Meeting #260, 23rd October 2012

23rd October 2012 is a very special day for Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club. It is very special for a number of reasons. Firstly it is a day after Toastmasters Day. Oh! Yes, Toastmasters International completed 88 years. As for Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club we are going to witness two special speeches, the Ice Breaker speech by our newest member Mahadevan Arumugam, TM and also Ron Yeap, TM is giving his final speech from the Competent Communication manual.

On this day the weather was fine and the coolness of the day was a good setting for this special day. What can one say of the excitement that filled the faces of all who walked in?  It was not only the members who were trailing in to the special meeting room in 3^rd floor MCA PJ Selatan building; it was our four guests who were coming for the first time.

Oh! Yes, we begun our meeting with lots of food and fellowship. Greetings were exchanged and there was much laughter and fun as members and guests were talking to each other creating much life to the environment. So who were our guests? They were Meyyappa Manickam, DTM from Exact ADC Toastmasters Club, Delliotte Malaysia Toastmasters Club and also the Division B Governor; and our first time guests, Mr. Anwar Ahmad, Ms. Agnes Wong and Ms. Tracy Li.

The Assistant Sergeant-At-Arms Serena Kong, CC calls the meeting to order. She reminded all present on the house rules, and led the members to recite “A Toastmaster’s Promise”.  She then handed the meeting over to President Ken Chan, ACS, ALB announced the theme of the day as “Voice is Breaking”. Later at the President requested the Grammarian CP Lau, CC to introduce the “Word of the Day” as “Melodious”. It is an adjective pronounced muh-loh-dee-uhs.  He said the meaning: 1) having a pleasant sound or pleasing tune having a melody. 2) Agreeable to hear. Examples: 1) Their melodious singing and impressive dancing makes them great candidates for the leads in the upcoming musical. 2) He relaxed under the tree, listening to the melodious sounds of nature.

The President then invited members and guests to introduce themselves, many of them used both the word of the day and the theme of the day as they introduced themselves and their respective roles for the evening. He next invited the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) Mathew Philippose, TM to take over the meeting. The Toastmaster reemphasized on the theme of the day and called the Table Topics Master Serena Kong, CC to lead the session in table topics. 

There were five volunteers gave an impromptu speech that was interesting as they were all given topics based on the word of the day. Truly one can say the voice is breaking as the speeches rolled off. Two of them were our first time guests, Mr. Anwar and Ms. Agnes.

As the TME took control again He introduced the first speaker Toastmaster Mahadevan Arumugam, as soon as the Evaluator and General Evaluator spelled out the objectives and roles respectively. First timer, Mahadevan took the floor with much eloquence and confidence with the title ‘The Melodious Life of Mahadevan’. Truly we came to know more of him and his achievements.  One thing we know he is a happy man and although he has passed 60, believes he can live to the age of 120 years. In his gesture of love was willing to share his secret to anyone keen to know about longevity.

Next speaker was Toastmaster Ron Yeap with the title “My Fruitful Journey as a Toastmaster’. Ron Yeap was giving his 10^th speech from the Competent Communication manual. It was a speech full of emotion, bringing forth his aspirations in the journey of Toastmasters; he did share some disappointments and his hopes that keep him going to this final speech. He was so expressive and entertaining with his humor and witty remarks. Some of his remarkable phrases were: “the soul is placed in the body like diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear”, “I know that I will achieve a very small milestone in the long Toastmaster’s journey”. As he concluded one can say it is not the Ron Yeap we saw few months back his voice has broken to a loud confident speaker.

The final speaker for the day was from Ken Chan, ACS, ALB and he was speaking from the Advance Communication Manual, Specialty Speeches. He made the audience the Human Resource of a company and he was selling the idea of setting up of a Toastmasters club in the company. The unique title of his speech was, “Now Everybody Can Sell”. Towards the end he called upon the audience for questions, he took on the questions like an expert. It was an inspiring moment to see him lift the meeting to a climax in the project speeches and in a voice that is breaking to greater height.

           It was by this time due for the most wanted break and once again guest and members adjourned to refreshment corner as the TME announced the break time. It was a good break of almost 15 minutes and all were gathered back for Evaluation Session.

 The Evaluation session was led by the General Evaluator Meyyappa Manickam, DTM. At his invitation EK Yeo, CC, CL praised the participants who bravely came to speak. He noted well some points such as repeating the title was good for an evaluator to understand the topic, he congratulated for eye contacts and body languages. He said it was remarkable to hear good speeches by both the new guests Mr. Anwar and Ms. Agnes.

He was followed by Francis Ng, DTM evaluator for our Ice Breaker speech by TM Mahadevan. He congratulated Mahadevan for his first speech and said it was well organized in a chronological order of events. He said “This has helped us to know you better.” 

We had EK Yeo coming up again with a broad smile and congratulating Ron Yeap who will now move to Competent Communicator (CC). He said Ron Yeap’s final CC speech was captivating the audience added with body gesture, facial expression and it was topped up with lots of humor and vocal variety. 
Tan Ben Hoe, CTM, CL evaluated Ken's speech and highlighted the 6 steps of selling.
During the open evaluation, there were many feed-backs from the floor on the speeches delivered.

Than came the reports from the Grammarian on misused words and words and phrases that was commendable. The Ah counter said there were not much of ahs or umps or repeats and mentioned the few. The Time Keeper gave the timing report from the beginning and it was noted that all went on time.

And finally we had the General Evaluator who summed up the evaluation with praises, admiration and areas where improvement can be made. He handed the meeting back to the TME. The TME than called on the President Ken Chan to give away the awards. The ‘Best Table Topic Speech’ award went to Mathew Philippose, the ‘Best Project Speech’ went to none other than Ron Yeap and the ‘Best Sppech Evaluator’ went to Francis Ng, DTM. The 
President called the guests to give their opinion of the meeting. The guests showed much enthusiasm has they gave their remarks. 

It is the tradition of Toastmasters for recognition of the significant achievements by the members. Tonight, we gave away 2 standing ovations to our two members of the club that had achieved different milestones in Toastmasters.  
 
Our first standing ovation went to TM Mahadevan, who made his debut speech tonight; and the second standing ovation went to TM Ron Yeap, who had completed the 10 speeches in the Competent Communication manual. Congratulations to both of them.

The President then with concluding remarks and said the day met the theme objective and our voice is breaking and there is melody in our speeches. Before he ended, he invited the General Evaluator, Meyyappa Manickam, DTM to receive a token of appreciation for making time to play an important role in our meeting tonight. He adjourned the meeting at 9.35pm.

Signing off,
Mathew Philippose