With the name Jam Factory Restaurant in Puchong set as a destination in my Waze, I started my journey to attend the club’s 15th anniversary cum club officer installation ceremony. When I entered the restaurant, I was escorted to the meeting hall by a gracious staff to the room in which ceremony was supposed to take place. There I saw the Immediate Past President Ron Yeap ACB, Past President Serena Kong ACB and Immediate Past VPPR Manish Jha CC setting up the room’s ambience by decorating the room and giving it a charismatic touch.
After signing up in the
attendance register, I was presented with a photo album comprising of moments
which took me to the past years of Money Mastery KL. The photo album depicted a
legacy and a timeline of how this club became such a successful club in the
Klang Valley.
Slowly other members and other
distinguished guests started arriving. By
7:30 PM I occupied a chair with other guests. EK Yeo CC CL, who was the SAA of the evening,
called the ceremony to order and handed the control to our charming Toastmaster
of the Evening Kevin Khoo CC, who kick started the evening by handing over the
stage to the Invocation speaker Ken Chan DTM. When I heard his name first, the
first this came to my mind was Acronym.
And I was spot on. He inspired us about
the 4Ls – Learn, Lead, Lend & Love. Oh boy! A perfect invocation speech for
an inspiring night.
The ambience was set for the
evening. I could hear a light background music being played in the restaurant
downstairs which had a soothing effect on the atmosphere. Next, Ron Yeap ACB
was in front of the audience for the welcome address, a speech which reflected
the Immediate Past President’s hospitality for the guests, gratitude to the
previous EXCO’s and the greetings to the new EXCO’s. After that, the Area
Director Lai Yoong Hean, ACB, ALB was given the stage for his opening address.
Then we moved on to the
appreciation session. First, the club expressed its gratitude to the sponsor of
the event Circle International Holdings Limited. Then the club officers of the
term 2016/17 were appreciated. Finally, the achievers of the previous term were
appreciated.
Competent
Communicator: Ron Yeap, Wendy Sim, Chang Seng San, Mathew Philippose & Ken
Chan
Advanced Leader
Bronze: Mathew Philippose
Advanced Communicator
Bronze: Ron Yeap, Kelvin Chong
Advanced Leader
Silver: Dr. Thilla
Distinguished
Toastmaster: Dr. Thilla
Finally, the most awaited moments
of the night has arrived, the installation ceremony. Distinguished Toastmaster Lakhmichand
was the Installing Officer. He started the ceremony with discharging the
previous term officers. Then he called the new officers to the stage and
one-by-one they were asked to come to the front to take the oath for their
respective positions by holding the gavel in the left hand and putting the
right hand up with the palm facing the audience. It was an exhilarating
experience for everyone sitting there. After the officer’s oath, the members of
the club were asked to take the oath to support the new officers for the new
term. Then, the Toastmaster Officer’s pins were given to the new officers.
The session ended with the new
President Wendy Sim’s Presidential address in which she highlighted her visions
for the club and how she and her team are going to achieve that.
Up next, buffet time. I was
literally famished after that session. I turned around and saw an array of
delicious looking dishes being put on the table. To be honest, the food was more
delicious than it looked.
After the dinner, it was time for
the game session “Fun & Joy” hosted by Manish Jha CC. The game was really
exciting. We played two games:
Game
1: Taboo- A word guessing game in
which a representative of the team has to tell something except that particular
word and his/her team will guess the exact word which he was trying to convey.
Game 2: Calling friend- It was designed to make our brain attentive and sharp. In this game we call a friend’s name by looking at them and pointing finger to a different person. The participant was eliminated if they did not call out a name within 2 seconds or pointed and looked at the same person thereby calling their name. Both the games were interesting and educational in their own terms. I was happy was that I was one among the three persons standing until the end of the game.
Next was the entertaining speech
session by our entertaining speaker Geoff Andrew DTM, who entertained us by
taking us back to the days when Money Mastery KL TM club was being formed. For
a newbie like it was exciting to hear the story of my club in such an
entertaining manner. Following that, the ex-District Director Thiagarajah Nesan
was given the air time in which he appreciated the contributions of the club.
The next session was to
appreciate the role players for the event, followed by the Award to Best
performers of 2016/17. Chitirra Amirthalingam was awarded the Outstanding
Enthusiasm Award for her enthusiastic approach towards the club. Manish Jha CC
was presented with the Outstanding Service & Leadership Award for his
commitment and service for the club. And finally Ken Chan DTM was awarded the
Toastmaster of the Year award.
At the end of this session, I saw
a charming lady from the restaurant bringing a delicious looking cake to the
stage. Yes, it was the cake which was about to be cut to mark the 15th
anniversary of Money mastery KL Toastmasters club. Everybody posed for a group photo and the
finally the cake was cut for my relief.
That was it. That fantastic night had came to an end. The event filled my heart and the dishes filled my stomach, and the last bite of the cake did the finishing touch. Everybody left the venue putting their beliefs in the new club officers, so did the new Excos. I arrived at Jam Factory with empty hands and going back with the responsibility of VPPR on the one hand and penning down this blog on the other and hope in our new team of Excos to take this club to the next .
Like Andy Dufresne said to Red:
"Hope is a good thing, may be the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."
My appreciation to everyone for making this event a grand success. Full photos for the event can be viewed here and here. We will soon see some more thoughts and descriptive writings in the meetings to come for the new term.
Looking forward for members' writings.
From,
Shain Anand
Role Players
Organizing Chair: Ron Yeap, ACB
Installation Officer: Lakhmichand, DTM
TME: Kevin Khoo, CC
Invocation Speaker: Ken Chan, DTM
“The Entertaining Speaker”: Geoff Andrew, DTM
Game Master: Manish Jha, CC
Sergeant-at-arms:
1) EK Yep, CC, CL
2) Lee Li Eng
3) Joel Silas
Timer: Serena Kong, ACB
Photographer: Chitirra
Blog Writer: Shain Anand
Credits: Reviewer Mather Philippose CC ALB
Special mention to Serena Kong & Ron Yeap for selecting this beautiful venue for the event.
No comments:
Post a Comment