Muscat: ABC Toastmasters Club Celebrates Third Anniversary
Report: Louis Pereira
Pics: Dilip Correa
Muscat, Sep 30: The ABC Toastmasters Club, Muscat, Oman celebrated it’s third anniversary on Thursday September 27 at The Grill House Restaurant, Party Hall in MBD Area, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman. The programme began at 6:45 pm and continued until 10:30 pm.
The cultural programme started at 6.50 pm with a mindboggling dance for the song ‘Jumbalika Jumbalika Jumbala Jumbale’ by Lisa D’sa, Chelsia D’sa, Stacy Vaz, Muriel, Melina Goveas dressed in colourful costumes.
TM Jyothi Vas, Sergeant at Arms, called the meeting to order at 7 pm followed by a welcome address from the outgoing President TM Sankaran Nambissan who invited the dignitaries and spoke of the achievements accomplished during his term, 2011-12.
The chief guest of the day was Jose Chacko, a Chartered Accountant by profession and the Chief Executive Officer, Al Osool Al Arabia LLC who is also a chartered member of ABC Toastmaster Club. Toastmaster Adrian Saldanha honored the Chief Guest and the Area Governor, Area 67 and also the sponsor and mentor of ABC Toastmasters club, ACG ALB Cyprian Misquith for his contributions to ABC Toastmasters Club.
As Area Governor, TM Cyprian Misquith did the installation ceremony of the new club officers and administered the oath of office to the officers headed by President ACS CL Alexander Vincent Sequeira. Officers Pins were allotted to respective officers according to their posts held as per guidelines of Toastmasters International. President-Alexander V Sequeira during his presidential address, invited the dignitaries and welcomed all the guests officially.
Toastmaster of the day CC Dilip Correa took the mantle and continued the proceeding of the meeting with his regular wit and humor. He introduced the role players to the audience and invited each role player to explain the criteria of the role they are playing. The role players for the day were: Time keeper: TM Samuel D'Silva, Word Master: TM Thomas George, Grammarian: TM Srinivasan, Ah Counter: TM Sanjeev Kumar and General Evaluator: TM Louis Pereira.
The Competent Communication manual was used by the project speakers, Gavellier Sharon D'souza spoke on her 4th Project: "Unleash your Secret Genie" and TM Harwin Gabriel on his 6th Project: "Paradise" They were evaluated by Gavellier Vikas Manjunath and TM Ashwyn Kumar, respectively.
Another interesting event was the Table Topics conducted by TM Suranga Ranasinghe. Six table topic speakers spoke for 2 minutes each instantly without any preparation on the topics given by the table topic master. The speakers were: Binoy Paul, Patcy Lasrado from ABC Toastmasters Club, Gavelier Edison George, Gavelier Sherwin D’Silva from Ana Gavel Club, Ahsan Jalal and Gupta Das from among the guests for the day.
Official news letter of the club, "ABC Tidings" 10th issue was released by Gladys Misquith, an active leader in personality development programmes and a teacher at Indian School Muscat, along with the president of the club, TM Alexander Sequeira.
Quiz Master, TM Kaviya Suresh conducted a smart quiz for the audience where the entire audience participated.
The evaluation session was taken over by the General Evaluator ACS CL Louis Pereira. Who conducted the session and called for the reports by respective role players.
The business session was conducted by VP-Education Celine D'Souza.
The Chief Guest, Jose Chacko spoke on the importance of public speaking skills and the benefits of joining toastmasters clubs. He advised the audience to make use of the opportunity to join clubs at their leisure times. He assured the club his full support and cooperation from his side. He awarded the winners of the project speeches, evaluators and table topic speakers with colorful ribbons and certificates.
The President concluded the formal part of the evening with his closing remarks.
There was another dance and the song was 'Dil mera muft ka' by Lisa D’sa and Stacy Vaz who entertained the audience by their breathtaking performance. The dances were coordinated by Madam Celine D'Souza and choreographed by and Sylvester and Nancy Vaz.
Sumptuous Dinner supplied by Grill House Restaurant was served at 10-30 pm as per schedule. The entire programme concluded by 10.45 pm
The sponsors for the programme were: M/s. Ghubra Power and Desalination Co., M/s. Nadan Trading LLC and Divine Restaurant, Sankaran Nambissan, Dilip Correa, Vinay Nazareth, Binoy Paul, Karthikeyan, Thomas George, Al Osool Al Arabia LLC, Nanthakumar and Ronald D'Souza
More about the ABC Toastmasters, Oman
ABC Toastmasters Club made its humble beginning which was primarily initiated by a group of people who are accomplished speakers themselves, the ABC Toastmasters Club in Oman, held its first meeting on March 6th, 2009. Having only seven members at its inception, the ABC Toastmasters were steered by ACG, ALB Cyprian Misquith, DTM George Thomas and Clarence Pinto. A total of seven members were present at the first official session that took place on March 16th 2009. The official registration into the International Toastmasters Club came three months later on June 30th 2009 with twenty two members. Incidentally, a minimum membership of twenty members is a stipulated requirement to be officially inducted into the ITC.
The toastmasters club is not a new concept to Oman. There are twenty one clubs in Oman sponsored by individual companies. These clubs have been running successfully in the past, and have given rise to many groups of successful speakers. These speakers have honed their leadership skills in clubs, thus enhancing their career opportunities and prospects. Worldwide the Toastmasters organization is known for its non profit agendas and currently has 280,000 members in 13,500 clubs spread across a span of 116 countries.
Closer home in Oman, the ABC Toastmasters club owes its beginning to Clarence Pinto, Mentor ACG, ALB Cyprian Misquith, TTT participants Louis Pereira, Dilip Correa, Alex Aranha, Alexander V Sequeira and others. This group of enterprising individuals decided to start this club after witnessing the success of ‘Taste the Toast’ – a six weeks workshop for aspiring toastmasters that was conducted in 2008 by MCCP.
Every meeting is professionally eked out with a fixed agenda, a timer, color cards and evaluation papers. Extemporized table topics still remain the most popular of these meetings. Undoubtedly, every meeting serves to build up the confidence of many a hesitant speaker. Taking a cue from its mother club - the Toastmasters International, the ABC Toastmasters Club in Oman also strives to aid its members in overcoming their fear of public speaking and to become better speakers.
This year ABC Toastmasters Club has 3 major achievements,
1. ACG ALB Cyprian Misquith, the sponsor and mentor of our club, being elected the Area 67 Governor.
2. "ANA Gavel Club of Muscat" specially meant for the children of the age group of 10-18 years, currently has 44 Gaveliers out of which 22 of them have been registered during 2012. It is due to the great efforts put in by TM Samuel D’Silva.
3. The club is going to sponsor a new club, Ray Toastmasters Club, the officers have already been chosen and the official registration is in progress. The two sponsors for the new club are Ahsan Jalal, Ray International Group - Training Manager and Cyprian Misquith. The two Mentors are Jyothivas and Harwin Gabriel.
Certificates of appreciation were presented to the following Toastmasters during the programme:
1. For Evaluation skills – Patcy Lasrado
2. For Table Topic speaking skills – Adrian Saldanha
3. The All Rounder of the year – Celine D’souza
4. For Project speaking skills – Jyothi Vas
5. Counselor of ANA Gavel Club of Muscat – Samuel D’Silva
6. Mentor of Ray Toastmasters Club – Harwin Gabriel
7. Photography Support – Dilip Correa
Outstanding Toastmaster Certificates were presented to the below mentioned Toastmasters.
1. Achiever of DTM – Clita Crasta
2. Venue Coordination – Louis Pereira
3. Membership Motivation and New Club creation – Cyprian Misquith
ABC Toastmasters Club has the following Officers for the current year:
1. Alexander Sequeira-President
2. Celine DSouza -Vice President-Education
3. Dilip Correa - Vice President-Membership.
4. Suranga Ranasinghe -Vice President-Public Relations.
5. Harwin Gabriel -Club Secretary.
6. Louis Pereira - Treasurer.
7.Jyothi Vas -Sergeant at Arms
The President for the current year – Alexander Sequeira has been born and brought up in the beautiful village of Taccode, 34km from the coastal city and the western ghat of Mangalore, India. It is a place surrounded with rich greenery, natural, dense forest and clean environmental living. He has done his graduation from Canara School, Kodialbail, Mangalore. He has obtained his Industrial Engineering diploma from Thane Institute of Engineering, Mumbai. His first job was at Hindustan Petroleum Refinery as a trainee Engineer. He has worked at various Management capacities and is a resident of Oman
for the last 13 years. He is employed at M/s. Al Ghubra Power and Desalination Company LLC. He has been a very active Toastmaster and has been an executive committee member for a very long time. He has also served as the former sports secretary of MCCP for the year 2010-2011.
TM Alexander is a pleasing personality always wearing a rich smile on his face. He is an enthusiastic and never tiring personality who is capable of leading his team successfully to greater heights. The club is hoping to reach its helm during his leadership. He says marriage is like a workshop where husband works and wife shops!
For more details about the club please visit www.abctoastmasters.webs.com.