26.11.2019 Meeting #450- Awaken The Giant Within

Word of the day: Hustle

You’ve got to hustle to awaken the giant within you. Themed with the powerful teaching by Tony Robbins, “Awaken The Giant Within” truly set our spirits up and we were ready to hustle with ‘hustle’ being the word of the day. The members slowly arrived and enjoyed the networking session over good food, our signature Nasi Lemak that could potentially turn you into a sleepy giant rather than awaken the giant within. Haha, jokes aside we truly enjoy our Nasi Lemak moments together and are ever ready to hustle at our meeting after.

The meeting kicked off at sharp 7.15pm by our VPE cum ASAA, Rey Thean, PM1 and our President K L Loh, ATMG took stage for his presidential address with a burst of energy. He speaks with so much vigour and exuberance, it truly can wake any giant. Everyone exchanged their thoughts on the theme using the word of the day and despite hustling to complete their short introduction within 45 seconds, it was truly meaningful.

The well composed and smart looking Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), Ron Yeap, ACS, ALB took stage to bring us through the meeting proper and began with the introduction, history and benefits of Toastmasters and our amazing club. Then, the role players introduced their roles. Today we had a hustling team of technical role players namely, EK Yeo, CC, CL as the Ah-Counter, Chitirra, CC as the Grammarian, Manish Jha, IP1 as the Timer and our guest of honour, Ramdas Nayer, DTM as the General Evaluator (GE).

We began with a little humour today with CS Ong as the Humour Master who truly made our bellies move like jellies with laughter until our usually composed TME could not compose himself. He truly tickled our funny bones with an interesting joke about a train journey the shenanigans that came along with it.

Then we had to get over our inner fears of sudden public speaking with the fun filled Table Topics™ session handled by our beautiful member Wendy Sim, CC. Her topics were interesting and made every think about life as a whole. Our members and guests spoke on their feet well and confidently.

1. Table Topics™ Master: Wendy Sim, CC    2. Preston 
3. Eva    4. Mugun    5. CS Ong

We then continued with the project speech session with 4 key speakers for the night namely Ken Chan, DTM with his evaluator KT Chok, PM4, Victor Wan, ACS, ALB with his evaluator Abdulrahman, PM2, Julia Leong, ACS, ALB with her evaluator Hj. Hashim, DTM and finally KL Loh, ATMG with his evaluator Rey Thean, PM1.

1. KT Chok, PM4   2. Abdulrahman, PM2
3. Hj. Hashim, DTM   4. Rey Thean, PM1

Ken Chan, spoke on negotiation with an interesting marital negotiation story with his title “Win Win”. Victor did a fantastic folk tale story telling with his title “The Fish and The Ring”. Julia explained how we can use our body to communicate with her title “Your Body Speaks”. Finally, KL Loh, closed the speeches session with a bang of motivation to inform us on leadership with his title “So, You Want to Be A Leader?”

1. Julia Leong, ACS, ALB   2. Victor Wan, ACS, ALB
3. Ken Chan, DTM   4. KL Loh, ATMG

Truly the speeches were exciting and empowering and we went on for a short break. We returned for the second half of the meeting being the evaluations session which is known as the breakfast for champions. Our experienced General Evaluator handled this session with class. Mathew Phiilippose, EC1 was the Table Topics™ evaluator who gave a unique comparative evaluation today. Then, the project speech evaluators did their respective evaluations for their speakers.

We had a quick open evaluation session and then the technical role players gave their extensive reports. Our General Evaluator, Ramdas DTM gave his positive review of our great club and the meeting was passed on to our President for this closing remarks right after the awards for the night.

Today we didn’t have voting for our project speakers due to a number of time disqualifications however the best evaluator award went to our usual champion Hj. Hashim, DTM and the best Table Topics™ speaker was our newly signed up guest, Preston.

The President’s Distinguished Club 2018/19 ribbon has finally reached to us. Our current President KL Loh, ATMG presented the ribbon to the Immediate Past President, Chitirra and congratulated the achievement in her term.

1. Best Table Topics™ Speech Winner: Preston
2. Best Project Speech Evaluator: Hj. Hashim, DTM

Award received by Immediate Past President, Chitirra, CC.

It was a fun filled night as we hustled away and we managed to awake the giant within us by the end of the night. Always remember, go out and hustle!!!

Blog Writer: Chitirra Amirthalingam, CC

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020

12.11.2019 Meeting #449- Never Give Up

Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters (MM-KL) club had its 449^th meeting on Tuesday 12^th November 2019. This is the 1^st meeting of the month, our club has its meeting on the 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Tuesday of the month. Our club meeting proper starts at 7.15pm, however you can come in as early as 6.45pm and enjoy our friendship along with some light refreshments.  If you are a guest you can walk in and you will not be charged a door fee if you are just visiting us for the first few times.  From the very moment you walk in you will be learning new things from each other. You see the club motto echoes through club atmosphere, a place “Friends helping friends to succeed”. 

