# 415 – Change Your Routine, Change Your Life

If you want to make a change that feels significantly different, you need to learn and put them in place of your life. Each person starts from where they are right now. That means in order to move on to another place you need to accept where you are at this very minute. But accepting where you are does not mean you have to stay there.

Colin Firth as Harry Hart in Kingsman says it this way: “My point is that the lack of a silver spoon has set you on a certain path that you needn’t stay on.   If you are prepared to adapt and learn, you can transform”.

As usual, the venue of the club meeting was held at MCA Petaling Jaya Selatan, No. 9C (2^nd Floor), Lorong 8/1D, 46050 Petaling Jaya.  There are 12 our club members and 5 quests who included members from MIA Toastmasters Club Joshua Chan, ACB, ALB as General Evaluator and Phoenix Toastmasters Club Poi Yu Ai as Ah Counter.        

    

ASAA Olivia Chen called the meeting to order at 7:15pm.  Then the meeting begun with “A Toastmaster’s Promise” recited by the Toastmasters’ members to pledge their commitment in the Toastmasters Educational Program.

Our Club President Chitirra took over the control of the meeting. In her welcome address, she greeted our distinguished guests – General Evaluator Joshua Chan, ACB, ALB from MIA Toastmasters Club. Then, Grammarian, Shain Anand introduced the word of the day “Humdrum”. She invited members and guests to do a self- introduction and encouraged them to use the word of the day “Humdrum” and to use the theme of the day “Change Your Routine, Change Your Life”. All the members and guests did well during the self- introduction session.

Next our veteran club member Hj. Hashim, DTM gave his Invocation Speech which was perfectly aligned with the theme of the day. He intently shared with us about integrity, relationship and commitment which he experienced in his career and family life. It was a marvellous and inspiring speech coupled with his always amazing use of vocal variety and body language.

The Toastmaster of The Evening, EK Yeo, CC, 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.  He also explained the benefits of the Toastmaster Educational Program to our professional career and personal life. He then introduced the role players from our club for this meeting in the sequence below.

Grammarian – Shain Anand;

“Ah” Counter– Poi Yu Ai (Phoenix Toastmasters Club)

Timer– Wendy Sim, CC

General Evaluator – Joshua Chan, ACB, ALB (MIA Toastmasters Club)

All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for the evening and from then it was all-set-go!

Table Topics™ Master, Chitirra was invited to take over the control from the TME. She had prepared 8 topics related to word of the day. Members and guests were encouraged to participate. She explained the objective of Table Topics™, the time limitation for each speaker and the rules before all the Table Topics™ speeches. The purpose of the Table Topics ™ session is to develop the impromptu speaking skills of individuals where they are required to follow the structure of speech making with an opening, body and conclusion during the speech delivery.

The order of Table Topics™ speakers were as below:-

1) Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB –“What do you want most?”

2) Jason – “What chances do you wish you have taken?”

3) KL Loh, ATMG– “Change is only constant”

4) Mike Chin– “If not now, then when?”

5) Olivia Chen, PM1 – “When was the last time you tried something new?”

All 5 speakers received a big applause and soon votes were cast for the best Table Topics™ speaker.

The efficient 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 – KT Chok, PM2

Pathway: Presentation Mastery Level 3: Project 1 – Persuasive Speaking

Speech Title – “Buy this pen”

Evaluator – Chitirra

KT Chok, PM2 shared with us his story on “Wolf of Wall Street”, and how people buy on emotion, greed, generosity or even goodwill, buying things for solutions and buying based on the story of the item. His speech was delivered with confidence, the required vocal variety and as usual, it was injected with humour.

2^nd speaker – KL Loh, ATMG

Advanced Communication and Leadership Program

Manual: The Professional Speaker

Project 4: The Professional Seminar

Speech Title – “Fishing Rods n Hooks”.

Speech Evaluator – Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB

KL Loh had demonstrated a variety of presentation styles in his speech using elements of body language, vocal variety and good eye contact. He introduced us the investment tools by using charting in the stock market. You will be mistaken if you think this topic is humdrum then you will miss the opportunity to create your wealth from the stock market shared by the speaker.

The meeting called for a break for refreshments for 10 minutes at 8:45 pm.

Soon after our TME EK Yeo, CC CL called the meeting to order and then invited the General Evaluator, Joshua Chan, ACB, ALB to chair the meeting. He led the session with his panel of evaluators. He began by explaining the purpose of the evaluation followed by the evaluation from the  respective evaluators:

-        Table Topics Evaluator  - Manish Jha, CC, IP1

-        Speech Evaluators  - Chitirra and Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB

Evaluation on Speech Evaluators under Pathways’ Evaluation Projects:

-        KL Loh, ATMG on Chitirra

-       Hj. Hashim, DTM on Mathew Philipose, CC, ALB

The purpose of the evaluation was to share what the speakers or evaluators have done good, and if there are any shortfalls by giving constructive criticism for their improvement.

Role players’ reports were given splendidly by:

• Grammarian – Shain Anand
• Timer – Wendy Sim, CC
• Ah Counter – Poi Yu Ai

Club President Chitirra was called on the stage by the TME 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 – Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB

Best Speech Evaluator – Hj. Hashim, DTM

 

Token of appreciation to the GE – Joshua Chan, ACB, ALB

Finally, Mdm President, Chitirra summarized the entire meeting and asked the guests to share their thoughts about our meeting for the night. The meeting adjourned at 9:45 pm

It was indeed not a humdrum meeting with two project speeches. The meeting designated with superior quality of project speeches, Invocation Speech, Table Topics Session and Evaluation reports which enlightened everyone as the joy of club members and guests were visible towards their Toastmaster journey. It was a great evening! 

Thanks to EK Yeo, CC, CL, contributors, writers and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club
VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

#414 - Who Am I?

I can never seem to find out. Confused and complex this quest of life is to me as I type this out. Did this meeting give me an epiphany to that? You’ll find out at the end of this post.

The epiphany that we all discovered before this meeting however was that Money Mastery KL TMC (MMKL) and Shah Alam TMC (SATMC) both have their meetings on the same day at the same time so decided to synergize and come up with a double powered joint meeting!

The date was set at 31^st July 2018 through the initiative of MMKL’s Immediate Past President, Wendy Sim, CC through the request of two epic members of the respective clubs, Hj. Hashim, DTM and Robert Ram, DTM.

The day arrived, the two club members drew in slowly and at sharp 7.15pm MMKL’s EK Yeo, CC, CL called the meeting to order, recited the Toastmaster’s Promise and invited MMKL’s President, Chitirra to give her opening address. Embracing the power of synergy she acknowledged the sweat that both club members broke to make this a reality.

Following, Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB of MMKL came out to give his invocation speech in which he left no one out whilst enlightening us to discover ourselves as Toastmasters. He took us to church indeed for his speech was such an epiphany. Without having to say, the theme of the day was “Who Am I?” and the word of the day “Epiphany” and he lived up to it.

Our ever ready and steady CP Lau, ACS, ALB of MMKL took on the role as Toastmaster of the Evening and briefly went through the history of Toastmasters International, called upon the role players to introduce their roles and handled the meeting through and through with care and charisma.

The role players for the night were, Wendy Sim, CC of MMKL as the Ah-Counter, Ron Yeap, ACB, CL of MMKL as Grammarian, Serena Kong, ACB, CL of MMKL as Timer and the ever enthusiastic Robert Ram, DTM of SATMC as the General Evaluator overseeing the meeting held at MMKL itself.

Then came the exciting session of Table Topics ™ by MMKL’s toastmaster, Shain Anand and with him he had an array of challenging topics for all to try.

We then eventually moved on to the Assigned Speech Session with 4 speeches for the night, 2 representatives from each club.

