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My Journey as a Toastmaster... Manish Kumar


Whatever is your grade or position, if you know how and when to speak, and when to remain silent, your chances of real success are proportionately increased. -by Ralph C. Smedley, 1878 - 1965, Toastmasters Founder.



To be a Toastmaster these days is not difficult. However when you check with any member they have story to tell how they became a member of a Toastmasters club. Let me share with you my story. . You might be curious to know, how I came to Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club.
To tell the truth, I did not ask anyone because, I do not have many friends in this country other than my acquaintances. My best friend was my computer it was like my life partner.  I have heard much about toastmasters. I knew in my heart that being a Toastmaster will make a difference to my life. I searched toastmasters club in Google using search string “nearest toastmasters club in PJ”. I got a long list ah very confusing. I again changed my search string, I typed in Google toastmaster club nearby AMCORP mall, this is building my office was situated. I found Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club is the first location nearest to me, it showed it was Amcorp Mall right down my nose, this is where I worked.

Enthusiastically during my office lunch break time from work, office I went to verify the location. To my surprise it was no more there. I decided to go back and do a search again in the internet. I realised there was a contact number of a person who was a member of the club. His name was Hj Hashim. I called the number, I was greeted by a very friendly voice. He was so informative, he even gave me the route map, the day and time of the meeting. He even gave me other contact numbers to help me. Being armed with information I waited excitedly for the club meeting date.

The club meets on 2nd 4th and 5th Tuesdays. I was there on the earliest date, and on reaching the club. I was really emboldened by the tones of every members. I was impressed by the friendly atmosphere, senior members like Hj. Hashim, Ken Chan, Mathew Philippose- who later became my Mentor, Serena Kong, and of course our  VPE, Ron Yeap.


It has been a year by now. I picked up my Competent Communication (CC) Manual and stood to give different types of speeches that covered 10 topics. I took nearly 10 months to be awarded as a Competent Communicator. During this period I worked on 10 different lessons through speeches to shape me to be good confident speaker. The toastmaster’s journey is superb. You will never regret if you commit yourself to be toastmaster once in your life time. Now, I truly enjoy each toastmasters meeting, every event, and every contest. Feel blessed to have such great friends like family members.
                       


Our club is rich in achievements and achievers. I also met a great mentor exclusively Senior KL Loh who had been very instrumental in helping me with my final CC speech. This is my journey of toastmasters and what about you? I am sure you too like to have a toastmaster experience like me.   



Make a decision and join us to win the world champions of public speaking. We will be happy to have you. Our motto is to “Friends helping friends to succeed”.  We learn from each other and friends help you succeed. It is a place you become leaders of tomorrow and create a great future. 


Toastmasters Meeting #350, #351 & #352


Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters club maybe similar to any toastmasters club in town. However if one were to visit the meetings you will notice a spectacular difference and excitement in each meeting. Surely our club is rich in experience and strength through many years. The motto of the club is “Friends helping friends to succeed” as witnessed many progressing as eloquent affluent speakers and leaders.


Each meeting has a theme and a Word of the Day. However if one were to take a look at the meetings the agenda is almost the same in each meeting but the spirit of the meeting itself is unique itself. In each of our meetings we have a theme that shapes the meeting. For example our meeting #350 held on 22nd March the theme was “World Water Day”, meeting #351 it was “Astound yourself” and meeting #352 it was “Dancing with life”.  There is a new word you learn in each of our meetings, the Word of the Day, enlightens an individual to learn a new word and use it. 


Usually during the President’s address, members are asked to introduce themselves and try to use the theme and the word of the day in their introduction.  This has given each person the opportunity to experience speaking in a small group. To add to it we have the table topic Master who also uses the theme of the day, for the table topics session. It is a session where both the members and guests are encouraged to give an impromptu speech for two minutes. We call this, “speaking on their feet”. We also invite guests to participate the table topics too.

