Toastmasters

When my company launched a new policy about holding weekly team forums, my first thought was: ‘Bugger! My dream of joining the Toastmasters club is over!’ The forum is held on 8:30am every Tuesday, which clashes with the Toastmasters meeting which also happens on Tuesday mornings.

I had agreed to meet Marlyn at 6:30 am in the Meditation Centre today, then we’d go to the Toastmaster’s Club together. Marlyn is my meditation tutor. I met her only three weeks ago!

I missed the opportunity to tell Marlyn last night that I couldn’t make the Toastmasters. The meditation class was divided into two groups and I was allocated to another group. By the time I finished my class, I was disappointed to find out that she had already left as her group had finished earlier. Since Roger, the tutor of my group, had Marlyn’s phone number, I kindly asked him to do me a favour to ring Marlyn and tell her that I wouldn’t come this morning.

I got up this morning. As usual I did half an hour of pilates before going out for my run. During my running, somehow I started to worry. 'What if Roger forgets to ring Maylyn? She would be waiting and waiting and getting worried about me!' Thinking of this, I made some adjustment to my running route and sprinted to the Meditation Centre.

I found her, thank God for that! Out of breath, I regrettably explained to her why I couldn’t go with her.

‘You can still come!’ She said. ‘We can leave the club early. I can drop you off at work afterwards.’

I didn’t think it’d work. I was on my running shoes and wearing only shorts. It must be about 6:45am and the club starts at seven.

‘Come on! I’ll drive you home. You can get changed in five minutes. We’ll make it. ’ She was very calm and relaxed. Not like me, getting anxious and stressed. Realising my stress was not doing me any good, I agreed to her suggestion.

Thank God I had had a shower first thing in the morning!

The following 15 minutes or so we had a mad rush. She drove me home, I got changed miraculously in a couple of minutes. At exactly seven, we walked into the club room.

It turned out that today’s meeting was special as there was a speech contest. It was very serious as three judges were ‘recruited’ from outside the club. Time was strictly controlled and contestants were not allowed to enter the room until it was their turn. The topic was: ‘What are your concerns in this general election?’

One by one, seven contestants did their speeches. Marlyn was amongst them. Six of them did a fantastic speech, which to me, was very professional. Three of them won prizes and every contestant received a certificate.

After a tea break, a ‘table speech’ was conducted, which was less formal. Four people delivered speeches which were just as good. I was not sure if those speeches were prepared or instantaneous though.

Just by being there, surrounded by a bunch of positive and enthusiastic people, I was amazed and inspired. My spirit soared every time people clapped their hands after the delivery of a speech.

This is definitely my kind of club!

I turned up at work in time. To my disappointment, the forum was rescheduled to 11am. Since there were only two board rooms and we had three teams to hold forums, our team decided to go for the later sessions. All the rush, anxiety … now seemed unnecessary. Hang on a minute… I changed my mind. It was actually good news for me, as I could now join the Toastmasters without having to worry about the damn forums at 8:30am!

To add icing to the cake, I talked to one of my colleagues about this club. I found out that my company reimburses the membership fees to the staff who belongs to this club. The company has all sorts of incentives and educational assistance programmes and this happens to be one of them.

A decision has been made.