Synergy - Virtusa CMB Toastmasters Club Newsletter

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NEWS

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Virtusa CMB Toastmasters Club 02541805 Area 3 | Division G | District 82

Toastmasters International Mission

EXECUTIVE COMMITTE 2021/22

District Mission

Club Mission

Toastmasters International Core Values

Toastmasters International Envisioned Future

For more information : www.toastmasters.org

Synergy, at its core, describes a way for people to work together to achieve greatness. This positive synergy allows our Toastmasters to be their authentic selves at work, bringing their diverse life experiences, perspectives, talents, and communication styles to the

table.

In

fact,

each

individual's

distinct

perspective is precisely what allows a team to produce its best work. So, by naming this newsletter as Synergy, I hoped to instill a positive sense of synergy in toastmasters' journey.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me with the emergence of this Newsletter. First and foremost, I'd like to thank our President, TM Chethana Darshanamali, for giving me the opportunity to be the editor, as well as for all of her support and guidance I've received. Then I'd like to thank our Exco team, particularly TM Kasun Ilangaratne, TM Aqeel Aarif, and TM Sharika Gamhewa, for their ongoing assistance in a variety of ways. Finally, I'd like to thank our Toastmasters who gave their wonderful contribution to this newsletter.

Happy reading!

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TABLE OF CONTENT

It is with utmost pride that we present "Synergy", the official newsletter of Virtusa CMB Toastmasters club for the second half of 2021/22.

VIRTUSA CMB TOASTMASTERS CLUB

“If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build, end up building us.”

Even though we conducted all the meetings virtually for the past two years, we never failed to make those meetings fun and exciting, and we started conducting hybrid meetings with a lot of variety. We conducted a joint meeting with the Central Colombo Toastmasters

The journey of the last 10 months has been amazing with a lot of learning, achievements, fun, and memories.

Club and it helped our members to expand their network.

Synergy,

the

Virtusa

CMB

Toastmasters

Club

This journey became tremendous as our club has achieved numerous awards and goals. We have achieved 9 DCP points and became President’s

Newsletter 2022 is the hard work of our enthusiastic team led by; TM Shashini Wijesinghe, Club Secretary and also a sub-committee member of our PR Team. I

Distinguished Club. So far we achieved 15 educational

hope all of you will learn and gain something for your

awards and two of our members have achieved the Triple Crown Award. This year 25 new members joined the club and we were able to achieve the

journey in Toastmasters by reading this newsletter.

Smedley Award, Talk-up Toastmasters Award, and 880 Membership Award for Term 1. Our creative PR Team won the champion flyer of the month for March.

gratitude to all my members for their dedication. without your continued support, it would be impossible for us to achieve greatness in

Our dedicated members and exco members achieved Excellence in Training and Excellence in Leadership Awards too.

Toastmasters.

Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere

Happy Reading….Cheers !!

As the President of Virtusa CMB Toastmasters Club, I’m honored to have wonderful and dedicated club members because all of these awards and achievements are a result of their enthusiasm and dedication towards Toastmasters.

Our members not only shine bright inside the club, but also they go beyond the club and support the fraternity and help others. In addition, Our speaking champions marked their victory at the area and division stages of Humouros and International Speech Contests.

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VIRTUSA CMB TOASTMASTERS CLUB

Virtusa CMB Toastmasters Club has now been helping its members reach the pinnacles of effective communication and leadership for almost a decade in time. This year too, the club has held many successful meetings, along with also ensuring that members actively participate at other training sessions

Just as it has done in the past, this year also the club and members have grown from strength to strength, continuing to raise the bar higher and higher, and I am sure that this will be a trend to continue for years to come!

organized by the Division and the District.

I wish the club and its members all the very best for the journey that lies ahead!

Despite this being a difficult time for Toastmasters clubs in Sri Lanka due to the economic recession, I am extremely happy to see that Virtusa CMB Toastmasters Club was able to retain its member count well over the 20-member requirement, while also adding 16 new members to the club in the March renewals cycle.

Let me also take this opportunity to thank the entire exco of Virtusa CMB Toastmasters Club for their tremendous hard work in guiding the club throughout this entire year. The entire exco has always remained extremely dependable whenever the club or members needed their services, and they have truly performed an exemplary Service to the club! I am sure that you will continue to provide your best efforts for the success of the club during these last 2 months as well.

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VIRTUSA CMB TOASTMASTERS CLUB

Head of Human Resources | Virtusa Sri Lanaka

1.Who is Sampath Thrimavithana? Could you tell us a little about your hobbies and interests outside of work?

I'm currently heading Human Resources for Virtusa Sri Lanka. Previously held two positions as the Head of Talent Development for Sri Lanka & APAC, and later as the Head of Campus Hiring. Before that, I was working as the Head of Human Resources for the Nanotechnology Institute of Sri Lanka. However, going back to the inception of my career, I started as a banker, and transitioned into the IT sector. The first IT company I worked for was Abacus International (currently Sabre), the largest global distribution system (GDS) in Asia pacific, then I moved to HSBC and ‘Duo Software’. Apart from that, I had my own startup called, 'Sponge Global Learning', which specialized in training and development. It was started in 2009 and provided training and development for companies in Sri Lanka and six other countries.

I am a marketing professional and have completed the CIM qualification. I also have two master’s degrees: One in Business Administration and a another in Business Analytics & Data Science.

As for my hobbies, I'm into music and I compose music as well. I play a few instruments like the guitar and keyboard. I'm also into cooking and a little bit of dancing which involves Latin and Salsa. Learning new skills is what keeps me driving.

2. Could you tell us about your journey to the current position you are now?

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While schooling, I was an Orator and was part of the Sinhala and English Debating teams. So, speaking was always a passion of mine. I studied science subjects for A-Levels and was short of 6 marks for getting into medical college. I had two other options; either to be a dentist or a veterinary doctor, both of which were not of any interest to me.

At that time, we had only a few professional qualifications in Sri Lanka like CIM, other than studying overseas. Upon completing CIM, I also completed my MBA and followed with my education thereon. Working as a banking assistant behind the counters for almost two years, I was exposed to international trade, customer handling, and working under pressure. After two years, I joined another company called Abacus. Today, they’re known as Sabre. I would consider this the turning point in my career as I was asked to implement ERP solutions due to my accounting and marketing background. Since I had good communication and presentation skills, they recruited me as a product analyst. I was given the opportunity of going to Singapore and learning more about the product, which gave me the ability to come back to Sri Lanka and provide training to clients and operate as a business consultant with the development teams.

I learned a lot working in this role dealing with multiple stakeholders internally and externally. I always emphasize that you should choose exposure over-compensation at the beginning of any career because that will give a solid foundation.

VIRTUSA CMB TOASTMASTERS CLUB

3. How did you enter in to HR Field?

My company sent me to a training program conducted

by Ron Kauffman who is the world's Number 1 customer service trainer. After attending this program, I had to come to Sri Lanka and do a presentation on what I learned. To conduct this program, I bought one of Ron Kauffman's cassettes and learned the speech.

Everyone in the audience loved my presentation. A few days later, they invited me as a speaker to conduct a talk at BMICH. This was my first time speaking in front of an audience of 1000+ people and it turned out to be a great success., Corporate leaders wanted me to come and conduct the same session at their companies and it was at this point that I found out that I had the skills for training people. From there onwards, my career turned towards training. Being extremely focused on talent development and working with other companies as an external trainer gave me the opportunity to start my own company. I even hired a place and had a small group of people working for me to provide talent development and training to companies.

During this period, I was headhunted by SLINTEC, a national level nano technology research park and was involved in checking up HR practices and recruitment of PHD level talent. In the meantime, I was a freelanced trainer and Virtusa happened to be one of my clients.

Subsequently, the training manager at Virtusa left his position and I was asked to take over. Then I worked for Virtusa for seven years with multiple promotions to back to where I’m now.