Humor session is special because it livens the meeting.  For our meeting #350 it was humorous man Vicente Jr. Banaag, CC, CL (from Scope Toastmasters Club) played this role, for meeting #351 it was one of our newly joined member, CS Quah. Everyone enjoy this session. Sometimes, in the beginning of a meeting, we have invocation presentation to charge a meeting with enthusiasm. Recently we had a young member in our recent meeting #351 Fung Jiun to play this role.

In toastmaster meetings we usually have prepared speeches either from Competent communication manual or Advance communication manual.  A toastmasters first speech is Ice breaker speech, during this period we had C. S. Quah. His speech title was “My journey in life". He shared much of their life. It was interesting because it helps the club members to know the new member better at the same time it is easy for a first time speaker to speak. Usually at the end of the first speech we gave a standing ovation at the end of his speech. This is to appreciate their effort and to honor them for taking the challenge.



Our Advance speeches in meeting #350  was delivered by Kelvin Chong, CC. Kelvin’s speech was a dramatic talk. His speech title was "Secrets of Winning Sales". Kelvin dramatized the speech showing 4 different types of sales people. He illustrated why a certain sales man can beat others with a better sales because he able to understand the customer needs better. As Kelvin always display a humorous outlook he kept the audience in stitches. 

In the meeting #350, we have a speech on leadership excellence series, our speaker EK Yeo, CC, CL talked about the goal setting and planning. This session was not only interesting but also filled with laud. KL Loh, ATMG, gave a weight comment as he witnessed EK's growth and hardwork. "EK, you have improved a lot and you speak more confident now!"
In #351 meeting, Ji Sheng talked about how the technology changed our life. Instead of we master the technologies, the technologies master us. Cheng Seng San gave his 7th speech on "Air pollution in Malaysia". This was a topic he did some research as was required by the speech objective. He displayed on the screen on the air pollution index in Malaysia and its harmful effects. He also shared on the precaution we can take. This is a very informative speech.  Talking about persuasive speech, our member Sharian Raj gave his 9th speech on Persuade with Power. He had a unique title "Abibliophobia".  The title of his speech looked a bit unique. The meaning of the title Sharian explained is the fear of running out of reading materials. It was a persuasive speech that challenged the audience into reading.

 
In this meeting #351, I saw different things. I saw how the new members completed the given new tasks. I saw Ji Sheng return to give his speech. I saw SS Cheng improved from mumbling and spoke loud now. I believe someday, he will turn out to be a confident speaker. I saw our new member Sharian spoke confidently in a new environment. I saw how the members astounded themselves in the meeting. I was bowled over by their fighting spirit. They might not know, they were not the same from the first day when they joined toastmaster. 

Meeting #352 was another great meeting. We had Ooi Yee who gave her 2nd Speech, she spoke a speech title,  "Air Fryer or Dishwasher". In her speech, she actually gave so much information on automatic dish washer that attracted most listeners to purchase one. In fact she challenged the men to buy for their wives. It was a good attempt for a second time speaker. Indirectly she was trying a persuasive speech. Chee Heng King, on the other hand, gave his 8th ppeech, the objective of this speech was to use Visual aids comfortable. He spoke on the title Stone and sand. He therefore brought sand and stone as the objects of his speech. He linked it with attitudes of people. How a person who is not firm in what he says is like the sand that blows away his credibility if he is not firm in what he believes. He demonstrated by blowing the sand. It was a good speech as all the photographers in the meeting missed to snap photos while he spoke. The advance speech was done by Ken Chan, DTM. He attempted his specialty speeches, on impromptu speaking. He was given a barrel of questions, to which he attempted very well. 


As we always say in toastmasters, evaluation is the breakfast of champions, so it is a must to have evaluation led by our General Evaluator. Usually General evaluators are from other clubs, The general evaluators were  Rubeinthiran, ACB, ALB  for meeting #350, Jocelyn Lim, ACB, ALB for meeting #351, and for meeting #352 we decided to have our own member Kelvin Chong, CC.

