#422 – Creativity: The Mother of Invention

Toastmasters club meetings are always fun, engaging, educational and fun. The club meeting on the 27^th of November 2018 was no exception. With the theme Creativity: The Mother of Invention, the Invocation speaker was Mathew Philippose CC, ALB who gave a lively invocation speech. It was a stirring speech on the use of creativity by club which has led to many new members becoming club presidents.  Mathew made note that many new members like Chittra LDI, and Wendy Sim CC became club presidents shortly after becoming members. He also pointed out that Abdul Rahman, who is one of the newest members, is making good effort by playing the role of assistant SAA that evening. Indeed, by playing roles one climbs up the ladder of hierarchy.

Ron Yeap ACB, CL played the role of Toastmaster of the Evening. He talked about his own endeavours in public speaking and use of creativity at work and as a Toastmaster. This goes to show how much creative thinking can be used. He also shared how he uses creativity in assisting his wife Serena for being creative in her career. He introduced the General Evaluator, Khalid Idris ACS, ALS, IP4, who is a Division Director.

The table topics session saw some very interesting and creative questions. This session has been described by a friend of the author of this blog article as ‘having monkeys playing in your head’. Table topics can make you marshal your thoughts to arrange them as coherently as one can. Creativity was a plenty when speakers came up to speak in this session.

For the assigned speech session three members gave their well-prepared speeches.  The first was Ken Chan DTM who presented Level 1 Project 4 – Researching & Presenting. His title was Laughter and therefore spoke about laughter and its curative powers. It was enlightening. His use of the floor space, having an engaging speech and extraordinary use of body language was very stimulating.

Next was Dato Dr Mary De Silva PM3 from Presentation Mastery Level 4: Project 2 who gave us an excellent Question & Answer speech titled Dine Divine. She made good use of PowerPoint slides in elucidating the proper use of cutlery, crockery and glassware for dinner in an elegant fashion. As an interesting illustration of using visual aids, she demonstrated with real cutlery how they should be used.  Her evaluator Ken Chan DTM gave her a favourable and constructive evaluation.

The third speaker was Shain Anand from the CC Manual, Project 5: Your Body Speaks.  His title was G.O.A.T and he magnificently had the subject woven and intricately linked the organisation of the human body with Toastmasters. He explained how the human body was the most advanced and sophisticated technology ever created. His evaluator was Hj. Hashim DTM who pointed out favourable speech observations and areas for consideration.

After the break, the evaluation session began. Mathew Philippose CC, ALB as the evaluator for the Table Topics session who gave useful insights and a thorough evaluation of the Table Topics speakers. He explained that doing the Table Topics session. He explained that it is by thinking about the topic first that one jumps in and speaks. Table Topics is very good training for any speaker as it gets you to think on your feet, marshal your thoughts and speak with courage and confidence.

The individual speech evaluation was first given by EK Yeo CC, CL. He evaluated Ken Chan.  Then Ken Chan DTM evaluated Dato Dr Mary De Silva PM3, and then Tuan Haji Hashim Adnan DTM evaluated Shain Anand. All the three evaluators made note of the presentation methods, speaking styles and use of visual aids and PowerPoint slides by the three commendable speakers. The individual evaluation saw all three speakers get useful advice and critique about their respective speeches.

The GE, Khalid Idris ACS, ALS, IP4 gave advice about the ideal length of speeches which as a direct correlation with the number of words in a speech. Khalid Idris gave praise to the club as one with considerable charisma. He advised the club to improve on the usage of name tags, the timing of speeches an recommended the use of Pathways evaluation forms. Grammarian Chittra gave us her report which she did with charm and eloquence. Time Keeper Manish Jha IP1 gave a meticulously recorded report.

The best part of the meeting was the rewarding of certificates to those deserving and for this meeting the Best Table Topic speaker was Dato Dr Mary De Silva PM3.  The best evaluator was swept by Ken Chan DTM

General Evaluator Khalid Idris ACS, ALS, IP4, received a token of appreciation from Money Mastery KL.

The meeting ended with a photo session to capture the club’s eureka moment in Meeting #422!

Thanks to blog writer Vijaykumar CC, contributors, and reviewers

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)