#420: Halloween: Spooky Soiree

October is that ‘blessed’ time of year where people can be as spooky and terrifying as they like in a spooky soiree or festivity, that truly embodies the spirit of Halloween in the sense that it was so sweet it gave me cavities! I came in a cosplay mask as Dracula in line with the theme of the day “Halloween: Spooky Soiree” to attend Money Mastery–KL Toastmasters Club Meeting.   Take note that Dracula wasn’t just making a social call; I was on a mission as the ASAA.

The Spooky Soiree meeting took two and half hours to get all the endings. TME Dato’ Dr Mary, PM3 helped to ensure the meeting reconciled with each and everyone’s darker sides, and found the confidence to cosplay, or even hunt for bones in the creepy yet inspiring marathon speeches. There was nothing mean or cruel on any of the members’ routes; in fact this may well be the most awesome meeting of the club.

 @ 7:15pm ASAA EK Yeo, CC, CL called the meeting to order. The meeting begun with the Toastmaster’s Promise recited by Toastmasters members for their commitment in the Toastmasters educational program.

@7:17pm: Our Club Mdm. President Chitirra, LD1 took over the control of the meeting. In her welcome address, she greeting our club member and our distinguished guests, General Evaluator Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC2 from MAD Toastmasters Club, Evaluator Samuel Selvaraju, DTM and an invited creepy assigned speaker Victor Ong, DTM to present an unexpected creepy speech. She then invited the Grammarian Chew Yee, CC to introduce the WOD “Creepy” and went on to invite all members and guests to give a self-introduction and encouraged them to use the WOD “Creepy” and theme of the day “Halloween: Spooky Soiree” as much as they could. All members and guests did very well during this segment of self- introduction.

@7:32pm: Our club member Vijayakumar, CC, given his Invocation Speech and shared with us journey towards DTM.  He interpreted DTM as “D” Determination to set up goal, “T” Time bar to achieve it and “M” Mentally challenge to complete it.

@7:35pm: The Toastmaster of The Evening Dato’ Dr. Mary, PM3 with her creepy cosplay costume as a good Witch, briefed on the history of Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club. Then she introduced the role players for this meeting in the sequence.

Grammarian:   Chew Yee, CC 

“Ah” Counter:   Serena Kong, ACB, CL

Timer:   Wendy Sim, CC

General Evaluator:  Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC3

All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for this evening.   Then the TME proceeded with the assigned speeches from Competent Communication Manual and Pathways.

1^stSpeaker - Victor Ong, DTM Speech Title - “My Favourite Food”

His speech evaluator was Hj. Hashim, DTM

This was his project speech from the Competent Communication Manual: Project 8: Get Comfortable with Visual Aids

Victor kicked off his speech sharing with us how Malaysia provides a variety of fusion food. He shared with us how he loved to eat food making it creepy by adding a few cockroaches to the dish. The taste, he said, was delicious and even good for health. He anticipated that by Year 2070, the world will have a shortage of food and that cockroaches will be the main source of protein. The speech became even more creepy when he offered everyone a packet of cockroach crackers.  He was indeed entertaining us with humour and surprises.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                      

2^nd speaker- Ken Chan, DTM Speech Title - “Power Presenting”. His speech evaluator was Samuel Selvaraju, DTM

He was doing his speech from Pathways: Presentation Mastery Level 1: Project 2 – Evaluation and Feedback.

Ken Chan demonstrated a variety of presentation style through body language, vocal variety and his roving eye contact. He commented that a presentation was a chance for one to impress others, such as a boss. Some of the key words during his presentation was Ethos (credibility), Pathos (exhibit) and Logos (content). His speech was inspiring, educational and entertaining.

