Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club (#8141): 17.12.2019 Meeting #452- Holy Joly Christmas

Theme: Holy Joly Christmans
Word of the Day: Miracle

On the 17th December 2019, Money Mastery-KL conducted meeting #452. What was so special about this meeting? To begin with, it was the last meeting for the year 2019, and also a meeting themed after Christmas celebration in mind.

Year-end meeting has always been a challenge; year in and year out, members tend to plan their holidays, travels, family events in December, as it is a month of holidays, joy, and reflection. The first challenge to set up this meeting, according to our VPE Rey Thien, PM1, was to get enough project speakers and role players.

However, despite all odds, and with the effort of committed members, we managed to pull together the meeting. Our VPE had even set the mood right to encourage meeting participation; she designed a beautiful poster weeks ahead to promote the last meeting to us.

Many members came with red attire and red had, making many of our members started to anticipate the start of a jovial celebration. When came to think about it, why none of us put up the costume of Santa?

Invocation is what we have to uplift the atmosphere of the meeting. Our respected Hj Hashim, DTM, brought us an important message about readiness for changes. I think this is an aptly selected topic in view of the dawn of a new decade.

The course of the Christmas Meeting came in three, to begin with, there’s the appetizer called Table Topics™; followed by the main course which is the Prepared Speech; and ended with Evaluation as desert. These 3 designated sessions of a Toastmasters meeting are life-changing experiences for any person embarking on the Toastmasters journey.

1. Table Topics™ Master: Chitirra, LD1 & Eva
2. Julia Leong, ACG, ALB 3. CS Ong
4. Victor Wan, ACS, ALB

In the 1st session, the Table Topics™ session, it trained our impromptu speaking, fast and critical thinking skills. The brave souls that stepped forward to take the challenge were Victor Wan, ACS, ALB; CS Ong; Eva (guest); and Julia Leong, ACG, ALB.

The 2nd session was the presentation of members according to the guided assignments by Toastmasters International’s education program. We had an overlapping of old and new paths in our meeting. The first speaker was our new and young member Preston Ong, presenting his first Ice Breaker speech. In my opinion, young people like Preston are very dynamic and brilliant. As he's sharing about his emotions, motivation about speaking in front of us, his eloquence of language and delightful expression convinced us that he was a confident speaker! I would say that was a job well done by Preston.

The other 3 speakers on the conventional paths were Julia Leong, ACG, ALB; Victor Wan, ACS, ALB; and myself, Ron Yeap, ACS, ALB. Three of us are currently working hard to complete our education journey in the conventional path before it became expired by June 2020. I believe that we can make it eventually.

We believe that taking a break is for accomplishing a longer journey. A short break in the Toastmasters meeting got members enjoy not only the light refreshments, but also the bonding as they chat and chuckle together.

Patricia Yap, DTM, from Berjaya Toastmasters Club, was our General Evaluator (GE) of honour. She had a team of evaluators like Abdulrahman, PM2 (Table Topics™ Evaluator), CS Ong, CP Lau, DTM, Hj Hashim, DTM and Chitirra, CC to look into the performance of each speaker, so that they could pick up area of improvements.

I must compliment all the role players that managed the meeting that night. The season and senior members had given their best in their roles. Our Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) was Manish Jha, IP1. Manish was shrewd and handy with the role of TME, he did not rely on a script to play that role, a milestone that I quite marvel at. Our “Accidental” Ah-Counter, KT Chok, PM4, with his astute banker’s mind, squeezed out every cent and dollar from those speakers that had made speech crutches. Nanthakumar was our new member and was playing the role of Grammarian for the first time. I could see that he had gradually picked up the essence of the meeting roles, after his previous role as an Ah-Counter in the earlier meeting.

Timer: EK Yeo, CC, CL
Table Topics™ Evaluator: Abdulrahman, PM2

GE: Patricia Yap, DTM
Invocation Master: Hj. Hashim, DTM
TME: Manish Jha, IP1
Ah- Counter: KT Chok, PM4
Grammarian: Nanthakumar

Patricia, DTM, also went with a little unconventional way of giving her feedback to the meeting. She listed out the impression we had about the meeting, commented on what we had done well, and motivated us towards what we can do better.

Toastmasters is a voluntary organization. With limited resources, we have to make the most out of it to benefit our members. The members in return, poured in their enthusiasm, commitment and that’s the most important ingredient to make every meeting full of learning and fun.

As the year of 2019 coming to an end, I wish that our members on their Toastmasters journey to flourish further in year 2020. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all the best for all things around you.

Highlights of the night: