#410 Forgive & Forget

 “Selamat, Hari Raya, Kepada saudara serta saudari”……(Happy Celebration, to all friends and folks)

The famous rhyme of Eid Mubarak was played from the car radio, paving the mood to a Hari Raya Themed meeting at Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club. In the spirit of “Maaf Zahir dan Batin”, the meeting was themed “Forgive and Forget”, with the Word of the Day “Solicitous”.

The meeting time was adjusted to start at 7pm as we can observe fasting, and break fasting with our Muslim members and guests.

In this 410^th meeting, we were visited by a few guests, including guest that was invited by members, as well as walked-in guest.

In this meeting, we are honoured to have Judy Lee, DTM from MIM PJ Toastmasters, taking up the honorable role as General Evaluator. The meeting was called to order by Assistant Sergeant At Arms, Crystal Chen, ACB, ALB at 7pm. The recital of Toastmasters promises led by ASAA reminded us of our pledge as a Toastmaster Member.

Madam President Wendy Sim, CC took over the stage with solicitous as this could be her last Presidential Address of the term. Nonetheless, Madam President in her address, would like us to be more forgiving and forget the past that could be holding us back, in order to move forward.

A round of self-introduction to the meeting was initiated by the President, and that given the opportunity to each attendee to state their role in the meeting, and the guest also got the chance to introduce themselves to the members.

Mandy Chan, CC, was the first speaker invited by the President to deliver the Invocation Speech. Mandy, after completing her Competent Communication project, grew more confident each time she took the stage. I was told she had volunteered herself to this role. How amazing a friendly environment like this able to build a character and boost up the self-confidence of an individual.

The Toastmaster of the Evening was a seasoned Toastmaster and Past President Serena Kong, ACB, CL. The history of Toastmasters and the founding history of our club was solicitously deliberated to the benefits of the guests who were among the attendees tonight.

To master the art of public speaking, one must be ready to speak impromptu. That is how the very exclusive Toastmasters program has included Table Topics^TM as its staple in the program. The session was led by experienced Toastmaster and Table Topics^TM contest winner, Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB. Crystal Chen, Michelle (guest), Victor Wan, Mike (guest) & Hj Hashim were among the brave souls took up the challenges.

In another session where assigned members came prepared with their project speeches, we saw Shain Anand being the 1^st speaker of the evening with his title “Down to Three” from Competent Communication Manual, Project #4 – How to Say It.

The 2^nd speaker of the evening was Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB in attempting his first project in the Pathway program, with the title “A Crucial Moment”. His chosen path is “Effective Coaching”, and this is project is from Level 1: Project 2 – Evaluation & Feedback.

Manish Jha, CC, IP1, was the 3^rd speaker and he was delivering from the “Innovative Planning” path, Level 2: Project 1 – Understanding Your Leadership Style. His speech title was “Lead By Example”.

Last but not least from the Project Speaker line up was Dr. Srikant, PM1. He was delivering his speech from the “Presentation Mastery” path, Level 2: Project 2 – Effective Body Language, with the title “Sailing in Indonesia”.

A mutual learning environment provided in Toastmasters allow the members know how they fair out in the performances. Judy Lee, as the General Evaluator, invited each Speech Evaluator to provide their comment and feedbacks for the speakers. The evaluation session started with Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM2, took the lead to give her Table Topics^TM evaluation to the speakers. CP lau ACB, ALB gave the evaluation for first speaker Hj Hashim, DTM was the 2^nd evaluator to evaluate on the performance of Mathew’s project speech. This continued with KL Loh, ATMG, the seasoned evaluator to evaluate Manish; and the incoming Division C Director, Ken Koh, ACS, ALB to evaluate Dr. Srikant.

Providing Evaluation Speech can be challenging yet rewarding. One has to practice his and her listening skill to listen attentively and analyse the speech presentation has met the project objectives at the same time. With the opportunity to observe and speak up, we will gain insight of the presentation requirements and skills at the same time.

When the technical evaluation team consist of Timer, Ah-Counter and Grammarian delivered their due reports, Madam General Evaluator Judy Lee given her General Evaluator’s report. We were relieved and grateful to hear that Judy gave a high compliment to the conducts of our meeting, which are in line to the Toastmasters International’s best practice. Judy also shared her thought to have a more contemporary and radical approach in the meeting practices, including placard of the TI history, app-based voting system and such, which are good suggestion for our consideration.

We thanked Judy Lee, DTM for her constructive feedback to the meeting.

