22.09.2020 Meeting # 470- Do What Matters Now

It was 4^th Tuesday of the month 22 September 2020, members and guests supposed to get online on or before 7 or 7:15 pm. I was rushing from office as I planned to take all the measures proactively to attend meeting on time because it really matters how we plan. So, Tonight I was playing a role of TME and honestly speaking I was partially prepared. So sorry hehe.

Oh Gosh, I reached home by 6:50 pm finally. I smiled and turned on my laptop to get ready before 7. There I was, many members waiting for me to get in, greeted good evening and I kept working behind the chat room on my preparation till ASAA call for the meeting.

Meeting started at 7:15pm as usual on time without any delay by ASAA, the charming Rey Thean PM2. She recited the Toastmasters promises and reminded us our oath being a Toastmaster. She also made sure we are all set to begin with and gracefully passed the floor to our Mdm. President Julia Leong, DTM. Julia is our president who is positive and encouraging to all. She opens the floor and asked all of us to share what really matters or mattered in your life in our introduction. This is something that, you can’t find it in all the clubs where each member and guest are invited to introduce themselves and use WOD and Theme of the day in their intro. It also helps us to practice to use WOD in our learning journey.

It was about 7:40pm, my name was called out, ‘now I like to pass the floor to our Toastmaster of the Evening Manish Jha.’ My ears rose to take command. As a TME, I am obligated to run the meeting from beginning until end. I first briefed the guest about the history of Toastmasters International and our club, so they can see the benefits Toastmasters membership offers. Moving on first session was prepared by Julia Leong, DTM as Table Topics® Master. Julia prepared all the interesting topics and we had 4 brave challengers accepted this nerve racking challenge to speak in Table Topics®. Table Topics® is the one that teaches us how to think on our own feet and speak effectively within two minutes. It allows us to craft a mini speech on the spot with interesting opening, examples and a take home message. That’s why it is challenging. Trust all four- Aizat, Emran, CS Ong and Myself(Manish Jha) really had a great time sharing experiences and personal stories.

It was then when our dedicated Timer announced times up for Table Topics® and I then commenced for prepared project speech session. This evening, we were fortunate to have 3 brilliant speakers. Abdul Rahman, PM2 was the first speaker – He was doing his speech from Toastmasters educating program path Presentation Mastery, level 3, project 1 – His speech was about to deliver a well organised social speech. Rahman made setup of social event and talked about how Toastmasters in MM-KL has helped him in his speaking journey. He actually praised his fellow Toastmasters for contributing in his life. The speech was fun and inspiring. He made us feel touched. Trust me, he has improved tremendously. You are on the right track buddy, keep it up!

Our second speaker Rey Thean, PM2 was very humorous. She was also attempting her speech from Presentation Mastery path, Level 3. Speech objective was to know your Humour. She actually made us laugh all the way from her experience about food delivery services. She started with her first experience when she was hungry scrolling through Facebook and an ad pop up “Crave it and Grab it” . Hahaha... We all got connected in her speech. She gave her Asian mindset, how it triggered her calculative thoughts when she wanted to order doughnuts for RM2, and she had to pay RM5 for delivery charges... hahaha, it was rather right, and I could not disagree. She took a turn and calculated how could she spent her RM5 wisely; how her mum nagged her on the money spent. It was completely entertaining speech. Those who missed it had missed so much entertainment.

Finally our speaker 3 is Mathew Philippose,EC3. He attempted the path of Effective Coaching, Level -4. His speech objective was to handle difficult audience. He was sharing the comparison between online meeting and physical meeting. There were some interrupters, chatterers, arguers planted prior to the speech to ask any type of difficult questions to the speaker, to see how they are handled effectively. It’s not easy to handle when you are presenting your prepared speech and questions are coming spontaneously from all the sides. Let me tell you Mathew did excellent not just by answering all the questions, also completed what he wanted to tell the audience within time. This ability takes time to develop and master. That’s how Toastmasters education program is designed to train you to  speak even with difficult audiences.

It was time to break for 5 minutes before we continue the evaluation session. Our General Evaluator of the evening was NK Valli, DTM from MIMPJ Toastmasters club. She is a member of Toastmaster for the last 25 years. She came back after a break and I handed over the control to her to conduct the hallmark of the meeting which is the Evaluation Session. She started by briefing what is evaluation for the benefits to the guests. The first evaluation was began with Table Topics® Evaluation by our ATMG, KL Loh. He got shine one for his detailed evaluations for all four Table Topics speakers. He clearly highlighted speaker’s strength and recommended what can be improved with justification. Next, it was time to hear evaluation from Toastmasters CP Lau, DTM, Chitirra, LD1 and Tn. Hj. Hashim, DTM. Our awesome evaluators did pretty good job. They listened the speech, highlighted the speaker's strength, suggested the change on their deliveries.

