OLD Is Gold

The meaning of Old is gold is that whatever is old is as important as gold. We should not think old is a waste. Even though this proverb is short, it has valuable meaning.

The foundation for all the new things in the present world was laid in the olden days and what we are getting at present is all the updated / improvised ones of the old inventions which form the base of the new ones. So we need to value the old things much as these are the basics of learning new things.

Old songs with their sweet melodies, old sculptures standing tall, old friends, etc., are all much more precious than gold. From practical to aesthetic value they are very much valuable just like gold. When a thing becomes old it is more valued.

There is one thing that is most important above all in our personal interest that is our old people. They should be treasured as we treasure gold. They are there to give life- long wisdom, which has to be inherited by all of us.

The club meeting was temporarily located at University Towers, Jalan Universiti, Section 11, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Despite the change in the venue of the meeting, 18 of our club members including our General Evaluator, Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP from Kuching, arrived at the venue in time. We had one guest, Mr. Ken Chan from Mandarin Toastmasters Club who attended the meeting and came with his home-made cake. A very touching act of gratitude from him.

@ 7:18pm ASAA Olivia Chen called the meeting to order. The meeting begun with “A Toastmaster’s Promise” recited by the Toastmasters’ members for their commitment in the Toastmasters Educational Program.

@7:20pm: Our Club Miss. President,Wendy Sim, CC took over the control of the meeting. In her welcome address, she greeted our distinguished club member – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP who came from Kuching and also guest Mr. Ken Chan from Mandarin Toastmasters Club. Then, she invited the Grammarian, Chitirra to introduce the word of the day “Stellar”. She invited members and guest to do a self- introduction and encouraged them to use word of the day “Stellar” and theme of the day “Old Is Gold”. All the members and guest did well during the self- introduction session.

@7:42pm: Our club member Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB gave his Invocation Speech which was in line with the theme of the day “Old Is Gold”.

He shared with us that old refers to the age. Gold refers to value. It does not mean we are celebrating old age. If so, some of us could have come to the meeting with white hair or carrying a walking stick to add meaning to the theme. What “Old Is Gold” means is that old refers to experience and that is valuable. So we want to treasure the experience of senior members as valuable as gold.

@7:46pm:The Toastmaster of The Evening,Ron Yeap, ACB, CL briefed us on the history of Toastmasters International and our club. He mentioned how TI (Toastmasters International) was founded and inspired millions of people across the world to extend this Toastmasters family.  He also explained the benefits of the Toastmaster Educational Program to our professional career and personal life. He introduced the role players from our club for this meeting in the sequence below.

Grammarian – Chitirra, 

“Ah” Counter– Mandy Chan, CC

Timer– Serena Kong, ACB, CL

General Evaluator – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP.

All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for the evening.

@7:53pm: Table Topics™ Master, Foo Fung Jiun, CCwas invited to the stage to take over the control from the TME. He had prepared 8 topics related to theme of the day. Members and guest were encouraged to participate. He explained the objective of Table Topics™, the time limitation for each speakerand the rules before all the Table Topics™ speeches. The purpose of the Table Topics ™ session is to develop the impromptuspeaking skills which includes an opening, body and conclusion during the speech delivery.

The order of Table Topics™ speakers were as below:

1)Manish Kumar Jha, PM1–“Age is just a number. Yes or no?”

2) Hj. Hashim Adnan, DTM – “If old is gold, what is young?”

3) Vijayakumar, CC – “Looking older or younger than your age. Which one do you prefer?”

4) KL Loh, ATMG – “How old is considered old?”

 

A big applause to all the 4 speakers and votes were casted for the best Table Topics™ speaker.

@8:05pm:The TME took over the session from the Table Topics™ Master and proceeded with the assigned speeches from the Advanced Communication Manual and Pathways.

1^stSpeaker – CP Lau, ACB, ALB

Speech Title – “Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew (Nurturing and Attracting Talent”Speech Evaluator – KL Loh, ATMG

This was his project speech from the Advanced Communication Manual Series: Specialty Speeches -Speech No.4: Read Out Loud

He shared with us the memoir of the late Lee Kuan Yew and his contributions to Singapore which included the importance of education, marriage/birth rate and foreign talent imported to develop the country.

2^nd speaker – Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1,

Speech Title – “JJ Cool”.

Speech Evaluator – Julia Leong, ACB, ALB

She was doing her speech from the new education manual– Pathways: Presentation Mastery Level 2: Project 2 – Effective Body Language.

She had demonstrated a variety of presentation styles in her speech with body language, vocal variety and good eye contact. 

@ 8:43pm: An address was given by Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP.An inspiring and motivating speech it was by sharing with us his about his stellar journey in Toastmaster. It was not an easy route taken by him but with his persistence, commitment, confidence and by remaining focused it lead him to become the International President in Toastmasters.

@9:00pm: Break for refreshments for 5 minutes.

@9:05pm:ASAA Olivia called the meeting to order after the refreshments. Then she passed the control of the meeting back to the TME.

@9:06pm: TME, Ron Yeap, ACB, CL invited the General Evaluator, Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP to chair the meeting. He led the session with his panel of evaluators. He begun by explaining the purpose of the evaluation followed by:-

Evaluation from the three evaluators

-         Table Topics Evaluator –KT Chok, PM1,

-         Speech Evaluators – KL Loh,  ATMG and Julia Leong, ACB, ALB

Role players’ reports

•          Grammarian – Chitirra
•          Timer – Serena Kong, ACB, CL
•          Ah Counter – Mandy Chan, CC

@9:40 pm:  Club President Wendy Sim was called on the stage by the Toastmasters of The Evening to give her presidential closing address. She first thanked the TME who handled the meeting diligently. Then she presented the award for the best speakers for the evening.

Best Table Topics™ Speaker – KL Loh, ATMG

Token of appreciation to the GE – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP

Finally, Miss. President, Wendy Sim summarized the entire meeting and asked the guest to share his thoughts about our meeting for the night. The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm

It was indeed a stellar meeting and as the night shone with glittering stars like gold, under the stellar surface, a little old club called MM-KL, had its members of gold go home with smiles that shone just like the stars.

Blog writer: EKey Yeo, CC CL