In the final session, Madam President, Wendy Sim, CC once again took the stage for the closing of the meeting. The best performers of the meeting were announced, and the results were as below:

1. Best Table Topics Speech – KL Loh, ATMG

2. Best Evaluation Speech – Hj Hashim, DTM

The Best Project Speech award was not given due to time disqualification from 2 speakers.

President Wendy also took the opportunity to present the Pathway award ribbons to Manish and Dr. Srikant for their Level 1 achievement. The closing address grew more sentimental as President Wendy also give away her self-designed notepad with the Club Officers photos to her team of EXCO as appreciation of their contributions.

The meeting finally ended with a high tone by wishing the members and guest “Selamat Hari Raya” and happy holiday. We have chosen to “forgive and forget” the hatchet of the past, and we will choose to retain friendship and camaraderie moment forever.

Blog Writer: Ron Yeap ACB, CL

#409 Every Vote Counts

Finally, the big day has arrived for the club. It was the 22nd day on May, merely 2 weeks after the General Elections in Malaysia, we were geared up for another election, in the club. It was the day for the Annual Business Meeting and also to find the Exco successors who will lead Money Mastery KL Toastmaster club’s kingdom to another glory. The theme of the meeting was Your Vote Counts.

The meeting started with ASAA Crstal Chen, ACB, ALB calling the meeting to order and reciting the Toastmaster’s promise. Since it was a short meeting,  our club president Wendy Sim, CC was the General Evaluator for the meeting and the VPE Chitirra was the acting president. Our acting president Chitirra welcomed the guests and invited the grammarian Vijaykumar, CC to introduce the word of the day Doctrine which means  a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group. Following that, she invited Mathew Philippose CC, ALB for the invocation speech. As usual Mathew was eloquent and he galvanized the members on the floor for the ABM and club elections.

As the holy month of Ramadan is progressing, we decided to take a break for Buka Puasa/Iftar after the invocation speech so that our fellow Muslim members who were fasting can break the fast. After the break, Toastmaster of the Evening CP Lau, ACS, ALB took over the charge to carry the meeting forward. He briefed the history of Toastmasters to the guests and introduced the role players. Manish Jha, IP1, CC was the ah-counter and Mandy Chan, CC was the timer. After that, the stage was handed over to Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva PM2 for the Table Topics™ Session. In this session, speakers will be given one of the topics prepared by the Table Topics™ Master and the speaker has to do an impromptu speaking. All the speakers spoke excitingly.

As we had ABM, no project speeches session was there. Up next, it was the Evaluation session lead by the GE Wendy Sim. She invited the Table Topics™ Evaluator KT Chok PM1 for th Table Topics™ evaluation. After that, the role players gave the report and finally the GE gave her evaluation on the club meeting.

The stage was handed over to acting President Chitirra for the awards presesntation. Vijaykumar, CC was voted as the best Table Topics™ speaker.  She gave the closing address and the meeting was adjourned.

Up next, we started the Annual Business Meeting. ASAA Crystal Chen ACB, ALB called the meeting to order. President Wendy Sim, CC gave the President’s address and appointed Mandy Chan CC as the recording Secretary. The Nomination chair was headed by Ron Yeap, ACB, CL and the Nomination Committee had Mathew Philippose CC, ALB and Ken Chan DTM. The 15th ABM minutes were adopted and the Treasurer’s report was read. Following that, the current Excos read their report and the account audited report was presented  by CP Lau ACS, ALB. Up next was the election for the Exco of next term and the following were elected as the members of new Exco team.

President                : Chitirra Amirthalingam

Vice President of Education    : Manish Jha IP1, CC   

Vice President of Membership    : KT Chok PM1

Vice President of Public Relations    : Dat0’ Dr. Mary de Silva PM2

Secretary                : Crystal Chen ACB, ALB

Treasurer                : Yap Ooi Yee, CC

Assistant Sergeant at Arms        : Olivia Chen PM1

Congratulations to the newly elected members. We hope that they will carry forward the legacy of club and bring in new innovative ideas to take the Toastmasters education program to next level.

Blog writer: Shain

#408 Invest In Yourself

"You will never go broke from investing in yourself."

Quotes like these make us think whether we are really investing in ourselves. Well, we at Money Mastery - Kl Toastmasters club, when walked through the doors of Restoran Al-Safuan in Three-Two Square PJ, were reassured that our investment didn’t go wrong. Even though it was a temporary venue, but the commitment from our members to attend the meeting is permanent. Theme of the meeting was Invest in Yourself. Toastmasters is the ideal venue for people of all walks of life to practice their speaking skills. It is a path of discovery where one realizes what latent skills one has such as management, communication, interpersonal and presentation skills.