4. Being the head of Virtusa, what are the 3 main things you would look for when recruiting a candidate?

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The first thing I would look for in a candidate is their technical competency. Usually, a person who has completed a degree and obtained good grades has completed the first technical evaluation and likely comes out as the candidate who can be taken to the next level. The next important aspect is the attitude.

As technologists, whatever learned gets updated due to the advancement of technology. Since this keeps on changing, having the right mindset is important to quickly adapt to such change. It is very important for technologists to have the ability to upskill, cross-skill, or re-skill themselves at a rapid pace; otherwise, they are more likely to have a shorter lifespan in the technology sector. When the candidate demonstrates learnability and the right attitude, it's easier to groom them to become an industry professional.

In addition, a possible method of fresh graduates gaining soft skills is by joining clubs such as the Toastmasters club which would expose them to quickly improve important soft skills required to further develop themselves which is crucial for professional success.

5. Based on your personal experience, what is your opinion on mentor-mentee relationships, and who are the mentors you have had in your life?

There are five methods that you can use to change a person: training, coaching, mentoring, consulting, and counselling. There can be different mentors such as technical mentors, and leadership mentors in a person's life. However, in general, mentors are experienced individuals who have gone through several situations and are likely to have held or be holding leadership positions in their respective careers.

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I have come across very good mentors in my career, and sometimes it's good if you can identify and consider suitable people as your mentors.

In Virtusa, I interacted very closely with leaders like Keith, Sundar, Murali, Rahul, Madu & Naresh. I

6.You have already risen several steps on the corporate leadership ladder. Where do you see yourself heading from here?

consider all of them to be great mentors as they challenged me and were exemplary leaders who

Career-wise I would like to get more global exposure working with diverse leaders in diverse industries and to be recognized as a global leader.

provided me with the right advice and guidance. It is also important for mentors to have strong trust and bonding with their mentees, as the mentee must

In my personal life… I have two daughters, so I would need to educate and get them to a particular level in life. Through training, I have traveled to

believe that he trusts his/her mentor as an achiever,

many countries. However, after joining Virtusa I couldn't do many training programs as this is a fulltime job. I hope to do more sessions particularly in

who has achieved something in their career. More than anything you should be able to approach a mentor and ask them for their insights when you reach a crossroads and have to make a judgment call.

A mentor should be able to make you understand the right decision and the possible consequences of taking certain decisions as well. So, the most fundamental aspects of a positive mentor-mentee relationship are having a good bond with each other, having belief in the person you choose as your mentor, and the ability to provide useful insights.

Europe and America. I would also like to be more involved in panel discussions and deliver keynote speeches, and also write a book (despite being lazy to do so). These are basically some of the aspirations that I am heading toward at this point in my life. Apart from that, I want to travel to some exotic locations in the world, play in a band, and work in a kitchen.

When speaking about the mentors I’ve had in my life, there are quite a few great individuals from within Virtusa and outside. When I was setting up my startup, I was mentored by a very controversial character; Muhunthan Canagey, who was my first investor as well. I also had a friend named Adithya who is an Indian national residing in Sri Lanka and has a lot of exposure to business and personal challenges.

Whenever I encounter a challenge, I contact him and explain my situation to him, and he would give me some valuable insights. I have also taken the services of professional coaches.

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EXECUTIVE COMMITTE 2021/22

TM Chethana Darshanamali

TM Nadeeka Chathurani

TM Chethana Darshanamali

TM Nadeeka Chathurani

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TM Rajith Gunasinghe

VIRTUSA CMB TOASTMASTERS CLUB

The Virtusa CMB Toastmasters Club conducted their Club Officers and New Members Installation Ceremony - “Amethyst” on February 06, 2022 from 4 PM onward at Royal College Union Skills Centre.

Head of Human Resources, Virtusa Sri Lanka, Sampath Thrimavithana, graced the evening as the Chief Guest. The evening was sparkled by the presence of DTM Srianthie Salgado, District Director; DTM Nisal Weerakoon, Program Quality Director; and DTM Rasika Senaratne, Division Director of Division G. The attendees were enlightened by a wonderful keynote by TM Tharindu Ameresekere.