3rd speaker- CP Lau, ACG, ALB Speech Title - “President’s Distinguished Area G4”. His speech evaluator was Ken Chan, DTM

He was presenting his speech under Project: High Performance Leadership (HPL) for him to achieve ACS, a journey toward DTM.  CP Lau did mention that he joined Money Mastery-KL Toastmaster Club in June 2011. He took up the role as Area Governor G4 during the term 2013/2014 that is under Region 14, District 51, Division G, Area G4 which makes up 4 clubs which are Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club, Money & You Toastmasters Club, WIM Toastmasters Club and Air Products Toastmasters Club. HPL trains one to achieve or accomplish Service Leadership, Vision Values, Direction, Persuasion, Support, Development and Appreciation. He also shared with us the key word – “STAR” which refer to:

 “S” – Stretch your limit

“T” – Train your team

“A” – Ask for result

“R” – reach out

4th speaker- Mike Chin, Speech Title - “Who Am I”. His speech evaluator was Olivia Chen, PM1

This first time speaker was doing his speech from Pathways: Dynamic Leadership Level 1: Project 1 – Ice Breaker

Mike Chin shared with us his personal story. He is Johorean from a small town, Kulai enveloped in an oil palm plantation. He is Hakka. He completed his studies in KL and continued to work here. His hobbies included being a movie lover for action movies, science fiction except horror and thrillers while badminton is his favourite sport looking up to our national hero LCW.

5th speaker- KT Chok, PM2, Speech Title - “Habit of The Rich”. His speech evaluator was Ron Yeap, ACB, CL

He was giving his speech from Pathways: Presentation Mastery Level 3: Project 3 – Effective Projects, Inspire Your Audience

The key message as shared by KT Chok was that the rich always paid themselves first by starting with 10% and then progressively to 30% from your monthly income. He also clearly expressed that this habit decided on one’s future.

@8:31pm: Break for refreshment for 10 minutes, where are lot of chattering takes place and networking with new members.

@8:41pm: ASAA EK Yeo called the meeting to order and then he passed the control of the meeting to TME.

@8:42pm TME invited Vice President of Membership KT Chok, PM2 to induct new member Abdulrahman and his assigned mentor is Ron Yeap, ACB, CL

@8:47pm: TME Dato’ Dr. Mary, PM3 invited General Evaluator Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC2 to chair the meeting. He led the session with his panel of evaluators.  He began by explaining the purpose of the evaluation and carried on to give his feedback.

Evaluation from the 5 evaluators.

1^st Speech Evaluator Hj. Hashim DTM for Competent Communication Manual speaker, Victor Ong DTM.

Hj. Hashim’s comments were based on the 3E’s used:  EXCEL by using simple and easy to understand English. Crafting the speech by using cockroaches was a cleverly used plot.  EXHIBIT speech through the use of visual aids and using a packet of potato chips of cockroaches, was interesting.  EXCELLENT performance with body language, hand gestures and using the stage widely was good. All evaluations need to encourage the speakers to do better.  Some suggestions were to use real cockroaches, staying behind the line during speech delivery, and sharing some insights about these mean and creepy cockroaches.

2^nd Speech Evaluator Samuel Selvaraju, DTM for Pathways – Presentation Mastery Speaker Ken Chan, DTM.

Samuel commented that Ken is an experienced speaker with a well-organised speech structure.  His voice is audible, loud and clear, keeping the subject matter straight to the point with the key words, “Ethos, Pathos and Logos”.  The Evaluator suggested that Ken show the audience one of the workshops where his crowd attended and he impressed the audience.

3^rd Speech Evaluator, Ken Chan DTM for Project: High Performance Leadership (HPL) – Speaker CP Lau, ACG, ALB.

Ken acknowledged that CP Lau had achieved his HPL by sharing with us his journey in Toastmasters since 2011. He agreed that leadership is a team effort and was pleased to be his mentor.

4^th Speech Evaluator Olivia Chen, PM1 for Pathways – Dynamic Leadership – Speaker Mike Chin.

Olivia commented that Mike shared his personal story with a clear and audible voice, and a pleasant facial expression, often smiling.  As an evaluator, she suggested to this first time speaker to have more eye contact in order to engage with the audience, to use the stage wisely, and to share more about his career and why he joined Toastmasters.

5^th Speech evaluator Ron yeap, ACB, CL for Pathways – Presentation Mastery – Speaker KT Chok, PM2.