The evaluators for this period were all very experienced people whose evaluation is the reason we see much improvement in our speakers. The evaluators were  Haji Hashim, DTM, Dr  Thilla Chelliah, ACG, ALB Julia Leong, ACB, ALB, Manish Kumar, Serena Kong, ALB and also our Area Director Srinivas, ACB, CL who happened to be present in one of the meetings.

All our 3 meetings held recently meeting 350, 351, 352 maybe different in the speeches, in the themes, in the word of the day, in the speakers and evaluators and even the General evaluators. However they all have the same uplifting spirit in its own unique way. We wish many will visit our club to experience a difference.   



Lots of Love,
Mathew Philippose, CC, CL
President 2015/2016




A Growing Experience

 

We had experienced a very exciting month in March and April. These were the months where few members challenged themselves to took part in our Area C1 and Division C International Speech and Table Topics Contests. It was once said, "you cannot create experience. You must undergo it."

Kevin Khoo, CC and Ken Chan, DTM had represented the club to compete in our area International Speech and Table Topics contests and successfully advanced to division level. The journey of competing in both contests and advanced to Division level required hard work, smart work, dedication and lots of speech rehearsals, which was very stressful. It was so grateful that the club members were very supportive and gave their opinions to Kevin's speech on both speech rehearsals time in the club meetings.

Issac Marion said, "Every experience, good or bad, is a priceless collector's item." In fact, we had witnessed the transformation in Kevin. Well done, Kevin!

Ken, on the other hand, is a season speaker. In fact his speech had electrified many in the contests. Not only that, he always writes notes upon listens to any presented speeches. This is how he grows, excels and shines.



Besides, Ron Yeap, CC was assigned as Areas C1 & C3 International Speech and Table Topics (3rd April 2016) Contest Chair. The process in organizing the contests for both areas was not easy. He met difficulties, he found solutions, he solved them. Ron, experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you.

Not only that, few of the club members, Sharian, Fung Jiun, Manish Kumar and I were helped on the areas joint contests too. We learned by doing, it was so proud to see the members contribute their time to make the contests ran smoothly.




 Areas C1 & C3 Joint International Speech & Table Topics Contests 


Experience is the teacher of all things- Julius Caesar

Kevin Khoo- 2nd Place, Ken Chan- 1st Place



Division C International Speech & Table Topics Contests




Ken Chan- 3rd Place

Like an aspiring club, it has been our clubs dream to deliver a District Champion and also International Champion. The club will do the best to support the member. We will learn together, grow together and shine together. 

"Friends helping friends to succeed."

Reported by,
Mathew Philippose, CC, CL
President 2015/2016





Toastmaster Meeting #349





The MM TM Club Meeting #349 held on Tuesday 8th March 2016 was well attended with members and guests who willing played several roles. The GE was Lee Chiew Ling (ABC ALB),
President of Klang Bilingual TM Club.


It was a power packed excellent meeting with lots of fun and humour and a good learning experience. The theme of the meeting related to the current International Women's Day - 'Tribute to Women'. Everyone in their introduction paid tribute to their mother, spouse and daughters. It was indeed touching the way appreciation and gratitude was expressed.



Kudus to the Table Topic Master who cleverly prepared the topics to jive with the theme of the evening. There were six participants, mostly men who enjoyed their presentations.


They are:

A) Yap Ooi Yee
B) Manish Kumar
C) Wendy
D) Edwin
E) KL Loh
F) Kelvin Chong

There were five prepared speeches 2CC#6, 1CC#7,1CC#9, 1Advance Comm.Manual. They were well prepared and professionally presented with excellent evaluation. It was a good learning experience for all present.





The evening ended with good Nasi Lemak and a Cake cutting for all the March babies.








Your reporter,
Dr. Thilla Chelliah, ACS,ALB