How do you feel, as incoming presi-dent of NSE TM Club?

SADDIQ: To put it frankly, it feels rather odd. After all, NSE TMC was no-where on my radar screen just a year back. At that time, I was scouting for a

club to visit and this club happened to have a meeting on a day

that I was free.

One thing led to another and very soon, I was inducted into the club as a new member! Being elected as the next President allows me the opportunity to exercise my leadership skills and bring Nee Soon East TMC to greater heights. I have many projects for the club in mind; but of course, these can only be achieved through the active support and dedication of the EXCO and club members.

Share with us lessons you have learnt dur-ing your past years in Toastmasters

First, you have to be positive-minded. It takes a lot for a shy person to become a better commu-nicator. Second, be an active participant in the chapter meetings. If you really want to succeed and become not only a better speaker, but also a better leader, you need to take your roles in a meeting seriously; be it as a speaker, evaluator or even the sergeant-at-arms.

Lastly, everyone deserves a chance to shine as all of us have our strengths and weaknesses.

Only then will we have a positive club environment.

Tell us what inspired you to join Toastmasters and serve as President

I was a shy person and rarely found it relishing to en-gage in small talk with others. When I enrolled in Te-masek Polytechnic as a student, I realised the crucial need to sharpen my communication skills. As luck would have it, I passed by the Toastmasters booth dur-ing a recruitment drive and promptly signed up for it.

Under your baton, what do you hope to achieve?

My main task will be expanding the club membership, injecting more variety in the club programmes and building a strong, dedicated and resilient committee.

Also, I intend to establish friendly relations with other Toastmasters clubs and learn the best practices from them.

The EXCO will undeniably play a pivotal and active role in getting our club to a higher level. Personally, it is my wish to see that each member is given the opportunity to become better communicators and leaders.

A New Beginning J U L Y 2 0 0 8 I S S U E 4 / 2 0 0 8

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Nee Soon East Toastmasters W W W . N E E S O O N E A S T . B L O G S P O T . C O M E M A I L : N E E S O O N E A S T @ G M A I L . C O M :

C O N T A C T N O : 9 7 3 2 9 4 4 3 ( S A D D I Q )

S P E C I A L E D I T I O N

A B O U T U S

Nee Soon East CC Toastmasters Club aims to be a club that inspires

all her members to think, speak and lead

with confidence and aims to train up their public communication skills.

We meet second Thurs-days of every month at #04-05, Nee Soon East

Community Club.

C O M M I T T E E S T R U C T U R E

2 0 0 8 / 2 0 0 9

President Mohamad Saddiq , CC

Vice President Education (VPE) Goh Shang Zhe, Kenneth, CC

Assistant VPEs Rajeevi, Tan Yeow Khoon

Vice President Member-ship (VPM) Melvin Lau Boon Yang

Vice President Public Relations (VPPR) Mohamad Saddiqi

Secretary Rajeevi

Treasurer Tan Yeow Khoon

Immediate Past President Tommy Teo, AC-S, CL

Mentor Wekie Tay, DTM

Editor Goh Shang Zhe, Kenneth, CC

A new term begins for Nee Soon East CC Toastmasters Club and all ready to take the club into the next lab is the freshly-minted President ( 2008/2009) , Mohamad Saddiq. Find out

more about him in this exclusive interview. By: Kenneth

Our new President ( 2008/2009) ,

Mohamad Saddiq , CC Holding the gavel firmly, Saddiq is sworn in as

President

An Interest Group of the Youth Executive Committee, Nee Soon East Community Club

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P A G E 2 F E A T U R I N G :

A brand new chapter un-folded as Nee Soon East CC Toastmasters Club

witnessed the installation of the 8th batch of the EXCO to bring the club to greater heights into the next lap in 2008/2009. Paramount in importance is that our club has a successive con-tinuation plan, to lay the bricks of foundation for a long journey ahead. The night of camaraderie started with our out-going President’s opening address. A considerably relief-looking Tommy was only too happy to hand over the leader-ship baton and proceeded to give a member-by-member sum-mary in his swansong address. Under Damon’s genial introduc-tion as Toastmaster-of-the-evening ( TME) , it was time for the burst of oratorical display , our 3 project speeches , to take centre stage. Our newest addition to the fam-ily, Sankar wowed us with his maiden step in the toastmaster journey. He broke the ice in his project one speech by giving a smooth delivery on his not-so-smooth career track, sprawling from India to The United States and to Sunny Singapore. Our curiosity was piqued by Project 2 speaker, Mohamed

Affendi as he dis-sected the various stages of inter-personal communi-cation. As people get to know some-one better, we shed layers of su-perficiality – from comments to opin-ions to feelings. Intr igu ing and thought-provoking! Our faith in joining Toastmasters was

re-affirmed by Lawrence , who con-vinced us why it can aid our climb up the career ladder, with much vigour and charm. And, a sea of nodding heads greeted the Best Speaker of The Night.