Ron commented that KT had clearly shown the difference between habit and destiny and why it was important for everyone to pay themselves first. His aim of inspiring the audience was met! One suggestion was to engage the audience by asking them questions such as when they would adopt the habit of the rich.

The speech marathon Evaluation exercise was just completed!  Everyone was so objective in their feedback and the suggestions were from the heart.  As Toastmasters, we must aim to be better each time we present a speech.  Many thanks to the Speech Evaluators.

Role Players’ reports

Members who were busy throughout the meeting were:

·         Grammarian – Chew Yee, CC

·         Ah Counter – Serena Kong, ACB, CL

·         Timer – Wendy Sim, CC

General Evaluator Ricky Soo ACS, ALS, EC2 had summed up the meeting and then passed the control to the TME.

@9:34pm:  Club President Chitirra, LD1 was called on the stage by the TME to do the presidential closing address. She first thanked the TME Dato Dr Mary, who handled the meeting diligently.

The gratifying part of every meeting is to share the joy when the awards are presented to the best performance for the evening.

·         Best Speech Evaluator- Hj. Hashim, DTM

·         Best Project Speaker- Victor Ong, DTM

·         Best Spooky Soiree cosplay costume – Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM3

·         Token of appreciation to the GE- Ricky Soo, ACS, ALS, EC2

Before the end of the meeting, Mdm. President Chitirra, LD1 summarized the entire meeting and asked the guests and members to take a group photo.  All those in cosplay took centre stage to live up to the theme of Halloween.  Everyone received candies too.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:40pm.  Indeed it was the most exciting meeting with the speech marathons and speech evaluations.  We wait on for the next of such a meeting.

Thanks to blog writer EK Yeo, contributors, and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

30 October 2018

#419 – International Stuttering Awareness Day

Bruce Willis, Elvis Presley, Tiger Woods….3 famous names. The first one showed us how not to die hard, another taught us to do something worth remembering and the third one exhibited how to find the right hole. Have you ever thought of what connects these celebs? Well, neither did I, until I was asked to write the blog about the meeting #419 which took place on 24th October 2018. The theme of the meeting was International Stuttering Awareness Day and the WOD being Recreate.

Now, back to my question on connecting the dots between Bruce, Elvis and Tiger. All of them were stutterers during their childhood. Bruce joined theater to conquer stuttering. Elvis started singing to get rid of stuttering. No, you guessed wrong. Tiger didn’t start playing with balls to get rid of stuttering, he worked hard on his speech therapy.

The theme was selected by our club President Chitirra to recreate awareness about stuttering. The meeting started on time at 7:15 PM with ASAA Shain Anand kicking off the meeting with a Toastmaster’s promise. Chitirra, then presided the meeting and conveyed her ideas towards awareness of stuttering. To mark the occasion, we had a guest Invocation Speaker, Distinguished Toastmaster Samuel Selvaraju from Shaklee Toastmaster’s club. He was the perfect Invocation Speaker because he was also a stutterer during his childhood and he inspired the audience by telling the story about how he got rid of stuttering. Manish Jha IP1 was the Toastmaster of the meeting. He started off by introducing the General Evaluator Lee Soo Ling, DTM; Ah-Counter Mike; Grammarian Vijaykumar, CC; Timer Olivia Chen, PM1.

Up next the session was handed over to Serena Kong ACB, CL for the table topics session. The session is all about impromptu speaking. We had a combination of club members and guests volunteering to do the Table Topics . All spoke exceptionally well.

Up next was the Assigned Speech Session. The first speaker was Ken Chan,  DTM who kick started his Pathways journey for the Presentation Mastery path with the Ice Breaker speech. His speech title was Ken, He Can.

The second speaker was Cetani Chen ACB, ALB who was doing her Project 3 from Level 1 of Effective Coaching path. Her topic was Research and Presenting and her speech title was Stand-up Comedy. In her speech, she spoke about different variations of stand-up comedy.