The New Member Induction was conducted by DTM Hingston Lovell and The Club Officers Installation was conducted by TM Kasun Ilangaratne, Area Director of Area G3.

The Installation ceremony was concluded followed by the Awards Ceremony of the Club, which recognized the achievements of the club and the members for the past year. TM Rajith Gunasinghe was awarded as the Creative Toastmaster of the year and TM Chethana Darshanamali was awarded as the Outstanding Toastmaster of the year 2020/21

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WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY

LEVEL 4

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 2

TM IMESHA GRERO

LEVEL 1

TM MAYURI BANDARANAYAKE

LEVEL 1

TM NIJANI NIROSHAN LEVEL 3

LEVEL 1

TM KANCHANA ASIRINI

LEVEL 5

LEVEL 4

TM CHETHANA DARSHANAMALI

TM MALINDA PERERA

LEVEL 1

TM YASHODA GANKANDA

LEVEL 2

DTM

HINGSTON LOVELL

TM IRESHA JAYALATH LEVEL 2

LEVEL 1

TM KASUN ILANGARATNE

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LEVEL 3

LEVEL 2

DTM HINGSTON LOVELL

LEVEL 1

LEVEL 4

TM NADEEKA CHATHURANI

DTM HINGSTON LOVELL

LEVEL 3

TM

IMESHA GRERO

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Your family members who are waiting to listen to your bad jokes, your club members who are waiting to give that round of applause after your speech, your judges who are waiting to analyse your speech during a contest, your friends who are waiting to listen to your stories during a Friday night, your lecturers who are waiting to listen to your next killing presentation

In public speaking, knowing your audience is one of the most important things you need to keep in mind when developing a speech. In Toastmasters, we have

at your university, your team members at office who are waiting to listen to your pep talk during the Monday morning meeting, or your clients who are waiting to listen to your presentation, so that they

heard people say “organise your speech” however, if you go deeper and observe it is “organise their

could decide the business, or your manager who is waiting to hear from you on why they should give the next promotion or increment in your job.

speech”. It is obvious that you are going to deliver the speech, but to whom? That’s where the word “their”

Not only this, there can be different parts of the audience we might come across in our personal and

comes into the picture. In other words, knowing your audience is very important in public speaking. I would like to pen down a few points on why you need to

professional life when we think of speeches. Your audience can be varied from just one person to 10, 20, 100, 1000, and even more based on your respective

focus on this.

engagements. You should try giving your content to each of them. They are spending their time in order to listen to you. Therefore, it is your responsibility to cater them. In other words, it is not just their responsibility to listen to you, it is your responsibility to speak up and speak in a manner that they will listen to you.

Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, the world champion of public speaking 2014 says, “It is now the responsibility of the speaker to hold the audience's attention.”

You need to start thinking about your audience from the beginning itself. The beginning itself doesn’t mean the opening of your speech or presentation. It actually starts from the time you have decided to give a speech, from the time you have started thinking what is the general purpose and specific purpose of my speech, from the time you have started noting down those first few points.

Therefore, keep the audience first if you want to make a bigger impact on your speech. Who is your audience?

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Your audience will be having the following questions in their mind before or while you are speaking / presenting. I am not saying everyone will be having these questions but some might even have more questions than this.

They might not be coming to you and asking them to the face however, they will have them in mind. It is your primary responsibility to answer those questions through your content and delivery.

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Here are the questions.

1. Why should I pay attention to you when I can

Therefore, do not spend your valuable time worrying about what others say, you have a life and you live it

think about more interesting things?

2. Now that I am listening, why should I care about this (issue or solution)?

3. I agree with the importance of the topic, but how are you justifying your ideas?

4. So now that I am convinced, what do you want from me?

once, enjoy, Everyone would have felt that I spoke to them.

In conclusion, I would like to reemphasize that you need to think about your audience. The audience is the key. If you convince them, you are a winner!

Here’s an example that I would like to relate to from my personal experience. During the month of september 2020, I have started working on a humorous script (SHY SLIM SINGLE - the video is in my YouTube channel) which led me to become the runner up of District 82 Humorous speech contest in 2021.