The first was a Competent Communication Manual speech from Sarah Abedi Abdullah, DTM of SATMC doing her CC#10 entitled ‘To Be More Than You Can Be’ and indeed she pushed us beyond our horizons, to go the extra mile and surely inspired us to more than what we can be. There was epiphany in the air and we were breathing it from her speech that was oxygenated with it.

Next up was KT Chok, PM1 from MMKL with his final project under Level 2 of his Pathway Presentation Mastery. With his speech ‘Mentor Mentee Love Hate Relationship’, the epiphany he passed down to us was that “If the student is ready, the teacher will be”. Likewise for a mentee to be ready in order for his mentor to guide him in his Toastmasters’ journey. Truly the words of Master Yoda himself as he coached Luke Skywalker to be one of the greatest Jedi Masters of all times.

Next was Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva PM2 from MMKL as well, in her final project under Level 2 of her Pathway Presentation Mastery. With her title “Write To Sell” she caught our attention in her grand opening with a dazzling string of pearls. As she was trying to promote that fine piece of jewellery, she moved on to tell us that actually one of the best ways to sell anything is to write a book about it. Master your field and write away right away in order to boom your business.

Finally, the epiphany we all needed as Toastmasters was someone to show us the light or rather in this context the “path” to the Pathways programme in Toastmasters. For that, we had our final speaker from SATMC, Safura Atan, ACB, CL. Also a Pathways Guide she used this to her advantage whilst educating us in her Advanced Communication speech from the Speech by Management manual themed ‘Communication Change’. Her title was ‘Navigating Through A New Path’ and she navigated us through the Pathways programme and encouraged us to kick start it as soon as possible.

After a bang of speeches, a short break was given and the members of both clubs mingled over MMKL’s classic Nasi Lemak.

EK Yeo, CC, CL, timely called us in for a round two of digesting and that was for the Evaluations sessions. Robert Ram, DTM emceed this session and called back for EK Yeo, CC, CL to give his table Topics ™ evaluation of each member. 

Following in order of the project speakers:

Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB of MMKL 
Mohd. Lofti of SATMC
Zarina Abu Bakar, ACB, ALB of SATMC and 
Hj. Hashim, DTM of MMKL each gave their unique evaluations for the speakers

A round of open evaluation was in order before each role player gave their reports and both club Presidents were called out to give the awards to the best role players of the night, all of which were bagged by the members of SATMC to take home to their club with pride.

Best Table Topics ™ Speaker: Mohd. Lofti

Best Evaluator: Zarina Abu Bakar, ACB, ALB

Best Assigned Speech: Sarah Abedi Abdullah, DTM

Alas the night of fun was coming to its end and to wrap it up with a bang we invited the President of SATMC, Safura Atan, ACB, CL to give the closing address. It was inspiring and encouraging indeed as she spoke of how the camaraderie between both clubs gave tonight’s meeting a meaning.

With that, looking forward to a next joint meeting, the meeting was adjourned and we all posed for a fabulous group photo.

Back to my question in the beginning of this post as to whether this meeting gave me an epiphany as to who I was? Well, the discovery never stops. That’s for sure! For tonight however, I am a Toastmaster and damn proud I am to be one! Now go discover yourself, your epiphany is sure to come. Good night, sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite.

Thanks to Shain Anand contributors, writers and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM2

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

             

Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests 2018/2019

The time had come to celebrate the quotes “Laughter is the best medicine” and “Evaluation is the breakfast of champions”. Yes! The annual Club Level Humourous Speech & Evaluation Contests of Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club had dawned on the dusk of 24^th July 2018.

Up and about were the team for the big event which had been planned ahead by our enthusiastic Organizing Chair, Manish Jha, CC, CL, IP1. Phones buzzing, humans buzzing, the ambiance on a buzz on the 3^rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan as all arrive early to set the last minute touches for the contests.