The third speaker was Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva, PM3. She was doing her Level 4 Project 1 of Presentation Mastery - Managing a Difficult Audience. Her speech title was There is Hope. Her speech included a demonstration of how one can pack many clothes into a slim travelling bag. She skillfully rolled the clothes into sausage-like pieces and arranged about 15 items of clothes into a bag, similar to that of a brief case. With the title she meant that there is hope after all for travelers. Since it was about managing a difficult audience, there were a few members assigned to play different roles, such as the ‘interrupter’ and the ‘arguer’ who kept interrupting the speech, to which she managed to get them back on track with her presentation.  There was also a ‘silent’ member whom Dato’ Dr Mary encouraged to participate in the packing. 

After a break of 10 minutes, Lee Soo Ling, DTM started the evaluation session with the Table Topics Evaluation by KT Chok PM2. Next, the assigned speech evaluators EK Yeo CC, CL, Rony Yeap ACB, CL & CP Lau ACG, ALB gave evaluation for the 3 assigned speakers respectively. Following this was the Open Evaluation session and the reports by technical role players.

Best Assigned Speech: Ken Chan DTM

Best Table Topics Speaker: Samuel Selvaraju DTM

Best Evaluator: Ron Yeap ACB, CL

That was it for this meeting, and we wait together for the next meeting with yet another interesting theme “Halloween”.

Hasta la vista!!!

Thanks to blog writer Shain Anand, contributors, and reviewers.

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

#418: Children’s Day: Learn From the Little One

October and November are the months when we celebrate Children’s Day in many countries and the actual date for International Children’s Day falls on 20^th November. We decided to have our theme Children’s Day: Learn From The Little One with the WOD – Ameliorate which means, grow better and improve. We all are here at Toastmasters to progress and improve our communication and leadership skills.

So, our first time ASAA Mike Chin started the meeting and took us through the recital of our Toastmaster’s promises and then proceeded to call the meeting to order, calling upon the Acting President, VPE Manish Jha, IP1, to do the opening address. This was his first time of playing the role of President, ever in his life. He shared his opinion about the theme and called on every member to give a short introduction of themselves and to use the WOD as much as possible adding one more word to their vocabulary. It was one of the perfect moments for everyone to share a personal story through the introduction.  Indeed, everyone got chance to speak at least once.   

It was then time for TME who basically is the emcee of the show, Competent Communicator Wendy Sim to take control and run the meeting. She gave a brief history of Toastmasters International, when, where, how it started which are useful information for all guests. She shared a brief history, then introduced all the role players including our General Evaluator, Competent Communicator, Elaine Neo to make sure everything is set to bring the meeting forward. She introduced our Table Topics™ master KT Chok, PM2 to conduct Table Topics session. He had prepared topics related to the theme of the day ‘Children’s Day’ and there were five speakers for the session. Well, some were first timers and some with more than a one-time experience. 

Speakers were: 

• Edwin Wong
• Tan Ben Hoe
• Abdul Rahman
• Ryan and 
• Vijay Kumar

They all attempted very well, and gave their very best.  After this wonderful TT session. Our TME brought us to the project speech session. This evening there were 3 speakers lined up to present their speeches. 

It was around 8:10 pm, and the 1^st speaker of the evening was announced who was doing his from Competent Communication Manual, Project no. 8, Get comfortable with Visual Aids –With Speech Title ‘Know Thyself’. Let me tell you this two times Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) is a well-known speaker, trainer, and public speaking coach for a long time. He told us how to know ourself better by showing  us Russian Dolls which come in a set of one inside another from big to small size. He tried to justify there is inner child inside each of us and if you follow the child, you will do much better in life.

Next speaker who was waiting to do her speech was Cetani Chen, ACB, ALB. She was doing her speech from Path – Effective Coaching, Level 1 Project Researching and Presenting. She came up with her 5-7 mins speech. Speech title ‘I Am Hakka Moi’.  By the end of the evening we knew her better as she told us her story. Hakka she explained are people from South East China who migrated during 12th Century. There is different culture, different cuisine for the Hakka. She shared about her story being Hakka Moi and we all improved our general knowledge from her speech. Thanks Cetani!