The purpose of the speech is to entertain however, the message is to not to think about what people talk about you and to move on in life. I brought a series of my personal stories where I could relate with the audience easily.

Initially, I was shy, people complained, then I became talkative, still they complained. I was slim, people mocked me, then I became fat, still they complained. I was single, people were laughing at me, then I got married and now they are asking why I got married so soon, and when I am going to increase the population.

An amazing feedback that I received from my members and mentors was that I have catered to all the audience. I am sure there were shy, talkative, slim, fat, single, and married ones in the audience. Also, the message was simple where I was telling that in this world, we cannot satisfy everyone.

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So how am I, a self-professed introvert to tackle the path of business analysis designed for cheerful, quickthinking extroverts? After a lot of self-reflection, imagining and analyzing the situation, I figured the things I have to work on my personality traits.

Identify, understand and acknowledge my fears Overcome my shyness Find ways to improve my communication and soft There was a time when I liked isolation very much and did not want to travel and explore life. I was feeling much comfortable at my own home, in my own little bubble. I could not speak in front of people without feeling awkward and could not hide my shyness from others even though I tried very hard. Even a simple outing needed a lot of mental preparation and I needed much longer to recharge for the next outing.

I did not socialize much especially with the opposite gender. I over thought a lot, even to make the smallest decision, I pondered the pros and cons for hours, a trait that was annoying to others and even sometimes to myself! Regardless, I had made peace with this behavior and characteristics. I even found comfort in it. It felt very safe and peaceful to live within the walls of my very own comfort zone. Of course, I did not progress much, so what? at least I was peaceful and happy.

But one day to my utmost horror, I fell in love with a career path that did not seem to match with my awkward and introverted personality. “Business Analysis”, seemed like a career path that was shaped from its roots for cool, cheerful, and extroverted people. At least that is how I saw it.

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skills.

Leave my comfort zones for good.

Learn to think on my feet So, I made peace with the fact that I am an introvert and needed space and alone time to build up my energy compared to an extrovert who draws energy by being with others. Everything is much easier when you are accepting of the person who you actually are.

For the other items in the list, it seemed I needed outside help simply because I did not know how to do this on my own right away.

“Toastmasters”, the name was very familiar. I had heard about this somewhere and knew that it was some sort of a club. But unfortunately, that is all I knew about it at that time. I knew a Toastmasters club is there in the organization I worked and my curiosity on Toastmasters was piqued. The more I looked into it the more it seemed to help with the rest of the points I had written above. So, I thought to give it a chance.

Overcoming shyness was not easy for me at first, but when I attended the very first few Toastmasters meetings as a guest the supportive nature of the club was very helpful on overcoming it. I felt I made new friends, for which I was extremely grateful.

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The time between two meetings were perfect for me to recharge my introverted self to prepare for the next meeting. The more I did speeches the more my communication skills improved. My mentors were supportive in finding my voice and the leadership skills that I had expressed as a child but were later

It is another unexpected benefit I reaped from Toastmasters. After meeting so many people through the club, I am now able to read people more, improve my network, and work with them accordingly.

buried deep. I was given more and more leadership roles within the club such as installation ceremony chair and to assist the contest chair and as a PR

introvert is totally fine. I still need my time to recharge and I appreciate it very much. I am still initially hesitant when I have to leave my comfort

subcommittee member, which I reluctantly accepted

zones but I do it anyway, and it is okay as well. The

at first but was later very grateful for the honor received.

best part of Toastmasters in that it did not change me as a person but let me grow as a person still keeping me true to my core. My advice for new members of

My ability to teamwork was also immensely improved

Toastmasters is to not wait for opportunities to come

and I was no longer awkward around my team members of opposite gender. The more I played

to you as I initially did. No matter if you are an introvert or an extrovert, just go and grab them.

various roles to serve the purpose of toastmasters the

Toastmasters will motivate you and help you to hold

more I was forced to leave behind my comfort zones. I accepted executive committee roles such as Secretary

on, and you will be up for a great journey of self-heal, self-improvement and personal growth like you never

and then Vice President Public Relations. My earlier

experienced before.

