Meeting #395 Bound to be

Expect the unexpected, 
Hope in the darkest of times. 
For if your faith is restricted, 
Then you living, is a crime. 

Come what may,
Have no fright.
For if you pray,
He will show you the light.

And so it goes,
Somethings are bound to be.
Just let it flow,
And you shall receive serendipity.

It was a vague but heartwarming theme and today we had with us a new member taking up her very first role as the Sergeant-At-Arms. Crystal Chen, was bold enough to take up this role and striking the gavel once, called the meeting to order on time. After introducing the house rules and leading us through the Toastmaster’s Promise she passed the floor to the Acting President, Chitirra, to give the welcome address. 

Grammarian, Srikant, enlightened everyone with the word of the day which was “serendipity”. It means the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way or simply good fortune or luck. Something you’re quite likely to find here at Toastmasters. Srikant was articulate and professional. 

Each member and guest of the floor shared their thoughts about what ‘Bound to Be’ meant to them and were very comfortable in using the word of the day as they spoke. 

To shift the ambience of the meeting into one that was bound to be inspiring, Toastmaster Shain Anand shared a fabulous Japanese tale in his invocation speech on how what’s bound to be is merely a destiny that is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice. You need no ‘Liquid Luck’ to succeed in life. You create your own serendipity. 

The meeting proper thus begin when the ever ready Toastmaster of the Evening, E K Yeo, CC, CL too control of the floor. He brought us through the history of Toastmasters, where a single meeting that began in the basement of a church in Santa Ana, California was bound to be global. 

Following, the respective role players introduced the purpose of their roles. Shain Anand played dual roles today by also being the Ah-Counter. Srikant and Shelly Sim respectively were the Grammarian and Timer for the first time.  

We were blessed today to have with us a very humble individual as our General Evaluator and she was none other than Nurhayati Hassan, ACB, ALB. 

Alas the battle of being impromptu begin as the Table Topics® session was led by Manish Jha, CC. His questions were short and simple and members and guests stood up to the challenge vivaciously despite not knowing what they were bound to get. 

Table Topics Participants:

1) Yap Ooi Yee
2) KT
3) Kelvin Chong ACB
4) Crystal Chen
5) Jia Ming

We then transitioned smoothly into the Assigned Speech Session and we had with us tonight 3 speakers ready to serve a feast. The first speaker was C P Lau, attempting the Specialty Speeches Series from the Advanced Communication Manual. His purpose was to uplift the spirit of the audience with his title ‘To Repeat to Progress’. Indeed he reiterated in his unique style that practice makes perfect. 

The second speaker was Olivia with her very first speech under Pathways and in MMKL. Under her pathway of Presentation Mastery, she delivered her ice breaker entitled “Olivia from KL to KL”. 

We learnt her inside out and indeed she’s bound to be a great speaker. 

The final speaker was Chitirra who delivering her Pathways: Project 2 for the second time in an attempt to meet the requirements of the improvements from the evaluation that was given to her during her first speech. There was indeed vast improvement but there was also an equally sized room for it in her speech ‘Thanatophobia’. 

Three’s a charm and once the three speeches were completed, a charming new Toastmaster, Crystal, was inducted into the club by the VPM, Yap Ooi Yee. There was jubilation in the air as she raised her hand into it to give Hi-5s to each member of the club. Welcome aboard the Money-Mastery KL TMC family dear Crystal and may you sparkle as your name sounds, in this Toastmaster journey of yours. 

A brief break was given and we proceeded for the bigger breakfast afterward which was the Evaluation and Reports Session. The panel of evaluators for both, the Table Topics® and the Assigned Speeches gave their best and honest opinions to the respective speakers. Members from the floor too gave their views to the speakers during the Open Evaluation Session. Well, that’s what friends are for isn’t it?  

The string of reports were then shared respectively by the Ah-Counter, Grammarian and finally Timer. 

