all from me for now, over to you Toastmaster XYZ

Theme: Book-Bound and Role: Grammarian

Role takers for 25th March 2020
MEETING 602
Online Meeting

Theme: Book-Bound📕📗📘📔📚

Pages, words, chapters and more;

Stories and fantasies and knowledge galore;

A friend, a companion and so much more,

Let this book-bound journey touch your existential shores.

Books are a hard bound drug with no danger of overdose. I am a happy victim of books. I received a story book as prize in 1st class. My love for reading books began. Every new standard came up with new books and new stories and that was something I always looked forward to. From stories, interest changed to learning science and history. But books always remained constant companion.

Good evening fellow toastmasters and dear guests.

Reading books may be the number one way you can improve your grammar. When you read, you reinforce correct grammar in your mind. ... In addition to improving your grammar, reading will help with all aspects of your writing, from sentence fluency to increased vocabulary, which will help in coming all future speeches.

<< Role description >>

As the Grammarian and Word Master of today's meet, I would be keeping an eye on incorrect grammar usage, mispronunciations, misplaced words and tenses, and the quality of language usage in general. I will also be noting the good words used and I will throw them open to the audience for the meanings. As the word master, I’d like to introduce the word and idiom of the day.
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Word of the Day 

Garner

- to obtain or collect something such as information, support etc

Example:- All the details that we garnered about his research has been made into a presentation.

Would anyone like to use WOD


Idiom of the Day 

In a heartbeat

-immediately, without hesitation

Example:- Call me if you need any help, I'll be there in a heartbeat.

Would anyone like to use WOD

It is a club practice to show thumbs up on the usage of word and idiom of the day to encourage and appreciate the speaker. I would be presenting a report at the end of the meeting, highlighting the incorrect usage and giving the correct usage.
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<<FOR FINAL REPORT>>

I have divided my report in 3 parts:

1.       Good words and phrases – 4 examples

2.       Incorrect usage and their correct usage – 2 examples

3.       Who used WOD and IOD?

Grammar tip:

Problems with 'highest' or 'the highest'?

Most grammar books will tell you that you need "the" before a superlative like "highest" or "lowest", but this is not always true.

We use "the" when there is a noun after the adjective e.g. the highest number, the highest proportion.

When we put the noun before, we don't need "the" e.g. the number was highest, the proportion was highest.
So, compare these 2 sentences:

- The UK had the highest rate of unemployment.
- The unemployment rate was highest in the UK.
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