Siblings’ day: The Menace We Love

Meeting #406 was made possible in Restoran Safuan Petaling Jaya which was a new venue to us. It was challenging to organise things yet it was a very fruitful & fun meeting. As members progressed to arrive, we found our General Evaluator already at the venue waiting for us to arrive. It was very refreshing and assuring to see our members and guests. Our VPE decided to have the theme set to be Siblings’ Day which was celebrated in America bang on that day, 10^th of April, so we decide to celebrate it together in our club.

Meeting proceeding started by our ASAA, Joel Silas to make sure we can kick off the actual meeting. Our club President Wendy Sim, CC stepped up to the stage. The club culture is to explain the theme of the meeting and have a short intro from everyone attending this meeting. She started from herself and moved the flow from one end to another. I learnt something today, most of our members are the eldest amongst their siblings, some younger and a few worked as a junction in the middle to join the elder to the younger which makes a lovely gang of siblings.

By then around 7:40 pm our invocation speaker, a senior Toastmaster, a very committed member Hj. Hashim, DTM was getting ready to inspire the audience this evening with his awesome speaking ability. Indeed he inspired with a wonderful story.

As per the menu, our Toastmaster of the Evening led us to the next session which is very famous in Toastmasters called the Table Topics™ (TT) session. Today's Table Topics™Master EK Yeo, CC, CL prepared some awesome topics for the speakers. All TT speakers enjoyed sharing their experience of love, care and fun they had with their siblings. Thank you. The speakers who participated were in the sequence as follows: Ron Yeap, ACB CL, KT Chok, PM1, EE Lyn (Guest) and Manish Jha, CC. While the speakers were speaking, the Table Topics™ evaluator DatoDr. Mary de Silva, PM1 was listening carefully and taking notes to highlight the speakers' strengths and areas of improvement.

It was time for another interesting session of speeches called the Project Speeches designed by Toastmasters International education program called the Competent Communication and Pathways.

The 1^st speech was by Mandy Chan with her speech title “Every Move Counts”. She was doing her final speech from the Competent Communication manual to inspire the audience. She inspired the whole audience with her own journey of Toastmasters from beginning until now. Later she was also awarded with the best project speech of the evening. She truly deserved her CC award. You deserve it. You have set an example that nothing is impossible. Congrats and all the very best for your future performances.

The 2^nd speech was by Joel Silas with his speech title “What is Life?” He was doing his last project speech from the Competent Communication manual to inspire the audience. He did very well. His confidence on stage won his audience's hearts. He inspired with his principle and examples of his life. Thanks Joel, CC for sharing your thoughts on this subject. Congrats on achieving your CC award as well.

The 3^rd speech was my turn. Hahaha! My speech title was “The Whistle of Nature”. I was attempting to complete my last project from the Innovative Planning path, Level-1. I would say, I did a little better and my best at the moment.

The 4^th speech was done by Chitirra with her speech title “Passion is Purpose”.Chitirra was doing her practice speech to get enough feedback before presenting in the upcoming Division C contest where she will be representing her Area C1.

I hope you expect a break right. I forgot.

We had a break for 15 minutes then we resumed our meeting. The next session was chaired by the General Evaluator, Jimmy Lee, CC CL from Puchong English Toastmasters Club.

As his role was to be the General Evaluator, he explain ed a bit on the importance of evaluations and as per the agenda called the Table Topics™ Evaluator Dato Dr. Mary De Silva, PM1 on stage to share her verdicts. Followed by were the project speech evaluators and technical evaluators. Eventually, he shared his personal evaluation on how the overall conduct of the meeting was and how we can grow better.

The night was not young anymore when finally the Toastmaster of the Evening called the club's President to recognize and appreciate the best performances of the evening. The best performance was elected based on the maximum number of people who voted for a speaker in each category. Well... Drumrolls...

Best project speech- Mandy Chan, CC

Best Table Topics Speaker- EE Lyn (Guest)

Best Evaluation- Hj. Hashim, DTM

Finally the Toastmaster of the Evening, KT Chok, PM1, did a pretty good job being the 1^st time Toastmaster of the Evening. He handed over the control to our President, Ms. Wendy Sim, CC.She summarized the whole meeting, made an announcement for the special event and requested all to come for our Division C contest on 14^th of April UMW to support our Area Champion Chitirra.

That’s all for today guys.
Wait, wait wait...Forgot something. We also celebrated the birthdays of those who were born in the month of April.They were our IPP Ron Yeap, ACB, CL and a senior member KL Loh, ATMG. It was pure fun celebrating with what I call my brothers from another mother and sisters from another mister. Friends like family. See you guys next on 24^th April.

Blog writer: Manish Jha

#405 The Road Not Taken

Uncertain paths taken with great conviction may lead to great discoveries which is how I discovered myself when I discovered this path of Toastmasters. Today’s theme was The Road Not Taken inspired by Robert Frost’s meaningful poem, quite obviously, The Road Not Taken. Coincidentally, we had to take the road untaken by having this week’s meeting in a new venue at the UMAC House. We are in the midst of trial and error to find a good location for our meetings and along the path we have indeed discovered not just literal things but valuable lessons as well as a team.

