6 Months in APAcS Toastmasters Club

Hello,
As the title suggests, this blog post will be about how I've changed after 6 months of joining into APTC.

I like how members treat me. Most of them are older than me by 1 - 4 years and yet the choose to treat me as an equal. It was strange at first. They were so comfortable with me and that made me uncomfortable. In my mind, I was screaming "WHERE ARE THE BOUNDARIES? WHERE ARE THE UNSPOKEN RULES?". There were none. These people genuinely accepted me as who I am. 

This was a new experience for me, all this while through high school, the unspoken rule was juniors are beneath the seniors. The seniors have the say in everything and the juniors would have to just agree. But these people that overtime have become my friends never did such things. Your ideas are worth listening to. I've loved them ever since.

I am now more confident in sharing ideas and voicing out opinions. I used to be a wallflower. I would always stay in the shadows, avoid taking up roles, try my best not to have to talk to people in general. My English isn't bad so I don't really know why I was like that. I was so afraid of people judging me that I just kept quiet. In Toastmasters, you're required to finish 10 speech projects. 

I remember my first. It was terrifying. I shared about what was different about me and I was so deathly afraid the members would think I was strange. To my surprise, some of them approached me, saying it was a cool speech. Doing speeches gets a little easier with time, especially now that I'm friends with my fellow members. I don't mind having to do presentations or being asked questions because I know in my heart, there is literally nothing to be afraid of.

From APTC, I have also learned the weight of responsibility. I am the VP of Membership so my job roles include keeping current members happy and recruiting new members. I am also in charge of payments of membership renewals and new member application. I take my job seriously. 15 y/o Ainna would die at the thought of having to shoulder so much expectation and responsibility but I've grown and by overcoming my fears, I feel like I can take on the World.

So yes, I love this club, I love what it stands for and it's moral principles and values. I love all my fellow members for being with me in these 6 months. Joining was one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Here's to another great term.

Ainna

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Timer

Hello friends,

Today's blogpost is about being a timekeeper of a club meeting (specifically Toastmasters Club meeting). I am in no way an expert in it, I just wanted to share my experience on it.

I took up the role of time because the committee felt that for the first meeting, the role-players should be the committee member's themselves so the other members could watch and learn first. Admittedly, I was afraid to take up the role as it involved giving a report  at the end of the meeting and I dread talking (which is why I joined this club, to learn how to speak with ease and grace). 

The first thing I did after given the role was research. Here's what I found:

The purpose of a timer if to keep accurate track of time and ensure that the meeting is conducted according to the given time. Basically you'd have to time each person's speech or session and you'd have to alert them of the time left for their speech.

I was given a green light, an ember light and a red light.
It goes like this:

• If the session is 2 minutes long
• G: 1 min E: 1 1/2 mins R: 2 mins
• If the session is 3 minutes long
• G: 1 min E: 2 mins R: 3 mins
• If the session is 5 minutes long (also applicable for above 5 minutes)
• G: 2 mins left E: 1 min left R: time up

If the person keeps on speaking after 30 seconds after time up, you're required to ring the bell.

I had to do that the whole meeting and let me tell you, it was not easy. Time management is hard and confusing but without the timer, the meeting could end too soon or too late. 

After the evaluation of prepared speeches, the grammarian, ah counter, timer and general evaluator need to voice out their reports. 

The timer report goes like this:

Dear guests and fellow members,

• The meeting started at _:_ _ am/pm
• The president's welcoming address by ____ ____ took _ mins and _ seconds. Time given was 3 minutes
• etc

I think I did a really good job, the toastmaster guests were whooping so I hope they thought I did well ^^

Anyways at the end of the meeting, we had to choose who gets to do the prepared speech for the next meeting. I was one of them along with my friend, Julia. This will be my first prepared speech in Toastmasters, so I'd have to do the first speech module which is the Ice Breaker. I'd have to talk about myself, basically. But that is a blogpost for another day.

Till then

Ainna.

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Toastmasters and Everything Else

Hi,

Ainna here. It's been a while, I'm sorry for my absence. This post will be about all that has happened within the last 6-8 months I've been away from blogging.

On June of 2014, I was accepted to UiTM's CAT-ACCA course in UiTM Shah Alam. It was hard but in the end it was well worth effort as I had managed to get an average of 82% in my finals.

After finals was relaxing and unproductive (as holidays should be) (okay maybe not) ^^ I rarely ever did anything much less went out with my friends for a little socialising. I was a bit of a recluse at the time, I admit. I was supposed to go work for the semester break but because I was busy being Patrick under a rock, I decided against it.

I'm 3 months in the new semester. The subjects have gotten harder (as they should) and I have gotten lazier. I have to fight this sooner or later and I would prefer the former than the latter.

I did do something interesting this semester. I joined the Toastmasters Club. I am a committee member, the Vice President of Membership. I don't fully grasp what it means yet but I;m sure I will soon. We'll be having our second meeting tomorrow and I'm both excited and very nervous. I won't learn anything if I never try so here I am pulling every ounce of confidence I have in my body to attend the said meeting.

Will fill you in on what happens soon.
Till then.

Yours,
Ainna Dean

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