Meeting #429 World NGO Day: A Good Cause

Meeting 429

We gathered today on the 26^th of Feb 2019 just as how Sir Ralph C. Smedley had had a gathering in the basement of YMCA in Santa Ana, California in 1924. A non-governmental organisation with a purpose to serve the public to speak. We stand proud as an NGO of 95 years and so we decided to commemorate ourselves with the theme revolving around World NGO Day that celebrates thousands of other humanitarian organizations. 

The meeting proper began at 7.15pm sharp with Manish Jha, IP1 as the Assistant SAA calling the meeting to order, introducing the house rules and leading the Toastmasters’ Promise recital. Something that reminds as to why we are here to serve the society in public speaking and leadership.

He then went on to invite the President Chitirra who welcomed the guests and invited the Grammarian to introduce the word of the day which was “Benevolence” which means kind-heartedness, public-spiritedness which is what this club is about. All the members and guests introduced themselves and spoke about the different NGOs they were involved with in their lives. Apart from Toastmasters, some were from the Red Cross, some from the Lion’s club, some associated themselves with sports service and volunteers for rehabilitation, all of which were noble causes. 

Ken Chan, DTM then came on to the stage to give out his invocation speech full of class and calibre always awakening our spirits before we head on to the meeting. 

We then had our Toastmaster of the Evening, Ron Yeap, ACB, CL always bright and happy to take on the stage and put on his TME cap with style. The dedicated role players for the day were Abdul Rahman, PM1 as the Ah-Counter, Shain Anand as the Grammarian, Wendy Sim, CC as the Timer and of course our guest of honour was Goh Chee Yong, IP2 as the General Evaluator. 

Our creative Table Topics™ Master, CP Lau, DTM brought on some Mandarin Oranges for his speakers to choose from and created topics that were surrounding the theme of the day. Everyone spoke happily on their feet at this fun session. 

Next it was time for the Assigned Speech Session and we had 3 amazing speakers rock the stage. First up was Mike Chin with his speech Change Your Mind, Change Your Life. His evaluator was Chitirra. He indeed shared tips and reasons as to why should change our thoughts in order to change our life and inspired us all. Then came along Ken Chan, DTM with his evaluator Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB. His speech title was K.I.D. No I’m not kidding. It was K.I.D. as in Keep Improving Daily. He shared with us on the steps to move forward in life and the life was like a camera. Take a shot, if it’s blur, take another one and develop yourself. Our final speaker was Julia Leong, ACB, ALB and her evaluator was Hj. Hashim, DTM. She did an interpretive reading of a Monodrama entitled Duchess of Padua. She moved us all with a melodramatic love scene that almost left me crying when she enacted the break up scene. 

We had a short break to enjoy the feast of Money Mastery-KL which was our signature ‘Nasi Lemak’ and then proceeded with the Evaluations session which we call the breakfast for champions. As per the order of the speakers and their respective evaluators, Chitirra, Mathew Phillippose, CC, ALB and Hj. Hashim, DTM came and gave their best evaluations. Our General Evaluator then called upon the technical role players to give out their reports and gave his personal review of the club. 

Alas, it was time for the awards session and the best speakers for the night got their certs of recognition as follows:

Best Table Topics™ Speaker:  DTM, Hj. Hashim
Best Evaluator: DTM, Hj. Hashim
Best Speaker: Julia Leong, ACB, ALB

It was truly a fun filled night and we all did recognise our purpose here tonight as a member of a huge NGO. As we always look forward to the next meeting, we bid goodbye and goodnight and called the meeting to adjourn with a lovely group photograph. 

 

Blog writer:  Chitirra