"HEROES" - 5 November 2012

Approaching the Indonesian Heroes Day, yesterday our Toastmaster of the Meeting (ToM), TM Nur Agus Suryoko, stepped in to advocate his own definition of heroism and of what makes people be called heroes and superheroes under the meeting theme: “HEROES”. Inviting the audience to see beyond the artificial Hollywood superheroes, TM Agus views hero as anyone who is courageous, persistence, unselfish, and does community service. Meanwhile, according to him, superheroes are   group of individual heroes who attain common goals/objectives. In a second, ToM turned the atmosphere into an epic-sphere meeting!

ToM was supported by the GE Superheroes: TM Arief Rasyad (from Sandoz Toastmasters Club) as the GE and Grammarian; TM Webri Veliana as the Timer; TM Intan Oktora as the Ballot Counter; and ACB/CL Imung Hikmah as the “Ah” and WoD Counter (the word of the day was “heroism”). 

The first chapter of the epic meeting was opened with 4 heroes who came prepared with their speeches. The 3 out of 4 heroes are brand-new members who wasted no time to deliver their ice-breaker speeches.

TM Andreas Yaprianto, with his speech entitled “The Name” (BM #1), confessed to the audience how his long name sometimes gives him no favour especially when he has to fill out the circles in his exam papers. With his wittiness, we straight away saw a strong candidate for the next year humorous speech contest! TM Andreas was evaluated by our Area I1 Humorous Speech Winner, CC/CL Ivan Nurhadijaya who complimented him on his give-it-all energy. 

The second prepared speaker was TM Dina Novita with speech entitled “First Step in Faith” (BM #1). Through her speech, she let us know how persistent, resilient, and diligent person she is. Refused to give up albeit several failures on the entrance tests to some of public universities, she kept pushing herself and believing in her own capability. Eventually she made it to one of the most prestigious public universities in Indonesia majoring in Law. TM Dina inserted the famous quote from Hellen Keller “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all” and according to her evaluator, CC Neeraj Khiani, TM Dina has showed to the audience last night that she is indeed a daring adventurer.

The third ice-breaker speaker was TM Dwiardi Vergiawan with his speech “Into the New World” (BM #1). In a 4-to-6-minute speech, he succeeded to let the audience know about his interests, family, education, and ambitions! TM Vergi did not use any notes but cleverly made use of pictures to guide him in delivering his speech. His evaluator, TM Benazir appreciated his preparation and for his next speech suggested him to choose one idea from the said four ideas and give a deeper elaboration on that idea. 

What would be a better closing to a prepared speech session than listening to a beautiful song coming from TM Syariful Alamsyah Lubis? Yes, TM Lubis started up his speech, “Let’s Play Golf” (BM #6) by singing the famous number by Louis Armstrong “What a Wonderful World”. Through his speech, he told us that his love in playing golf has shown him what a wonderful world he has. CC/CL Susanna Jahja, his evaluator, recognised him for a speaker who always manages to enrich his audience’s mind and soul.

TM Andreas, TM Dina, TM Lubis, CC/CL Ivan, CC Neeraj, CC/CL Susanna

The next chapter of the epic meeting was Table Topics Session led by the Table Topic Master, TM Aday.

CC Valeriya Alimzhanova: What is the difference between hero and superhero?

Guest Arsy Trilaksono: Who is your favourite superhero?

Guest Aji Wibowo: What does National Heroes Day mean to you?

TM Presha Rajbhandari: If someday you were reborn as a hero, who you do you want to be and why? 

left-to-right: CC Valeriya;  Guest Arsy; Guest Aji

 

At last, the Ballot Counter, TM Intan, announced TM Andreas as the Best Prepared Speaker and TM Benazir as the Best Evaluator. Meanwhile, TM Presya (visiting toastmaster from Maryland, US) won the audience’s heart when she genuinely wished to reborn as herself since she believes that there is a hero in every one and that there is nothing better than to be yourself. With that, she grabbed the Best Table Topic Speaker award.

left-to-right: TM Intan (Ballot Counter); TM Presya (The Best Table Topic Speaker); TM Andreas (The Best Prepared Speaker); TM Benazir (The Best Evaluator); TM Agus (ToM)

 

Clearly, with reference to our ToM’s definition of heroes and superheroes, JTC  meeting yesterday was blessed with such heroic people!

JTC Minutes of Meeting, 5 November 2012, prepared by Club Secretary 2012-2013, TM Bena.