Moving On With The Pandemic Era

 

27.07.2021 Meeting #491: Vision Without Action. Action Without Vision

We have now moved into the month of August and we already had two exciting meeting.  So far after the club has begun the term, we had completed 3 meetings.  On the 27^th July, we had a theme: Vision without Action, Action without Vision.   The invocation speech was given by Ken Chan, DTM inspiring us to have a vision.  This was followed by our Table Topics^® Master Serena Kong, ACB, CL leading us in an interesting session of impromptu speeches.  One of the highlights of the table topics was when her toastmaster husband was asked a question “what you could do if you forget your wedding anniversary?”. Although he was shocked by the question, he had the skill of confidently handling the topic by starting with an apology.  

Table topics was followed by Mathew giving his prepared speech entitled, with his story “Curiosity Kills The Cat”, We also had Chloe Lau, attempting a speech handling a difficult audience. In her speech, she had the task of handling audience who had been planned to interrupt her thru questions and other distracting challenges.  Chloe displayed her skill of handling the difficult audience and continue her speech. The finale of the speeches was Julia Leong, DTM on “My Amazing Journey”.  As usual after the speeches, we had evaluators giving evaluation on the speeches.  After each session we do take a vote, for the Best Speaker and Best Evaluator.  The Best Speaker was Julia Leong, DTM and the Best Evaluator was CP Lau, DTM.  Our General evaluator was another outstanding person who is the Division A Director, Rama Chendra, DTM who gave the evaluation of the club meeting towards the end of the meeting.

Our meeting on 3^rd August, we had had another prominent General Evaluator was Division E Director, Rathippriyah Balsan DTM. Our Club had experienced many good General evaluators whose evaluation were nuggets valuable advice to lead us on.    On this day, Toastmaster CS Ong gave a captivating innovating speech, entitled  “pursue the heart”.  

This was followed by Julia Leong, DTM who took over as a Table topics^® master. She had string topics for impromptu speeches.  Table topics is an eye opener to attempt speaking in front of the audience.  When the Table topics^® master gives a topic, the participant will be given two minutes to speak.  This session helps the participant to get the confidence to speak before a small crowd. 

Under the prepared speech session, we had Toastmaster Abdul Rahman who gave an icebreaker speech “From West To East”.  An icebreaker speech is the first speech when you begin a speech series in our pathway program.  At the end of the speech, we gave him a standing ovation.  Julia Leong, DTM who did a research on “ikigai” a Japanese word that leads us to understand the Japanese concept to improve work and life. This was followed by CP Lau, DTM giving  Visionary Pathway Project Speech on the topic  “Understanding My Life Style”.  He shared how in different times of his life he had different leadership styles. The evaluators Vijaykumar, Hj Hashim DTM and Ron Yeap DTM gave a resounding evaluation.

Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters club has been in existence for almost twenty years and we have been able to produce many excellent speakers who were able to represent our club for speech contest from area, division to district level. We are also able to develop leaders as directors in area, division, and district level.  It is to the club credit that one of our members was the Past International President Datuk Dr.John Lau, DTM.  We look forward to seeing more new members to join our club to and be the best communicators and leaders of tomorrow.      

 

03.08.2021 Meeting #492: Breaking The Pandermic

 Blog Writer: Mathew Philippose

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2021/2022

13.07.2021 Meeting # 490- A Journey Of Thousand Miles Begin With A Single Step

Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters club had started its new term in July 2021. The first meeting of the club began with the installation of its office bearers on 13th July. This year the club installation had the presence of the District Director KM Srinivas, DTM, Division Director Foong Sook Hwa, DTM and the Area Director Peter Tham, ACS, CL. The club installation was carried out by Division Director Sook Hwa, DTM. This term following are the office bearers of the club; 

President : Cetani Chen, DTM 

Vice President Education : Abdulrahman Al-Azazi, PM3 

Vice President Membership : Chloe Lau, PM3 

Vice President Public Relations : Mathew Philippose, PM2 

Secretary : EK Yeo, CC, CL 

Treasurer : Serena Kong, ACB, CL 

Sergeant At Arms : Jinn Shyan Won, PM1 

After the installations the club continued the meeting with a motivating invocation speech by the Area Director, Peter Tham, ACS, CL. This being the first meeting of term, we had something different we had a series of quiz using the online gaming called mentimeter. Thanks to our veteran member CP Lau, DTM. This meeting had three prepared speeches and followed by three excellent evaluations. 