Panel of Evaluators: (Speakers evaluated are in the brackets)

1. Ron Yeap, ACB, CL (C P Lau, ACB, ALB)
2. Ben Hoe, CTM, CL (Olivia Chen)
3. C P Lau, ACB, ALB (Chitirra)

All things are bound to come to an end, and so as the meeting drew closer to its end, the awards were given to the winners who deserved it for they earned it not through sweet serendipity but instead solid hard work. 

Winners for The Night:

Best Table Topics® : Jia Ming
Best Evaluation: Ron Yeap, ACB, CL
Best Speaker: C P Lau, ACB, ALB

The Acting President, Chitirra took stage once again to recognize the club’s effort in achieving President’s Distinguished Club status for the 1st Term of 2016/2017 and Immediate Past President, Ron Yeap, ACB, CL received the award in front of the members of the club once again as he had originally received in the ‘Hall Of Fame’ ceremony held on the 12th of Nov 2017 by District 102. 

After a small token was given to the GE, announcements were made and the closing address was delivered, the gavel was hit once again leaving everyone curious as to what was bound to be in the next meeting. A group photo was taken and the November babies of the club were celebrated with our routine cake cutting session. 

Indeed it was a blessed meeting. Changes came along the way but every member helped to embrace it vigour for sometimes what is bound to be is merely the outcome of our actions. Nevertheless, forget not the quote by Aristotle that if something's bound to happen, it will happen. Right time, right person, and for the best reason. With that, I wish you the best serendipities in life. Until next time, goodbye!

November Babies

 Blog Writer: Chitirra

Meeting #394 Halloween: Trick or Treat

If you really want to enjoy this blog, then wear your Halloween costume once again, to join this voyage through Money Mastery KL's 394th meeting. On the 31st of October 2017, we turned to page 394 of Money Mastery KL's meeting book. The page unleashed the Halloween Genie. The Genie had both tricks and treats under its sleeves. Voila. The Genie granted the meeting with a spooky ambience. Members arrived in Halloween costumes of all sorts, ranging from Wednesday Addams to the so called Toilet Paper ghost.

The Assistant Sergeant At Arms for the evening Olivia Chow, who was taking up the role for the first time, called the meeting to order followed by reciting the Toastmaster's promise.

Madam President Wendy Sim, CC, in her pumpkin orange coloured attire, welcomed everyone present there and invited the Grammarian Manish Jha, CC, with the Ghost Rider mask, to introduce the word "Aghast" which means amazement or horror. The entire club was aghast when they saw Manish in his mask. Afterwards, the control was passed over to the Snake Oil Salesman a.k.a Toastmaster of the Evening Ron Yeap, ACB ALB. With his big Moustache and the top hat, he took over the charge. Not only he nailed the attire, Ron maintained a bulky voice throughout the meeting giving a uncanny aura to the meeting as a whole

As it was a speech marathon, no Table Topics® Session was conducted. The Snake Oil Salesman spilt the snake oil on the audience and we were teleported to the Assigned speech session. We can see 6 speakers souls, waiting for their turn to  let go their fear of public speaking.

1. The first among them was Joel Silas who can be called as the Toilet Phantom because he made himself a phantom out of the toilet paper. Quite innovative. He was delivering his 8th speech from the CC manual with the speech titled "Wanderlust". The speech was about his tour to Europe which he presented with the help of photos. As usual, Joel's humorous conversational style made the speech entertaining.

2. Second soul was Ken Chan DTM who was doing the Ice Breaker speech for the 9th time with the title "Ken, He Can". Only one word about his speech: awe-inspiring.

3. Time for our third soul, CP Lau, ACB, ALB. He was delivering the speech from the Advanced Communication - Speciality Speeches Series Manual.His evaluator was given the option to select his speech title from a list of 5 speech titles.  His speech title was "Progress is More Important Than Perfection". Cool as you like, the maestro delivered the speech with perfection.

