Hapless Toastmasters

This evening, I decided to visit Scope Toastmasters Club, and even before the meeting started, I was perturbed. There were no directional signs to tell visitors where the Toastmasters meeting was to be held and neither were there indications of where the meeting room was once I reached the said premise. Even security at the door didn't know. In fact, there is no information about this club at all, whether in Facebook, or blog or website. So unless you are among the tiny circle of people who knows about this new Club, don’t expect to have visiting Toastmasters dropping in on their meetings anytime soon.

Having maneuvered my way past these “black holes”, I was truly and genuinely blown away by the scene before me. The meeting set-up was disorderly – tables were improperly arranged and chairs were everywhere. There was no lectern, no gavel, no banner, no timing device, no manuals (of any type) and I consoled myself that at least, they had in their possession one miserable copy of the meeting agenda. William (Vice President Education) took up multiple roles – as the Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms, Toastmaster-of-the-Evening and Acting President. He is a really nice fella but he seemed to be running off in all directions. I was welcomed with open arms because I would be very useful to them – and so I ended up being the Table Topics Evaluator and Evaluator for the sole speaker. Originally they were going to have 4-5 speakers, some of them had been openly encouraged to make speeches for the sake of making speeches and without the benefit of any preparation! I put my foot down and the idea was abandoned. The General Evaluator was a newbie named Ganesan and his somewhat clueless evaluation made me cringe with despairing despondency. He meant well but it is criminal to throw newbies like him into the deep end of the pool without first teaching them how to swim! Shahbaz the sole project speaker didn’t refer to the CC manual at all when planning his speech – although to be fair, he acquitted himself very well. The grammarian’s report lasted exactly 6 seconds, being confined to reporting the number of times the word-of-the-day (i.e. ‘Wednesday’) was used during the meeting. The timer couldn’t present a proper report because there was no agenda to refer to. And so on and so on.

Then as I was sharing with them, I discovered to my horror that their Area Governor and/or Division Governor have not bothered to be there to provide guidance and/or assistance. Shouldn't it be mandatory to require a District Officer to "audit" all clubs under their purview once they take office? And if the club needs help, then this officer can marshall resources in this direction. Then I remembered that there are many ailing and/or new clubs that needed special care and nurturing – but District Officers either don't appear to know about them or chose to be blind to their sorry plight. So it is very heartening to encounter selfless individuals who are committed Toastmasters like Daniel Teh and Stephen Fernando, among many others (Yeoh Cheng Lim, Foong Weng Tuck and Bernard Louis comes to mind) who have stepped forward to take these clubs under their individual wings and/or played very critical supporting roles. Hmmm, where are the District Officers, I wonder?

Coming back to Scope Toastmasters, all they have is a club mentor, but I understand he may not be able to put all his energies and time for this club since I know he has other equally pressing duties to perform. The sad thing is that the 12 or so members who turned up this evening were all very enthusiastic and very much eager to learn but unless they become versed with the basics of Toastmastering, I fear for this club, especially for their members. They cannot be self-sustaining because they are hardly three months old! This is what happens when individuals consumed by self-interest charter clubs to further their own selfish ends, and the motives and concerns of the members themselves are pushed aside and conveniently forgotten after one or two meetings. I am sure Ralph Smedley must be turning in his grave right now! And my good friend, Lucky – if he knows this is happening – he will blast and obliterate these seekers of self-glory with a nuclear warhead! But seriously, this fledging club needs immediate help! S.O.S!