Kudos! Kudos! Kudos! We congratulate the following club members for their Pathways achievements:

The meeting was finally summed up be our District Director KM Srinivas, DTM who congratulated us for things we did right and what pointed out where we needed improvement.

Congratulate the best performers in the meeting:

A) Best Assigned Speech Evaluator:

B) Best Role Player:

Also, we also thanked our District Director, KM Srinivas, DTM, our Installation Officer, Division Director Sook Hwa, DTM and our Area Director, Peter Tham, ACS,CL to be with us on this special occasion.

Group Photo:

Blog Writer: Mathew Philippose, PM2

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2021/2022

08.12.2020 Meeting # 476- The Magic of Believing

Word of the day: Achieve

The power of the mind is amazing. We may not know it, but the energy released from the mind affects your life. It is as if the universe responds to your thoughts and gives you what you want. When we are assertive and determined to do something or achieve something our positivity ad affirmations will lead us to succeed in our quest. This is in quintessence what our dear President, Julia Leong, DTM expressed. The meeting began with a surprise for many of us in attendance when our President told us that earlier in the year she was diagnosed with a cancer. This was shocking! But through the positive mindset she created the faith that she will recover and obtain her DTM. Indeed, that is what she achieved. What she said can be used as material for an inspirational speech. We sometimes come across such challenges in life and at times of the magnitude that Julia went through. Well done, Julia! I will tell your story to my fellow Toastmasters in Mauritius next month.

The Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), Manish Jha, IP1, lead us through the meeting. One of the guests was from India and this was wonderful because it is interesting to have a foreign Toastmaster in attendance at a meeting. It goes to show that the internet connects us all.  I too attended an online meeting with Toastmasters from Mauritius, but there were Toastmasters from Indonesia, including an American who is resident there, Singapore and Malaysia. What I learnt from the Mauritian club was that they have fabulous newsletter with a lot of content.

Manish Jha, IP1, described the developments in Toastmasters International and its growth in membership.  Manish Jha, IP1, went on to describe what leadership is by relating it to two founding members of the club. Although this is often repeated, it is useful. It brings to the listener the opportunities that Toastmasters membership can bring to a member. A point to note is how Manish Jha was leading the meeting. His enthusiasm and energy were high and this is a sign of someone who is well into his activity.

The Table Topics^® session was conducted and apart from a technical issue experienced by one member the session went well. The TME always speaks about the benefit membership of Toastmasters can bring. This always alerts a potential member as to the storehouse of benefits that await in partaking of Pathways which is the innovative way in which members can choose to journey in their membership.  Haji Hashim’s table topics speech illuminated a fantastic point that we can follow. He said that he challenges himself during golf in order to find his errors and them correct them. This is a superb way to improve oneself. That you, Sir, for giving us this point.  Why not challenge yourself rather than challenge others?

The prepared speech saw four successful and accomplished speakers; Mathew Philippose, EC4, CP Lau, DTM, and Abdulrahman, PM2.

Mathew Philippose, EC4, gave a speech that demonstrated how to do an ice breaker speech.  The speech was an illustration of how ice-breakers are to be given. The ice-breaker is what introduces a new member to a club. I think that such speech should be recorded as part of training in giving speeches.

The next speaker was CP. Lau, DTM, which was speech based on apiece research has done. His speech could not have come at a better time. It was about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on personal savings. The impact of the pandemic is having a disastrous impact on income, expenditure and savings.  CP. Lau, DTM, you have demonstrated how to give a research-based speech. He also took a phrase from William Shakespeare- to be or not to be. How so very appropriate. Thank you, my friend.

The last speaker was AbduRahman, PM2. He gave a speech on the use of presentation apps for speeches. It dealt with how app developers can best deliver products. It was very informative and educational.

The GE later gave his views and it was followed by the other speech evaluators and award presentation. Indeed, we had a great night!

 

 Blog Writer: Vijaykumar, CC

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2020/2021

 

 

 

10.11.2020 Meeting # 474- Happy Deepavali

Word of the day: “JOY”

It was another session of Zoom meeting due to further extension of CMCO from 9^th November 2020 till 6^th December 2020 in line with the SOP imposed by MKN. Despite all the challenges, we still continue our club meeting via ZOOM without fail.

