Pax Earth Nepal organised its monthly Toastmasters Program (Vol. 2, No. 3) at its Secretariat, Umakunda, Kathmandu on Thursday June 30, 2011. The program was originally scheduled for 6.00PM but due to a sudden heavy rainfall, most of the persons who committed to attend the Toastmasters could not appear on time. Even at 7.00PM, only 10 persons were gathered. Still, we could manage to organize the program from 7PM to 8PM.
The program was formally begun with a welcome speech by President Sujan Koirala. He warmly welcomed Honorary Member Nilambar Badal, Guests Bhagwati Pandey and Sachin Koirala, former PEN member Shanta Dahal, members Bal Gopal Shrestha, Shreebatsa Basnyat, Harihar Sapkota, Binod Pd. Mainali and Sudarsan Risal. He then introduced Toastmasters of the Day (TMD) Binod Pd. Mainali who was also assuming the role of Table Topic Master of the Day. Then, President Koirala handed the session to TMD Mainali.
TMD Mainali revealed the theme of the day: “Travelling” and Nepali as language set for the day. He briefly explained the rules and procedures. He, then, introduced the evaluation committee members: Nilambar Badal in the role of General Evaluator, Sujan Koirala as Grammarian and Timer, and Sachin Koirala as Ah Counter.
TMD Mainali introduced manual speakers of the day: Shreebatsa Basnyat and Harihar Sapkota who were speaking on “Traveling in a Bus” and “Traveling” respectively. Both of these speakers were in their project 2. Each speaker was given 5-7min for the speech. Manual speaker Basnyat started his speech with a long introduction of traveling and travelling in bus. He shared his everyday’s experience of traveling in a micro bus. He termed Nepal’s bus traveling as one of the riskiest traveling in the world. Still, he said, “I’m fond of traveling and it has always become one of the important parts of my life.” His presentation was humorous with the real examples and metaphors. Next manual speaker Sapkota started his speech with a short introduction of “Traveling”. He shared how important is traveling in people’s life. He gave some lively and touchy examples in his speech. However, his speech was very short.
After the manual speaking session, TMD Mainali also conducted Table Topic Session. He picked Sudarsan Risal and Bhagwati Pandey for this session and gave spot topic “An unforgettable traveling” and “Traveling to my village” respectively. Both the speakers were given 3min each for their speech.
After the Table Topic Session, TMD Mainali asked for the report from the evaluators one after another. Grammarian Sujan Koirala came up with his report. He mainly reported the grammar used in the speech by each manual and table topic speaker. He disclosed the incomplete sentences, wrong words and grammar used by the speakers. He was quite happy for the grammar portion of all four speeches despite some minor mistakes. Koirala was also responsible for checking time. As per his report, Basnyat, Sapkota, Risal and Pandey spoke 5min 30sec, 3min 40sec, 2min 30sec and 2min 32sec respectively. In manual speaking session, Basnyat could utilize the given time properly while in Table Topic Session both Risal and Pandey utilized satisfactorily. Then, Ah Counter Sachin Koirala presented his evaluation mainly on hesitation, unusual pause and repeated words of every speech. He was quite happy with the performance of all four speakers.
Finally, General Evaluator Nilambar Badal presented the evaluation report of both speakers and the whole program. He mainly evaluated each speech in terms of i) speech value, ii) preparation, iii) organisation, iv) opening, v) body, vi) conclusion, and vii) transition. He gave score to each evaluation criteria of every speech. He also reported the strong and weak points of each speaker and suggested ways to improve and upgrade their speech. He was very happy with the transition especially of Basnyat and Sapkota. Based on the evaluation scores, he declared Basnyat as the best speaker in manual speaking session. Though he didn’t pick the best speaker in Table Topic Session, he appreciated the speech of Bhagwati mainly because of good use of language and speech sequence. The audience gave a big round of applause to Basnyat and Bhagwati. Badal also appreciated the way the program being conducted.
TMD Mainali heartily thanked evaluation committee members for their report. Similarly, he thanked the speakers and audiences for their active and valuable support in successfully conducting the Vol.2, No.3 Toastmasters of PEN. He, then, returned the control of the session to President Koirala. Before wrapping up the program, he sought the feedback from every participant on the day’s Toastmasters. Each and every participant highly appreciated the program which is really helpful in empowering the youths. They also highly appreciated the evaluation done by General Evaluator Badal. They wished for the continuity of the program every month.
President Koirala acknowledged the comments and suggestions of every attendant. He assured to hold the program at least once a month as far as possible. He sincerely thanked the honorary member, speakers, guests and audiences for their active participation and support. He also thanked TMD Mainali for fabulously coordinating the program and formally adjourned the program.
Report by PEN Secretariat!!!