Then we got to the 3^rd speaker of the day Olivia Chen, PM1. She was doing her speech from Presentation mastery, Level 1 Project Body Language. She came up with her speech title ‘Swimology’.   It was great to see how swimology worked in life. Her speech was simple and profound. The Swimology word has come from the original word, swim, of course 😊!

After the prepared project speeches our TME announced a break for 10 mins. Break is the time for fellowship as well as filling our tummies which gave us the feeling of being refreshed.

It was time to resume the meeting, and TME Mike Chin was once again called the meeting to order. The TME called our General Evaluator, Competent Communicator, Elaine Neo on stage to conduct the Evaluation session. This is something that every Toastmasters meeting is famous for. Evaluation is main ingredient in the Toastmasters education program. Elain Neo is from KBTC Toastmasters Club. As per our club practice we usually invite GEs from other clubs so that they can give fair feedback on our improvement and recognise our best. She first gave a brief introduction of evaluation, why is it necessary and asked all the evaluators as per agenda one after another to share their verdict. All of them did I would say good evaluation. They clearly highlighted the strengths of the speaker and spoke on the room for improvement in their speeches. After that she also asked Technical role players the Ah counter, the Grammarian, and the Time Keeper to share their reports. Finally, it was the time of report from General Evaluator herself. She picked good points about us, and areas to improve and recognised the best what we do.

So far, so good. TME returned to the stage to announce the certificates to the best performances of the evening, presented by our Acting club president, Manish Jha, IP1.

• Best Table Topics award: Ryn Lim (Guest)
• Best assigned speech Evaluation award: Hj. Hashim, DTM

We appreciated our GE for taking time for us. It was an awesome evening.

Finally, we ended our meeting with a nice memorable Group Picture.

Keep calm, Keep smiling and Keep Toastmastering; See you all guys in next meeting! Stay tuned for more updates.

Thanks to blog writer Manish Jha, contributors, and reviewers

Sincerely

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

#417 – Just Do It

The meeting was called to order by the efficient SAA Shain Anand who punctually commenced the meeting. It was another interesting evening and this, I keep saying after every meeting I have attended.  The coming together of all members with an array of backgrounds, and age differences gives me the feeling of being in a work environment where we know everyone by name. The bonus is being greeted with their broad smiles and warm hospitality which are some of the things I look forward at each bi-monthly meeting. 

He first to speak was President Chittira, who in her opening address shared about her fear of cockroaches!  What an unusual sharing, I thought to myself.  Then the episode of her waking up one very early morning at 4 am to kill the cockroach made us all feel uncomfortable.  She had to commit this unavoidable action waking the household and the neighbourhood. That would be tough, I thought to myself.   Well Chittira did it!  She killed this awful, creepy yet helpless creature and then I realized her story was in connection with the theme “Just Do It”.  Really, I didn’t see that coming at all.  Well done Chittira!

Following this, the President invited the Grammarian, Shain Anand to introduce the word of the day and invited all members and guests for a round of introduction and encouraged everyone to use the theme and the word of the day. The word of the day Sedulous was used by all, as well as the theme of the day, Just Do It.

With that the meeting proceeded with the Toastmaster of the Evening, Cetani ACB ALB, who led the meeting with the Toastmasters’ Promise, a reminder of what we are to do for Toastmasters Club, and the oath was taken.

The mood was set, the floor was passed on to the General Evaluator, Teoh Chun Ming ACB ALB, who invited the Table Topics Master Wendy Sim CC to take over this interesting session where volunteers come up to speak for 2 minutes without any preparation.  This Past President was amazing as she coined various titles that startled the audience such as What is Stopping You, Can You Accept Failure, Action Changes Things, Be a Giver Not a Beggar and a few others.   These titles were either questions or statements and the volunteers EK Yeoh, Paul Tan, Zi You, Dato Dr Mary, Edwin and Mike Chin, gave their best shot at speaking on their feet.  The challenge in this section was getting the first person on to the stage.  After getting a clue on the first title, everyone else decides for themselves, whether they can do it. This meeting had time for six volunteers.

