This was an outing which I have been waiting for since the day one I joined Toastmasters Club. I have joined The Frontier Toastmasters Club for two and a half years and I have discovered that something is missing in my club. That is member’s bonding. In my opinion, most of the members are working adults and they have their own family. It is quite difficult to gather everybody for an outing with the purpose of creating a better bonding among members. However, I really wanted to give it a try.It took two hands to clap. I was fortunate to have a member - Kwok Kiong who volunteered himself to organize an outing for the club. Foremost in Kwok Kiong’s mind was to have an outing to create a better friendship that lasts forever. We went through a few discussions to finalize the program as follow:
1) Kite making - to make a kite in a group of 2 people and fly the kite together.
=> This is to cultivate team work within the group and gain satisfaction after seeing the self-made kite flying in the sky.
2) Card games - to have fun together.
=> This is to have a relax moment when we can laugh and make fun of each other.
3) Table topic sessions - to have more personal topics
=> This is for us to know each other better.
4) Compliment cards - to write some compliments to every participant
=> This is to have a happy ending of the outing and everybody will be motivated by the positive messages from our members.

I could see that Kwok Kiong really endeavored to make this outing a successful one.

Before one day of the outing, I received a lot of last-minute messages saying that they could not attend the outing due to personal reasons. One, two, three, four….members could not make it for this wonderful planned outing. I was so worried that Kwok Kiong will be saddened and demoralized by the response from the members. Fortunately, his mood was not affected.

Ironically, rain was falling heavily after the kites were made. A lot of programs could not be carried out due to the lack of participants and weather.

At first, I thought this outing would be a boring one. However, after all the negative incidents, it turned out to be something good. Within a small group of five, we got to sit closer to each other under a shelter to avoid the rain. We had a scintillating conversation by sharing our personal stories.

Towards the end of the session, Kwok Kiong executed the “compliment cards” activity beautifully. Deep inside my heart, I was touched by the messages that I received. I have promised myself to continue helping the members to achieve whatever they want to achieve in their Toastmasters Journey… I want to see them blossom one day!

I have learnt something throughout this outing. No matter how bad the situation is, we still have to be positive and let our optimism to rule our mind. The end result will be somehow sparkled…I hope an outing will be carried out at least once every 3 months and with that, I strongly believe that we will grow together as a team , as a big family.