Valentine’s Day

The 374^th meeting of MM-KL held for a lovely date night on Valentine’s Day was themed after the occasion with the word of the day “Enchant”. All the singles without a date that night and all the veterans with their dates at home came to celebrate the night.

After a mini feast, the meeting begun at 7.15pm with Foo Fung Jiun leading the session as the Assistant SAA.
Upon introducing the house rules and reciting the Toastmasters’ Promise he passed the floor to our Club President Ron Yeap, CC. The president greeted us with his warm smile and opening address related with the theme of the day. It was today that most of us learnt that Valentine’s Day was celebrated to commemorate the passing of a Roman pastor St. Valentine who used to match make soldiers who were forbidden to fall in love. His Cupid act is celebrated worldwide with flowers, chocolates but most importantly love itself. 

Then, the president allowed the Grammarian, Dr. Thilla, DTM, to introduce the word of the day “Enchant” which means to attract or bewitch. After she did so, everyone introduced themselves, talked about Valentine using the word of the day.

Alas, the floor was passed on to Manish Jha, CC our Toastmaster of the Evening, who led the session through much calm and composure. He spoke the History of  the Toastmasters and even included extra statistics in the meeting. Did you know that in the past women were not allowed to join Toastmasters and now there are more women than men in the Toastmasters movement? Interesting.

He then introduced the respective role players for the night. Dr. Thilla, DTM was the Grammarian, Chitirra was the Ah Counter, Serena Kong, ACB was the timer and our General Evaluator for the night was Ms. Anita Wong, CTM, CL.

Upon that, Yap Ooi Yee took the stage as the Table Topics™ Master. She was packed with an array of topics related to Valentine’s Day of course and that night.

 All the guests participated together with one of our good standing members, Vijay Kumar CC. These were the appetizers for our Valentine’s date tonight. Vijay expressed his teenage love story with poise, while Shain Anand, Halen, Shin and Mike all spoke with much confidence being the first timers. The winner however was Shin for she added much humour into her speech. Congrats, Shin!!!

It was 8.00pm and while most lovers would have had their dinners served about that time, we however were served with a variety of project speeches. 2 main courses tonight and on the menu we had “Be Prepared” well prepared by Mr. Mathew P. CC, ALB and a colorfully presented “Photo Memory” by Ms. Wendy Sim. Boy was the meal delicious. Mr. Mathew skilfully thought us how to change our car tyer and how to always be prepared for a flat tyer. 

Wendy on the other hand spoke about how she stores memories the old-school manner by making cute little photo books. Something we used to do in the 20th century. However, it was a great idea to save our precious memory.

Being prepared may not get you the 100% result in a situation, but this will definitely will give you the best sense of doing better at times - Mathew Philippose CC ALB.

Photo is a memory and memory is always precious. Preserve it, better to be more happy, in life called Photo Memory - by Wendy Sim.

It was break time and we got a 10-minutes special break where we cut a cake for our beloved CP Lau. It was all fun and interaction until our punctual Timer hit the bell and called us back for the Breakfast session. 

But we just had dinner? What’s this breakfast about? The evaluation sessions in Toastmasters is known as the Breakfast for Kings as breakfast is the most important meal of our day full of nutrition. The evaluation sessions give speakers an idea on their performance and how they can make better to themselves.

Ms. Anita Wong, CTM, CL conducted the session with much spirit. She is such a kindred spirit. Mr. Kelvin Chong, ACB carried out the evaluation for all the Table Topic speakers using the Sandwich Method. Later on Mr. Tan Ben Hoe, CTM, CL gave a good feedback to Mr. Mathew, CC, ALB while Mr. KL Loh, ATMG, shared his best feedback for Ms. Wendy Sim, how to bring this speech to next level.

Finally, dessert was served at 9.15pm when our President presented the Best Table Topics award to Ms. Shin our guest and the award of appreciation to our pretty General Evaluator Ms. Anita Wong. He made a couple of announcements and the meeting were adjourned early today as we had a special AGM to right after the regular meeting.

Sweets were served together with love and indeed this was one of the best Valentine’s I’ve had. Atleast, I could say I wasn’t alone on Valentine’s and hey, what better way to celebrate any day than to have a lovely, joyous Toastmasters meeting. 

See you again all of you in our next meeting on 28th of Feb !!!

Sincerely, 

Thanks to the Team,

Manish Jha, CC

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

Vice President Public Relations 2016/2017

P/S: 

Thank you so much "Chitirra" writing this wonderful piece. I also thank the whole team including editor, reviewer and critics to provide your sincere support and feedback to keep up the good work.