Honored with the presence of our Chief Judge, Sharon Wong, ACB, ALB, between 6.45pm to 7.15pm multiple briefings were done simultaneously. Chief Judge to role players, Contest Toastmasters to contestants, Organizing Chair to the SAAs. With everybody in check, at 7.15pm when the clock struck, the gavel was struck and the contest was called to order.

The SAA, May Ong, CC, ALB was fantastic in gathering everyone in on time and welcoming them and the floor was then passed to our very smart and steady Organizing Chair, Manish Jha, CC, ALB, IP1 to give his opening address and the floor was passed to our diligent Toastmaster of the Evening, E K Yeo, CC, CL who then passed the floor to our Humourous Speech Contest Toastmaster, the graceful Lim Gim Kim (ACS, ALB) who outlines the contest rules and introduced the contestants and their order of speaking. 

Oh boy, here at MCA we only have 3 floors but after 4 passing of the floors from May to Manish to EK to Gim Kim… Phewwww… Alas the Humourous Speech Contest begin. Yes, that was a lame joke but boy didn’t our contestants coming up throw the crowd off their seats with their humongous humour. 

Our first contestant, Mary de Silva comically laid out all the taboos that were stopping us from progressing in our lives in her speech “Good Luck, Bad Luck, It’s Your Choice”. Funny how a black cat that crosses your path simply because it just wants to get to the other side of the road can block your path and stop you from getting to the other side of your life.

Mathew Philippose, the second contestant shared with us how a friend became his forever in his romantic comedy performance entitled “Best Friend”.

The third contestant was the ever humourous Ken Chan because yes he “can” do humour like a natural and so he wowed the crowd with his speech entitled “W.O.W”.

Last but not least was our only one, Victor Wan with his speech “Three Stubborn Old Men”. He shared with us the life lessons he gained from 3 different stubborn old men in his life. Who were these men? You’d be surprised. Not his son, father and grandfather but Tun Dr. Mahathir, Robert Kuok and Stan Lee. What a combo?!?!?

With laughter and happy hearts we all adjourned for a short 10 min break before the next contest begin. 

Once again, May Ong, CC, ALB called us in and our TME invited the Evaluation Contest Toastmaster, Serena Kong, ACB, CL to begin the contest. The Test Speaker, surprise, surprise, angelic Agnes Chan was called to the stage to share with us “Ten Little Things” for the evaluation contestants to evaluate. 

She was vibrant and energetic and shared a worthy content reminding us all to appreciate 10 little happy things that we come across every day to be happy. But that is not for me to say! I’ll leave that to our Evaluation Contestants. 

The contestants were brought to the holding room and the first contestant yet again Mary de Silva remained to give her calm and composed evaluation. Following was Victor Wan with his loud and large evaluation. The third was Mathew Philippose with his passive and passionate evaluation. Next was Ken Chan with his cheeky and cheery evaluation and finally Hj. Hashim with his prim and proper evaluation. So many varieties of input for Agnes Chan that night from MMKL’s unique set of evaluators.

The contests ended with a bang and as the Chief Judge went on to tabulate the results, Serena Kong, ACB, CL took on the stage to interview every contestant with an interesting array of questions. The feedback was fabulous of course. Following, the tokens of participation to contestants and tokens of appreciation to role players were given. 

Having done that alas the epic moment of the night arrived. Curiosity was killing us all and so the Chief Judge was called on twice for the announcements of each contest winners. Drum rolls were filling the air through out and the results resulted as below.

Humourous Speech Contest:

With that nerve wrecking moment done, we had our home grown Area C1 Director (AD) our beloved Ron, Yeap, ACB, CL put on his AD shoes to give his AD speech. It’s was quite weird watching our own member address us like an independent external Toastmaster nevertheless it was more of a proud moment to watch him speak as an AD grown from MMKL.

**Wipes off proud tears of joy as I type this hahaha**

Finally, the President, Chitirra was called on to the stage to give her closing address and call it a night. She gave some words of encouragement to the fellow members and called for all to stay for a group photoshoot by our official photographer Dr. Srikant, PM1 to cherish this momentous contest night.

We stand together as one whether we are role players, participants or audiences of a contest because at any level we can learn and be inspired through contests like this. Seize the opportunity always and victory is always our whether your number one as a participant or sitting in the last row as an audience. There’s always something you can take home at a Toastmasters’ contest or meeting because there’s always something you can contribute to if you become a Toastmaster. Until the next contest period peeps, don’t get too critical and just keep laughing because life itself is a Humourous Speech and Evaluation Contest where you’re the participant and the judge yourself. 

Thanks to contributors, writers and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

MMKL Installation Night 2018

It’s been some time since I didn’t write up any blog and so now I got to write on how was our Money Mastery KL Club EXCO Installation ceremony took place with grandeur. The day to remember was on 14^th July at Glo Damansara, Ultra Hero’s Shop.

Well, it was one of our historical moments for MMKL. We were celebrating our 16^th Anniversary with our club members and invited guests. Our installation committee decided to have a theme party as a an Ultra Heros Night. It was exciting and spectacular to see how our senior members and guests turned up in the dressed as Ultra Heroes. 

As the evening started our new EXCO team looked stunning on stage in complete formal attire and portrayed a great sense of responsibility. The happiest person of the evening was non-other than the immediate Past President Competent Communicator Wendy Sim. On this day she was being discharged from her responsibilities of being President of the club and was pretty excited to crown in incoming new president, TM Chitirra.  

We started off with a very interactive and creative game which involved everyone to warm up by Toastmaster of the Evening Competent Communicator Kevin Khoo. Kevin is professional trainer and emcee. He was amazing from the beginning of the show until the end. During the game everyone burst into the laughter and the forthcoming action was mandatory by everyone who got eliminated based on the rules of the game.

By the time we got started on a serious note, everyone was treated to some inspiring speeches from our well-prepared speakers from in and outside of the clubs. Even the speakers came with their superhero costumes.

After few inspiring speeches we were even further uplifted to the yummy dinner that was served. There was such great ambiance and it was indeed an Ultra Heroes Night as we are in an abode under the glittering and shining sky of the night. 

I can say that all of them are in fact Super Heroes and in reality not everyone is aware about it so if you want to meet our super heroes visit to our club meeting which meets every 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Tuesday of each month.  

Congratulations to the MMKL Exco 2018/2019!

#412 You are One and Only

Ever wondered what your purpose was on this earth? What makes you so special? Meeting #412 helped us answer that question!   

Themed “You Are One and Only”, the one and only Serena Kong, ACB, CL kick started the meeting at sharp 7.15pm as the SAA. Being one of the only clubs that recites the Toastmasters’ Promise before beginning a meeting, she brought us through this set of reminders smoothly before passing the floor to the new President of the club. Chitirra took stage for the first time as the President of the club, welcomed the guests and invited them to introduce themselves and speak of the theme of the day along with the word of the day which was “sanguine”. It means to remain positive even in an adverse situation. She was as sanguine as she was nervous. An array of views were projected throughout about the theme. You may be one but you are the only one and without you things cannot be completed. Like a missing piece of puzzle to a beautiful picture. Have you already realized how important you are?

Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB is one of the few “one and only” kind of people who will step up to any given challenge at any given time and he came forth when called upon to do so spontaneously as a replacement invocation speaker. Things happen for a reason and we could not have had a better invocation to invoke not just this meeting but the whole term ahead of us. He reminded us all of our purpose as Toastmasters.

Manish Jha, CC, IP1, our new Vice President of Education then took over the stage as the Toastmaster of the Evening. He was lively and enthusiastic. Upon giving a short brief about Toastmasters to our guests he called upon the technical role players of the day to describe their roles. Yap Ooi Yee, CC was the Ah-Counter, Shain Anand was the Grammarian, EK Yeo, CC, CL was our Timer and boy were we lucky to have Lakmichand M.A., DTM a.k.a Lucky to grace our first meeting as the General Evaluator. 

