29.10.2019 Meeting #448- Leadership Workshop

Leaders instil in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” Leaders have a clear vision, mission, and values system. Leaders create stretch goals, encourage self-development, leaders appreciate, give support, communicate, emphasize and Inspire.

With the precise planning by our organizing team, our Leadership workshop at Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club has commenced exactly at the scheduled time on 29th Oct 2019, Tuesday on the 3rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan.

Meeting has kick-started by one of our club's incredible assets, Toastmaster of the evening Mathew Phillippose, EC1. He has given a brief introduction about leadership and how this workshop supports our personal development through professional speakers. This has set the stage for all the attendees to know what to expect in the meeting later. He has invited the first coordinator of the session, Toastmaster Julia Leong, ACS, ALB.

The coordinator Julia has begun the first session with her dynamic speech with a delightful voice. She had an interactive session on Developing Leadership Skills with impressive examples and effective exercises at the end of the 75-minute session. She has covered all the key aspects like effective team development, collaboration, unity, respect, coaching, reward, creating a positive environment and many more. She has interrelated team development and getting success with an extraordinary Dragon Boat race example. She engaged the audience with constant interaction. She divided members into 4 teams and made them do two exercises.  Within a team, members are given roles as a coach, member, observer. A chance is given to all the observers from each team to express their view on the discussion. The session went incredibly productive with enthusiastic involvement from all the members.

It was then time for a short 10-minute break for our members and the guest before moving onto our second Session. During the break, we filled up our stomach with yummy Nasi lemak, Kari puff, sweets, and fruits.

Shortly after the break, the second session was started by Toastmaster Ron Yeap, ACS, CL on the topic 'Working in the team environment'. He has continued the legacy of the fire that Julia has created in the first session. With more humor, more interaction and effective body language. This session helped everyone to know how to survive and get positive outcomes when working with the team in business or any other organization. Working with teams improves the quality of work-life, increases productivity, reduces costs and enhances product or service quality. The coordinator Ron has exquisitely conveyed this with impressive slides containing effective information.

There were some fun-filled exercises at the end of the session. Eventually, both the coordinators made each and every member get involved in the workshop.

After the session timer, Jocelyn chew has given her timer's report.

We were honored with the presence of our chief guests Mama Walia, DTM, Kingston Lee, DTM, Elysia Teh, DTM and all. Certificates have been presented to all the participants and role players. The club then took a group photo and adjourned the day. It was a great and momentous meeting with thought-provoking ideas. And thanks to Coordinators Julia and Ron Yeap.

1. Acting President; Abdulrahman, PM2   2. Toastmaster of the Evening: Mathew Philippose
3. Organising Chair: Wendy Sim, CC   4. Sergeant- at- Arm: EK Yeo, CC, CL
5. Timer: Jocelyn Chew   6. Photographer & Blog Writer: Rajendra

Blog Writer: Rajendra

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020

22.10.2019 Meeting #447- The Festival of Light- Diwali

Theme: The Festival of Lights - Diwali
Word of The Day: Prosperous

Malaysia is a unique country. We are a multi racial, multicultural and multilingual society. This provided many opportunities for all residents in Malaysia, to celebrate the festive seasons together. 

On the 22nd Oct, Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club adopted the theme “Festival of Lights - Diwali” as the theme of the meeting. Members attending the meeting, were encouraged to dress up to the theme. The venue was also lightly decorated with flower strings, flower petals and ‘deepam” (floor decoration).

We were privileged to have Kim Chow, DTM to be our General Evaluator on that evening. The meeting was also patronized by members of IJM, Ramesh and Selvan, and a non member Mr. Nanthakumar.

Our Toastmasters of the Evening, Manish Jha, IP1, in his handsome traditional Hindu costume, hosted the meeting smoothly. This was later confirmed by President’s closing speech when he praised the TME for his improved and interactive style in the role.

Our meeting had 3 unique sessions, which each session offering different learning opportunities. The first session is the Table Topics^™ Session and was led by Rajendra as the Table Topics™ Master. The participants of this session was given a random topic to speak on. We saw Ben Hoe, Selvan, Abdulrahman, Nanthakumar and Hai Liang took part in the session to attempt on the impromptu speeches. They were really brave to take up the challenges.

The second part was for the members to present their prepared speeches. We had Ken Chan, DTM, Julia Leong, ACS, ALB, and my self, Ron, ACS, CL, to take part in this session. This session would normally let the speakers and audience learn many things about public speaking. By presenting, the speakers learned about their style of presentation; audiences learn from the presentation and speech delivery method, and of course the content the speakers presented. 

As we were celebrating Diwali, Chitirra, LD1 had brought some Diwali cookies to delight the refreshment menu even more, together with our signature nasi lemak, wadeh, and curry puffs.