The meeting as usual started at sharp 7.15pm with the help of our TME, CP Lau, ACB, ALB to stand in for Yap Ooi Yee, CC the SAA. He led us through the Toastmasters promises and called our President, Wendy Sim, CC on to the floor to deliver her opening address which was well done and full of depth. Following, everyone present introduced themselves, spoke of the theme and the word of the day. The word of the day today was ‘paramount’ which means of supreme importance or power.

The invocation speaker Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva then came on stage to give her invocation which was in line with the theme.  After the entertaining invocation, the floor was once again passed to our TME, CP Lau who was actually doing his Project 5 in his Specialty Series of the Advanced Communication Manual which was about introducing a speaker. Thus, he took up this role as it was most apt for him to carry out his objectives. Upon leading us through a brief history of Toastmasters, we moved on to the Table Topics Session. Chitirra, led this session with a variety of interesting topics, some even that sunk us into deep thoughts. Most rose up to the challenge including our General Evaluator, Robert Ram, DTM.

After that, we began the main course that was a variety platter of project speeches. Unfortunately, as one of our speakers did not make it we only had 3 speeches. The first was Chitirra on her Project 3 of her Level 1 Pathways in Leadership Development. It was a research speech and thus she spoke on Insomnia, its cause, effects and simple remedies. Moving on we had K T Chok, also doing the same project and his title was ‘Snowball’ basically describing the massive multiplying effects of compounding interests. Finally we had Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1 doing her first project in her Level 2 of the Presentation Mastery Pathway. She spoke about an incident in her life as a kleptomaniac. She drew the crowd’s attention only to eventually leave them baffled in her prank as she revealed that she was no kleptomaniac after all.

Still with puzzled faces we broke for a short break to enjoy our favourite Nasi Lemak and resumed the meeting in 10 minutes.

Beyond this point, our General Evaluator, Robert Ram, DTM took over the session. First up, our Table Topics evaluator, EK Yeo, CC, CL led us through a quick and simple evaluation of each Table Topic speaker. Following, the respective evaluators shared their ideas and thoughts to the respective speakers. We had an extra special evaluation for C P Lau, ACB, ALB by Ron Yeap, ACB, CL for his advanced project as TME. An open evaluation was given and great feedback were given out for all by all. Then, the respective role players gave their respective reports. Ron Yeap, ACB, CL was the Ah-Counter, Xavier Gomez was the Grammarian and Mandy Chan was the timer. Lastly, we had our General Evaluator, Robert Ram, DTM give such a detailed, honest and distinctive feedback for our club.

The road was coming to the end that night and our President gave her closing address and gave out the awards to the respective winners as below.

Best Speaker: None due to time disqualification and insufficient speakers.

Best Evaluator: Hj. Hashim, DTM

Best Table Topics Speaker: Robert Ram, DTM

After the necessary announcements the meeting was dismissed and everyone left with hopes that they too may step forward to take that road not taken and discover themselves.

 Blog Writer: Chitirra

#404 Phenomenal Women

I’m a woman.

What’s your superpower?

Women were born to inspire and to commemorate that today at our club, we celebrated a belated International Women’s Day with a phenomenally themed meeting, “Phenomenal Women”.

The meeting proper began at sharp 7.15pm when our Sergeant-At-Arms, Shain Anand, called us in minutes ahead. He introduced the house rules and we were set to recite our Toastmasters Promise which we take to our heart, under his leadership. He then invited the President over to give her opening address.

Wendy Sim,CC , the proud matriarch of the club gave her Presidential Address with a twist this time by reciting the ever classic poem by Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Women. She then went on to lead the session with ease as everyone introduced themselves by speaking of the theme and using the word of the day “Omniscient”.

The time came for the Invocator of the day, Vijaykumar, CC to then excite us all with his invocation speech. Indeed his in depth research on the first female in Toastmasters and his flowery command of English, set many hearts especially those of the women in the club a sail. Empowering he was on this very empowering day for women.

Following, we had our senior and ever committed member E K Yeo, CC, CL step forward as the Toastmaster of the Evening to bring us through the history of Toastmasters and introduce the role players of the night. Today we had with us Olivia Chen  as the attentive Ah-Counter, Dato Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1 as the articulate Grammarian and Yap Ooi Yee, CC as the alert Timer.

In order to inaugurate the meeting for Women’s Day, I couldn’t have found a more apt General Evaluator than the sweet, stylish and smart Anita Wong, CTM, CL of IEM Toastmasters Club. She’s always been an epitome and idol for the female race in her ways and manners.

We then moved on to the fun and exciting Table Topics ™ session with our first time Table Topics ™ Master, Daniel Tham. Indeed he was willing to learn and steadfast in his role. He had with him an array of topics revolving around the life and times of women and many attempted boldly at the challenging topics.

