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| Theme: Service Above Self Word of the day: Altruistic |
Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club was
chartered on 22nd July 2002. This month we completed our 17th
year anniversary. I am Mathew Philippose, As a member of this club for seven years,
I have learnt much skill in speaking skill and leadership skill. This is a place you can learn and grow. On this day 23rd July 2019 we are
entering era as we meet for our 440th meeting.
Walking into the club premises you can hear
much voices, of members excitedly talking to each other and also much laughter
as we are engaged in a friendly conversion in a jovial atmosphere. It was
6.45pm and members were enjoying on the refreshments for the day.
In Toastmasters meeting everyone is conscious
of time, members began to get ready to be seated even before the Assistant Sergeant
at Arms (ASAA) strikes the gavel. Yes,
it was 7.15pm, KT Chok, PM4 called for the meeting to order. He welcomed
everyone to the 440th club meeting with a cheerful smile. He reminded
on the house rules and led everyone to recite the Toastmaster’s Promise.
What really caught my eye as I recited the promises was the point “To serve my club as an officer when called upon to do so”. In fact, it was so meaningful because the ASAA KT Chok, PM4 was called upon to serve when the appointed ASAA could not be present. This is a unique benefit in becoming a Toastmaster member ~ you are ready anywhere anytime in any event being able to take a role to lead. As the ASAA completed his role, he handed over the meeting to our President KL Loh, ATMG.
What really caught my eye as I recited the promises was the point “To serve my club as an officer when called upon to do so”. In fact, it was so meaningful because the ASAA KT Chok, PM4 was called upon to serve when the appointed ASAA could not be present. This is a unique benefit in becoming a Toastmaster member ~ you are ready anywhere anytime in any event being able to take a role to lead. As the ASAA completed his role, he handed over the meeting to our President KL Loh, ATMG.
The President proclaimed the theme of the day as “Service Above Self”. KL Loh, ATMG shared the meaning of theme and he welcomed all including all to have a fruitful time at the meeting. He later called upon the Grammarian to introduce the “Word of the Day”. The Word of the Day (WOD) was “Altruistic”. I always looked forward always to hear WOD because I always learn a new word in each club meeting. Sometimes it’s difficult to pronounce the WOD. Usually we may not have used the WOD in our everyday language. I learnt that this word “Altruistic”, means having or showing an unselfish concern.
The President gave each person the opportunity to introduce themselves at the same time to cease the opportunity to use the WOD and Theme of the Day. It was an experience as each of us made attempted to illustrate the WOD and the theme in our introduction. The President summed up the Introduction with his vision for the club with service above self.
Our President invites EK Yeo, CC, CL to
give an innovation speech. EK Yeo, CC, CL is a senior member of our club. His invocation speech was very encouraging
and uplifted the spirits to create such a great expectancy. This was
followed by our Humor Master, CP Lau, DTM who filled our
mouths with laughter and smiles that boost our happiness and elevate our mood.
His personal stories were so humorous that kept us in switches.
Hearing these two great men speak, the club is
now ready for challenging time to go into a new experience. The President handed over the meeting to
Toastmaster of the Evening (TME). The
TME is no other than me. I am the writer
of this blog and I wish to narrate to you precisely so as to draw your
imaginations to give you a first-hand experience.
At our meeting, this day we had three guests. For the benefit of the guest, I gave a brief
history of Toastmasters and about our club.
Moving on, I invited our Table Topics™ Master, Chitirra Amirthalingam, LD1. Our first speaker was EK Yeo, CC, CL who being a
seasoned speaker, he managed to speak on his toes. Our 3 guests caught the idea
of impromptu speaking, each of them Ms Rupal, Mr Authur, and Mr Chan all
attempted to speak. All the speakers
managed to speak within the 2 minutes so non was disqualified. That is the magic of Table Topics™ speaking
within the time limit, is not so much what you speak but having an ability to
speak impromptu.