Once again Serena Kong, ACB, CL came on to the stage to take us through the Table Topics™ session as the Table Topics™ Master. She came up with many interesting topics that our guests and members attempted with such will and enthusiasm. Julia rocked the stage and inspired us all to be great Toastmasters.

Upon completing the first part of our meeting, we moved on to the second major element of a regular Toastmasters meeting which was the Assigned Speech Session. We had with us 4 vibrant speakers tonight namely Shelly Sim, Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB, KT Chok, PM1 and Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM2. 

Shelly made a comeback with her second speech entitled Flat Earth to prove her point that the earth indeed was flat. Did she manage to convince us? That, we shall see in her repeat speech as per her speech criteria in the next round.

Mathew did his repeat speech on “A Crucial Moment” and once again left us thinking on how we would react given an emergency situation. 

KT Chok left us with laughter in his Effective Body Language speech entitled “Now Everyone Can Win” letting us know that the less you lose, the more you win. What a tactic?

Finally, Dato’ Dr. Mary engaged with her audience in a useful tutorial on how to pack our bags for travel. Pretty useful tips with a twist of entertainment as we learnt how to twist our clothes into sausage rolls for packing light. True to her speech title “There is Hope”, there was hope. 

After a jam packed line of speeches, we went for a short break and resumed 10 minutes later for the 3^rd element of the Toastmasters’ meeting which was the Evaluations Session. 

Lakmichand M.A., DTM led this session in his usual authentic manner. Foo Fung Jiun, CC was called up first to give the Table Topics™ evaluation and he could not have been more observant, kind and genuine at the same time. Following, we had the 4 evaluators for the 4 speakers in accordance of the speakers. First up was Ron Yeap, ACB, CL, followed by Julia Leong, ACB, ALB, then K L Loh, ATMG and finally Tan Ben Hoe, CTM, CL.

After their respective evaluations, we had a 5 minute open evaluation followed by the technical evaluations from the Ah-Counter, Grammarian, Timer and finally our General Evaluator himself.

To close the night, the President was called upon again to give out the awards to the achievers for the night.

Awards:

Best Table Topics™ Speaker: KL Loh ATMG

Best Project Speaker:   Dato Dr Mary de Silva PM2

Best Evaluator: Julia Leong ACB, ALB

Several key announcements were made and the guests gave their warm feedback about the meeting and the meeting was adjourned with a wonderful photoshoot.

In life, we face many struggles but help is always given to those ask and sometimes even when you don’t. Like how I was struggling to finish this piece and a random stranger heard me say “Oh, I’m so not inspired to write” and he said “Well, sometimes it happens! You get a writer’s block but the 2^nd wind will come” and he left like a passing cloud. He was the one and only that helped me complete this blog. Your purpose, be it big or small is still pivotal. So remember that you are unique and you are one and only. 

Thanks to contributors, writers and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM2

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

#411 Best Your Best Self

We all struggle to be at the acme of our lives but along the way do we tend to lose ourselves?

And so theme was raised, Be Your Best Self. The final meeting of the term in which we all discovered not just ourselves but our best selves before we stepped into the new term.

The world of the day was of course “Acme” because that was the destination while self-love was the journey.

The meeting began at sharp 7.15 where our dedicated SAA, Olvia Chen, PM1 brought us through the opening with the Toastmasters’ Promise as well.

Following, the Acting President, Chitirra, welcomed the guests, allowed the Grammarian to introduce the word of the day “Acme” and invited all for a round of introduction revolving around the theme and the word of the day. The very many opinions that came around in order truly was an eye-opener and food for thought. There were so many perspectives at which one could view the theme.

Despite being the last meeting of the term and as much as the ambience would have been one that wasn’t as upbeat we always have Ken Chan, DTM with his monkey business and appetizing humour as the Humour Master to save the day. Laughter is always in the air with this epic Toastmaster who is always true himself and to the club. An epitome of being one’s best self.