After feasting our eyes, it was time to feast on Refreshments, which in-cluded an achingly pretty sea of bite-size luscious cakes.( courtesy of our guest from Fu Chun Toastmasters, Sadinah). It followed by wisdom-dripping evaluations from Tommy, Saddiq and Damon. After that, the spotlight was thrown to the all-important Installa-tion Ceremony 2008. An solemn aura filled the room as our new members, Sankar, Margaret and Af-fendi were inducted and the incom-ing EXCO were officially sworn in. Presided by Area S5 governor,

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The Nee Soon East Family at Installation Night 08

The New EXCO prepares to be sworn in

Kumaran, each EXCO member held the gravel in all seriousness, before saying “ I will” – with commitment and fervour. Damon pointed out that our club might just have the youngest ever president elected in the Area S5 Divison – with 20 year old Saddiq. Shelving serious matters aside, it was time to loosen the ties and let our hair down. The fun was rolled out in boisterous fashion by our

mistress of fun, Rajeevi. Each member was given a slip with a word. With that, we had to find other members who had words related to it. With high spirits, we scrambled to shout and find our other “ links” n the adrenaline-pumping “ stock market” game. The memorable night capped off with a cozy family photo-taking ses-sion. This marks the dawn of a new

Next Meeting: 7th AUG 2008

P A G E 3

of the CC. Well done to them! The session started off with the Toastmaster-of-the-Day (TMD) Kumaran Rajangam greeting and welcoming speakers and guests; and also remind-ing them to switch off their mobile phones. Once that was done, the meeting proper began with the first speaker Richard Sng, DTM touching on the "Secret to R&R of Membership" which detailed exactly how to tackle the membership issue. The second speaker - Aziz Mustajab, DTM - spoke on "Building a Toastmasters Club" while the last speaker, Patricia Lum, DTM, entertained us with a presentation on "How to Be a Distinguished Club?" Then came the time for refreshments. It was as if a Three Gorges Dam (China) had burst and

S P O T L I G H T O N :

began filtering in (yes, filtering in as if they were some sort of sea crea-tures...) at around 12:00 p.m. surprising all of us. After a few minutes of warm introductions and invitations to snack on a few chocolates, the guests slipped out for lunch; probably feeling sheepish they came an extra 1 hour early. We opened our gates and warm hospi-tality at 1:00 p.m. to guests who began to flood the venue in droves. Guests were led to the registration booth to sign against their names. It was heartening to see many of them exclaiming and full of praises seeing the well set up registration desk complete with ornate guestbooks, delicate chocolates, flower arrangement and of course a whole collection of manuals, bookmarks and beautifully-designed certificates. Initially overcome by the tsunami of positive attendance rates, we quickly scurried around to ensure enough chairs for the guests. To alleviate the dire no-more-chairs-left situation, Mr Teo, Melvin and Yihao gathered enough motivation to cart off more than 40 chairs from all the four corners

Court Officers’ training

A SUCCESS: Toastmasters turning up in full force for COT @ our club

FULL HOUSE : Members were all ears to the three key speeches during the COT

T he Club Officers' Training (COT 1) started off early

in the morning of 19 July 2008 with the President and Vice President for Public Relations - Saddiq and Saddiqi respec-tively slowly making their way to Nee Soon East CC to de-posit logistics items. Together with the Super-Team consisting of Mr Teo, Yeow Khoon, Yihao, Tung Keong, Rajeevi, Tommy, Qi Xiang, Melvin, Saddiq, Saddiqi and Affendi, we set forth to arrange the meet-ing venue. Affendi came especially earlier to arrange the chairs. Yeow Khoon and Tung Keong helped to set up the Registration counter while Saddiq and Sad-diqi made themselves busy with pasting posters on the CC walls and pinning up Club Newslet-ters. Melvin - the IT Pro - col-laborated with Mr Teo to en-sure that the sound systems and projectors were working smoothly. The first guests

COT Co-Organizer and Area S5 Gover-nor , Kumaran Rajangam, ATMB, CL, sharing a firm handshake with Division Governor, - Winson Lim, ACS, CL.

Court officers’ training P A G E 4 S P O T L I G H T O N :

Continued from Page 3- its waters to surge all the way to the doors. In this case, the participants were so earger to consume the food that it nearly caused our doors to burst open! The second session featured the Break-out sessions which fortunately had nothing to do with pimples or some skin dis-eases. It was simply a sharing session for all Club Officers to brainstorm and discuss

ways to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively. Finally came the time for the Appreciations and Closing Ad-dress by out Division Governor - Winson Lim, ACS, CL. Both COT Organizers, Kumaran Rajangam and Adriana Tan, were handed the certifi-cates of appreciation for organizing the Club Officers' Training. We ended the day with a mas-sive cleaning-up operation with

tables karate-chopped flat and chairs stacked like skyscrapers. Sweets and drinks were handed out to vol-unteers to motivate them fur-ther. In the end, it was a hard day's work but a day well worth our collective efforts. Nee Soon East CC TMC is pleased to have been a gracious and hospitable host to all participants!

The 3 distinguished speakers take centre stage

Kudos to :

A-list hosts all: Nee Soon East CC Toast-masters Club mem-bers, ( from left, 2nd row) Yihao, Saddiqi, Siak Cheong, Kuma-ran, Damon, Saddiq, ( from left, first row) Tommy, Melvin, Qi Xiang, Tung Keong, Rajeevi & Yeow Khoon

DTM Richard Sng at the helm

Behind the Scenes: The Stage is set All smiles for the camera

Text: Saddiq Photos: Melvin Layout: Kenneth