Our next session was Prepared speeches, we had
two speakers who spoke from the Pathway program and two from Advanced
Communication Manual. Our first
speaker Toastmaster C.S. Ong spoke on the title "My Entrepreneur Journey". He is an Entrepreneur himself. He shared how he struggled at his early years
when he started business. Although he made heavy losses, he had to sacrifice
much and finally survived. Today he is proud that his digital company is the
leading provider in the Middle East. The
audience was captured in awe to see this new member speaking so confidently in
his second speech delivered at our club.
Our next speaker was Abdulrahman, PM1,
He has reached Level 2 and doing his third project in pathway. He has shown tremendous improvement, his long speech title “A success Giver, A
life Changer, A Respect – Earner”, he confessed that Toastmaster gave him ability
to be a well articulate speaker. He
spoke without much struggle. This man is an expat living in Malaysia as
engineer. He said his success is due to his mentor and he said we all have to
play this mentor role to help others succeed.
Our third speaker, Julia Leong, ACS, ALB. She is
also our Area Director. Her speech from "Skills to Thrill ", was very demonstrate speech that was entertaining speech as
she gave her experiences in a canoe that needed all the skills and it was a
trilling adventure. Julia
Leong, ACS, ALB was very expressive has she lifted her voice at a point when the canoe
nearly hit a rock. She kept the audience hold tight to their seats.
Our final speaker is Ron Yeap, ACB, CL, with his speech “Preparation
and Practice”. He shared how as a
presenter or speaker, need to look at details and rehearse every step clearly.
The seating arrangement, sound system, room temperature condition and visual
aid. Most of all rehearse the speech well.
Without wasting anytime our GE invited the Table Topics™ Evaluator KT Chok, PM4 to give his evaluation for the Table
Topics™ speakers. In a very interesting and humorous manner, he gave a vivid
evaluation of very speaker as he encouraged them. He also highlighted rooms of
improvement. After that, was followed by
evaluators for the prepared Speeches.
Speech Evaluator 1, EK Yeo, CC, CL gave his evaluation
for Speaker CS Ong. He had much appreciation for his informative speech. At
the same time, he gave Toastmaster CS Ong areas where he could further improve such as
vocal variation and expression. Speech Evaluator 2, CP Lau, DTM evaluated speaker Abdulrahman, PM1. In his evaluation, he said Abdulrahman, PM1 had much improvement in his presentation, however he needed to further
slowdown his pace of presentation. Our next evaluator Hj. Hashim, DTM gave his admiration for speaker Julia Leong, ACS, ALB. However,
he said there must be more vocal variety.
The GE next called on the Ah- Counter, Oliva Chen, PM1 to give her report, the number of speech crutches that
was spelled out kept each member aware how to improve in spoken language. Our
Grammarian Rey Thean next gave her report.
As she pointed out how much we managed to use the Word of the Day, she
also shared the areas of improvement and what were the misused words, sentences
and pronunciation. It was so interesting
to hear the excellent phrases and sentences used during the meeting. The Timer Rajendra Prasad gave a
detail and excellent report how we managed our time.
The GE, Ken Koh, DTM, continued
by giving his report with praises for the club and at the same time areas of
improvement the club need to take note. As the GE finished his report, he
handed the meeting to me, the TME of the day.
As we came to almost the end of the meeting, I helped to announce the
winners. The Best Table Topics™ Speaker went to our guest Ms Rupal. The Best
Evaluator went to Hj Hashim Adnan, DTM who hold an unbeatable record in our
club. The President then called upon the
General Evaluator to receive a Certificate of Appreciation and a gift on behalf
of the club. As the President closed the
meeting with his closing speech and announcements, all members adjourned for a
group photo session.
The meeting number 440 has ended, however, members of Money Mastery -KL Toastmasters club look forward for the next
meeting as it shapes each member to be a better leader and communicator for
tomorrow.