@7:19pm ASAA Abdulrahman, PM2 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.

@7:22pm: Our Club Mdm. President, Julia Leong, DTM took over the control of the meeting. In her welcome address, she greeted our distinguished club member – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP from Kuching, General Evaluator (GE), Samuel Selvaraju, DTM and also guest Oliver Ng, IP3. Then, she invited the Grammarian, Ron Yeap, ACG, ACB to introduce the word of the day “Joy”. She invited members and guests to do a self- introduction and encouraged them to use word of the day “Joy” and theme of the day “Happy Deepavali”. All the members and guests did well during the self- introduction session.

@7:41pm: The Toastmaster of The Evening (TME), KL Loh, ATMG 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 also shared with us the background of Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club, the legacy of late exemplary leaders Hj. Naburi and Francis Ng, DTM. Later he introduced the role players for this meeting in the sequence below.

 "Ah" Counter – Oliver Ng, IP3

Grammarian – Ron Yeap, ACG, ACB

Timer – EK Yeo  CC, CL

General Evaluator (GE)– Samuel Selvaraju, DTM

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

@7:58pm:  Table Topics® Master, Rey Thean, PM2 was invited and took over the control from the TME. She had prepared 9 topics related to theme of the day. Members and guests were encouraged to participate. She explained the objective of Table Topics® , the time limitation for each speaker and the rules before all the Table Topics® speeches. The purpose of the Table Topics® session is to develop the impromptu speaking skills which includes an opening, body and conclusion during the speech delivery.

The order of Table Topics® speakers were as below: -

1. Hj. Hashim, DTM - The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams

2. Wan Mohd (Guest)- Share with us a most memorable holiday experience

3. Chloe Lau - The darkness of the whole world cannot swallow the glowing of candle

4. Mathew Phillipose, EC4 -There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind

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

@8:13pm: The TME took over the session from the Table Topics® Master and proceeded with the assigned speeches from Pathways.

 

1^st Speaker – JS Won

Speech Title – “English in my life”

Speech Evaluator – Chloe

This was his 1^st project speech from Pathway: Leadership Development Level 1, Project 1: Ice breaker

He shared with us his journey in learning English and also the skill in select the best durian.      

2^nd speaker – Julia Leong, DTM

Speech Title – “Effective communication is the key to success”.

Speech Evaluator – Manish Jha, IP1

She was doing her speech from Pathways: Presentation Mastery Level 2: Project 1 – Understand your communication style.

She had demonstrated her confrontation how to resolve issue between management and staff with persuasive and effective communication.

3rd speaker – Mathew Philippose, EC4

Speech Title – “Leaders of tomorrow”.

Speech Evaluator – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM

He was doing his speech from Pathways: Effective Coaching Level 5: Project 3 – Prepare to speak professionally.

He shared with us his inspired, motivation speech regarding the challenges in pharmaceutical industry. He also highlighted the leader should demonstrated his leadership, have a vision and respect of each other.

 @9:03pm: Break for refreshments for 5 minutes.

 @9:08pm: Induction of new member JS Won by VPPR Ron Yeap, ACG, ACB

 @9:14pm: TME, KL Loh, ATMG invited the General Evaluator (GE), Samuel Selvaraju, DTM 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 four evaluators

Table Topics Evaluator –Vijay Kumar, CC

Speech Evaluators – Chloe Lau, Manish Jha,IP1 and Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM

Role players’ reports

      "Ah" Counter – Oliver Ng, IP3

-         Grammarian – Ron Yeap, ACG, ACB

-         Timer – EK Yeo, CC, CL

-       

@9:56pm: Club President Julia Leong, DTM was invited 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 – Hj. Hashim, DTM

Best Project Speech – Mathew Philippose, EC4

Token of appreciation to the GE – Samuel Selvaraju, DTM

 

Finally, Mdm. President, Julia Leong, DTM summarized the entire meeting. Guests shared their thoughts about our meeting for the night. The meeting was adjourned at 10:01pm

Blog Writer: EK Yeo, CC, CL

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2020/2021

27.10.2020 Meeting # 473- Stay Healthy, Stay Happy

T

oastmasters has been around for 96 years or so. This non-profit organisation has helped millions of people to discover their confidence as competent public speaker, communicator, and as a leader. The network of Toastmasters clubs worldwide is found in each country which facilitates the personal and professional development of people. It is a cost-effective way to enhance one’s talents that is latent or already manifested. It could be worthwhile to develop the skills in toastmasters, rather than pay thousands of dollars on costly training programs which may often run for a few days.  So being a member one can have the fun of learning and boot their talent at the same time.

