#421: Deepavali: Sparks of Colour

Lights will guide the way, they say, to Toastmasters, to Money Mastery-KL, to our 421^st meeting themed “Deepavali: Sparks of Colour”, the light has brought me here today. At sharp 7.15pm our enthusiastic Sergeant-At-Arms, Mike Chin called the meeting to order, introduced the house rules, led us through the Toastmasters Promise and invited the President to officiate the meeting.

Chitirra, LD1 took stage to welcome the guests and called upon the Grammarian to introduce the word of the day “Alluring”. Indeed some looked alluring in their Indian outfits to be in sync with the theme of the evening. Everyone had the opportunity to speak by introducing themselves and speak about their Deepavali memories being Malaysians.

The night began with an interesting invocation by Shain Anand who explained further about how Deepavali is celebrated for various reasons in various parts of India and how despite the differences its one main purpose is that of the prevalence of light over darkness.

The floor was then passed to our alluring Toastmaster of the Evening, Manish Jha, IP1 who was all prepped up for the evening with his green Indian top and maroon Nehru collared vest. He briefly guided us through the history of Toastmasters and our club and called upon the role players to introduce themselves.

The Ah-Counter was managed by Wendy Sim; the Grammarian was Vijaykumar, CC and our Timer was E K Yeo, CC, CL. To honour and evaluate our meeting today we had Sue Ding, DTM a very experienced and knowledgeable Toastmaster.

The first official session at any Toastmasters meeting which is the Table Topics ™ session was kicked off by our Table Topics ™ Master, Yap Ooi Yee, CC. She had an array of interesting topics revolving around the theme Deepavali and we had many participants off the floor taking up the challenge to speak on their feet.

Having done that, we moved on to the key section of our meeting which was the Assigned Speech session. To start, our newest member Abdul Rahman attempted his Ice Breaker speech under his Pathway, Presentation Mastery. His title “The Immigrant” was apt as he mentioned about his journey here as a foreigner who loved Malaysia. A round of standing ovation, as our protocol for first speeches, was in store for Rahman. The encouragement was very much needed to give Rahman the motivation to move further.

Next up, we had our ever favourite Ken Chan, DTM embark on his 2^nd attempt at his Pathways Evaluation & Feedback programme. This time he did his practice speech for his Division contest entitled “Women”. His flair and charm sure kept the audience entertained.

Finally, touching on the Advanced Speech Manuals was Ron Yeap, ACB, CL doing his speech from the Humourous Speaking Manual under the Project entitled “Warm Up Your Audience”. He spoke about procrastination and the evils that come with it.

Alas, everyone adjourned for a short break to enjoy the snacks and enhance the camaraderie through the little chit chats.

We returned for the Evaluation session led by our General Evaluator, Sue Ding, DTM. The first session was the Table Topics ™ Evaluation by our prim and proper KT Chok, PM2. Following, we had the evaluations for the project speeches. Hj. Hashim, DTM evaluated our new comer Rahman. Chitirra, LD1 was nervous and excited at the same time to evaluate the big boss Ken Chan, DTM and finally Ken Chan, DTM himself evaluated Ron Yeap, ACB, CL.

We had a short open evaluation for all members to give their opinions on the speeches and then we had the technical reports from the role-players. Finally, Sue Ding, DTM gave her general evaluation on the club that she enjoyed coming to and left us with some good feedback.

The TME wrapped the meeting up by calling upon the President to give out the best awards for the night. Due to time disqualifications there was no voting for the best project speaker. However, the best Table Topics ™ speaker went to none other than our General Evaluator herself, Sue Ding, DTM. The best Evaluator award as always was bagged by Hj. Hashim, DTM.

The President drew the meeting to a close after several key announcements and her closing address. Everyone adjourned after the group photo and proceeded for the cake cutting session for the November babies in MMKL, Manish, Vijay and Ken Chan.

The meeting indeed was lit and full of colour and with the same level of hope that a light emits everyone went home looking forward to the next meeting.

Thanks to blog writer Chitirra, contributors, and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

#420: Halloween: Spooky Soiree

October is that ‘blessed’ time of year where people can be as spooky and terrifying as they like in a spooky soiree or festivity, that truly embodies the spirit of Halloween in the sense that it was so sweet it gave me cavities! I came in a cosplay mask as Dracula in line with the theme of the day “Halloween: Spooky Soiree” to attend Money Mastery–KL Toastmasters Club Meeting.   Take note that Dracula wasn’t just making a social call; I was on a mission as the ASAA.

