Keep Your Heart In Wonder

Keep your heart in wonder as I craft this piece on our 378^th meeting. Yes, the theme was “Keep Your Heart In Wonder” it was not fortuitous that the word of the day was “fortuitous”. Everyone was keeping their hearts in wonder as the clock kept ticking but time felt like it was at a standstill. 

The food hadn’t arrived, the GE hadn’t arrived, the members hadn’t arrived and everyone kept preparing the setting for the meeting this time on the highest floor of our venue. But somehow it became 7.15 pm and everything felt normal again. Our Assistant SAA, Yap Ooi Yee called the meeting to order, introduced the house rules and recited the Toastmasters’ Promise and kicked off the meeting by calling our President on stage. 

Our President Ron Yeap, CC aligned his opening speech with the theme and used the word of the day and opened the floor for everyone to speak starting with the Toastmaster of the Evening, Chitirra. 

Everyone spoke their hearts out although they were in wonder as well. The Grammarian, Shain Anand introduced the word of the day and described it to be as something that happens by chance. 

The Toastmaster of the Evening, gave a brief history of Toastmasters and then called upon the respective role players to introduce themselves. Today, as mentioned, Shain Anand, a very meticulous and knowledgeable chap became the Grammarian. He was critical with the job given to him and contributed to a great deal of grammatical knowledge to the group that night. Wendy Sim, the beautiful and attentive VPE was all ears tonight as the “Ah Counter” ensuring that as she hears us speak, she filters funny sounds such as “erms” and “ahs”. We had quite a collection that night for every crutch comes with a fine of 5 to 10 cents. Then we had our peculiar first timer for a Timer, Joel Silas. He was so excited and engrossed in his new job that he decided to ring the bell before time. Indeed we all learn through our mistakes and this humourous soul was very tardy about his business. Last but not least we had the privilege to have with us a very kind body as our General Evaluator. It was Distinguished Toastmaster Ms. Shirley Bak, DTM. Now Ms. Shirley was booked as our club GE way ahead of time and she kept to her word by gracing our meeting. 

Alas, it was time for the Table Topics session. Still keeping your heart in wonder? It was a unique session and Toastmaster Foo Fung Jiun may have just broken the world record for the longest table topics ever. Apparently it is the current trend but we sure had a ball of a session over the Table Topics. With that, we moved on to the assigned speech session.

 1. Mathew Philippose CC ALB, 2. Shain Anand 3. Gopi and 4 Sivadasa, CC

Ironically, we had with us 2 veteran speakers doing the Competent Communication Manual and two young members doing the Advanced Communication Manual. Our first speaker was Ken Chan, DTM with his ever famous management tips and his kick ass abbreviations. This time his speech was entitled “MYOB”. Manage Your Own Boss. Surely we employees had learnt something from it.

Next we had Mr. Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB who spoke about how unity creates humanity and that we must always be proactive through his speech entitled  “Fighting against Time”. 

Alas our President did his 3^rd speech from the Advanced module to entertain us all with his speech  “Control Your Rage”. He laid out examples of situations under which he managed to keep his cool despite almost having his head blown up with anger.

Finally, with his speech “Medicine! Medicine! Medicine!” Mr. Kelvin Chong, ACB who kept our hearts at wonder with his title, took us by surprise by giving us an action packed speech with live demonstrations of exercise moves for us to practice to improve our health. It was in the end a “No Medicine! No Medicine! No Medicine!” speech. 

From all that beyond the usual exercise ritual everyone took a short break. Despite not having our usual “NasiLemak”, we managed with some snacks and cream puffs which left us with smiles as we stuffed the puffs down our throats.

Although we left our tummies not so full, we braced our brains for a feast like no other in the next session which we all know as the Breakfast for Kings. Yep, no need to keep your heart at wonder over this one. The evaluation session was kicked off by Ms. Shirley Bak, DTM as mr. Haji Hashim, DTM came up to give his views on the individual Table Topic speakers. 

Later on, 4 reputable evaluators came on the floor to give their honest feedbacks on the 4 assigned speakers of the night. Ken had Manish Jha, CC all intimated but honoured to evaluate him. Mr. Mathew has his favourite charming Serena Kong, ACB to be his evaluator. Mr. EK Yeo, CC, CL was Ron’s evaluator and the ever so fruitful CP Lau, ACB, ALB was Kelvin’s personal evaluation chef that night.

Alas, after the friendly open evaluation session, each role player conveyed their reports professionally and then it was time for Ms. Shirley Bak, DTM to give her views both compliments and improvements for our club. She was most delighted as she was a delightful person herself. 

And so the night drew to a close as the President gave out the awards for the winners for the night, made his announcement and gave his closing speech. Any Grammarian would kill me for starting a sentence with “and” but oh well. Hehehe. 

The best table topics award and the best assigned speech were both bagged by Mr. Mathew and the best evaluator was none other than Mr. CP Lau himself. It was a great night as after the President’s speech, we took our group photo and had a marvellous cake cutting session for our April baby, our President Ron Yeap. 

It was a memorable meeting for me as the TME and it sure left my heart in wonder. I hope if you attended the meeting it left your heart in wonder and if you didn’t attend the meeting but you’re reading this, I hope it also leaves your heart in wonder. 

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 to the whole team including writer -Chitirra, editor, reviewer-  and critics to provide your timely sincere support and feedback to keep up the good work.

Health is Wealth

Relentless rain greeted the 377th meeting of Money Mastery Toastmasters club but this did not deter our fellow Toastmasters from attending the fortnightly meeting on 28th March 2017. The theme of the meeting was “Health is wealth”. “Operose” was the word of the day as it coincided with two aspects of the meeting. First, the theme of the meeting. Making wealth may be an operose task, but maintaining health is a relatively easy task. Second, our members were handed an operose task to reach the meeting venue in the heavy rain. Even though we started 5 minutes late, we had an entertaining meeting.

The registrations began at 18:45 P.M. and there were refreshments arranged for everyone. The General Evaluator for the meeting was Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB), Competent Leader (CL) Wong Mae Foon who graced the occasion with her presence. As the club President Ron Yeap (CC), could not reach on time due to the rain, Mathew Philippose (CC, ALB) who was also the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), took over the role of Acting President.

@19:20 p.m. : Assistant Sergeant At Arms E.K.Yeo (CC, CL) called the meeting to order. He started with introducing our House rules and ended by reciting “A Toastmaster’s Promise”.

@19:23 p.m. : Mathew Philippose started the meeting, welcoming the members and the guests. He then invited the Grammarian, Foo Fung Jiun to introduce the Word of the Day. Then it was the turn of the members and the guests to introduce themselves. Everybody spoke about the theme of the day “Health is Wealth” and used the word of the day “Operose” in their self-introduction.

@19:43 p.m. :  Toastmaster of the day Mathew Philippose gave a brief introduction on history of the Toastmasters International in which he explained how Ralph C. Smedley gave birth to a simple speech training program which eventually transformed into a non-profit educational organization inspiring millions across the world. Then, he introduced the role players for the evening     Grammarian: Foo Fung Jium, “Ah” Counter: Carim,     Timer: C.S.Quah,    General Evaluator: Wong Mae Foon (ACB, CL).

They all introduced their roles along with the objectives.

@19:55 p.m. : Time for the exciting segment of a Toastmaster meeting - Table Topics Session. The Table Topics Master for the evening was Manish Jha (CC) who took over the stage along with his list of table topics which complemented with the Theme of the Day. He explained the rules, objectives and the benefits of the Table Topics session.

The participants were: 1.      Mathew Philippose, 2.      Dr. Thila, 3.      Wong Mae Foon

4.      Ken Chan, 5.      Ben Lim(Guest) *Not sure about the name

They all did well and a vote was casted to find out the best speaker.

@20:07 p.m. : Time for the assigned speeches:

Shain Anand delivered “The Ice Breaker” speech with the title “I Have A Dream”.  This was speech #1 from the Competent Communication (CC) Manual. He spoke about his dreams, his hobbies and how he landed up in Malaysia.

Kevin Khoo (CC) delivered “Get To The Point” speech  with the title “How Do You See Malaysia In Year 2050?”. This was speech #3 from the CC Manual. In this speech, Kevin conveyed his vision of a Malaysia where people will not be judged based on their ethnic race.

Ken Chan (DTM) delivered “Research Your Topic” speech with the title “Negotiate To Win”. This was the speech #7 from CC Manual in which he shared the tips and tricks for an effective and successful negotiation.

C.P. Lau (ACB, ALB)  delivered “The Speech To Inform” with the title “Mother. Nature’s Elixir”. This was the speech #1 from the Advanced Communication Manual. In this speech, he shared about the significance of nature’s elixir Water and how important it is for our human body. He also shared some tips on proper utilization of water for human body.

Finally, timer gave his report and a vote was casted for the best speaker.

@20:42 p.m.: Time for a short break.

@20:55 p.m.: General Evaluator Wong Mae Foon was invited to chair the third session of the meeting. She invited all the speech evaluators to present their report on the Table Topic and Assigned speeches. Each evaluator presented their report for all the speakers. They praised the good things about the speeches and gave some priceless suggestions and tips which were welcomed by the speakers with both hands.

There was a small session for open evaluation on for project speeches, after that role players presented their report on the day’s meeting. General Evaluator Wong mae Foon shared her feedback about the session and the club.

@21.25 p.m.: Time to announce the results. Shain Anand received the award for Best Assigned Speech and Ken Chan (DTM) received the award for Best Table Topics Speaker. Hj. Hashim Adnan (DTM) was awarded with the best evaluation of the day. The club expressed gratitude to the GE by giving her a token of appreciation for presiding over the meeting.

By this time, our club President Ron Yeap CC,  who had reached the meeting by the interval, took over the stage  and summarized the meeting, encouraged guests to share their opinions about the day’s meeting. And with that, he finished the 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 to the whole team including writer -Shain Anand, editor, reviewer- CP Lau,  and critics to provide your timely sincere support and feedback to keep up the good work.