After all these experiences, what I learned is being an

self would not like to bear the responsibility of such roles but Toastmasters was slowly shaping me up to carry more responsibilities. I appreciated that no one pushed me to do any of these but rather explained to me the benefits of performing such tasks and roles and just let me decide for myself. Participating in table topic sessions frequently helped me to be more of a quick thinker. I saw a visible difference in my thought patterns before and after joining in these activities.

Then what happened to my dream of becoming a business analyst? Simultaneously I was working on it, the improvements I made in Toastmasters reflected in both in my career and personal life. Today I am a business analyst with years of experience and have worked with many business clients with various characteristics and personalities.

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Four years later here I am today, yes life changed a lot with that one decision I made. Today I am leader, an Many of us are prone to have a common phobia which is

award-winning speaker, a confident human and above all

the fear of public speaking. It can be present in all ages

a human that overcame the fear of public speaking. I

from a small child to a high ordinated CEO. Research have

learnt that the fear of public speaking is all irrational and

proven that it is the most common fear in humans, in fact

its a negative metric which is stored in our brain that

it predominates the fear of death. Ironic isn’t it. Strangely

needs to be broken. After all leaders and speakers are not

our brains have orchestrated this anxiety in our head that

born, they are made. Toastmasters have taught me that I

when you speak in front of the public the audience will

am not perfect and so are the people around me , despite

laugh or mock at us.

of their background always learn to respect every human

Few years back, I was the same individual shy, timid and

being that comes along your way. I have come across

clearly anxious to go on the stage and TALK. I was an

many individuals in this journey who have helped me to

individual who stays quiet for the outside world and an

be a better leader , effective speaker and to be a good

individual who speaks a lot to my close circle. Whatever I

human keeping the four core values of toastmasters in

speak was always quite irrelevant to the topic of

line which is respect, integrity , service and excellence.

discussion or it was very vague in general.

In this journey what brought me immense happiness was

Four years down the memory lane, I was an unemployed

not the comments that said you did a great speech , well

and a sophomore at college, I had ample time to spare. I

done in organising the event but it was the phrases like

wanted to do a lot of activities which would excite my

you have improved , I see a change in you and you will go

extrovert nerves. Came across the term “Toastmasters"

along way.

after Dhanajaya Hettiarachchi’s award winning speech,

Everyday in this fraternity is new learning curve, and this

thus I was on the watch out to join a Toastmaster’s club

learning curve needs to be shared with others. This

to get rid of the public speaking anxiety. After beating

fraternity is built in such a manner that every toastmaster

around the bush, a close friend of mine suggested me to

you meet, or your club, or every new situation over here

join Voice of Colombo toastmasters club. I still remember

will always encourage you to learn and grow.

the day before my very first toastmasters meeting, I

Toastmasters have also taught me to always reach out

shouted a village full of questions to my friend. “Do I need

and give a helping hand to those who need it. Here I am

to talk the first day?”, “will people laugh?”, “and what’s

today not perfect still there is a lot to learn, but grateful

table topics is it like a round table conference sort thing?”.

for opportunities I received. I am appreciative to get the

All what my friend told me was, “you come, and watch

basic knack of leadership and public speaking. I am

trust me you will enjoy it”.

looking forward to many more opportunities and

I still remember my first meeting it was very crystal clear,

challenges to learn and grow, and to fulfil my goals. While

when the round robin was going, I could feel and hear my

doing so I will not forget to enjoy the process. After all it

heartbeat so loudly. I spoke for 20 seconds about what

is the journey that is much more beautiful than the final

inspires me the most without a hitch. But that day I went

destination.

home very contented and carrying a bag full of learnings.

Are you looking for a place to learn, grow, and change in

That day I made one of the wisest decisions in my life

public speaking and leadership all at the same time, then

which was to join Toastmasters.

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toastmasters is the right place for you.

VIRTUSA CMB TOASTMASTERS CLUB

Hybrid Meeting 2022/03/27

Online Meeting 2022/04/07

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VIRTUSA CMB TOASTMASTERS CLUB