The Spooky Soiree meeting took two and half hours to get all the endings. TME Dato’ Dr Mary, PM3 helped to ensure the meeting reconciled with each and everyone’s darker sides, and found the confidence to cosplay, or even hunt for bones in the creepy yet inspiring marathon speeches. There was nothing mean or cruel on any of the members’ routes; in fact this may well be the most awesome meeting of the club.

 @ 7:15pm ASAA EK Yeo, CC, CL called the meeting to order. The meeting begun with the Toastmaster’s Promise recited by Toastmasters members for their commitment in the Toastmasters educational program.

@7:17pm: Our Club Mdm. President Chitirra, LD1 took over the control of the meeting. In her welcome address, she greeting our club member and our distinguished guests, General Evaluator Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC2 from MAD Toastmasters Club, Evaluator Samuel Selvaraju, DTM and an invited creepy assigned speaker Victor Ong, DTM to present an unexpected creepy speech. She then invited the Grammarian Chew Yee, CC to introduce the WOD “Creepy” and went on to invite all members and guests to give a self-introduction and encouraged them to use the WOD “Creepy” and theme of the day “Halloween: Spooky Soiree” as much as they could. All members and guests did very well during this segment of self- introduction.

@7:32pm: Our club member Vijayakumar, CC, given his Invocation Speech and shared with us journey towards DTM.  He interpreted DTM as “D” Determination to set up goal, “T” Time bar to achieve it and “M” Mentally challenge to complete it.

@7:35pm: The Toastmaster of The Evening Dato’ Dr. Mary, PM3 with her creepy cosplay costume as a good Witch, briefed on the history of Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club. Then she introduced the role players for this meeting in the sequence.

Grammarian:   Chew Yee, CC 

“Ah” Counter:   Serena Kong, ACB, CL

Timer:   Wendy Sim, CC

General Evaluator:  Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC3

All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for this evening.   Then the TME proceeded with the assigned speeches from Competent Communication Manual and Pathways.

1^stSpeaker - Victor Ong, DTM Speech Title - “My Favourite Food”

His speech evaluator was Hj. Hashim, DTM

This was his project speech from the Competent Communication Manual: Project 8: Get Comfortable with Visual Aids

Victor kicked off his speech sharing with us how Malaysia provides a variety of fusion food. He shared with us how he loved to eat food making it creepy by adding a few cockroaches to the dish. The taste, he said, was delicious and even good for health. He anticipated that by Year 2070, the world will have a shortage of food and that cockroaches will be the main source of protein. The speech became even more creepy when he offered everyone a packet of cockroach crackers.  He was indeed entertaining us with humour and surprises.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                      

2^nd speaker- Ken Chan, DTM Speech Title - “Power Presenting”. His speech evaluator was Samuel Selvaraju, DTM

He was doing his speech from Pathways: Presentation Mastery Level 1: Project 2 – Evaluation and Feedback.

Ken Chan demonstrated a variety of presentation style through body language, vocal variety and his roving eye contact. He commented that a presentation was a chance for one to impress others, such as a boss. Some of the key words during his presentation was Ethos (credibility), Pathos (exhibit) and Logos (content). His speech was inspiring, educational and entertaining.

3rd speaker- CP Lau, ACG, ALB Speech Title - “President’s Distinguished Area G4”. His speech evaluator was Ken Chan, DTM

He was presenting his speech under Project: High Performance Leadership (HPL) for him to achieve ACS, a journey toward DTM.  CP Lau did mention that he joined Money Mastery-KL Toastmaster Club in June 2011. He took up the role as Area Governor G4 during the term 2013/2014 that is under Region 14, District 51, Division G, Area G4 which makes up 4 clubs which are Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club, Money & You Toastmasters Club, WIM Toastmasters Club and Air Products Toastmasters Club. HPL trains one to achieve or accomplish Service Leadership, Vision Values, Direction, Persuasion, Support, Development and Appreciation. He also shared with us the key word – “STAR” which refer to:

 “S” – Stretch your limit

“T” – Train your team

“A” – Ask for result

“R” – reach out

4th speaker- Mike Chin, Speech Title - “Who Am I”. His speech evaluator was Olivia Chen, PM1

This first time speaker was doing his speech from Pathways: Dynamic Leadership Level 1: Project 1 – Ice Breaker

Mike Chin shared with us his personal story. He is Johorean from a small town, Kulai enveloped in an oil palm plantation. He is Hakka. He completed his studies in KL and continued to work here. His hobbies included being a movie lover for action movies, science fiction except horror and thrillers while badminton is his favourite sport looking up to our national hero LCW.