Women indeed are capable of persuading with power and so to begin the first project speech for the night we had yet another caring female come forth and present her CC#9: Persuade with Power. Mandy Chan spoke on the topic “Money Isn’t Everything” and gave us a reality check that at the end of the day as material as it sounds, there are some things in life that money can never buy.

The next speech was by Xavier Gomez for his 2nd Project in his Leadership Development Pathway entitled Plague of Political Correctness. See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

Following was Crystal Chen, ACB, ALB on her 2nd Project as well under the Effective Coaching Pathway with her title “Hakka Chinese New Year Cuisine”. Oh, the mouth-watering cuisines she displayed left our mouths oozing but the magnificent stories behind each dish left us in awe!

Finally we had with us Dr. Srikant, PM1 who had successfully set foot for his 1st Project under Level 2 of the Presentation Mastery Pathway. His topic was on understanding his own communication style and his title was “The Analytical Method of Presentation”. He described how most of the time he uses an analytical approach in his presentations coming from a strong academic and research background. However, he also managed to derive the others styles of presenting that he may someday adopt.

Various topics and various background of speakers set today’s meeting with much diversity. We shot off to a quick break and returned once more for the evaluations session.

Anita Wong, CTM, CL, led the session with her cheery smile. First up we had Manish Jha, CC come forth as the Table Topics ™ Evaluator to give his detailed wrap up of each Table Topic ™ speaker. Then each project speech evaluator came on to give their opinions to their respective speakers. Aside from our usual senior members who came forth today, we had with us a first timer in evaluation, K T Chok. He was prim yet precise in his evaluation and did an excellent job despite it being his first time. Congrats to you for stepping up to the challenge. Evaluations are no easy task. One is faced with the challenge of having to dissect a person’s speech and deliver their opinion in the most respectable yet effective manner. Thus, a salute should be given to those who evaluate and one should understand and respect that evaluations are merely opinions of the respective individuals.

Since today, giving an evaluation was actually part of K T Chok’s assignment in his Pathways programme, he had for himself and extra special evaluation on his evaluation by Ron Yeap, ACB, CL. Ron gave his best feedback on what he thought was good and could be improved on KT’s evaluation itself.

After the open evaluations and respective role player reports, Anita Wong gave her brief commentary on our club and its ways. She was indeed positive and kind in her general evaluation.

It was drawing close to the end and the stage was passed back to our Phenomenal President, Wendy Sim, CC to go on with the awards for the night as follows.

Best Table Topics ™: K T Chok

Best Project Speech: Mandy Chan

Best Evaluator: Hj. Hashim, DTM

Wendy wrapped up the meeting with some announcements and feedbacks from the guest but most importantly she made a strong point in her closing address that despite having had this wonderful day dedicated specifically to celebrate women, there are still many women out there yet to be empowered and that it is still a real struggle out there for many of us. It is but with the help of both sexes, the educated and the ethical that we can strive to achieve true equality for both genders across the globe.

Until next time, keep rocking on ladies… and gentlemen too… *Winks*.

Blog writer: Phenomenal Chitirra

#403 Chinese New Year: Peace & Prosperity

We had our 403^rd meeting on 27 February 2018, the very first meeting after the Chinese New Year holidays. The theme of the meeting was still surrounding the atmosphere of new year, “Chinese New Year: Peace & Prosperity”.

At 7.15pm, our Assistant Sergeant At Arms, Joel Silas called the meeting to order by reciting the second 5 Toastmaster’s Promise. Soon after that, our Madam President, Wendy Sim, Competent Communicator took on the stage and began her opening address.

She wished everyone a Happy Chinese Year and shared with us what was her thought by the theme of peace and prosperity. She had also invited the members and audiences to do a quick self-introduction.

The Word of the Day was introduced by our Grammarian of the meeting, KT Chok, as “Felicity”. Felicity is a noun, which means intense happiness and the ability to find appropriate expression for one’s thought.

As it was still Chinese New Year, majority of our members and guests were dressed in red, because we believe the color brings “ong” and prosperity to us.

We have our member, Xavier presented the invocation presentation, which was very uplifting and inspiring. He then handed the control over to the Toastmaster of the Day, Mathew Philippose, Competent Communicator.

With a strong voice, Mathew had led us through a very smooth, fun-filling and educational meeting for the evening. Our General Evaluator of the meeting was Sharon Wong, Advanced Communicator Silver, the President of OUM Toastmasters Club.

Our ever young, energetic and humorous member, Kelvin Chong, Advanced Communicator Bronze was the Table Topics Master of the day. He had prepared many topics and each topic was put into an “ang pao” (a packet that Chinese use to put in a token of money and give to someone to wish them best of luck)  in conjunction with the Chinese New Year. The topics were very interesting, with some of them were on the new year wishes/ resolutions and some were on the Chinese Zodiacs. It was amazing to see some of the non-Chinese members as well as guest took on the topics and managed to provide some in depth explanation on Zodiacs.

