"FRIENDSHIP"- 9 July 2012

For many of us, friendship has contributed to who we are today and also has a role in shaping our future. However, sometimes we don’t cherish our friends enough as we might be too tied up with our own business. Or perhaps, as we become closer and more comfortable to each other, we just don’t say ‘thanks’ or ‘sorry’ thinking that “she will understand or he will know it”. This was what drove the Toastmaster of the Meeting (ToM), TM Bena to bring up “FRIENDSHIP” as the meeting theme and to set “treasure” as the Word of the Day last Monday.

With a much familiar theme song of the famous TV-series “Friends”, ToM invited all attendees to reminisce those cozy moments their shared with their friends. Before going to the core meeting agenda, ToM asked everyone in the room to write down a note (a blank paper was given to each of the attendees beforehand) to their friends whom they wished to express their gratitude or sorry to. It would then be up to the attendees to make sure that their notes were delivered to their respective friends. 

ToM was assisted by the General Evaluator Team led by the General Evaluator, ACB/CL Imung Hikmah. The Grammarian was TM Sai Blackbyrn, the Timer was TM Suryani, the Ballot Counter was TM Kevin Meng, and the “Ah”/WoD Counter was TM Alfian.

TM Syariful Alamsyah Lubis, who has been friends with Indonesia’s marine sector for 40 years, opened the prepared speech session with his project Basic Manual #3 entitled “How much Do You Know about Water?” TM Lubis reminded the audience of how water holds a vital role in our life. He informed that a water deficiency of even 2% can cause the human brain to function improperly and that is why sometimes people lose focus. Through his speech, TM Lubis beautifully portrayed water as something that is adaptable, cool, and graceful. Yet at the same time, water is strong and it harmonizes itself with nature.

TM Lubis was evaluated by CC Kardinal.

The second speaker was CC Dinesh Vaswani, who came to JTC to have his drill session with a speech entitled “If Life is A School”. As a teacher, he said that he is amazed how children can teach adults about life. Also, he emphasised that happiness is a key to life and by teaching his pupils, he finds happiness as he learns about life through them.

To give as many inputs as possible for his upcoming world speech contest, an open evaluation―conducted by GE― was carried out upon CC Dinesh. There, JTC members and guests such as ACG/CL Robert, TM Arif, TM Sai, Guest Edwin, etc gave their valuable comments to CC Dinesh.

Furthermore, ACB/ALB Ronny conducted a successful Table Topics session with as many as 6 impromptu speakers. Those courageous speakers were ACG/CL Robert, TM Sai, Guest Baby, Guest Robin, and Guest Edwin.

Moreover, in last Monday meeting, the audience benefited from the educational session on “Meeting Roles & Responsibilities” brought by the Vice President of Education, CC Neeraj Khiani. After this session, the audiences (both of members and guests) are expected to understand better on the meeting roles & responsibilities.

Finally, the Ballot Counter, TM Kevin, announced TM Lubis as the best prepared speaker, Guest Robin as the best table topic speaker with topic “There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend”, and ACB/CL Imung as the best evaluator. 

left to right: TM Kevin, Guest Robin, TM Lubis, ACB/CL Imung, TM Bena
[photo taken by ACG/CL Robert]

The meeting was commenced at 19:03 and adjourned at 21:00. There were 10 members and 16 guests who joined the meeting.

JTC Minutes of Meeting, 9 July 2012, prepared by Club Secretary 2012-2013, TM Bena.