4. After those seasoned speakers, it was the turn of one of the newest souls of Money Mastery KL, Shelly Sim going to kick-start her Toastmasters journey. "Who is Shelly?" Those were the words reverberating among us when she came to the dais. She took us on a short trip about her life. Even though it was her first speech she delivered it like a pro with less fear and full of confidence. At the end of her speech, we were able to say She is Shelly. She was also given a standing ovation for delivering her first speech.

5. Have you ever heard of the word Thanatophobia? Well, we also didn't know about the word until our fifth soul Chitirra started her speech. Ooh la la! Her speech had the closest resemblance with the theme of the day. She was doing her Pathways Level 1 Project 2 speech titled "Thanatophobia". Her unhurried style of speech delivery gave the meeting a frightening.

6. Last but not the least, Srikant was the final soul who delivered his Pathways Level 1 Project 2 speech titled "Adventures in Cambodia". He shared about his experiences in Cambodia which was no less than an adventure filled with excitement and amazement for him.

Abracadabra. That was the perfect speech session for a Halloween night. The credit goes to those 6 souls who challenged themselves on the Halloween night. We voted for the Best Speaker. It was time for a short break. But this time, the magic was on the refreshments. We had the refreshments which were based on the Halloween theme, thanks to Madam President Wendy. Thank God, we didn't need the Halloween Genie for that. Else the Genie would have been annoyed by our requests.

After the break session, General Evaluator Ching Lee Hwa, ACB, ALB was handed over the stage to walk us through the Evaluation session. She invited the Speech Evaluators to give their evaluation. Each evaluator gave their best evaluation for their respective speakers. After each evaluation, the GE gave her personal evaluation to the speakers which was indeed a bonus lesson for the speakers.

The panel of evaluators are as follows with speaker's name inside brackets:-

1.    Serena Kong, ACB (Joel Silas)

2.    E K Yeo, CC, CL (Ken Chan, DTM)

3.    Kang Fong Luan, CC (C P Lau, ACB, ALB)

4.    Ken Chan, DTM (Shelly Sim)

5.    C P Lau, ACB, ALB (Chitirra)

6.    Ng Yee Chia, ACB (Srikant Marakani)

Finally, it was the time to recognize our best performers:

Best Speaker    : CP Lau ACB, ALB

Best Evaluator  : Ken Chan DTM

Arthur Conan Doyle quoted - "Where there is no imagination, there is no horror". Well, MMKL definitely has that power of imagination and The Halloween Genie was  the result of that imagination. The credit goes to the entire club for making every meeting entertaining and meaningful. At the end, MMKL turned the 394th page and the Halloween Genie went back with the hope that exactly one year later MMKL will re-open the page.

May the force of Halloween Genie will always be with Money Mastery KL. 

Role players for the meeting:

1. Olivia Chow (ASAA)

2. Ron Yeap ACB, CL (TME)

3. Shain Anand (Ah-Counter) 

4. Manish Jha CC (Grammarian)

5. Mandy Chan (Timer)

6. Ching Lee Hwa ACB, ALB (General Evaluator)

Blog writer: Shain Anand

Meeting #393 Deepavali: Light It Up

Light it up! Light it up! In conjunction with the Diwali celebration, our meeting was in jubilation. Our 393^rd meeting had made a few records. We had most of the members in their Indian costumes attending the meeting and we had the most number of guests visiting our club. Thank you to each and every member’s effort in bringing our club to a reputable mark. We had a record of 31 members and guests attending the meeting!

The scene looked busy and joyful during the fellowship session. Members and guests had some good chats while enjoying our signature nasi lemak; while some of us were getting the venue ready for the meeting

The meeting was kick started by our Sergeant At Arms, Shain Anand, who led us in reciting the Toastmasters Promises. As many may see this as a routine, it serves as a constant reminder to our members.

Our Madam President, Competent Communicator Wendy Sim, with her beautiful smile and shining saree costume, officiated the meeting. She gave her opening speech to light up the meeting, with our theme of the day: Deepavali: Light It Up! Wendy is getting more comfortable in front of an audience, becoming more confident and improving meeting after meeting. Keep it up, Madam President!

