28.04.2020 Meeting #459- Where Focus Goes Energy Flows

Word of the Day: Cordial

ASAA Chitirra, CC, called meeting to order at 7.15 am. She then led all members to recite the toastmaster promise cheerfully.  A job well done true to the Toastmasters spirit.

President KL Loh, ATMG, took over control with much enthusiasm and welcomes all guests warmly. It is simply awesome that despite MCO and despite technical challenges, we are still meeting online.

He prays that we are all safe at home and stay focus on whatever we are undertaking, as where focus goes, energy flows in line with the theme of the night. All members and guests present then introduced themselves and readily share their thoughts on the theme and word of the day setting a cordial and harmonious mood for the meeting.

The meeting them took a break of 10 minutes for our Muslim friends to break their fast.

TME, Ron Yeap, ACG, ALB, then took control and brief the meeting on the history of the Toastmaster International and the heritage and strength of MMKL. Our club’s strength lies in the strength and support of its senior members who are truly committed and dedicated in ensuring that the club and its members will succeed in their respective Toastmaster journey. He then invited the role players in the meeting, the Ah-Counter, Grammarian, Timer and General Evaluator, Samuel Selvaraju, DTM to explain their role for the benefit of our guests.

Up next, our Table Topics® Master, C.S. Ong, PM1, took over.  This interesting session requires impromptu speaking.  Getting guests and members to speak off the cuff online is more challenging than at a meeting. Four sporting souls took up the challenge and spoke very confidently and fluently on topics in harmony to the theme.

Finally, we moved to the prepared speeches session, the platform where toastmasters learn to speak effectively and professionally from all aspects.

First speaker, Hai Liang delivered his Level 1, Project 2.2 speech, Evaluation and Feedback from Pathway: Effective Coaching. He shared with us the different concepts of pain with a well organised meaningful speech.  He was able to engage with the audience with the Gifts of Pain.

Second Speaker, Nantha Kumar delivered his level 1, project 2.2 speech, Evaluation and Feedback from Pathway: Innovative Planning. He gave us an interesting concept of the Invincible Team giving us an insight of the background of how much work is required in making a project successful.

Third Speaker, Rey Then, PM1, delivered her level 2 Project 1, Understanding your leadership style under Pathway: Dynamic Leadership. She shared with us the different types of leaderships and how we can adapt ourselves working comfortable with various groups of people using different leadership styles.

Fourth speaker is Datuk John Lau, DTM, on his Level 2, and Project 2: Understanding Your Leadership style. He shared with us a personal story of how he was able to overcome challenges in his leadership style by adopting a diplomatic approach. Hence, he was able to reach his objectives and resolve a lot of issues by getting across diplomatically.  His whole delivery is very dynamic and engaging.

I have always enjoyed the prepared speeches session because there is always something to learn and grow.

GE, Samuel Selvaraju, DTM took over the Evaluation Session and explained the purpose and guidelines of this session to all present punched with humour and jokes.

Table Topics® Evaluator, yours truly gave a thorough and sincere evaluation to all the four very seasoned table topics speakers for improvement from my perspective.

Our equally experienced and season Speech evaluators, Chitirra, CC, EK Yeo, CC, CL, Manish, IP1, and KL Loh, ATMG, took turns to evaluate Hai Liang, Nantha, Rey, PM1, and Datuk John, DTM,  respectively; highlighting their strengths and weaknesses followed with very good heartfelt suggestions for improvement in a really diplomatic manner accompanied with a dash of humour. It was like a series of mini speeches which I enjoyed listening.

GE, Samuel Selvaraju, DTM, was very impressed with our team work and enjoyed himself thoroughly at our meeting. He felt that our meeting was truly harmonious! However, he commented that he missed our nasi lemak. He hopes to come again when real food is available.

Drum roll please, ta ta to rum rum….and these are the winners of the night.

Best Table Topic Speaker      : Ron Yeap, ACG, ALB

Best Assigned Speech           : Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM

Best Evaluator                        : Chitirrra, CC

Digital certificates were given to all winners!

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to all role players especially the GE. It was followed by a group photo session. Stay Safe! Stay Focus! Energy Flows!

Blog Writer: Julia Leong, ACG, ALB

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020