#408 Invest In Yourself

"You will never go broke from investing in yourself."

Quotes like these make us think whether we are really investing in ourselves. Well, we at Money Mastery - Kl Toastmasters club, when walked through the doors of Restoran Al-Safuan in Three-Two Square PJ, were reassured that our investment didn’t go wrong. Even though it was a temporary venue, but the commitment from our members to attend the meeting is permanent. Theme of the meeting was Invest in Yourself. Toastmasters is the ideal venue for people of all walks of life to practice their speaking skills. It is a path of discovery where one realizes what latent skills one has such as management, communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

On the 15th day of May 2018, for the first meeting of the month, ASAA Olivia Chen took the lead in arranging the meeting assisted by some of our club members. Once the meeting was called to order by her,  the Toastmaster’s promises were recited followed by the President Wendy Sim’s address. She introduced the Grammarian Shain Anand to introduce the word of the day - Paragon which means a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence. Followed by that, was the self introduction session by the members on the floor. The General Evaluator (GE) of the meeting was Agnes Chang ACB, ALB.  The President, then, called upon Ron Yeap ACB, CL to inspire the audience with an Invocation speech. After the invocation speech, the session was handed over to Mathew Philippose CC, ALB who was the Toastmaster of the evening. He was flamboyant throughout the meeting and carried the meeting with his unique charm.

Up next was the Table Topics™ session which was handed over to Mancy Chan CC. She prepared topics according to the theme of the day and her topics tested the speakers to speak on their feet. All of them spoke brilliantly.

Followed by the Table Topics™ session was the assigned speech session.

Speaker 1: KT Chok, PM1 who was delivering his speech under the Pathways program Level 2  Project 1 – Understanding Your Communication Style. His speech title was  Know Your Unique Style.  His speech was about identifying his style of speech, which he presented in an explanatory way

Speaker 2: Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1 was delivering her Level 2: Project 3 – Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring speech with the title Taking Baby Steps in which she explained her mentoring experience in Myanmar and also explained how her mentor helped her take steps forward. We were in awe of her style of storytelling.

Speaker 3: Olivia Chen was on the floor with Level 1: Project 3 – Research & Presenting speech with the title The Less Known Benefit of Papaya  . In her speech she informed the floor about the benefits of papaya, specially its seeds. She completed the Level 1 with this outstanding speech.

Speaker 4: Ken Chan, DTM  was delivering Speech #7: Research Your Topic from CC manual with the title Stress Management. His speech focussed on the kinds of stress and ways to manage stress. His speech was prodigious as usual.

A break was taken for 15 minutes and we were into the evaluation session captained by the GE Agnes Chan. with her panel of Table Topics™ evaluator and speech evaluators. After that, the timer Foo Fung Jiun CC, Grammarian Shain Anand & Ah-counter Yap Ooi Yee, CC gave their reports. Finally the GE gave the constructive evaluation.

Best Table Topics™ Speaker: Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1

Best Project Speaker : Ken Chan, DTM

Best Evaluator: KL Loh, ATMG

To summarize, the speeches given were well spoken, the evaluations were concise and helpful and the Toastmaster of the Evening was eloquent as usual. One should never restrain oneself in giving speeches. It takes some courage at the start but consistency and determination will see the fruition of a talented speaker.  

Blog writers: Vijay & Shain