Goodbye 2022 and hello 2023!
Welcome to a brand new year and our brand new home! This Monday, 16th January 2023, had our first year-opening meeting at our new home in Central. With more than 40 guests joining us at our Open House Party, we were full of glee and excitement to introduce what we, the oldest Toastmasters club in the Asia Pacific region, have been doing for almost 70 years since 1954 – to inspire and empower individuals from all walks of life to become better communicators and leaders. Just like what our slogan says: “Speak out, Speak loud, Speak proud, Speak to lead NOW.”
SHOUT OUT to all our members tonight who did a fantastic job being speakers, evaluators, and facilitators. This night wouldn’t have been the same without you!
We kicked things off with a wonderful prepared speech by our member Josie who shared a story about how people should stick together to achieve marvelous things, she also demonstrated her amazing voice and vocal variety by signing a Sttocish famous folk song “Auld Lang Syne,” and earned a huge round of applause from the audience.
We then moved on to an exciting Table Topics session themed “The New Year 2023”. We had a lot of guests volunteering or being invited to share with us their New Year resolutions and expectations in a 2-minute speech.
Congrats to our top 3 Table Topics speakers:
First Place: CK
Second Place: Katherine
Third Place: Thomas
What followed was one of the highlights of the night – the New Member Induction Ceremony – five of the nine new members present were being inducted into the club, with all existing members pledging to support our new members’ quest for self-development and help make their toastmasters journeys a rewarding and fulfilling experience. New members then received their Membership Certificates from our president and a standing ovation from our members and guests.
This Open House Party wouldn’t be completed without the final part of the event – the Housewarming Party – a free flow of drinks, wine, and food was being served, and everyone was chatting, laughing, and sharing their stories with new and old friends alike. We all had a great time enjoying ourselves. It was undoubtedly an exhilarating night.
Our next meeting will be on Jan 30th with the meeting theme ‘Chinese Zodiac.”
We can’t wait to see you all more often at our meetings in the year of Rabbit!