Our member, Dato Dr. Mary participated and was voted the Best Table Topics Speaker of the meeting. Congratulations Dato Dr. Mary! 

Our assigned speech session started with our veteran and club champion, KL Loh, Advanced Toastmaster Gold, rehearsed on his contest speech, preparing for the Area Contest. The speech title was “The Monkey in Our Lives”. His speech sent out a very timely and strong message to us that we ought not to procrastinate, in our studies, career even in our health. Thank you for inspiring each and every one of us, KL Loh!

KL Loh’s speech was evaluated by our member Srikant, who was taking up this evaluation task as one of his project assignment in his attempt on his Pathway Level 1 assignments. Even though it was Srikant’s first evaluation, he managed to demonstrate the skill of listening and observation and provided evaluation on KL Loh’s speech. He has also given area of improvement on the speech delivery. Srikant’s evaluation, as a project on Level 1, was evaluated by CP Lau, Advanced Communicator Bronze. CP shared some tips with Srikant in order to help him in a more proficient evaluation in future. Well done Srikant and keep it up!

Joel Silas attempted to deliver his final speech on the Competent Communication manual, to inspire the audience! His speech title was “What is Life?”. Despite the delivery was not as smooth as how Joel wanted it to be, he completed his speech. The speech was evaluated by our senior member, Tn. Hj. Hashim, Distinguished Toastmaster. He had provided a very sincere evaluation to Joel, pointed out how he should have approached he delivery of this speech. He has recommended Joel to work on the speech again and arrange to deliver it for another time. We look forward to hearing a more powerful speech from Joel in time to come. Keep up the good work, Joel!

Last but not least, our last speech of the session was a speech from Dato Dr. Mary, completing her final project on Level 1, the path Presentation Mastery. The title of the speech was “Colours. Awesome Colours.”. The speech caught us surprise when the content was related to rainbow instead of any other “things” that we could guess. The speech was beautifully and colourfully delivered by Dato Dr, Mary. She has improved speech by speech. Kudos to you, Dato Dr. Mary! It was so colourful. Her speech was evaluated by Mathew Philippose, took up dual roles as speech evaluator as well as the Toastmaster of the Evening.

After the break, our General Evaluator, Sharon Wong, Advanced Communicator Silver led the 4^th session, the Evaluation Session. She had invited the Table Topics Evaluator, Ron Yeap, Advanced Communicator Bronze. Ron was very good in listening and observing. He has highlighted the strength of each speech, which could also be a learning point for other members. Besides, he has also managed to suggest some useful tips for all the table topics speakers. Thank you Ron!

Each and every speech evaluator had delivered their evaluation. The technical role players had also delivered their reports accordingly. We had:-

•        Mandy Chan as the Ah Counter
•       KT Chok as Grammarian
•       Olivia Chen as the Timer

A round of applause to them for their hard work, demonstrating the skills of listening and observing. I am sure the speakers as well as the audiences had benefited from their reports presented.

Our Madam General Evaluator, had provided her “evaluation” on our meeting. One very good point shared by her, which perhaps our members should take note, “Do not down grade yourselves by saying sorry!”. Until we have mentioned it, the audiences do not know if you had made mistake. Thank you Madam General Evaluator and we shall take note on the suggestions provided in conjunction with our effort to bring our club to the next level!

Congratulations to Dato Dr, Mary voted as “Double Best”, the Best Table Topics Speech and the Best Assigned Speech! You have made it and the night was so colourful! Tn. Hj. Hashim, Distinguished Toastmaster was voted the best speech evaluation. Congratulations to all and keep it up!

Madam President Wendy Sim, Competent Communicator presented her closing address and announced the meeting adjourned followed by a happy group photo. The night was very special, where we had celebrated the February born babies. In addition, we had the tradition of Chinese during Chinese New Year, “Lou Sang”. Lou Sang is an activity where we will stir on a plate of nicely cut vegetables, with some raw fish on it. It means great happiness, great health and prosperous year ahead. The higher we stir, the better we are!

Till we meet in the next meeting, Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Blog writer: C P Lau ACB, ALB

#402 Valentine's: To Love & To Be Loved

February, the month full of cheers! Valentine’s Day has arrived!

As usual for every club meeting, the venue before the start of the meeting was arranged by whoever comes early. Our madam President, Wendy Sim and our member Vijay arrived early to the venue. Our lovely VPE Chitirra took the role player as an ASAA, Table Topics Master cum Timer. The meeting begun on time with the recital of a Toastmaster’s promise by all members for their commitment to Toastmasters.

The theme of the meeting was “Valentine’s: To Love & To Be Loved” and the word of the day was “Endearment”.