In the third session, it was time for us to learn from the feedback of others. Kim Chow, DTM, coordinated the session with her sensational, and commanding stage presence to lead through the session. The speech evaluators comprised of Chitirra, LD1 (Table Topics™ Evaluator), CP Lau, DTM; Hj Hashim, DTM; and Abdulrahman PM2. Through their feedback, the audience got to look at the speaker’s presentation in a clearer manner. The evaluators were trained to be critical and sharp in providing feedback that can help and motivate the speaker to improve.

In this meeting, I learned from Ken Chan, DTM, that different mentor has different approach of mentoring, nonetheless we still can keep our mind open to get mentorship from others as “it is free”. I also learned that "Luo Han Guo" (monk fruit) has many nutritional and medical values that can improve our immune system. And from my presentation, I hope more people will realize how powerful the functions provided in Microsoft Excel that can ease our day-to-day works.

I also felt thankful that Kim Chow, DTM came to our club to be our General Evaluator. Her evaluation given me perspective on how a speaker can command the stage via hand gestures and body languages.

1. Table Topics^™ Master: Rajendra   2. Table Topics^™ Evaluator: Chitirra, LD1
3. Invocation Presenter: KL Loh, ATMG   4. General Evaluator: Kim Chow, DTM
5. Toastmaster of the Evening: Manish Jha, IP1

The Best Performers of the meeting came as below,

1. Best Table Topics™ Speaker: Tan Ben Hoe, CTM, CL
2. Best Project Speech: Julia Leong, ACS, ALB
3. Best Evaluator: Hj Hashim Adnan, DTM.

The final group photo signifies the end of the Diwali meeting, and the camaraderie continues in the hymn of birthday song and refreshment.

Blog Writer: Ron Yeap, ACS, CL

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020

08.10.2019 Meeting #446- Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests 2019/2020

‘’Humour is mankind’s greatest blessing’’ and “Evaluation is the breakfast of champions’’, the two wonderful quotes were such a good sunshine in our house, hooray! The time had come readily to celebrate the annual Club Level Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests of Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club which held on 8^th Oct 2019, Tuesday on the 3^rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan.

It has been weeks of planning for the big night by the organizing team and to make sure it was as memorable and successful to match the weight of legendary MMKL Toastmasters Club, the team was led by the enthusiastic Organizing Chair, Abdulrahman, PM2.

Imagine, Phones buzzing, human voices, the ambiance on a buzz surrounding the 3rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan as all arrive early to set the last-minute touches for the contests.

We were honoured with the presence of our Chief Judge Chan Yen Shen, CC, ALB, the Area directors, Past Area Directors and all distinguished toastmasters and non-toastmasters guest. The refreshment was served between 6:45pm to 7:00pm, with legacy Malaysian local food, nasi lemak, curry puffs, bananas and drinks.

Between 7:00pm to 7:30pm multiple briefings were done concurrently. Chief Judge’s briefing to role players, Contest Toastmasters to contestants, Organizing Chair to the SAAs. With everybody in check, at 7:30pm when the clock struck, the gavel was struck and the contest was called to order.

The charming SAA is none other than Wendy Sim, CC. She called the contest to start and did excellence job of gathering everyone on time, welcoming everyone with cheerful smile. After she informed the contest house rules to audience and the floor was then passed to the Organizing Chair, Abdulrahman, PM2 to give his opening address.

He welcomed the audience and sincerely thanks all the distinguished guests, diligent role players and contestants to be part of this magical night. The floor was handed to our Humorous Speech Contest Toastmaster, the brilliant Manish Jha, IP1 who outlines the contest rules and introduced the contestants and their order of speaking slots. Let me hear a big laughs ha…ha..ha …ha . he said this is to get you all ready for the anticipated unstoppable laughs out, our contestants coming up with their best punch lines to make the crowd lough loud off their seats and he then called for the Humorous Speech Contest to begin. 

The contestants were called according to the sequence they had drawn.
1) KT Chok
2) Hj. Hashim Adnan
3) Jocelyn Chew
4) Rey Thean
5) Chitirra
6) Ken Chan

The audiences were certainly entertained with these humorous stories. With big laughter and happy beating hearts we all adjourned for a short 10 min break before the next contest begin.

When we returned from the break, Wendy, CC called us in and invited the Evaluation Contest Toastmaster, the graceful Julia Leong, ACS, ALB to begin the contest. She introduced and welcoming the contestants and then passed the floor to The Test Speaker, Szi Yiing to share with us a test speech titled “Emotional Intelligence’’.

She was vibrant and informative and shared a worthy content on emotional intelligence and the importance of the topic to our life. But that is not for me to say! It was left to our Evaluation Contestants.

The contestants were brought to the holding room to write their evaluation speech while the hall was open for air time. The contestants was called in by the sequnce they were drawn as well. 