On the 15th day of May 2018, for the first meeting of the month, ASAA Olivia Chen took the lead in arranging the meeting assisted by some of our club members. Once the meeting was called to order by her,  the Toastmaster’s promises were recited followed by the President Wendy Sim’s address. She introduced the Grammarian Shain Anand to introduce the word of the day - Paragon which means a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence. Followed by that, was the self introduction session by the members on the floor. The General Evaluator (GE) of the meeting was Agnes Chang ACB, ALB.  The President, then, called upon Ron Yeap ACB, CL to inspire the audience with an Invocation speech. After the invocation speech, the session was handed over to Mathew Philippose CC, ALB who was the Toastmaster of the evening. He was flamboyant throughout the meeting and carried the meeting with his unique charm.

Up next was the Table Topics™ session which was handed over to Mancy Chan CC. She prepared topics according to the theme of the day and her topics tested the speakers to speak on their feet. All of them spoke brilliantly.

Followed by the Table Topics™ session was the assigned speech session.

Speaker 1: KT Chok, PM1 who was delivering his speech under the Pathways program Level 2  Project 1 – Understanding Your Communication Style. His speech title was  Know Your Unique Style.  His speech was about identifying his style of speech, which he presented in an explanatory way

Speaker 2: Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1 was delivering her Level 2: Project 3 – Introduction to Toastmasters Mentoring speech with the title Taking Baby Steps in which she explained her mentoring experience in Myanmar and also explained how her mentor helped her take steps forward. We were in awe of her style of storytelling.

Speaker 3: Olivia Chen was on the floor with Level 1: Project 3 – Research & Presenting speech with the title The Less Known Benefit of Papaya  . In her speech she informed the floor about the benefits of papaya, specially its seeds. She completed the Level 1 with this outstanding speech.

Speaker 4: Ken Chan, DTM  was delivering Speech #7: Research Your Topic from CC manual with the title Stress Management. His speech focussed on the kinds of stress and ways to manage stress. His speech was prodigious as usual.

A break was taken for 15 minutes and we were into the evaluation session captained by the GE Agnes Chan. with her panel of Table Topics™ evaluator and speech evaluators. After that, the timer Foo Fung Jiun CC, Grammarian Shain Anand & Ah-counter Yap Ooi Yee, CC gave their reports. Finally the GE gave the constructive evaluation.

Best Table Topics™ Speaker: Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1

Best Project Speaker : Ken Chan, DTM

Best Evaluator: KL Loh, ATMG

To summarize, the speeches given were well spoken, the evaluations were concise and helpful and the Toastmaster of the Evening was eloquent as usual. One should never restrain oneself in giving speeches. It takes some courage at the start but consistency and determination will see the fruition of a talented speaker.  

Blog writers: Vijay & Shain

OLD Is Gold

The meaning of Old is gold is that whatever is old is as important as gold. We should not think old is a waste. Even though this proverb is short, it has valuable meaning.

The foundation for all the new things in the present world was laid in the olden days and what we are getting at present is all the updated / improvised ones of the old inventions which form the base of the new ones. So we need to value the old things much as these are the basics of learning new things.

Old songs with their sweet melodies, old sculptures standing tall, old friends, etc., are all much more precious than gold. From practical to aesthetic value they are very much valuable just like gold. When a thing becomes old it is more valued.

There is one thing that is most important above all in our personal interest that is our old people. They should be treasured as we treasure gold. They are there to give life- long wisdom, which has to be inherited by all of us.

The club meeting was temporarily located at University Towers, Jalan Universiti, Section 11, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Despite the change in the venue of the meeting, 18 of our club members including our General Evaluator, Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP from Kuching, arrived at the venue in time. We had one guest, Mr. Ken Chan from Mandarin Toastmasters Club who attended the meeting and came with his home-made cake. A very touching act of gratitude from him.

@ 7:18pm ASAA Olivia Chen called the meeting to order. The meeting begun with “A Toastmaster’s Promise” recited by the Toastmasters’ members for their commitment in the Toastmasters Educational Program.

@7:20pm: Our Club Miss. President,Wendy Sim, CC took over the control of the meeting. In her welcome address, she greeted our distinguished club member – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP who came from Kuching and also guest Mr. Ken Chan from Mandarin Toastmasters Club. Then, she invited the Grammarian, Chitirra to introduce the word of the day “Stellar”. She invited members and guest to do a self- introduction and encouraged them to use word of the day “Stellar” and theme of the day “Old Is Gold”. All the members and guest did well during the self- introduction session.