Our Club President, Wendy Sim, took over the control of the meeting with her welcome address. She greeted the distinguished guest Ken Koh, ACS, ALB, who came from Extol Toastmasters Club as General Evaluator and the other guests. Then she invited the Grammarian, Xavier Gomez, to introduce the word of the day “Endearment”. She invited members and guests to introduce themselves and encouraged all to use the word of the day and speak in line with the theme of the day, “Valentine’s: To Love & To Be Loved”. All the members and guests did well during the self- introduction. Today’s club meeting was a lively one because we had guests as well.

After the introduction session, the floor was passed on to C P Lau, ACB, ALB who played the role as the Humour Master.

Today’s Toastmaster of the Evening is our Manish Jha, CC who briefed on the history of Toastmasters International and our club. He introduced the role players for this meeting in the sequence of Grammarian- Xavier Gomez, “Ah” Counter- Vijay and Timer- Chitirra who played 3 roles in this meeting. All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for this evening.

The exciting session of Table Topics­­­TM took place and our VPE played the role of Table TopicsTM Master. She prepared the topics related to theme of the day with “Ang Pows” sponsored by Manish Jha, CC. Members and guests were encouraged to participate. She explained the objective of Table Topics TM and the time limitation for each speaker. The purpose of the Table TopicsTM session is to develop the impromptu speaking skills which includes opening, body and conclusion in their speech.

Some of the Table TopicsTM speakers were Mathew Philippose, Hj Hashim, General Evaluator-Ken Koh and 2 guests.

Let’s give a big applause to all the 5 speakers. Here, we were asked to cast a vote for the best Table Topics TM speaker.

After the Table TopicsTM, the TME took over and proceeded with the assigned speeches from Pathways and the Competent Communication Manual.

1st Speaker – Mandy Chan

CC#8: Get Comfortable With Visual Aids

Speech Title: Travel with Parents: A beautiful Adjustment

Speech Evaluator Hj Hashim , DTM

She shared with us her memory of travel with parents in Taiwan.

2nd  Speaker – KT Chok

Speech Title: 72

Speech Evaluator Mathew Philippose ,CC, ALB

This is his pathways of Presentation Mastery: Level 1: Project 2-Evaluation & Feedback.

He shared with us his knowledge of Rule of 72, the calculation of interest in FD, and investments. We could learned more in accumulating our wealth. It is a very interesting knowledge.

3rd  Speaker – Olivia Chen

Speech Title: Ikebana

Speech Evaluator C P Lau, ACB, ALB

This is her pathways of Presentation Mastery: Level 1: Project 2-Evaluation & Feedback.

 Olivia Chen also did her Project 2: Evaluation & Feedback speech. Olivia’s repeated her 2nd speech with her speech entitled “Ikebana”. She restructured her speech and demonstrated with real flowers the Japanese flower arranging concept and what it actually symbolises.

Finally, General Evaluator, Ken Koh, ACS, ALB, was most observant and completely in charge when he told us as a whole club on what we are good at and what needs to be improved. An amazing evening it was with this bunch of enthusiastic, friendly and supportive people. This kind of environment can most definitely bring out the best in you.

Here, our Toastmaster of the Evening was enjoying the entire show and then took charge of the show again and called our club president Wendy Sim, CC to acknowledge the best performers of the evening. Yes, we do it in every meeting.

Best Project Speaker: K T Chock

Best Table Topics ™ Speaker: Ken Koh ACS, ALB

Best Evaluator: Hj. Hashim DTM

Indeed there was love in the air that night and we went home with our hearts dipped in love for the coming Valentine.

Blog Writer: Crystal Chen ACB, ALB

#401 My Spirit is a Roaring Sea

Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club just finished their 400^th meeting in our Toastmasters’ history of 15 years. This was our 401^st meeting to show our roaring sea spirit in every conduct of this meeting. ASAA of the evening, Yap Ooi Yee, CC, took the control at 7:16pm with only a one minute delay from the scheduled time. She assured everything was in order to kick start the meeting. “Raise your hand if you have not received the voting slip? The voting slip is to vote for the best speakers. Another very important point, toilet is not working temporarily on our floor and downstairs is already being occupied today hahaha.” This was not humour but a reality. Believe it or not the whole evening went on very smoothly. She recited the Toastmaster’s promises with us and handed the floor to our acting-president, Chitirra.

Our acting-president intrepidly addressed the meeting and asked, kindly introduce yourself and use the word of the day ‘Intrepid’ and the theme of the day ‘My Spirit is A Roaring Sea’. It is our club culture to let everyone speak at least once throughout the meeting. She then passed the floor to the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), Shain Anand who then introduced the Humour Master, Distinguish Toastmaster (DTM), Ken Chan.

Ken chan is a professional speaker and mentor. Sometimes he comes with his inspiring speech but today he decided to begin this evening with some humour. We laughed like wild emojis. We got excited to move on. 

