Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Annual General Meeting - 22 May 2006

Below is the inaugural and inspiring speech presented by the in-coming President, Gwen Gwee, CTM.

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters, I am very honoured today to be elected the President of Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club for 2006/2007. Let me share with you a bit of my Toastmasters History.

After having surveyed a few clubs, I joined IBBM TM club in Jan 2000. Unlike some of our fellow members who took Toastmastering like duck in the water the minute they signed up, it was definitely a love / hate affair for me. Love because I knew Toastmasters program offers the best value for money in self-development especially in the Communication and Leadership skills. But hate because speaking had never been my forte. I always have butterflies in my stomach every time I turn up for a meeting but I assure you after much practice the butterflies are flying in formation. That is because we have such a fantastic and supportive club environment.

I started as a Committee member, A Treasurer, a Secretary, Vice President Membership and with much encouragement/support from our DTM Ong Siew Chien I took up the post of Vice President Education.

To be or not to be – This is a question we had encountered very often in the course of our life. It had been said –To be Ordinary is easy but to be a little bit Extraordinary requires commitment and lots of insider’s job. Sometimes we cannot afford not to be, if we astay put, we atrophied. That is what Life is meant to be, creating a better you so that we can find Our Voice and Serve Our world. In the club, changes often does not occur instantly, it is through a series of invisible actions like:-

A word of encouragement
A comment that something said is interesting, meaningful, inspiring etc.
A push to next assignment / to come out of your comfort zone
A push to take up new roles.
People who rally you on.
Giving feedbacks for improvement.

With this I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the mentors / advisers for the club, DTM K.Loghandran, DTM Celine Teh, DTM Ong Siew Chien, all the Past Presidents, and also the Past VPEs. A big thank you to all of you for your contribution, advice, expertise ,encouragement and support. And to all club members, you do make a difference, without you there will be no club.

By functional default as a VPE, I am now President of the Club and I look forward to build a strong club with all your continuous support. Together as a Team we shape a better world , a better Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club and more important a better US.

With that, I hand over the control back to the President.

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