It must be acknowledged that the various role players contributed to the successful meeting and were, Olivia Chen PM1 as the Ah-Counter, Chew Yee CC as Timer and General Evaluator, Teoh Chun Ming ACB ALB. Everyone was enthusiastic about their roles, and paid attention to the goings-on during the meeting to ensure that they could give a good report.

Subsequently the assigned speech session began with three capable speakers giving an awesome show this meeting.  President Chittira LD1, presented Project 9: Persuade with Power titled Reach Out to Read Loud.  This was an amazing speech where she shared her admiration for our nation’s 93 year old premier as an indestructible, cynical, sarcastic and eminent leader who didn’t mince his words about the literacy of some of his leaders.  Here Chittira once again shared her personal experience of being a volunteer in a school teaching children improve their literacy skills. Her joy at this task was seen in her eyes as she widened them to make a point. While she ended the project with a powerful yet familiar line saying “Let’s make Malaysia great again” she cleverly then invited everyone in the audience to offer their time to teach such children. I just really like the way she thinks about and appreciates life, and love her style for making that sales pitch for a call to action. 

The next speech was by CP Lau ACG ALB who has taken the leap and moved into Pathways having chosen the path, Visionary Communication and was ready to present his Level 1 Project 1, the Icebreaker Speech titled 50. Before commencing his speech, he captivated us with some delightful news of how he had submitted his Advance Communication project and will be DTM by the next meeting.  This was great news for having another DTM in Money Mastery KL and there was nothing short of congratulations from everyone for another feather in his cap!

Referring to his title, I wondered what the 50 meant, and in a matter of time it dawned on me that it might be his age.  I was right.  This very accomplished past president successfully shared stories and reflections as a near perfect introduction of himself, very apt for an ice-breaker.  As I was not a member of the club when he first gave his ice-breaker speech under the CC manual, I realized that I now knew him more after being in the club for a year. He smartly broke his speech into the five stages of his life separating them according to each decade of his life. He ended the speech with a cliché Live the moment, Seize the moment!  

The final assigned speech was delivered by the Vice President of Membership, who as always, was dressed in crisp white shirt and black slacks.  He presented the Level 3 Project 2 on Using Presentation Software titled The Quest from Unconscious to Conscious to Unconscious.  Once again, the plot was killing! What could KT Chok speak about in this very catchy and mind-boggling title. He revolved his speech around a movie and engaged the audience with questions as he used his skills in making the presentation using Power Point. He ended his speech with yet another cliché A Quitter Never Wins. A Winner Never Quits! He gave an awesome delivery and was rewarded by an applause from everyone.

Immediately after the speakers’ slot, there as the installation of two new members Chew Yee and Mike Chin whose mentors assigned were namely Manish Jha IP1 and Wendy Sim CC.

When the meeting moved to this scheduled break, I would regard this as a favorite time for everyone as it is spending time around the table with good people and good food.  If you were not present this is where members grabbed up the remaining nasi lemak, curry puffs and bananas having only 5 minutes to do all this, you must attend the next meeting.  Soon after a bell rand everyone was ushered back into the hall by the efficient SAA and the session resumed with the evaluations’ sessions. Time keeping has always been given importance in our toastmasters’ meetings. 

Starting with the statement Feedback is the Breakfast for Champions the evaluation reports began.   Our expert evaluators, all of whom display their best selves while giving an evaluation were next in line on the programme. The session began with our General Evaluator, Teoh Chun Ming, ACB ALB inviting guest Clarence to give the evaluation on the Table Topics ™ speakers. His observations were sharp as he spoke with confidence and highlighted the little things that make a big difference when delivering a speech.  Following this, we had in order, the evaluators, EK Yeo CC CL, Hj. Hashim, DTM, and KL Loh ATMG who all evaluated the speakers respectively. I observed Chittira listening attentively to EK Yeo as he praised her for point on persuasion as needed by her speech objectives.  Hj Hashim recalled how he heard CP Lau’s ice-breaker speech seven years ago and now under Pathways, complemented the many strengths in his delivery and progress in his life.  KL Loh’s feedback on KT Chok was also very thorough, and as I listened to the comments given, I felt that anyone getting this feedback, would be able to improve in their next delivery.