Our TME then took the stage again. For your kind information, Shain is also our VPPR of this term 2017/18 and a wonderful Toastmaster and friend. He came up with his attitude like a roaring sea. He briefed all on the history of Toastmasters International and our club, especially for the guests. Yes, most of the time we have some guests in our meeting. One of the guest today also accepted to sign up in the same evening. Shain then proceeded to introduce the role players, the Grammarian, Ah’ counter, Time keeper and General Evaluator for the night, Distinguished Toastmaster Dr. Devi Menon who comes from Sai Toastmasters Club. 

Now as the excitement was soaring high, our Table Topics ™ Master Dato Dr. Mary De Silva was called on to the stage. Table Topics ™ session is a frightening yet fun filling session. We actually have no idea what topic is about to be received and what we will speak. She came up prepared with very inspiring and beautiful topics. We found 4 intrepid speakers. Shin (Guest), Joel, myself (Manish) and Victor Ong , DTM (From Liquid Gold TMC). Everyone spoke well. Do you know why? Because the topics were amazing? 

Drop by on any 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Tuesday of the month in the evenings at 7.15pm if you want to participate in our fun filling session. This evening our time keeper Yap Ooi Yee,CC displayed the green signal to the TME to proceed with the prepared project speeches as the time was up for Table Topics ™. Now the 1^st speaker of the day Ken Chan, DTM came up with his speech entitled ‘Negotiate to Win’. This speech was as per the Competent Communication manual speech #8, Get Comfortable with Visual Aids. Negotiation is very important in our life no matter what you do, but in business it creates great impact if you can negotiate well. I hope you know what I mean. It was completely worth it watching his negotiation techniques as he is the subject matter expert.

The 2^nd Speaker of the day was Joel Silas with his speech entitled, ‘Power, Influence & Politics’. He is a very good learner. He proved it too. He proved that practice can make anyone perfect. Keep up the hunger of learning Joel! I was privileged to be his speech evaluator. It means I was more observant. Hahaha. He was doing his speech from the Competent Communication Manual, speech #9 which was “Persuade With Power”. He did very well and persuaded the whole audience to earn the power, use it wisely and serve yourself and the community. That will make not only you proud but also the whole nation and the whole world.

The 3^rd speaker is none other than CP Lau, ACB, ALB. He is an entrepreneur by his profession in IT and in other Industries as well. He is a very good communicator and speaker.  He was a speaking from the Advanced Manual called “Speaking to Inform” which required him to give a speech on an abstract concept. His speech title was ‘Are you happy? ’ Interesting right? He tried to get to know the audience and see how happy they were. He also talked about what real happiness is. H mesmerised and captivated us throughout his speech. Thanks CP for the lovely piece.

The 4^th and final speaker of the day was our brand new member “Xavier Gomez”. He was doing his Ice Breaker speech from the “Leadership Development” path, Level-1. He came with his speech title “The Owner of The New house”. We were very curious about what he was going to talk about. This was suspense until he made it clear that his name Xavier has a meaning called “The Owner of The New House”. As there is a saying, everyone has a story to share, Xavier found the perfect story to share about his life. He talked about his initial life, love life and career. It was amazing to know Xavier. Keep it up!

Do you want a break? Let’s break for 10 mins.

Despite knowing that our Toilet was not operational that night, everyone served their tummies non-stop with the wonderful dinner. We were still eating then our time keeper rang the bell, “Guys, times up. Please get back. You can even eat after the meeting”. 

The ball was now in the General Evaluator, Dr. Devi Menon’s, DTM court. She is a wonderful Toastmaster, a friend and an amazing evaluator. She bravely followed the agenda. She called out Table Topic’s Evaluator, Kevin Khoo,CC. Kevin was brilliant, another fantastic speaker and evaluator. He was attentively listening to all the 4 speakers and highlighted in his evaluation, the speakers’ strengths and area of improvements. He encouraged and gave an utmost valuable feedback. We felt accomplished.

Now it was the project speech evaluators’ turn. Firstly, Dato’ Dr. Mary De Silva called to evaluate speaker Ken Chan’s, DTM speech “Negotiate to Win” as she was doing her evaluation project from pathways (“Presentation Mastery”). There was another evaluator to evaluate Dr. Mary’s evaluation who was Victor Ong, DTM from Liquid Gold Toastmasters Club. Both of them gave wonderful insights to Ken to improve further in his speech and praised his strengths. Dato Dr, Mary De Silva also got some pointers to do a better evaluation next time from Victor Ong,DTM.

Next, I was doing my best evaluation to evaluate Joel’s speech ‘Power, Influence & Politics’. I did my best and I was doing my project on evaluation from my path ‘Innovative Planning’. Therefore, I also got an evaluator to evaluate my evaluation. I particularly liked this part of the meeting on the evaluation of the evaluators. We tried our best to learn from each other.

Following after us Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB appeared on stage and the way he soared with the spirit in his evaluation, he won the best evaluation of the evening. He is also a professional speaker and mentor.