@7:42pm: Our club member Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB gave his Invocation Speech which was in line with the theme of the day “Old Is Gold”.

He shared with us that old refers to the age. Gold refers to value. It does not mean we are celebrating old age. If so, some of us could have come to the meeting with white hair or carrying a walking stick to add meaning to the theme. What “Old Is Gold” means is that old refers to experience and that is valuable. So we want to treasure the experience of senior members as valuable as gold.

@7:46pm:The Toastmaster of The Evening,Ron Yeap, ACB, CL briefed us on the history of Toastmasters International and our club. He mentioned how TI (Toastmasters International) was founded and inspired millions of people across the world to extend this Toastmasters family.  He also explained the benefits of the Toastmaster Educational Program to our professional career and personal life. He introduced the role players from our club for this meeting in the sequence below.

Grammarian – Chitirra, 

“Ah” Counter– Mandy Chan, CC

Timer– Serena Kong, ACB, CL

General Evaluator – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP.

All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for the evening.

@7:53pm: Table Topics™ Master, Foo Fung Jiun, CCwas invited to the stage to take over the control from the TME. He had prepared 8 topics related to theme of the day. Members and guest were encouraged to participate. He explained the objective of Table Topics™, the time limitation for each speakerand the rules before all the Table Topics™ speeches. The purpose of the Table Topics ™ session is to develop the impromptuspeaking skills which includes an opening, body and conclusion during the speech delivery.

The order of Table Topics™ speakers were as below:

1)Manish Kumar Jha, PM1–“Age is just a number. Yes or no?”

2) Hj. Hashim Adnan, DTM – “If old is gold, what is young?”

3) Vijayakumar, CC – “Looking older or younger than your age. Which one do you prefer?”

4) KL Loh, ATMG – “How old is considered old?”

 

A big applause to all the 4 speakers and votes were casted for the best Table Topics™ speaker.

@8:05pm:The TME took over the session from the Table Topics™ Master and proceeded with the assigned speeches from the Advanced Communication Manual and Pathways.

1^stSpeaker – CP Lau, ACB, ALB

Speech Title – “Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew (Nurturing and Attracting Talent”Speech Evaluator – KL Loh, ATMG

This was his project speech from the Advanced Communication Manual Series: Specialty Speeches -Speech No.4: Read Out Loud

He shared with us the memoir of the late Lee Kuan Yew and his contributions to Singapore which included the importance of education, marriage/birth rate and foreign talent imported to develop the country.

2^nd speaker – Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1,

Speech Title – “JJ Cool”.

Speech Evaluator – Julia Leong, ACB, ALB

She was doing her speech from the new education manual– Pathways: Presentation Mastery Level 2: Project 2 – Effective Body Language.

She had demonstrated a variety of presentation styles in her speech with body language, vocal variety and good eye contact. 

@ 8:43pm: An address was given by Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP.An inspiring and motivating speech it was by sharing with us his about his stellar journey in Toastmaster. It was not an easy route taken by him but with his persistence, commitment, confidence and by remaining focused it lead him to become the International President in Toastmasters.

@9:00pm: Break for refreshments for 5 minutes.

@9:05pm:ASAA Olivia called the meeting to order after the refreshments. Then she passed the control of the meeting back to the TME.

@9:06pm: TME, Ron Yeap, ACB, CL invited the General Evaluator, Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP to chair the meeting. He led the session with his panel of evaluators. He begun by explaining the purpose of the evaluation followed by:-

Evaluation from the three evaluators

-         Table Topics Evaluator –KT Chok, PM1,

-         Speech Evaluators – KL Loh,  ATMG and Julia Leong, ACB, ALB

Role players’ reports

•          Grammarian – Chitirra
•          Timer – Serena Kong, ACB, CL
•          Ah Counter – Mandy Chan, CC

@9:40 pm:  Club President Wendy Sim was called on the stage by the Toastmasters of The Evening to give her presidential closing address. She first thanked the TME who handled the meeting diligently. Then she presented the award for the best speakers for the evening.

Best Table Topics™ Speaker – KL Loh, ATMG

Token of appreciation to the GE – Datuk Dr. John Lau, DTM, PIP

Finally, Miss. President, Wendy Sim summarized the entire meeting and asked the guest to share his thoughts about our meeting for the night. The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 pm

It was indeed a stellar meeting and as the night shone with glittering stars like gold, under the stellar surface, a little old club called MM-KL, had its members of gold go home with smiles that shone just like the stars.

Blog writer: EKey Yeo, CC CL

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