5th speaker- KT Chok, PM2, Speech Title - “Habit of The Rich”. His speech evaluator was Ron Yeap, ACB, CL

He was giving his speech from Pathways: Presentation Mastery Level 3: Project 3 – Effective Projects, Inspire Your Audience

The key message as shared by KT Chok was that the rich always paid themselves first by starting with 10% and then progressively to 30% from your monthly income. He also clearly expressed that this habit decided on one’s future.

@8:31pm: Break for refreshment for 10 minutes, where are lot of chattering takes place and networking with new members.

@8:41pm: ASAA EK Yeo called the meeting to order and then he passed the control of the meeting to TME.

@8:42pm TME invited Vice President of Membership KT Chok, PM2 to induct new member Abdulrahman and his assigned mentor is Ron Yeap, ACB, CL

@8:47pm: TME Dato’ Dr. Mary, PM3 invited General Evaluator Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC2 to chair the meeting. He led the session with his panel of evaluators.  He began by explaining the purpose of the evaluation and carried on to give his feedback.

Evaluation from the 5 evaluators.

1^st Speech Evaluator Hj. Hashim DTM for Competent Communication Manual speaker, Victor Ong DTM.

Hj. Hashim’s comments were based on the 3E’s used:  EXCEL by using simple and easy to understand English. Crafting the speech by using cockroaches was a cleverly used plot.  EXHIBIT speech through the use of visual aids and using a packet of potato chips of cockroaches, was interesting.  EXCELLENT performance with body language, hand gestures and using the stage widely was good. All evaluations need to encourage the speakers to do better.  Some suggestions were to use real cockroaches, staying behind the line during speech delivery, and sharing some insights about these mean and creepy cockroaches.

2^nd Speech Evaluator Samuel Selvaraju, DTM for Pathways – Presentation Mastery Speaker Ken Chan, DTM.

Samuel commented that Ken is an experienced speaker with a well-organised speech structure.  His voice is audible, loud and clear, keeping the subject matter straight to the point with the key words, “Ethos, Pathos and Logos”.  The Evaluator suggested that Ken show the audience one of the workshops where his crowd attended and he impressed the audience.

3^rd Speech Evaluator, Ken Chan DTM for Project: High Performance Leadership (HPL) – Speaker CP Lau, ACG, ALB.

Ken acknowledged that CP Lau had achieved his HPL by sharing with us his journey in Toastmasters since 2011. He agreed that leadership is a team effort and was pleased to be his mentor.

4^th Speech Evaluator Olivia Chen, PM1 for Pathways – Dynamic Leadership – Speaker Mike Chin.

Olivia commented that Mike shared his personal story with a clear and audible voice, and a pleasant facial expression, often smiling.  As an evaluator, she suggested to this first time speaker to have more eye contact in order to engage with the audience, to use the stage wisely, and to share more about his career and why he joined Toastmasters.

5^th Speech evaluator Ron yeap, ACB, CL for Pathways – Presentation Mastery – Speaker KT Chok, PM2.

Ron commented that KT had clearly shown the difference between habit and destiny and why it was important for everyone to pay themselves first. His aim of inspiring the audience was met! One suggestion was to engage the audience by asking them questions such as when they would adopt the habit of the rich.

The speech marathon Evaluation exercise was just completed!  Everyone was so objective in their feedback and the suggestions were from the heart.  As Toastmasters, we must aim to be better each time we present a speech.  Many thanks to the Speech Evaluators.

Role Players’ reports

Members who were busy throughout the meeting were:

·         Grammarian – Chew Yee, CC

·         Ah Counter – Serena Kong, ACB, CL

·         Timer – Wendy Sim, CC

General Evaluator Ricky Soo ACS, ALS, EC2 had summed up the meeting and then passed the control to the TME.

@9:34pm:  Club President Chitirra, LD1 was called on the stage by the TME to do the presidential closing address. She first thanked the TME Dato Dr Mary, who handled the meeting diligently.

The gratifying part of every meeting is to share the joy when the awards are presented to the best performance for the evening.