1) Vijay Kumar
2) Rey Thean
3) Jocelyn Chew
4) Hj Hashim
5) Ken Chan
6) Ron Yeap
7) KT Chok 

So many varieties of input for Szi Yiing and audience to pick up and learn from MMKL’s glorious evaluators. Honestly I felt the humour and the hysterias laughs were presented in room even though we were actually conducting evaluation. ‘’We learn more in the moment of excitements’’ a quote which were livening it.

As the contests ended and as the Chief Judge went on to tabulate the results, Manish Jha, IP1 took on the stage to interview contestants with interesting sets of questions. The feedback and the contestant’s impression were fantastic of course.

Following, with the tokens of participation to contestants and tokens of appreciation to role players were given. 

1. Humorous Speech Contestants
2. Evaluation Contestants

Reaching to the epic moment of the night arrived. Curiosity was killing us all and so the Chief Judge was called to hand the results to contest toastmasters on twice for the announcements of each contest winners. Drum rolls were filling the air through out and the results stated wait for it as below.

Humorous speech contest 2019/2020 results

1^st place. Ken Chan

2^nd place. Hj. Hashim bin Adnan

3^rd place. Rey Thean

Evaluation Contest 2019/2020 results

1^st place. Hj. Hashim bin Adnan

2^nd place. Ken Chan

3^rd  place. Ron Yeap

⭐ BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS ⭐

Finally, the President, KL Loh, ATMG was called on to the stage to give his closing address and call it a night. He gave some words of encouragement and motivation and special thanks to everyone whom made the night memorable and successful and called for all to stay for a group photoshoot by our official photographer Sunil Kumar to cherish this momentous contest night.

Contest was a big success and joy. Yes, we made it, We stand together as one whether we are role players, participants or audiences of a contest because at any level we can learn and be inspired through contests like this. Seize the opportunity always and victory is always ours whether your are number one as a participant or sitting in the last row as an audience. There’s always something you can take home at a Toastmasters’ contest or meeting because there’s always something you can contribute if you become a Toastmaster. Until the next contest period good vibes, don’t get too critical and just keep laughing and smile because life itself is a Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest where you’re the participant and the judge yourself. 

Thanks to photo editor, and reviewers.

Blog Writer: Abdulrahman Azazi, PM2

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020

24.09.2019 Meeting #445- Facing Our Challenges

It was a hazy evening. I came to the club around 6:25pm with handful of club signature food–Nasi Lemak, fried chickens, omelette eggs, bundle of bananas, curry puffs and fried spring rolls. Thanks to Chitirra, LD1 for her thoughtful food ordering arrangement from the nearby store. Upon arrival, the meeting room was ready set up by Rey Thean, Mathew, EC1 and Ron Yeap, ACS, CL. Kudos for their initiative and commitment to come early to prepare the meeting setup before the arrival of members and guests.

A minute later, the members and guests came in. The guests were greeted with warmest welcome by all the members and compliment with light refreshment before the meeting.

At 7:15 pm, the Assistant Sergeant-At Arms (ASAA), Rey Thean called the meeting to order. She reminded members and guests of the meeting house rules before inviting members of the Toastmasters to recite Toastmasters’ promise.

Next, Rey Thean, passed her control to Club President KL Loh, ATMG for his president’s address.  He welcomed our members, guests and General Evaluator Seki Ng, DTM. He gave a motivated and inspired speech revolving “Facing our challenges”. Grammarian Abdulrahman, PM2 was invited to share with us about the word of the day “Courage”. Immediately, KL Loh, ATMG, invited members and guests to have a short 45-second self-introduction and encouraged them to use theme of the day and word of the day within the time limitation.

After that, Manish Jha, IP1, the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) took over the control from the President. He shared with us the history of Toastmasters as well as our club history. He introduced the role players and invited them to share with us their roles for the meeting in the following sequence:

    

A) Ah-Counter – CS Ong

B) Grammarian – Abdulrahman, PM2

C) Timer – Wendy Sim, CC

D) General Evaluator (GE) – Seki Ng, DTM

1. Humor Master cum Ah-counter: CS Ong 
2. Table Topics™Evaluator:KT Chok, PM4
3. Timer: Wendy Sim, CC 
4. Toastmaster of the evening: Manish Jha, IP1
5. Grammarian: Abdulrahman, PM2, 
6. Table Topics™Master: EK Yeo, CC, CL
7. General Evaluator: Seki Ng, DTM

CS Ong was invited and took over the control from the TME and share with us his stories. A man, at the age of middle like him would look at the mirror more often to count how many wrinkles in his face and applied skin care products to look young. He twisted the story and told us one day he met a pretty blonde who look exactly like his secondary school mate who he admired secretly. To his surprised there was no signed of aging on her. Thinking of the lady luck was on him, he exchanged his conversation with her in cheerful and joyful manner. He was so delighted both of them were studied in the same school. Then she gave him the punch line “Which subject you teach?”.