Finally it was time to appreciate best performers of the evening. Unfortunately due to one speaker got time disqualification so we couldn’t vote for the best speech. However, we voted for the best Table Topics® Speaker and Best Speech Evaluator- I was surprised until my eye popped out when I saw my name as the Best Table Topics® Speaker which was rarely happened because our club got many good speakers. The Best Evaluator went to the unbeatable Tn. Hj. Hashim, DTM. With all this fun and joy, we finally finished our meeting at a high note. Mdm President expressed appreciation to everyone and concluded the meeting with our memorable group picture.

 

Blog Writer: Manish Jha, IP1

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2020/2021

 

 

08.09.2020 Meeting # 469- Never Let Go of Your DREAMS

Word of the day: Hankering

Do you still remember your dreams? Are you having the hankering to achieve your dreams?

This could be a tough question for some people, but not to the bunch of people that allocate their busy schedule to attend the Toastmasters meeting of Money Mastery-KL.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, those attending Toastmasters meeting has their mind hankering to become a confident, successful public speaker and leader.

To make that dream come true to these dedicated Toastmasters, massive action has to be taken to overcome any challenges that come in the way, including meeting online even though the physical meeting is not conducive during this pandemic era.

At 7pm, members, role players gradually ‘warmed up’ the Zoom meeting room with greetings and laughter. Thanks for their punctuality, the meeting was able to start at 7.15pm according to the schedule.

The theme of this meeting as mentioned earlier, could be the easiest and yet the toughest questions to the members. I noticed that some members that have their goals clear in mind, confidently shared their hankerings with proud; others who were yet to determine their future directions, would have a good moment to do self-reflection after this meeting.

I really missed the Invocation Session. KL Loh, ATMG brought us the story of WhatsApp Founder Jan Koum, on how his hankering of making worldwide communication easier and free, that led to the founding of WhatsApp application. So, guys, with strong will and action, your hankering can turn into reality.

One crucial skill that Toastmasters got to pick up in the meeting is to challenge impromptu speaking, the Table Topics® Session. Table Topics® Master made good effort to ask the most pertinent questions about the participants, goal, viewpoints that jive around the theme, “Never Let Go of Your Dreams”.

However, Toastmasters do train its members on the prepared speeches. To kickstart the Prepared Speech session, Chloe Lau was the first on stage to deliver the project 2 of Pathway Level 1 which titled “Love or Hurt”. She spoke about how the parents’ over-pursuing of their children’s academic excellence, turned into hurt to their children.

The next speaker is Rey Thean, PM2. she shared with the audience a persuasive speaking project with the title “Is 2020 the Right Time to Buy Property?” The speaker was obviously clear that she would not leave the audience wonder on the question she asked in the title again. She had obviously laid out all the valid reasons and concrete proof that the time is now! Well done on that convincing attempt.

The last speaker of the night is Mathew Philippose, EC3, who brought us a heart warming personal stories on how he coached his subordinate on the job. His speech title is “Opening Doors of Opportunity”. Mathew gave hsi full support and encouragement to his subordinate, just like how he also gave the same support and encouragement to our fellow members.

The meeting called for a short break, and to be taken over by the General Evaluator (GE) when we returned.

The first evaluator to take the spotlight was your truly Ron Yeap, ACG, ALB as the Table Topics® Evaluator. I carefully evaluated every speakers with their strength and notes for improvement, as well as tips on attempting Table Topics®. Unfortunately that made the session went over time and GE commented to me to be more watchful of time management. I duly take the feedback with open heart.

The second project speech evaluator was CS Ong, PM2, evaluating our new member Chloe Lau. Chloe had been diligently delivering speeches in our meeting. Her quick improvement in the speech delivery including body language, tonality and effort in speech preparation had impressed CS Ong a lot.

The second speech evaluator was Chester Liam, MS2 from Extol Toastmasters. Chester’s evaluation style on Rey was ‘contest-ready’ according to GE, as the evaluation was very inclusive with the observation of speech content, delivery style and suggestions for improvement.

The third project speech evaluator was CP Lau, DTM. CP expressed his appreciation on the effort Mathew gave to his subordinate. CP also suggested Mathew to give measurable success factors in his coaching conducts so that he could know his subordinate has been ready to be independent.

Our club always gave additional air time to members to give extra input during the open evaluation session. This short 5 minutes can sometimes gave more perspective and in-depth feedback to the speakers.

GE enjoyed the meeting in MMKL, as well as praised MMKL’s practice of giving opportunity to everyone to speak, always become the excellent club among the area and division level. However, GE also hope that we could improve the slides used by the TME during the introduction.

President Julia returned to the stage for he closing speech. She also announced the best performers of the night. Here’s the list of the winners,

Best Table Topics® Speaker: Amira (guest)

Best Speech Evaluator: CP Lau, DTM

Best Project Speaker: Chloe Lau

 

The meeting ended around 9.45pm and we would not forget to capture a group photo with every attendees in the frame.

Blog Writer: Ron Yeap, ACG, ALB

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2020/2021