Our President's Address at the ExCo Installation on 3rd July 2010

District Governor, ladies and gentlemen and members of Toastmasters@Hope. It is a great privilege and honour to have been elected as the charter President of Toastmaster@Hope for at least the next year. Being a president is always a challenge because it places demands on time and resources. I thank our interim President and my friend, Michael Lau who, for the past one year, did some very wonderful work in babying this club to this day when we install our charter ExCo. Of course, many of you were also helped, in one way or another, to make this chapter become a reality.

Toastmasters participation will make us better communicators, I am sure of it. I preach regularly in this church, once a month. Yet all along, I never knew the importance of minimizing my speech fillers. My sermons normally have a lot of “you knows” and “you see”. My wife used to complain about this part of me and I would think, its just part of me. But Toastmasters gave me the conviction that if I wanted to be better in communicating my messages, I need to work on those speech fillers. Voila! One year down the road and I think I have improved in the speech filler area.

Although we are located in a church, this chapter is not going to be a platform for evangelism, conversion, etc or for sermons. Of course, our Christian identity will sometimes come out in our speeches like, “I thank God”, or “I prayed and asked God…” etc. That is a bit hard to avoid but still evangelism, sermonizing, etc will not be our focus in Toastmasters@Hope. Our focus will be on turning out better speakers and leaders, in an atmosphere of encouragement, support consideration for one another.

When a person makes a speech, he or she must be confident that his feelings and personhood will not be stepped on. At the same time, he or she must be confident in the fact that everyone else present wants him or her to be a better communicator. In terms of communicating skills, we are all works in progress. Some of us may be further along that path and so we help the ones behind us to keep moving forward. In that way, we all journey together towards that goal that we have for Toastmasters at Hope - to be better communicators and leaders.

I don’t see any need to talk about being good leaders. I read on the Toastmasters International website that “good communicators tend to be good leaders.” That is true isn’t it? People are drawn to those who can communicate their ideas clearly. As a pastor, I know that when its leaders can articulate the church vision clearly, the people will be galvanized to do that which is the church mission. I think the same works for the marketplace. Would you invest in a company if the President cannot tell you clearly what the company will do? I doubt it!

I would like to thank my fellow-leaders too for stepping forward to serve in the ExCo. I look forward to our working together and learning together the skills of Toastmaster leadership. Whatever goals we seek to achieve can only happen with the support and encouragement of each one of you.

In closing, I once again thank you for the support and trust you have given to this ExCo. We will do our best to ensure this club will make a difference to everyone who becomes a member. Thank You.