Another exciting Wednesday evening began at 6:35 PM when the de facto Sargent-at-arms TM Omar Khan took to the stage and banged the gavel to officially commence the meeting. As usual, his exuberant voice and novel ideas made the start to the meeting enthralling both for members and guests. TM Omar told the audience to recite the toastmaster’s motto. Instead of taking the lead, as is usually the case with the Sargent-at-arms, TM Omar repeated after cognizant and ever-ready toastmasters who recited the motto with vigor and enthusiasm.
With a subtle transition, TM Omar wore the hat of the presiding officer and welcomed the guests who were happy to be in the meeting. He also honored the guest of honor TM Zia and extoled him in front of the gathering. He then changed into the hat of the Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD) and engaged the audience with the theme of the day-self-confidence.
He asked the wise audience about its perception of the term and received answers that included a belief in one’s capabilities, the ability to recognize one’s strengths as well as weaknesses, and the confidence of one’s actions after careful listening and thinking. After acknowledging and appreciating all answers, TM Omar asked the audience how self-confidence was different from boastfulness, arrogance, and superiority complex. He shed some more light on the topic with his intellectual gift and convinced the audience that the first step to achieving self-confidence is a firm belief in oneself and the drive to achieve those goals. It often happens that we set goals but lose track and steer of-course. That is because of a lack in constant evaluation and introspection of one’s ambitions. He also gave an example of sports teams that employ psychologists who use a technique called Neuron Linguistic Programming (NLP) to instill a belief in players that they are invincible. Once the morale of people is raised, it is easier to be self-confident and closer to victory as a result.
The impromptu role players were TM Faisal J as the grammarian, DTM Waqas as the timer, TM Meraj as the ah counter and guest Sajid as the vote counter. Each of the 4 players articulated their responsibilities and the grammarian stressed on the word of the day which was “ambiance”.
The prepared speech segment of the program was replaced by an educational session conducted by TM Omar about leadership in its most crude form. The talk was titled “Leadership is Mandatory" and started by asking the audience about what leadership means and how he used to perceive it. Leadership always meant popularity to him and was a cult.
He moved to the main theme of his speech which was to inspire the audience about leadership at all levels which could be at a country level or at a small and micro level to constitute a family. He stressed that leadership is not popularity, a fancy title, or power but a quality that manifests itself in the form of responsible actions that transform the lives of people and change the course of history. He articulated how each one of us wants to be a visionary and a leader but most of us end up as ordinary people in contrast to others who stay put on their goals and remain steadfast. They achieve victory and leave a legacy. We all have this power, articulated TM Omar in his resounding voice. We all can make a difference in our families as fathers and guardians. None of us needs to live a regular life and our future is in our hands.
The session was cleverly timed by the timer DTM Waqas who arbitrarily turned on the green light when he started to feel bored and brought in some humor with his spontaneous gesture.
The second session of table topics was conducted by a very promising and dedicated member TM Dr. Faiz who explained the purpose of table topics and flabbergasted the audience with very interesting and pertinent questions. Each of the 7 questions was linked to the theme of self-confidence and included the following:
· How can one become self-confident?
· What are the tools to achieving self-confidence
· Would you rather be handsome or smart
· Should we care what people think about us?
· The biggest hurdle to creativity is self-doubt. Do you agree?
· When we take a decision, we do not need to make a right decision but make our decision right. Do you agree?
· Would you prefer a Samsung or and iPhone?
The table topics session infused energy into the audience and the session quickly proceeded to the general evaluation that was conducted by the guest of honor TM Zia. He was succinct and articulate. He asked for the evaluation reports from DTM Waqas for the educational session and TM Shamsuri for the table topics. They both delivered crisp evaluations and the session proceeded to the reports of the role players or meeting leaders. Each of them (except for the vote counter) presented their reports and TM Omar was declared the winner for being the only one to use the word of the day.
TM Zia gave constructive feedback about the meeting and highlighted the following:
· He was glad and felt honored to be back.
· The meeting began late and Arabian Stallions should respect punctuality.
· The role players and speakers mentioned in the agenda should be present as it is difficult to assign roles at the last minute.
· There should be at least 1 prepared speech in the meeting.
The lectern was returned to the TMOD/presiding officer who requested the vote counter to declare the results. The table topics winner was guest Omar Faiz (it was his first time to be in toastmasters) and the “Big 3” award went to TM Dr. Faiz, the father of the table topics winner! The winners were photographed and the meeting ended on a happy note with all members feeling self-confident about themselves.
A guest (Dr. Faiz Alotaibi) delighted the attendees by generously inviting them to his wedding on Friday and a photo session of all attendees concluded the proceedings of the evening.
By Naqi Rizvi,
Secretary,
Arabian Stallions
