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)
- Ron Yeap, ACB, CL (C P Lau, ACB, ALB)
- Ben Hoe, CTM, CL (Olivia Chen)
- 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
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