The meeting was heralded by the Toastmaster of the Evening, KL Loh, ATMG, who showed slides which described the history of Toastmasters and about our club. The highlight of the meeting for me was that it was my first time to see photographs of the Founder President, the late Hj. Naburi Idin, ACB, CL, and the son of the club, late Francis Ng, DTM. KL Loh, ATMG, paid a moving tribute to these two persevering and capable gentlemen who made Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters club a strong club.

The Table Topics® session was called and four speakers gave their timed speeches. Table Topics are impromptu speeches and they were Harpeet Kaur, Elysia Teh, Guest Bharat and myself. The purpose of the Table Topics® section is to help members think on their feet and speak on a given subject for between one and two minutes. It also allows speaking opportunities for those who are not programmed for other roles on the agenda.

            The project speakers featured three zealous and eloquent speakers and there was much to be learnt from their presentation style and content. Pathways has several paths that are useful for the working world. We should bear in mind that while presentation is what Toastmasters was there for originally but with the introduction of Pathways, we can see the directions given on a platter of choices that one can use in the world of work. They require a speaker to present well in speaking but also to present proper appropriate and correct content which educates. A speaker can be eloquent and expressive as an orator, but the content is what people are going to hear. Presentation is the wrapper and content is the confection. It is the confection that people want.

            The first speaker was Mathew Philippose. EC4. He gave a speech which had an interesting title. It pricked the ears. But the message or content which he conveyed was the importance on must show in customer service and salesmanship. Without smiling, being enthusiastic and excited about your clients, it is difficult to sell your products to them. Excellent work, Mathew!

The second speaker was Abdulrahman, PM2 who spoke using visual aids to describe the message of his speech. Acting out your speech is important in delivering your message and he demonstrated a way to it as appropriate to the nature of his speech. Abdulrahman, PM2 used a lot of vocal variety and body movement to illustrate the message. Well done Abdulrahman!

The third speaker was Elysia Teh, DTM, a certified professional coach. She gave her speech about her expertise about interviews. The presentation was a marvel and she demonstrated her professionalism as a coach through her speech. The speech was done with participation by Ron Yeap, ACG, ALB. It was done in the style of an interview. Now this is new to me. I do not think that many of us have seen this style of speech. Splendid work, Elysia Teh!

            The meeting rounded off with evaluation of the Table Topics® session and prepared speeches. In every meeting, we appreciate the best performers:

i)      Best Table Topics Speech: Elysia Teh, DTM

ii)     Best Project Speech: Mathew Philippose, EC4

iii)    Best Assigned Speech Evaluation: Hj Hashim Adnan, DTM

            Overall, it was an educational experience and informative. I am very glad to have seen the presentation styles of the prepared speeches.

           

Blog Writer: Vijaykumar, CC

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2020/2021

13.10.2020 Meeting # 472- 2020-2020 Club Humorous and Evaluation Contests

Blog Writer: Chloe Lau

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2020/2021

 

22.09.2020 Meeting # 470- Do What Matters Now

It was 4^th Tuesday of the month 22 September 2020, members and guests supposed to get online on or before 7 or 7:15 pm. I was rushing from office as I planned to take all the measures proactively to attend meeting on time because it really matters how we plan. So, Tonight I was playing a role of TME and honestly speaking I was partially prepared. So sorry hehe.

Oh Gosh, I reached home by 6:50 pm finally. I smiled and turned on my laptop to get ready before 7. There I was, many members waiting for me to get in, greeted good evening and I kept working behind the chat room on my preparation till ASAA call for the meeting.

Meeting started at 7:15pm as usual on time without any delay by ASAA, the charming Rey Thean PM2. She recited the Toastmasters promises and reminded us our oath being a Toastmaster. She also made sure we are all set to begin with and gracefully passed the floor to our Mdm. President Julia Leong, DTM. Julia is our president who is positive and encouraging to all. She opens the floor and asked all of us to share what really matters or mattered in your life in our introduction. This is something that, you can’t find it in all the clubs where each member and guest are invited to introduce themselves and use WOD and Theme of the day in their intro. It also helps us to practice to use WOD in our learning journey.