We called out our final speech evaluator Ron Yeap, ACB, CL. He is our Immediate Past President. He was attentive in listening to Xavier’s speech. An evaluator’s job is to comment on how the speaker has done well. An evaluator should acknowledge and provide a constructive feedback so that the speaker will be able to perform much better in their next speech. He did exactly that. Along with the speaker Xavier, we all felt once again accomplished.

Finally General Evaluator Dr. Devi Menon, DTM, was most observant and completely in charge when she told us as a whole club on what we are good at and what needs to be improved. An amazing evening it was with this bunch of enthusiastic, friendly and supportive people. This kind of environment can most definitely bring out the best in you.

Here, our Toastmaster of the Evening was enjoying the entire show and then took charge of the show again and called our club president Wendy Sim, CC to acknowledge the best performers of the evening. Yes, we do it in every meeting.

The Best Table Topics ™ Speaker goes toooooo , Joel Silas,

The Best Project Speech goes toooo ,Joel’s mentor Ken Chan, DTM.

The Best Project Speech Evaluation goes tooooo: Mathew Phillippose, CC, ALB.

What are you thinking now? That’s it!  The club president gave her closing address, summarised the whole meeting and adjourned the meeting. See you all again on 13^th Feb 2018.

Blog Writer: Manish Jha, CC

 Note:  

ASAA- Assistant Sergent At Arms.
CC- Competent Communication speaking manual.
ACB ALB- Advanced Communicator Bronze, Advanced Leader Bronze.
DTM- Distinguished Toastmaster.
TME- Toastmaster of the Evening.

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A Flourished 400th

The first chapter of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich says it all. Thoughts are things. An ideology, a concept or a simple hope could spark at any given moment and it takes a great visionary, a hopeful dreamer, a transformational leader to take that of which merely exists in the mind and materialize it.

And who would have known that what started in a small basement in Santa Ana, California on the 22^nd of October 1924 would end up flourishing on the 3^rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan on the 23^rd of January 2018.

As a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, so did the journey to Money-Mastery KL Toastmasters’ (MMKL) 400^th meeting. An ordinary meeting with an extraordinary history behind it.

Themed “A Flourished 400^th”, the meeting was set to go despite the heavy rain. Even the sky was crying with joy for our 400^th. Our respectable Immediate Past President, Ron Yeap, Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB), Competent Leader (CL) called the meeting to order and we got into mode. Something about reading the 2^nd half of our Toastmasters’ promise that night that made us recollect why we were all here as Toastmasters.

The beautiful President, Wendy Sim, Competent Communicator (CC) who sponsored golden 400 shaped balloons for the occasion came on stage to give her admirable address of our 400^th meeting. She welcomed the guests, speaking of which, it was nothing but a pure privilege to have with us for the special night a VIP as our General Evaluator (GE). We were blessed with the presence of District 102 Director, Azizah Abu Hassan, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) as our GE for our 400^th meeting. Alongside we were visited by Division C Director, Danny Bong, ACS, CL.

The first time Grammarian and our newest member, Xavier Gomez introduced the word of the day “Vigour” with much vigour indeed and following on all the members and guests spoke on their feet during the introduction about the theme whilst applying the word of the day.

Oh, we had past presidents still full of vigour take us on a nostalgic ride as they spoke of their first memories at MMKL. It was surreal today’s introduction as even I recollected the moment I first set foot into the door of MMKL as a guest. It’s not just the doors that are open here but the arms of the members that extend straight to their hearts as well. You wouldn’t find camaraderie and friendship elsewhere like how you find it in MMKL. Which is why I vividly remember my sentence as a guest 1.5 years ago before I even signed up as a member “I think… I’ve fallen in love with this club”.

We then had one of our pioneer members, Hj. Hashim Adnan, DTM, the jolly golfer who’s always having a cheery smile on his face to deliver us an impactful invocation speech. It was melancholy but uplifting, it was simple but thought provoking, it was full of variety but with a steady purpose as well. Friendship. Revolving around the motto of our club “Friends Helping Friends Succeed”, Hj. Hashim delivered like a true Toastmaster and left us with some food for thought.

The impromptu, fun-filled Table Topics ™ session thus followed, with our Table Topics ™ Master of the evening, Crystal Chen, ACB, Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB). Crystal played this role in the club for the first time but managed to string an array of topics that were absolutely apt to the occasion. Members from the floor Nini, KL Loh, Advanced Toastmaster Gold (ATMG), Hj. Hashim, DTM and Danny attempted at them and tested their abilities.

Alas, we moved on to the Project Speech Session with our first speaker, myself, Chitirra, who carried out my CC7: Research Your Topic with a speech entitled “Insomnia”. Something I tend to struggle with as I type this blog out at 4.15am when clearly I could be sleeping. I spoke of its symptoms, causes and some simple self-help remedies that could suppress the condition.

Next we had 3 Pathway Project speeches, all of which were from the Path “Presentation Mastery”.

The second speaker was K T Chok, with his Ice Breaker, “The Rising Sun”. He spoke of his origins from Tawau, Sabah and his passion for compounding figures as an investment banker. From Borneo Boy to Banker Boy, indeed KT himself is a rising sun.