As the mood was set, the floor was passed on to the Toastmaster of the Evening, the ever-ready CP Lau, ACS, ALB. His brief on Toastmasters and leading us through the night was unique and original. Another example of being the best and being one’s self.

The role players of the evening were, KT Chok, PM1 as Grammarian, Crystal Chen, ACB, ALB as Ah-Counter, Serena Kong, ACB, CL as Timer and the veteran Toastmaster S K Ratnam, DTM from Extol Toastmasters as General Evaluator.

Upon defining their roles, the session moved to the exciting Table Topics ™ session by our Table Topics ™ Master, Shain Anand. Yet another exceptional individual, this Toastmaster decided to give a little twist to the Table Topics ™ with his originality by giving us story starters to attempt at rather than the usual topics that require our opinions on things. We saw the potential of members and guests who attempted with regards to their humour and story-telling skills.

The assigned speech sessions then commenced with yet another speech by Ken Chan, DTM. This time he was completing his CC#10 for the umpteenth time for he never stops revising whilst rejuvenating us all. His topic “Say Something Sweet” said it all as he brought smiles to our faces as he reminded us that kindness was one of the keys that would bring forth abundance to us all. When I received a compliment from the Toastmaster next to me, I felt beautiful and when I returned a compliment to the Toastmaster next to me it felt even more out of this world. An inner peace that was borderless from being the reason behind someone’s smile.

The next speaker was Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silve, PM2 attempting her 1^st project in Level 3 of her Pathway. “The Dangerous Companion”, almost like an oxymoron was her title, it left us curious to know who it was. It left us even more baffled when we found out it was our phones. Now, we all knows these smartphones are pretty dangerous but when laid out with facts and more details by Dato’ Mary, it really did leave us a little intimidated and together we promised to be a little less friendly with that constant companion of ours.

Last but not least, we had with us Dr. Srikant repeating his 2^nd project from Level 2 of his Pathways.

“Sailing in Indonesia” was the speech he did once with the theme Effective Body Language. As he figured there was room for improvement in this he made his 2^nd and much better attempt at it while sailing us through his sailing trip in Indonesia.

As it was the final meeting of the term, the VP of Education, Chitirra, decided to do a basic presentation on the new Toastmasters education programme which is the Pathways. A 20 minute session on how a member could kick start and progress in Pathways was done by her just before the break.

After an extremely short break, the session resumed with the evaluations sessions. Nevermind not having ample time to eat during the break for we had a hearty session with our expert evaluators, all of whom display their best selves while giving an evaluation. The session began with our General Evaluator, S K Ratnam, DTM inviting K L Loh, ATMG over to give the evaluation on the Table Topics ™ speakers. Following, we had in order of the speakers, Ron Yeap, ACB, CL, Hj. Hashim, DTM and E K Yeo, CC, CL evaluate the speakers respectively.

After a simple open evaluation, the role players gave their brief reports and the session commenced with our General Evaluator giving his kind feedback on the overall proceedings of our meeting.

The Acting President, Chitirra, then proceeded to give out the awards to the best speakers for the night. Due to time disqualifications however, no voting was done for the Project Speech speakers. The best Table Topics ™ speaker however went to our guest, Mr. Simon from MIHRM. The best evaluator as always went to our charismatic Hj. Hashim, DTM. Yep! He was the Toastmaster next to me and that was the compliment I gave him. I’ve not quite seen someone who gives an evaluation with so much swag and style like he does!

Announcements made, appreciation done, the meeting drew to its closure with everyone giving their best pose of their best selves at the group photo.

You see, at the end of the day, it’s not about who you were but how you were and I’d like to end with the very impactful philosophy that the 2006 World Toastmaster Champion, Mohamed Ali Shukri goes by. Always remember that you are the one and only you in this world. You’re unique, you’re amazing and so be it. Be your best self. Now go be awesome and see you in the next term folks!

J

Blog writer: Chitirra

#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