The word of the day: Jubilation, was introduced by our VPE, Chitirra.

We were honoured to have one of the senior Toastmasters, Distinguished Toastmasters, N. J. Singam to be our General Evaluator.

Advanced Communicator Bronze, CP Lau was the speaker for the invocation presentation. He reminded all, that besides the lights decoration at our houses, it is time to also light up the lights of knowledge and the lights of truth within us. It is time to reflect and admit our bad habits and wrong doings. With the arrival of the festival of lights, it is time to transform to be the  better us. He ended his speech with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change, to change to a better world”.

Our handsome Toastmaster of the Evening, Competent Communicator, Manish Jha, in his favourite costume, took over the control and led us through the rest of the meeting.

The ever fun and exciting table topics session was led by our charming and calm Table Topics Master, Advanced Communicator Bronze, Serena Kong. To be inducted new member, Shelly Sim took on the challenge to be the first speaker of the session. That had triggered the interest from the audience and we had 3 guests who stood on their feet and challenged the topics from Serena Kong. Well done everyone! This the platform provided and that is the attitude to take on the challenge!

Our first assigned speech speaker of the evening, Mandy Chan came on stage during the second session of the meeting. She delivered her 5^th speech from the Competent Communication manual, on body language. Her speech title was “Never Ending Voyage!”. It was her experience of her pre-wedding photography shoot in Europe. We had a Europe trip and witnessed how beautiful the couple were in their poses for the shooting. Such a romantic trip! We look forward to your wedding ceremony invitation, Mandy Chan!

Our second speaker, Yap Ooi Yee, attempted her 9^th speech from the Competent Communication manual, To persuade with power. It was convincing in her speech that, everyone is going to die one day, so let’s “Have a Meaningful Life”. What are the list of “things” we would like to do before we finally “call it a day”? Ooi Yee had persuaded and encouraged us to have a bucket list. In life, let us prioritize our plans and execute them one by one, diligently and satisfactorily and we shall have no regrets when we leave the world one day. Well said Ooi Yee!

Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva and Srikant Marakani delivered their second speech on the Pathways education system.

Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva’s speech titled “The Time is Now!”, had shared with us the journey of her career. It took a lot of courage for her to move out of her comfort zone. With that courage and determination, she is what she is, where she is today. She has even authored books. Fellow members, look for her for advice if you desire to do something different, something big! Seek her advice if you also have plans to author your book. She is going to be a good dictionary for all of us!

Srikant had done a research and delivered a speech on his research, “Why Is The Night Sky Dark?”. He had provided some scientific explanation on this matter and it changed our “normal” perception of why the night sky is dark. Well done Srikant and we look forward to listening to more great speeches from you!

The “talk” continued during our break time. It was in jubilation that we had so much to share and to learn from each other. Our Sergeant-At-Arms had to ring the bell several times before he could gather everyone to continue with the meeting.

We always say, “Evaluation is the breakfast for champions”. Leading us in sharing the nice and good “breakfast” in the late evening, was our beloved General Evaluator, Distinguished Toastmaster, N.J. Singam. He is one of the very sincere and honest General Evaluators that we ever had. There were lots of sharing from him as well as good tips from him in helping us to bring our club’s standard to a new height. Thank you very much Distinguished Toastmaster, N.J. Singam.

The panel of evaluators are as follow:-

1.    Ron Yeap, Advanced Communicator Bronze– Table Topics Evaluation

2.    Ken Chan, Distinguished Toastmaster – Evaluator for Mandy

3.    Tan Ben Hoe, Competent Toastmaster – Evaluator for Ooi Yee

4.    Tn. Hj. Hashim, Distinguished Toastmaster – Evaluator for Dato’ Dr. Mary

5.    CP Lau, Advanced Communicator Bronze – Evaluator for Srikant

Once again, thank you everyone who had attended this wonderful meeting! Join us on 31 Oct 2017 for a speech marathon meeting. See you soon! Vanakkam. 

Blog Writer: CP Lau