·         Best Speech Evaluator- Hj. Hashim, DTM

·         Best Project Speaker- Victor Ong, DTM

·         Best Spooky Soiree cosplay costume – Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM3

·         Token of appreciation to the GE- Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC2

Before the end of the meeting, Mdm. President Chitirra, LD1 summarized the entire meeting and asked the guests and members to take a group photo.  All those in cosplay took centre stage to live up to the theme of Halloween.  Everyone received candies too.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:40pm.  Indeed it was the most exciting meeting with the speech marathons and speech evaluations.  We wait on for the next of such a meeting.

Thanks to blog writer EK Yeo, contributors, and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

30 October 2018

#419 – International Stuttering Awareness Day

Bruce Willis, Elvis Presley, Tiger Woods….3 famous names. The first one showed us how not to die hard, another taught us to do something worth remembering and the third one exhibited how to find the right hole. Have you ever thought of what connects these celebs? Well, neither did I, until I was asked to write the blog about the meeting #419 which took place on 24th October 2018. The theme of the meeting was International Stuttering Awareness Day and the WOD being Recreate.

Now, back to my question on connecting the dots between Bruce, Elvis and Tiger. All of them were stutterers during their childhood. Bruce joined theater to conquer stuttering. Elvis started singing to get rid of stuttering. No, you guessed wrong. Tiger didn’t start playing with balls to get rid of stuttering, he worked hard on his speech therapy.

The theme was selected by our club President Chitirra to recreate awareness about stuttering. The meeting started on time at 7:15 PM with ASAA Shain Anand kicking off the meeting with a Toastmaster’s promise. Chitirra, then presided the meeting and conveyed her ideas towards awareness of stuttering. To mark the occasion, we had a guest Invocation Speaker, Distinguished Toastmaster Samuel Selvaraju from Shaklee Toastmaster’s club. He was the perfect Invocation Speaker because he was also a stutterer during his childhood and he inspired the audience by telling the story about how he got rid of stuttering. Manish Jha IP1 was the Toastmaster of the meeting. He started off by introducing the General Evaluator Lee Soo Ling, DTM; Ah-Counter Mike; Grammarian Vijaykumar, CC; Timer Olivia Chen, PM1.

Up next the session was handed over to Serena Kong ACB, CL for the table topics session. The session is all about impromptu speaking. We had a combination of club members and guests volunteering to do the Table Topics . All spoke exceptionally well.

Up next was the Assigned Speech Session. The first speaker was Ken Chan,  DTM who kick started his Pathways journey for the Presentation Mastery path with the Ice Breaker speech. His speech title was Ken, He Can.

The second speaker was Cetani Chen ACB, ALB who was doing her Project 3 from Level 1 of Effective Coaching path. Her topic was Research and Presenting and her speech title was Stand-up Comedy. In her speech, she spoke about different variations of stand-up comedy.

The third speaker was Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM3. She was doing her Level 4 Project 1 of Presentation Mastery - Managing a Difficult Audience. Her speech title was There is Hope. Her speech included a demonstration of how one can pack many clothes into a slim travelling bag. She skillfully rolled the clothes into sausage-like pieces and arranged about 15 items of clothes into a bag, similar to that of a brief case. With the title she meant that there is hope after all for travelers. Since it was about managing a difficult audience, there were a few members assigned to play different roles, such as the ‘interrupter’ and the ‘arguer’ who kept interrupting the speech, to which she managed to get them back on track with her presentation.  There was also a ‘silent’ member whom Dato’ Dr Mary encouraged to participate in the packing. 

After a break of 10 minutes, Lee Soo Ling, DTM started the evaluation session with the Table Topics Evaluation by KT Chok PM2. Next, the assigned speech evaluators EK Yeo CC, CL, Rony Yeap ACB, CL & CP Lau ACG, ALB gave evaluation for the 3 assigned speakers respectively. Following this was the Open Evaluation session and the reports by technical role players.

Best Assigned Speech: Ken Chan DTM

Best Table Topics Speaker: Samuel Selvaraju DTM

Best Evaluator: Ron Yeap ACB, CL

That was it for this meeting, and we wait together for the next meeting with yet another interesting theme “Halloween”.

Hasta la vista!!!

Thanks to blog writer Shain Anand, contributors, and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

#418: Children’s Day: Learn From the Little One

October and November are the months when we celebrate Children’s Day in many countries and the actual date for International Children’s Day falls on 20^th November. We decided to have our theme Children’s Day: Learn From The Little One with the WOD – Ameliorate which means, grow better and improve. We all are here at Toastmasters to progress and improve our communication and leadership skills.

