Happy New Year 2017!!!
Today was the first meeting of the year
2017. It was great to see members getting together in the New Year. In addition
to that, on this day is our clubs big event. It is our clubs International
Speech & Table Topics™ Contests 2016/17. Wow, first meeting is a
challenging day for the participants and the organizing committee. We
have a good crowd of both members and guests! I should say is a good
start in 2017!!
6:15pm
Some contest committee members had
arrived early to prepare for the contest arrangements. There are many details
that has been looked into to have a setting for a contest atmosphere and also
refreshment arrangements. The committee was busy to make sure everything's in
order so that contest runs smoothly later. Well some guests and members
have already started arriving as early as 6:15pm . Also being early gives you the opportunity to enjoy a friendly atmosphere with people having a lovely chat and
meeting new friends and at the same time enjoy the refreshments of
the day. It was a lovely moment to treasure.
Contestants also arrive early to
receive the briefing by the Contest Toastmasters Competent Communicator (CC)
Manish Jha, and by our Advance Communicator Bronze (ACB), Advance Leader Bronze
(ALB) CP Lau. It is the contest procedure that the both the contest
toastmasters for the International Speech Contest (IS) and Table Topics
(TT) have to provide briefing on the procedure and rules of the contests
respectively. There were also some contestants who took part in both IS
and TT contests therefore the briefing is held one after another. During the
briefing there is a draw by which the contestants pick their names to determine
their speaking order at the contest.
Once the speaking order is
confirmed, our Sergeant At Arms (SAA) Chee Chiao Hui would immediately update
the speaking sequence on the contest slide which is projected on the screen.
The ballot counters, timers and judges is simultaneously briefed by the
Chief Judge Eddie Tan, CC in another place called the “holding room”.
7:32pm
Competent Leader (CL) Jerry Wong, who
played the lead role as a chairperson called the meeting to order. Jerry
Wong, is a member of PJ Toastmasters Club, I should say, he is a humorous
person thus has he addressed the audience it lit up a lively atmosphere. He gave the house rules and without
wasting much time passed the control to the Contest Chair
Chitirra Amithalingam. Chitirra welcomed the audience with a brief
Opening Address.
Soon after the opening address the contest chair Chitira, invited the Contest Toastmaster Manish Kumar Jha, CC for International Speech contest. He briefed everyone on the contest rules and introduced
the contestants in their order. There were a total of five contestants. I
could sense the tempo of hearts beating as each waited their turn to speak.
So the contest started with the first speaker taking the stage.
KL Loh – Durian Days and Friday
Rendezvous
This was the first time I saw KL Loh
giving speech, since I joined MM-KL in the end of 2015. I had always known
him as a good speech evaluator. I should say he is a good humorous
speaker, he shared how we can choose a good durian. He actually brought
the knife that is used to split the durian skin. As he demonstrated on choosing
durians he shared also about the good friends he made and how they used to
share a good time over a durian party. He attributed choosing durians to
smelling, shaking, and hearing the seeds move inside. He likened
choosing good friends as choosing good durians, we cannot judge by just the
outlook. We need to mix well with good fellowship to know who is a true friend.
Kevin Khoo – The Black Dot
Kevin started by showing a white paper
with a black dot in center, and asked the audience what they saw. He took a
vote of how many saw the black dot and how many saw the white paper. His
speech was informative and captivated the audience to think how they saw life.
Is the small black dot in life magnified compared to the positive things white part that
surround one's life? A challenging and a motivational speech to the power of
positive thinking.
Ken Chan – Blood, Sweat, Tears
Ken, a seasoned speaker in the club
meetings, as usual he connected to the audience by throwing a few questions. As the
audience responded, he shared his story and advised the audience not to give up
even though while facing many failures at times. A moving speech of his experiences of
childhood, youth and adulthood, how life’s blood Sweat and tears able to lift
moments of failure to guaranteed success. He also concluded with a
question, “Are you ready to bleed, sweat and tear?” And guess what the
audience would have replied, they said YES.
Kelvin Chong – Nothing Left but Money
Kelvin captivated the audience with a
song: “…. Money, money, money. Must be funny. In the rich man’s world….”.
Haha, he enjoyed to sing on the stage. He asked audiences who can we call,
if we facing problem. He drawn the
attention of everyone, he brought out the story of how people come to him when
they needed help. It was a time when he was holding a position in the
government sector. When people do not need him the same friends had
disappeared. Money is important but he echoed that we cannot forget
friends when we find money. He said if less money one can raise a humble
child, on the contrary if too much money can also lead to problems. At the end
of the day we need money so we must save money…..Haha
Mathew Philippose – Magic Words
Mathew shared with us the 4 magical or
golden words which can bring a big impact in our life. Here, they are “Sorry”,“Forgive
me”,“Thank you”, and “I love you”. He also shared with us how he
used the 4 words in his life, which worked and still working awesome. Later,
his speech made him champion this evening.
8:38pm
After the 5 attractive speeches, it was
time to have a 10-min break and some quick bite. While Chief Judge Eddie Tan,
CC and his panel team were required to finalize the IS contest results. During
the break time, SAA Jerry has alerted all of us with the timing and called up
the contest to order after 10 mins sharply. Some audiences and contestants were
still enjoying the ‘NasiLemak’. Hahaa…they have to finish their food and back
to seat as soon as possible. Jerry invited Table Topics™ Contest Toastmaster,
CP Lau, ACB, ALB to take over the control of the TT Contest session.
