When I arrived, everyone was already seated
to commence the meeting. I had that 10 minutes to quickly prepare for my role.
Q: My role for the night?
A: Grammarian
Q: Word of the day?
A: Camaraderie.
Q: Definition?
A: A feeling of good friendship among the
people in a group. Just like us.
Q: How to pronounce?
A: Ha ha! Good question. Throughout the
night we were struggling with our tongues but anyway it is pronounced as
kam-ra-de-ry. You should try it. Ha ha!
On
the dot at 7.15pm Advance Communicator Bronze, Advance Leader Bronze (ACB, ALB)
CP Lau replaced Foo Fung Jiun as the Assistant Sergeant of Arms (SAA) to call
the meeting into order.
He reiterated the house rules as usual,
lead in reciting the Toastmaster’s Promise and invited our President, Ron Yeap, Competent Communicator (CC) to officiate the meeting. A role is taken over by any member of
toastmaster in the event a member is not available for the role at the moment.
Mr. Ron Yeap is one who is always filled with excitement but manages to control it with his calm composure. He reflects all his excitement through his charming smile and sincere delivery of speech. He acknowledged Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Datuk. Dr. John Lau’s presence and shared his thoughts on celebrating together without forgetting to mention the word of the day, camaraderie, a couple of times.
He then called for me, the Grammarian to
introduce the word of the day and then the others followed with sharing what
they felt about today’s theme, “Celebrating Togetherness”.
Alas when everyone was done the floor was
passed back to the president who then called upon the Toastmaster of the
Evening (TME) and this time it was non-other than our new member Mandy. I’ll
have to give her the credit for she organised herself well and smoothly brought
us through the meeting without any hitch. She was confident and never lost that
pretty smile on her face. She briefed us on the history of Toastmasters and
then called upon all the role players to introduce their roles.
Finally, our General Evaluator (GE), Ng Yee Chia, CC from IEM Toastmasters Club also introduced his role as the GE for the night.
Everyone was really good with the impromptu
session and that was when I saw Datuk Dr. John Lau in action. He was simply
mind-blowing. His transition from happy to sad was superb. It was like as if he
held the audience under his control like a puppet. With the snap of his fingers
he could turn a smile into sorrow.
We then moved to the assigned speech
session. I couldn’t wait to see Wenny Loh deliver her first speech. Mandy proudly
introduced her best friend onto the floor. Wenny’s ice breaker speech was
entitled W.E.N.N.Y. and as per the title, she emphasized that her name is Wenny
and not Winnie the Pooh. I figured we had so much in common. She too despises
accounting and loves to teach just like me. She really wasn’t the Wenny and I first
met. I could barely hear her the first time I met her but I’ve seen her go
through many table topic sessions and all her efforts shined today as she
delivered her speech today with ease and composure. As per our Toastmaster’s
tradition, everyone gave her a grand standing ovation.
Then the great Ken Chan, DTM came on stage
to deliver his speech number seven on Research Your Topic entitled IQ vs EQ. He
always delivers his speeches with charisma. This speech revolved around how we
can succeed even better with a stronger EQ.
At last, under the Advanced Communication
Manual, we had our famous golfer Kelvin Chong, ACB on speaking to inform with
an intriguing topic “How to Be a More Manly Man”. It was his A-Z guidance
speech on how a man should be better both mentally and physically.
Nevertheless, the women too obtained some good advice as well as it contained
many life lessons such as how inner beauty is always better than outer beauty,
how we should not shun away our obligations and how we should always be positive.
The evaluation session also known as the
breakfast for champions begin after a short break. The General Evaluator Yee
Chia took over the session at this point and was very engaging with the crowd.
Upon explaining the session, Kevin Khoo, CC took on the evaluation session for
the Table Topics. Then the assigned speech evaluators Hj Hashim DTM for Wenny, Dr
Thilla ACGfor CS Quah, Ben Hoe CTM, CL for Ken and Datuk Dr. John Lau DTM for
Kelvin. Each presented their thoughts and feedback in their own unique styles.
The GE then got the reports from each role
player who were very detailed in their reports.
The night came to a close with the awards
presentations, announcements and closing address. Firstly, the best table
topics went to none other than our International Past President Datuk Dr. John
Lau, DTM. That’s something everyone guessed. Next, the best evaluation was also
bagged by Dr. John. That was a double kill and alas the best speech was bagged
by non-other than Wenny herself. She truly deserved it.
After the daily awards,
Manish gave out some appreciation awards for those who assisted in the Area
Humorous & Evaluation Speech Contest 2016.
With that Ron closed the meeting gracefully
and we all took a beautiful group photo with our International Past President.
The President Distinguished Ribbon 2015/16,
the award from Toastmasters international
received by the Immediate Past President Mathew from Datuk john Lau DTM.
Truly the meeting was all about
togetherness and everyone is looking forward to see Dr. John sometime soon next
year!
"Camaraderie was at its best"
VPPR- Thanks for reading, Hope you have enjoyed reading it. I thank to our beloved writer Toastmaster Chitirra and the Team.
Regards,
Vice president of public Relation- 2016/17
Manish Jha.
Money Mastery -KL Toastmasters Club.
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