Next we had, Dato Dr. Mary de Silva deliver her Project 2: Evaluation & Feedback speech entitled “Yes”. Dato Dr. Mary may be a new member but she speaks like a true professional and “Yes” her speeches contain so much valuable lessons all the time. This time she summarised Jim Carrey’s movie ‘Yes Man’ and shared with us on how a ‘Yes’ to take up a simple task, can take us a long way in life.

Last but not least, we had Olivia Chen also do her Project 2: Evaluation & Feedback speech. Whilst Mary’s was full of vigour, Olivia’s was full of peace. It was serene but captivating as she brought us into Zen mode to understand the art and science behind the eastern culture of flower arrangement. With her speech entitled “Ikebana” she even demonstrated with real flowers the Japanese flower arranging concept and what it actually symbolises. It was truly a treat for the eyes.

Today, we also made time to induct our newest member, Xavier Gomez and led him to his guiding light in Toastmasters, his mentor, Manish Jha, CC. Our VPM, Yap Ooi Yee carried out the protocol and with a round of Hi-5s flying in the air to welcome our newest guest, we set his spirit high with vigour and wished him all the growth and happiness in his Toastmasters journey as he set his first step in his thousand mile journey.

A short 10 minute break was in order as our MMKL members truly indulge in our tantalizing favourite, Nasi Lemak and can really go bananas with the bananas we serve.

Having filled our tummies, it was time again for another round of breakfast. The breakfast for champions as we call it here in Toastmasters, we continued with the very vital evaluation session. To conduct the session, our GE, District 102 Director, Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM took control of the stage.

The Table Topics ™ Evaluator, Manish Jha, CC gave a very detailed and distinctive evaluation on each of the speakers. Then the panel evaluators each came on stage to deliver their project speech evaluations, each with a style of their own. K L Loh, ATMG evaluated Chitirra in his unfastened but honest manner. Foo Fung Jiun, CC gave his first ever evaluation to KT. He truly observed the speech and displayed a smooth evaluation even remembering to encourage the speaker to return for more speeches. He understood and applied the sandwich method despite being a first time evaluator. Hj. Hashim, DTM, danced and pranced in his movement and toned down and toned up in his volume and gave an intricate evaluation on Dato’ Dr. Mary’s speech, which is why he never fails to bag a prize at any given Evaluation Contest. Finally, we had Ken Chan, DTM evaluate Olivia in his technical manner of evaluation. Known for his abbreviations and mastery techniques, this time Ken Chan, DTM was on a roll with his evaluation.

Honest and genuine open evaluations were given at random to all the project speakers and we finally moved on to the technical reports. We had a precise Grammarian report from Xavier Gomez, a well observed Ah-Counter report from EK Yeo, CC, CL and a timely report from the Timekeeper, Yap Ooi Yee, CC. Following, we had the general summary of what was pleasant and what could have been more pleasant about the meeting from our poised and professional GE, Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM.

On this special occasion of our 400^th meeting, having had also the fortune of the District Director’s presence, we set aside some air time for her special address and it was nothing but pure words of wisdom. Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM drilled into our minds that we can be more than what we already are and that the possibilities are endless. Having been a President’s Distinguished Club since 2003, she reminded MMKL that more can be done if we choose to raise the bar, that even a fine club can always be fine-tuned, that a little difference can make a big difference, that a “Yes” as mentioned by Mary in her speech can go a long way. I was pumped, I was boosted, I was driven by her encouragement and truly it was a gain to have heard her express her views and ideologies.

It was time again for our President Wendy Sim, CC to take the floor with the awards and announcements for the evening. Upon presenting a token of appreciation to our GE, we once again called upon Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM, to give away the Smedley Award Ribbon we gained to our President. We then invited Division C Director, Danny Bong, ACS, CL, to give away some education award ribbons that we gained for the term. It is important that members are recognized for their achievements and efforts, for a little motivation can do wonders in retaining the spirit and drive in a club.

Finally, the long awaited moment to award the best speakers arrived. Drumrolls drummed in our ear drums as the Best Table Topics award went to Hj. Hashim, DTM, the Best Speech Evaluator was bagged by Ken Chan, DTM and last but not least the Best Project Speech was rewarded to Olivia Chen. Truly deserving were they.

With joy in the air and inspiration in our hearts, the meeting was adjourned and we got together to snap a fantabulous 400^th meeting picture. We had props and the balloons to complement the occasion and add a burst of fun into the picture that will go down in history henceforth.

Come to think of it though, it’s not about celebrating how long we’ve been around. 100^th, 200^th­­, 300^th or 400^th, they are but numbers. Tonight, what we really celebrated was the vision of a great man who saw this day coming and the spirit of millions who made it happen. Nevertheless, it’ll be cool if I’d stick around to celebrate our 500^th wouldn’t it? Goodbye… just for now!

Blog Writer: Chitirra