8:49pm
Same as previous session, CP Lau
briefed the outline of contest rules and introduced the contestants and their
order of speaking. The difference was, CP invited Chief Judge Eddie Tan went on
stage and picked one topic from three of prepared topics. The selected topic
would be the one who was going to be presented by all the TT contestants.
Title: If you are given a 2nd chance
Julia
Julia shared with us how she satisfied
and happy with her life, In family as well as in career now. Instead, she
returned the question back to audiences why she need 2nd chance. She even stated that we must
do well in the first chance, so that we don’t need the 2nd chance.
Mathew Philippose
Mathew commented he is currently living
his second chance of his life. After a massive heart attack he was resurrected a
few years later.
Kelvin Chong
Begin with a statement “If I’m given 2nd chance, I won’t join politics. He
shared with us how he be respected by others when he is still holding the
position in government agency. But once he quits, many ‘friends’ disappear. He
said it is not easy to start again after the loss of power. So, if he has the 2nd chance, he will like to do his own
business. He comments that, as of now, the best way to earn in Malaysia is
running business.
Joel
Joel is a new member in MM-KL, still a
student, but his courage to participate in Table Topics™ contest is really a
good very appreciable attempt. He started his topic by saying ‘Joining
Toastmasters Club is his 2nd chance’. Then following by mentioning
himself is a bad guy and sharing with us the loss of his friend caused him
realizes the importance of life and he need to do something to correct his bad
attitude
Vijay kumar
Vijay said, he has done many mistakes
before. If he has the 2nd chance, he will be a better son and
better brother. He will study harder and save more money. Besides, he will do
something just on relationship. In the end, he ended his thought by reminding
audience that, there is no 2nd chance. So, when the first chance
comes, let’s seize the chance immediately.
Ken Chan
Ken gave us some examples on
relationship and job opportunity. He highlighted that: “There is no 2nd chance, but we can do something by not
giving up”.To be initiative, he suggests if we miss the first chance then we
should look for the 2nd chance ourselves!
Kevin Khoo
Kevin Khoo, surprised us by saying he
will like to be a female if he has the 2nd chance. He asked audience whether
notice of his good elements that should be in a female. Haha…For example, thick
and black hair, fair and smooth skin, young look even in his 30s. But he
dislikes the young look at this age which is not convenient for his life and
career, when people treat him like a cute kid.
9:23pm
Finally, the Table Topics contest came
to an end. There was 2 minutes of silence for the judges to complete marking
their ballot. After that Chief Judge and the ballot counters went to the
holding room to finalize the result. Meanwhile, in order to continue
enlightening the audiences and release the tension from contestants, Jerry conducted an interview session with the contestants.
Afterwards, Contest Toastmasters
presented a token of participation to all the contestants. Contest Chair
Chitirra presents token of appreciation to Chief Judge and his team, and also
to all the role players.
This was the time to disclose the
result! Chief Judge, are you ready? Chief Judge replied confidently and walked
to the stage steadily, then passed the sealed envelope to Table Topics™ contest
Toastmaster CP Lau, ACB ALB and Manish Jha, CC respectively to announce the
results. President, Ron Yeap, CC was called on stage to give the awards to the
winners. Here, are the results!!
2016/2017 Table Topics™ Contest Results
3rdplace → Julia Leong, ACB ALB,
2nd place → Kevin Khoo, CC and
1st place → Ken Chan, DTM
2016/2017 International Speech Contest Results
3rd place →KL Loh, ATMG,
2nd place → Kevin Khoo, CC and
1st place → Mathew Phillipose, CC ALB
Congratulation to all the winners!!!
The 1st and 2nd place winners will represent the club
in the area contests.
For contestants who could come under
top three, don’t give up, you may be the next winner. Your courage and efforts will work for you. A big thumps up to you guys.
9:57pm
At last, Mr. President Ron Yeap was
called to do his presidential closing address and presented the token of
appreciation to our Contest Chair, Toastmaster Chitirra. Then he led us to the
photo session. As usual, since this was the first ‘meeting’ of the month, we
were having a cake cutting session for the January’s born babies.
In conclusion, organizing a contest is
not an easy task as there are a lot of things need to be prepared and
communicated beforehand. It needs co-operation and commitment from person in
charge and participation from members, needs advice and guidance from senior
members or president. Moreover, it may have some ad-hoc changes or issues
happen in the last few days. It really tests the committee’s patience. Let’s
congratulate to Chitirra and her team for successfully conducting the contests.
I sincerely thank to all the role
players, Chief Judge and his team, ballot counters, timers, photographer, SAA,
audience and contestants. Without all of them, the contests would not have been
organized successfully. That’s all from our 1st meeting of the year
2017.
See you again in our next meeting !!!
Sincerely,
Thanks to the Team,
Manish Jha, CC
Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club
Vice President Public Relations 2016/2017
P/S:
Thank you so much "Yap, Ooi Yee" to write this wonderful blog. I also thank the whole team including editor, reviewer and critics to provide your sincere support and feedback to keep up the good work.
Wendy on the other hand spoke about how she
stores memories the old-school manner by making cute little photo books.
Something we used to do in the 20th century. However, it was a great idea to save our precious memory.
