Minutes of meeting 16 April 2009

The British Toastmasters Club held the 2nd meeting in April on April 16th, 2009 at the usual venue. It might have been cold outside, but it was certainly warm in Annex 1-MAC where 17 people were enthusiastic to improve their public speaking skills and make new friends. As many as 9 BTMC members, 3 visiting TM members from other clubs, and 5 prospective members were present at the meeting. "After darkness, light is born" was used as the theme to commemorate the birthday of R.A. Kartini, a hero of Indonesian women emancipation.

Indriati Permanasari, the VP of Education acted as the Toastmaster of the Meeting (TOM), Yani Siskartika as the General Evaluator, Dameria Hutabarat as the Grammarian, Sabrina as the "Ehm" and "Uh" Counter, and the last but not least, Indri as the Timekeeper. Indri was a prospective member who took the leap of faith to assume a role in the meeting.



As vibrant as usual, Alvin had the opportunity to deliver his BM1, the icebreaker about how he overcame the dark part of his life and succeeded to reach the light. We congratulate Alvin for overcoming his fears in the first project. Raj also delivered his BM4 titled "No more slogans, please!", questioning the impact of taglines used by various countries in promoting their tourism to the actual increase in tourists traffic. Pritya told a story of her beloved blue-tongued skink in her BM5 project and discouraged people from taking wild animals as pets. BTMC also had the honour to be visited by Steven Bowen, a CTM who delivered his speech titled "It sucks to be dead", in response to the recent article in National Geographic Magazine on scientists' intention in using DNA technologies to resurrect an unearthed frozen baby mammoth.

The time came to announce the winners: Pritya Pravina as the Best Table Topic Speaker, Steven Bowen, CTM as the Best Speaker, and Harlina, DTM as the Best Evaluator. Congratulations! Looking forward to their next speeches and evaluations.

After the meeting was adjourned, the night continued with members and guests exchanging information and prospective members inquired about joining the club. See you at the next meeting!