After the role players gave their brief reports the session commenced with our General Evaluator giving his extensive feedback on the overall proceedings of our meeting. There are always praises for Money Mastery KL Toastmasters but as a club we look forward for criticism too  as we know where to make the necessary improvements. 

President Chitirra, then proceeded to give out the awards to the best speakers for the night. Note was made that there were no time disqualifications.  The best part of the evening was about to being. The drum rolls are what creates excitement in the room.  The louder the drum roll, the suspense heightens.  Then the announcements were made  as winners came forward.

• ·         Best Table Topics ™ speaker went to guest Zi You!
• ·         Best assigned speech was CP Lau!
• ·         Best evaluator was Hj Hashim DTM! 

Congratulations! Congratulations! 

Open feedback was welcome from the guests, and the one comment I keep hearing is about our meal at the fellowship and especially about the nasi lemak!  Well, if that is what brings the guests in, let it be!

Announcements were made, appreciations done, and the meeting drew to its close with everyone giving their best pose in the group photo.

If any of you are on the prowl for an event where you can learn and meet wonderful people, then make time for the next meeting in two weeks’ time on 9 October 2018.

Sincerely by your blog writer, 

Dato Dr Mary de Silva, PM3

Money Mastery –KL Toastmasters Club

VPPR (Vice President of Public Relation 2018/2019)

#416 – Merdeka: Love Malaysia

Every year in August people in Malaysia get ready for a celebration of unity and joy but this year, with a new Malaysian administration, and a Malaysia Baru, everyone seemed to be even more excited and were looking forward to its 61^st National Day to be celebrated on 31 August. 

Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club, had taken the opportunity to celebrate the National Day, by using the theme: Merdeka: Love Malaysia.  The word of the day Congenial gelled well with the theme because there is no other congenial place to be in, than Money Mastery KL Toastmasters Club!

The meeting began punctually at 7.15 where our dedicated SAA, Manish Jha, CC, CL, IP 1, gave everyone a warm welcome through the formal opening and led the meeting with the Toastmasters’ Promise, a reminder of what we are to do for Toastmasters. When you read this at every meeting, its a check-and-balance of whether we had fulfiled the promises.

Following this, our ever cool President, Chitirra, dressed in one of the national attires, welcomed all guests, allowed the Grammarian to introduce the Word of the Day and invited all present to a round of self-introduction and to use the theme and the word of the day. Everyone did well, and spoke either of their Merdeka experience, sentiments, feelings and their gratitude towards this beloved country, Malaysia. The congenial atmosphere was excellent in bringing the meeting to higher spirits.

As the mood was set, the floor was passed on to the Toastmaster of the Evening, the sharp-looking, ever-enthusiastic, seemingly entertaining, and congenial  KT Chok, PM2. As there were non-members present, he gave a brief on Toastmasters' history and that of MMKL that led us through the meeting with pride in our hearts. It gave us the reassurance that we are in the greatest Club in town!

The role players of the evening were, Dato Dr Mary, PM3 as Grammarian, EK Yeoh, CC, CL as the Ah-Counter, Jet Yang as Timer and the General Evaluator was the charming Jessie Lin, ACB.

Upon defining their roles, the meeting cruised to the exciting Table Topics ™ session led by our very able and intrepid Table Topics ™ Master, Manish Jha CC, CL, IP 1 who was equipped with 25 topics for speakers to choose from! Now this is his enthusiasm! To keep in line with the theme of the day, topics revolved around the country’s Independence Day and his speech titles were tricky and witty, but all speakers displayed their skills of story-telling by speaking on their feet.  Something not easy to do but yet gets us all prepared for impromptu speeches.

Members such as Dato Dr Mary PM3, and Hj Hashim Adnan, DTM were in a challenge with a newbie Mike and a guest Ryan.  It was incredible to see how speakers are required to present a short topic without any time for preparation, except for a few seconds, and yet engulf us with an enlightening, experiential or merely hypothetical speech.

