CELEBRATION
After a jubilant event on January 14, the stallions returned to the regular meeting in high spirits and celebrated the winners of the annual club contest. The theme of the meeting (celebration) resonated (word of the day) with the overall mood of the proud stallions who qualified for the area contest.
The Sargent at Arms TM Rayees Syed opened the meeting on a victorious note and raised the spirit of the meeting with his resounding voice and demeanor. He invited the president/Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD) TM Omar khan to the stage and introduced him as one of the most likable and special members of the fraternity.
TM Omar welcomed the 4 guests and did a great job by explaining the proceedings of a typical meeting and the agenda of the present meeting. He touched on the theme and talked about the many blessings we have that we often take for granted. He articulately mentioned about the meaning of celebration in terms of a more subtle meaning that pertains to celebrating how we live our lives and how we as human beings have the same needs and basic ways of conducting ourselves all around the world. TM Omar also introduced the functionaries who were:
· TM Naveed Hussain as the grammarian
· TM Dr. Fayez as the timer
· TM Rayees as the ah counter
· TM Omar as the vote counter
The first segment of the meeting was an evaluation training session that was conducted by TM Naqi. He took to the stage and explained the audience about an evaluation based on clear-cut objectives and one that is done in a contest with general objectives. He talked about things that an evaluator must avoid and those that could add more potency to the evaluation speech. He touched upon several areas and told the audience that an evaluation is given to encourage and improve, not to bring a speaker down. He also shed light about the judging criteria and emphasized on analyzing the speech content, structure, and delivery.
An impromptu segment was conducted by the past president TM Majid Hafeez who had received his delayed shipment from Toastmasters International. He gave out some awards to the earlier term officers and handed the club some ribbons and other items that the club required.
The proceedings of the evening continued with TM Mohammad Alwan as the only prepared speaker of the evening. He delivered the 4th project from his competent communication (CC) manual that deals with the use of language and rhetorical devices. TM Alwan's speech was centered on diamonds and talked about the process that makes them, their value in our society, and their uses for individual as well as commercial purposes. The informative speech shed light on the world's hardest substance and its use as a highly priced and valued gift between couples.
TM Rayees then took to the stage as the table topics master and made the guests feel at home by conducting the session in a lively manner. His first question was for TM Naveed and asked him to speak about "life without dreams is like a garden without flowers". The second question was jovially answered by TM Viquar whose topic was "hurt me with the truth but don't comfort me with a lie". The third in the line of speakers was TM Naqi who spoke about "silence is better than anything". The last speaker of the evening was guest Ismail who courageously accepted the challenge and spoke about "our busy lives make prayer harder but our prayer makes our busy lives easier".
Each of the speakers was applauded and the control was handed over to the General Evaluator (GE) DTM Waqas. He called TM Omar to evaluate TM Alwan's speech and share his analysis with the audience. TM Omar praised TM Alwan for educating the audience with his creative topics and recommended that any reference or fact should sound credible in order to resonate with the audience.
The table topics evaluator was DTM Waqas who encouraged all speakers with his tender and flattering evaluation remarks. He then asked for the functionary reports and evaluated the meeting in general. He commended the meeting for beginning on time and gave a constructive feedback to the club that he calls home.
The lectern was handed over to the presiding officer/TMOD TM Omar who called for voting and received the guest feedback. All the guest comments were encouraging and one gentleman remarked about the cordial and conducive environment of the club that made him comfortable.
The results were declared with TM Naqi as the table topics winner, DTM Waqas as the best evaluator, and TM Omar as the best Big 3. TM Omar also distributed the second and third place awards for the international speech contest to DTM Waqas and TM Naqi respectively.
The meeting was adjourned and another splendid meeting ended on a celebratory and triumphant note
By Naqi Rizvi,
Secretary,
Arabian Stallions Toastmasters Club
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