Toastmasters Meeting #359

I had been approached by our club V.P.E., Kevin Khoo, CC during the break time to write the blog for the day meeting. Frankly speaking, I was a bit hesitant and reluctant to do it due to my poor command of English. However, there is another little voice whispering; “Mandy, you are here to improve your English. Now, this is a good opportunity for you.” Thus, I had accepted it with self-assumption that I can take my own sweet time to do it.

12 July, 2016 marks the first meeting where new EXCO take office. The theme of the day is “Begin with the End in Mind” and word of the day is “Aplomb”. Our club president Ron Yeap, CC delivered his president’s address by welcoming the distinguished guests and encourages members and guests to use the theme and the word of the day in self-introduction. Maybe this is his first time he is a giving presidential opening address; he had missed out the part to invite Grammarian – Ooi Yee to introduce “Word of the Day”. 

Besides that, when it came to Table Topic Session; Wendy Sim had missed out to explain the session. There is some little “hiccups” spotted but its fine to make mistakes in Toastmasters. Sharing from our General Evaluator, Renee Wong, CC, CL; the largest room in the world is the room for improvement.

First of all, I would like to express my deepest respect and regards to EK Yeo, CC, CL. He is recovering from dengue illness as he has been hospitalized since last week. However, he chose to attend the meeting and even took part in table topic session with hoarseness in his voice. Besides that, he was speech evaluator for Foo Fung Jiun who presented his speech#4 at the meeting. He has set a very good role model for other members to attend the club meetings regularly.

There are 3 speakers for that day meeting; which are Mathew Philippose, CC, CL, Foo Fung Jiun and Ken Chan, DTM. Mathew Philippose and Ken Chan are the seasoned speakers of our club. Both of them had been repeating the Competent Communication Manual for “N” times. As usual, their speech is always a winning speech for me. It’s truly inspiring, energetic and powerful speeches from both of them. We do learn a new selling skill from Foo Fung Jiun speech who used this acronym S.T.O.P.

S – Start Listening

T – Targeting Desire

O – Observe Opportunity

P – Passionate Presentation 

Standing Ovation to Ken Chan, DTM after completing the Project Speech #10

Standing Ovation to Mathew Philippose, CC, CL for his ice-breaking speech

A big congratulation to Tuan Hj. Hashim, DTM who is also an active and seasoned speaker; who won himself both Best Table Topics Speech and Best Assigned Speech Evaluation of the night. I had witnessed Tuan Hj. Hashim awarded with both titles before, it was consequently within two months. I believed all the club members will definitely benefit and learn much from such strong member.

TME - Ethan Ganes, CL and Table Topics Evaluator - Kevin Khoo, CC are both energetic and lively young gentlemen who bring the club meeting to high level of fun feel. As per General Evaluator, Renee Wong, CC, CL, in jesting said they are both “abnormal” person. Normally people will have stage fear when doing public speaking. They both play their role with confidence and naturally. Ethan Ganes, CL is our honor guest from Sunway College; and he is just 19 years old. I’m quite impressed that he already obtained the title of CL in such young ages.

We would like to express our gratitude to our General Evaluator, Renee Wong, CC, CL as she willing to take up the role in short notice. She leads a team of evaluators in monitoring club meeting’s atmosphere and activities as well as gives constructive suggestions. She do affirmed several positive points in our club which included we are such a strong club with good mix of 3 “E”. She also commented “the older the ginger, the hotter and the spice”; our club is with the most number of past presidents. This indicates our club has a very strong base of senior member to guide the new / junior along the way to become a better thyself.

1^st E – Enthusiastic

2^nd E – Experience

3^rd E – Encouragement

 Last but not least, we will always be grateful for all the members who taking up roles. Without you all, our meeting will not be run smoothly and successfully.

Role Players	Name
Sergeant-at-Arms (SAA)	Wenny Loh
Toastmaster of the Evening (TME)	Ethan Ganes, CL
Invocation Speech	Manish Kumar, CC
Table Topic Master	Wendy Sim
Grammarian	Yap Ooi Yee
“Ah” Counter	SS Cheng
Timer	CS Quah
General Evaluator	Renee Wong, CC, CL
Table Topics Evaluation	Kevin Khoo, CC
Speaker #1	Mathew Philippose, CC, CL
Speaker #2	Foo Fung Jiun
Speaker #3	Ken Chan, DTM
Panel Evaluator#1	CP Lau, ACB, ALB
Panel Evaluator#2	EK Yeo, CC, CL
Panel Evaluator#3	Hj Hashim, DTM

Not forgetting to give big round of applause to 5 speakers who took part in table topic session bravely; which included myself, “yes” myself as the first speaker (although before I could volunteer, I was called up by Table Topic Master), followed by 2 guests from Iran, Mari and Amir and 2 senior members – Tuan Hj Hashim and EK Yeo.

Looking forward for the next toastmasters meeting. 


With Lots of Love,