It was stimulating to see the assigned speech sessions commence with yet another promising speech by Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB. This time he was attempting Project 1, Ice Breaker, with the title “Changing Along with Time”. His personal sharing on love, forgiveness and reconciliation moved us in our hearts as we listened to how he coped with a difficult experience in his life.  We definitely got to know him better.

The next speaker was Ken Chan, DTM attempted Project 3, How to Say It, with his intriguing title “Unforgettable, Forgettable, Forget”, that got us all wondering what it would be about.  He used his best method of story-telling, keeping us all on the edge of our seats as a drama enfolded about a relationship between a couple. This would have made an interesting chapter in a romance novel about love!  Huhuhu😍 We hope to hear the second part of this story in another speech by Ken, because Ken can.

The next speaker was none other than our President, Chitirra, LD 1, speaking on her Project 8, Get Comfortable with Visual Aids, titled “Saree Not Sorry”.  With that title, we could not guess what it was going to be about and how she would use the element of saree, in her speech.  She not only surprised us, but overwhelmed us with a brief on the origin of sarees and then gave everyone a 101 demo lesson on draping a saree on an aspiring yet nervous model-in-waiting, Cetani Chen, who by the end of the speech was draped in a beautiful blue saree. What a show!!.  With that speech of Chitirra’s everyone now knows that sarees are at least 6 yards long!

Last but not least, we had with us Olivia Chen, PM1 from the Level 2 of Pathways, Understanding Your Communication Style, who presented an captivating speech titled “Double 7 Festival”. This title once again got us all speculating what the presentation speech would be about. It turned out with a twist of how the speaker  accomplished her feat in organizing an event and found that its success was inadvertently based on just having good communication skills, or may I say, excellent communication skills.

The break was congenial, enveloped in a hearty session as members grabbed up the remaining delicious nasi lemak and bananas, but regrettably the fellowship ended soon as we were ushered back into the hall for the session resumed with the evaluations sessions. Timeliness was essence in every toastmasters’ meetings.  Where else do we practice such discipline?  Nowhere really. Such discipline is monumental in personal discipline.

Our expert evaluators, all of whom display their best selves while giving an evaluation were next in line on the programme. The session began with our General Evaluator, Jessie Lin, ACB inviting K L Loh, ATMG, over to give the evaluation on the Table Topics ™ speakers. His observations were always gripping as he would highlight the little things that made a big difference.  Following this, we had in order of the speakers, Hj. Hashim, DTM, Mathew Philippose CC, ALB, followed by Ken Chan, DTM and Ron Yeap, ACB, CL to 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 her extensive feedback on the overall proceedings of our congenial meeting. There are always praises for Money Mastery KL Toastmasters but we do not let it go to our heads. We take any criticism with an open mind, with the intention of raising the bar to make improvements.  These fresh eyes of a GE sometimes surprises us with the least obvious observations that only they will see.

The President, Chitirra, then proceeded to give out the awards to the best speakers for the night. Note was made that due to time disqualifications however, no voting was done for the Project Speech speakers. Nevertheless, the Table Topics™ session saved the day. The drum rolls are what creates excitement in the room.  The louder the drum roll, the suspense heightens.  Then the announcement ..........The best Table Topics ™ speaker went to Dato Dr Mary, PM3 who spoke on her thoughts of what she would do if she was the Prime Minister in the last 2 terms.. The best evaluator was none other than expressive, full of body language, swinging from one end of the stage to the other, Ken Chan, DTM!  Congratulations! Congratulations! 

The evening ended with a difference.  Area C1 Director Ron Yeap, ACB, CL delivering his address by sharing his pride of being a member of MMKL.  His advice was on the Exco having a better bonding amongst themselves to become like-minded to help the club grow to superior heights. As he spoke, everyone was having this intense attention as he shared with honesty and sincerity that our club must raise the bar and become the best!  At every meeting, we learn, laughed, worked and most of all matured together.

Announcements were made, appreciations done, and the meeting drew to its close with everyone giving their best pose in the group photo. 

Now let’s get ready for Merdeka and celebrate with the nation! 

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

J

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)