Happiness | February 4, 2015

HAPPINESS

 

With the contest fever engulfing the toastmasters fraternity, the February 4^th meeting was conducted as a practice session for the knights who would represent Arabian Stallions Toastmasters Club (ASTC) in the Area 38 contest on February 6.

 

The Toastmaster of the Day (TMOD) was none other than the promising TM Sajid Abdul Rezak who articulately talked about happiness and included "euphoria" as the word of the day. He took the podium after the Sargent At Arms TM Rayees Syed and the presiding officer TM Omar Khan had done justice to their respective roles.

 

The son of ASTC's sponsor (guest Abdulaziz Zamil) also graced the meeting and witnessed the great performances by the eloquent toastmasters who left no stone unturned to showcase the best of them.

 

The meeting started off with a feeling of euphoria and anticipation for the contest on the following Friday. TM Sajid took the session to a new high with his very pronounced words about happiness and about its significance to some of the audience. TM Sajid had a baby girl and that probably added to the feeling of happiness for him.

 

 He exceeded expectations by doing an exemplary job as the TMOD for the first time and conducted the meeting very professionally. He introduced every prepared (international and humorous) speaker professionally and encouraged them by his cordial introduction. He started with the humorous speech session and welcomed TM Naqi Rizvi to the lectern for his speech titled "your mama; my mama". The speaker that followed was TM Viquar Hussain with a brilliant speech titled "hairy tales".

 

The table topics and international speech sessions ensued with TM Faisal J as the table topics (TT) master. He had prepared a great yet challenging set of questions that tested both speakers (TM Naqi and TM Omar) to the core. Both speakers answered 3 questions and amazed the audience with their novel and intelligent answers.

 

The international speech session was an anticipated part of the meeting and both DTM Syed Waqas and TM Omar stunned the attendees with their well-crafted as well as well rehearsed pieces. DTM Waqas's speech was centered on the power of words and was titled "What Matters". On the other hand, TM Omar talked about empathy, the importance of being thankful, and a reminder of how fortunate we are compared to many others. His speech was titled "What's Your Count?"

 

Now was the time for our able evaluators to shine with their constructive feedback for all prepared speeches. TM Omar evaluated the speeches of TM Naqi, TM Viquar, and DTM Waqas with TM Jibran taking the stage for the speeches of TM Viquar and TM Omar. Both evaluators did a tremendous job with their welcome and valuable feedback. The session was conducted by TM Sajid himself as this was not a regular meeting and did not require a general evaluator.

 

The mood during the entire meeting was quite festive and occasional bursts of laughter diffused the tension that was building up because of the upcoming contest. However, fellow Stallions had faith in their able participants.

 

The meeting concluded on a happy note with the theme of the meeting manifesting itself in the attitude of people who attended. Every participant braced himself for the upcoming area contest and took the feedback of the evaluators to prepare better. Once again, ASTC would be proven as one of the mightiest clubs of Riyadh!