Although CS Ong claimed that he was not a humorous person, but his humor speech had caught the heart of the audience, filled with laughter in the room. Well done, CS! It had completely taken off the serious image of you!

Your truly was the Table Topics Master™ in the meeting. Table Topics™ is an impromptu speech, which you can speak within the topic or out of the topic as long as your speech contains the opening, body and conclusion. Each participant will be given a topic to speak within a time limit , with the minimum of 1 minute and not more than 2 minutes 30 seconds. At 1 minute the green light will be on and stay for 30 seconds. 

The table topics for the participants were:-

1) Rey Thean – Do you believe that your dreams can come true, if you have the courage to pursue them?

2) Hai Liang – Do you think challenges are an opportunity to test yourself for you rise to next level?

3) Undaleeb – What are the new things you want to learn to challenge yourself?

4) Alex Chong – Courage is doing what you are afraid to do, do you agree?

All the Table Topics™ speakers came to the stage with confidence and delivered their speeches fluently without any hesitation.

For the assigned speeches, here is my summary:

Speaker 1: CP Lau, DTM Title: Golden Questions	His delivered the speech with the punch lines: Opening -“What is your problems” Closing- “What went well”, “How can we do better”
Speaker 2: Mathew Phillippose, EC1 Title: Moving The Steering Wheel	He shared with us how he applied his supportive style of communication, delegated the work to subordinates, complete his mission in peace of mind.
Speaker 3: Ron Yeap, ACS, CL Title: Health Benefits of Vinegar	His shared with us the benefits of drinking vinegar will reduce the blood sugar, cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Speaker 4: Julia Leong, ACS, ALB Title: A Change in Time Saves Lives	She talked about 2 frogs were being cooked in 2 different pots. The first frog was put in a cool water pot. It would be boiled gradually. The 2second frog was put in half boiled water pot. The moral of her story was that the first frog was at the comfort zone failed to jump up from the pot once the water was boiled.  The second frog sense the danger once it legs touched on the boiled water, it quickly jumped out from the pot. Life will be saved with quick decision at the time change of environment.

Meeting 445 was a special meeting. We hold an extra business meeting to elect Wendy Sim, CC to take up the SAA role for the term 2019/2020. Circular of members voted via WhatApps to nominate Wendy Sim, CC to take up the role as SAA due to the resignation of Phang Chew Yee, CC. Since there was no other nominee proposed, the Acting Secretary, our Club Advisor, CP Lau, DTM cast one vote and confirmed Wendy Sim, CC was appointed as SAA for the term 2019/2020.

The meeting had a break of 5 minutes and then call to order by ASAA Rey Thean. She passed her control to TME Manish Jha, IP1. TME invited GE Seki Ng, DTM to chair the meeting. Seki Ng, DTM explained the session and without further delay, he invited his panel of role players to have their report.

KT Chok, PM4, was impressed by all the Table Topics™ speakers, who had the courage to speak in front of the audience and delivered their speeches with full confidence. Although the Table Topics™ was a bit lengthy, there were no hiccups for them to take up the challenges.

After that, we listened to the speech evaluators to give feedback to the speakers.

The GE called the Ah-counter, Grammarian and Timer to give their reports. Finally, the GE gave his opinions on the club meeting performance. GE was impressed with the displayed ribbons of the club, the energetic of the members and guests especially during the Table Topics™ Session.

He recommended the Table Topics™ question wording should be limited to 7 words. Due to time limitation, he also suggested that Table Topics™ Evaluator to summarize each speaker based on :  

      ** One point what they did well, 

      ** One point for the improvement, 

      ** One point for encouragement.

Lastly, he also suggested if possible to add a standing fan, he felt hot as well as for those people sat near to the door entrance.

Now, the meeting reached its climax. TME invited the President to give away the certificates the winners as below:-

Best Table Topics™ Speaker – Hai Liang

Best Project Speech Evaluator – KL Loh, ATMG

Best Project Speech – Mathew Philippose, EC1

Before the closing of the curtain, the Club President KL Loh, ATMG presented token of appreciation to GE Seki Ng, DTM who spent his valuable time to help the club by giving his feedback and constructive recommendation.

The Club President appreciated our members for the 1st time to take up the role who was CS Ong as Ah- Counter & Humor Master, Abdulrahman as Grammarian and Rey Thean as ASAA. He also gave a special thanks to our guests Hai Liang, Alex Chong and Undaleed for their feedback.

The meeting adjourn at 10:00pm with Group photo taken.

Just a reminder to all before signing off, come to attend our next meeting, where we will have our 2019/2020 Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests on 08.10.2019. Stay tune with our announcement in WhatsApp, Facebook.

Blog Writer: EK Yeo, CC, CL

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020