So, our first time ASAA Mike Chin started the meeting and took us through the recital of our Toastmaster’s promises and then proceeded to call the meeting to order, calling upon the Acting President, VPE Manish Jha, IP1, to do the opening address. This was his first time of playing the role of President, ever in his life. He shared his opinion about the theme and called on every member to give a short introduction of themselves and to use the WOD as much as possible adding one more word to their vocabulary. It was one of the perfect moments for everyone to share a personal story through the introduction.  Indeed, everyone got chance to speak at least once.   

It was then time for TME who basically is the emcee of the show, Competent Communicator Wendy Sim to take control and run the meeting. She gave a brief history of Toastmasters International, when, where, how it started which are useful information for all guests. She shared a brief history, then introduced all the role players including our General Evaluator, Competent Communicator, Elaine Neo to make sure everything is set to bring the meeting forward. She introduced our Table Topics™ master KT Chok, PM2 to conduct Table Topics session. He had prepared topics related to the theme of the day ‘Children’s Day’ and there were five speakers for the session. Well, some were first timers and some with more than a one-time experience. 

Speakers were: 

• Edwin Wong
• Tan Ben Hoe
• Abdul Rahman
• Ryan and 
• Vijay Kumar

They all attempted very well, and gave their very best.  After this wonderful TT session. Our TME brought us to the project speech session. This evening there were 3 speakers lined up to present their speeches. 

It was around 8:10 pm, and the 1^st speaker of the evening was announced who was doing his from Competent Communication Manual, Project no. 8, Get comfortable with Visual Aids –With Speech Title ‘Know Thyself’. Let me tell you this two times Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) is a well-known speaker, trainer, and public speaking coach for a long time. He told us how to know ourself better by showing  us Russian Dolls which come in a set of one inside another from big to small size. He tried to justify there is inner child inside each of us and if you follow the child, you will do much better in life.

Next speaker who was waiting to do her speech was Cetani Chen, ACB, ALB. She was doing her speech from Path – Effective Coaching, Level 1 Project Researching and Presenting. She came up with her 5-7 mins speech. Speech title ‘I Am Hakka Moi’.  By the end of the evening we knew her better as she told us her story. Hakka she explained are people from South East China who migrated during 12th Century. There is different culture, different cuisine for the Hakka. She shared about her story being Hakka Moi and we all improved our general knowledge from her speech. Thanks Cetani!

Then we got to the 3^rd speaker of the day Olivia Chen, PM1. She was doing her speech from Presentation mastery, Level 1 Project Body Language. She came up with her speech title ‘Swimology’.   It was great to see how swimology worked in life. Her speech was simple and profound. The Swimology word has come from the original word, swim, of course 😊!

After the prepared project speeches our TME announced a break for 10 mins. Break is the time for fellowship as well as filling our tummies which gave us the feeling of being refreshed.

It was time to resume the meeting, and TME Mike Chin was once again called the meeting to order. The TME called our General Evaluator, Competent Communicator, Elaine Neo on stage to conduct the Evaluation session. This is something that every Toastmasters meeting is famous for. Evaluation is main ingredient in the Toastmasters education program. Elain Neo is from KBTC Toastmasters Club. As per our club practice we usually invite GEs from other clubs so that they can give fair feedback on our improvement and recognise our best. She first gave a brief introduction of evaluation, why is it necessary and asked all the evaluators as per agenda one after another to share their verdict. All of them did I would say good evaluation. They clearly highlighted the strengths of the speaker and spoke on the room for improvement in their speeches. After that she also asked Technical role players the Ah counter, the Grammarian, and the Time Keeper to share their reports. Finally, it was the time of report from General Evaluator herself. She picked good points about us, and areas to improve and recognised the best what we do.

So far, so good. TME returned to the stage to announce the certificates to the best performances of the evening, presented by our Acting club president, Manish Jha, IP1.

• Best Table Topics award: Ryn Lim (Guest)
• Best assigned speech Evaluation award: Hj. Hashim, DTM

We appreciated our GE for taking time for us. It was an awesome evening.

Finally, we ended our meeting with a nice memorable Group Picture.

Keep calm, Keep smiling and Keep Toastmastering; See you all guys in next meeting! Stay tuned for more updates.

Thanks to blog writer Manish Jha, contributors, and reviewers

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)