It was about 7:40pm, my name was called out, ‘now I like to pass the floor to our Toastmaster of the Evening Manish Jha.’ My ears rose to take command. As a TME, I am obligated to run the meeting from beginning until end. I first briefed the guest about the history of Toastmasters International and our club, so they can see the benefits Toastmasters membership offers. Moving on first session was prepared by Julia Leong, DTM as Table Topics® Master. Julia prepared all the interesting topics and we had 4 brave challengers accepted this nerve racking challenge to speak in Table Topics®. Table Topics® is the one that teaches us how to think on our own feet and speak effectively within two minutes. It allows us to craft a mini speech on the spot with interesting opening, examples and a take home message. That’s why it is challenging. Trust all four- Aizat, Emran, CS Ong and Myself(Manish Jha) really had a great time sharing experiences and personal stories.

It was then when our dedicated Timer announced times up for Table Topics® and I then commenced for prepared project speech session. This evening, we were fortunate to have 3 brilliant speakers. Abdul Rahman, PM2 was the first speaker – He was doing his speech from Toastmasters educating program path Presentation Mastery, level 3, project 1 – His speech was about to deliver a well organised social speech. Rahman made setup of social event and talked about how Toastmasters in MM-KL has helped him in his speaking journey. He actually praised his fellow Toastmasters for contributing in his life. The speech was fun and inspiring. He made us feel touched. Trust me, he has improved tremendously. You are on the right track buddy, keep it up!

Our second speaker Rey Thean, PM2 was very humorous. She was also attempting her speech from Presentation Mastery path, Level 3. Speech objective was to know your Humour. She actually made us laugh all the way from her experience about food delivery services. She started with her first experience when she was hungry scrolling through Facebook and an ad pop up “Crave it and Grab it” . Hahaha... We all got connected in her speech. She gave her Asian mindset, how it triggered her calculative thoughts when she wanted to order doughnuts for RM2, and she had to pay RM5 for delivery charges... hahaha, it was rather right, and I could not disagree. She took a turn and calculated how could she spent her RM5 wisely; how her mum nagged her on the money spent. It was completely entertaining speech. Those who missed it had missed so much entertainment.

Finally our speaker 3 is Mathew Philippose,EC3. He attempted the path of Effective Coaching, Level -4. His speech objective was to handle difficult audience. He was sharing the comparison between online meeting and physical meeting. There were some interrupters, chatterers, arguers planted prior to the speech to ask any type of difficult questions to the speaker, to see how they are handled effectively. It’s not easy to handle when you are presenting your prepared speech and questions are coming spontaneously from all the sides. Let me tell you Mathew did excellent not just by answering all the questions, also completed what he wanted to tell the audience within time. This ability takes time to develop and master. That’s how Toastmasters education program is designed to train you to  speak even with difficult audiences.

It was time to break for 5 minutes before we continue the evaluation session. Our General Evaluator of the evening was NK Valli, DTM from MIMPJ Toastmasters club. She is a member of Toastmaster for the last 25 years. She came back after a break and I handed over the control to her to conduct the hallmark of the meeting which is the Evaluation Session. She started by briefing what is evaluation for the benefits to the guests. The first evaluation was began with Table Topics® Evaluation by our ATMG, KL Loh. He got shine one for his detailed evaluations for all four Table Topics speakers. He clearly highlighted speaker’s strength and recommended what can be improved with justification. Next, it was time to hear evaluation from Toastmasters CP Lau, DTM, Chitirra, LD1 and Tn. Hj. Hashim, DTM. Our awesome evaluators did pretty good job. They listened the speech, highlighted the speaker's strength, suggested the change on their deliveries.

Finally it was time to appreciate best performers of the evening. Unfortunately due to one speaker got time disqualification so we couldn’t vote for the best speech. However, we voted for the best Table Topics® Speaker and Best Speech Evaluator- I was surprised until my eye popped out when I saw my name as the Best Table Topics® Speaker which was rarely happened because our club got many good speakers. The Best Evaluator went to the unbeatable Tn. Hj. Hashim, DTM. With all this fun and joy, we finally finished our meeting at a high note. Mdm President expressed appreciation to everyone and concluded the meeting with our memorable group picture.

 

Blog Writer: Manish Jha, IP1

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2020/2021