The meeting began with our Assistant Sergeant At Arms (ASAA) EK Yeo, CC, CL, calling the meeting to order. The ASAA spells out the house rules, we clearly understand all sound emitting devices are to be put to silence. We have such reverence to the meeting. The spirit of toastmasters takes preeminence in the meeting room. As we see the ASAA leading all club members standing in full attention reciting the club promises. All guests sit in awe watching and admiring the elegance of toastmaster meeting.

The SAA majestically hands over the meeting to the Acting President Rey Thean, PM1 (The President was unavailable at the beginning of the meeting.)  Our Acting president is a charming young lady with a bold voice yet in her sound you can feel the affection of love to all members. She welcomed our guests and members to our club meeting which has just commenced.  Swiftly she got the meeting into motion as she rolled out the Presidential address while clearly nailing the theme of the day “Never Give Up” and then called upon our Grammarian to introduce the Word of the Day (WOD). 

In each of our club meeting you see that we have a new theme and a new word introduced.  Our Grammarian Cindy Foong, CC, CL, introduced the WOD as "Persistence". She gave the meaning and how it is formed in a sentence.  Let me tell you something about our Gammarian Cindy Foong, CC, CL. She is our precious member who has being residing in Papua New Guinea for some years on her occupation assignment. She added so much joy to all senior members as we were delighted to see her after such long time. The Acting President invited members and guests to introduce themselves using the theme of the day and the WOD.  

It was an interesting time as we heard each in the unique way introduced themselves while those who were assigned roles shared what they look forward to contribute towards the meeting.  At the end of the introduction, the Acting President invited the Toastmaster of the Evening to take over.

The Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) is myself, yours truly Mathew Philippose, EC1. I was excited as I took control of the meeting. The members and guest resounded the theme and WOD at my request.  I quickly pointed to some changes in the agenda.  After the announcement, I called upon the following  Grammarian Cindy Foong, CC, CL,  Ah counter KT Chok, PM4, Timer Jet Koh, PI1, and our General Evaluator (GE), Selina Chong, DTM  to state their roles for the meeting. I set the stage for the meeting proper to go into full action after all the introduction.

1. ASAA  2. Timer   3. Ah Counter   4. TME   5. GE   6. Grammarian
7. Acting President cum Table Topics™ Master

I invited the Table Topics™ Master Rey Thean, PM1 to lead in this section of the program. Rey Thean, PM1, is the same person who played the role as our acting president.  Well, for your information she is also our Vice President of Education.  This young damsel with such excitement spoke the rules of Table Topics. You are to speak impromptu on a topic given to you. The time limitation 1 minute green light, one and half minute orange light and 2 minute red light and you are given another 30 seconds and after which you are disqualified and also if you speak less than 1 minute you also will be disqualified... We had 5 volunteers, Victor Wan, Sreejith, Raymond, K T Chok and Shirley. Four of them were guests. The topics were challenging and it was in line with the theme of the day and WOD. All of them were able to speak well within the time limit. The audience had the privilege to vote from the 5 participants.

1. Raymond  2. Shirley  3. KT Chok  4. Sreejith  5. Victor Wan

The next session was prepared speeches. As a TME, I normally call the evaluator to give the purpose of the speech and time limitation and this is followed by the General evaluator reading notes to the evaluator.  We had two members giving the ice-breaker speech. Hai Liang was our newest member. We had heard him speak as a guest on table topics in our previous meeting, this time he was giving us an ice breaker speech. He shared about his life and how he was looking for quality of life and finally how he was able to fulfill his passion of life.  As he ended his speech all of us stood up and gave him a standing ovation. 

The next ice breaker speech was given by Wendy Sim, CC. She is attempting the pathway program for the first time. We all have heard her when she gave her first ice breaker speech a few years back. Now she came in the pathway program and gave a fantastic ice breaker speech a much-improved version. Surely her speech moved hearts as she shared her challenges and struggles in life. Today, she is a successful lady. In fact, she is our past president who now commands such a great confidence. As she concluded her speech all members and guests stood up and gave her also a standing ovation.  It is a tribute of honor to attempt a ice breaker speech. 

Our next speaker, Ron Yeap, ACS, CL, was speaking from the Advance Manual. His speech is part of his requirement to complete his leadership project to qualify him to obtain Advance Leadership Bronze title. His speech was a project on Goal Setting and Planning. He spoke this project in a speech titled “Planning for Excellence”. Ron Yeap, ACS, CL, was also our Area Director in the year 2018/2019.  He spoke clearly on Planning the Blue print and identifying the risk factors.   It was a very informative speech. 

As he ended his speech. I invited the Vice President of Membership Abdulrahman Azazi, PM2, to conduct an induction for a new member as this is part of the agenda.  Once we got an approval of all members by a simple majority, a new member is called to the front and introduced to the members. He is also assigned a mentor to help him.  After he took the oath as a member, all the members stood up and pledged our commitment to help the new member to achieve his goals as a toastmaster.

New member induction: Oo Hai Liang

The meeting took a short break for 10 minutes. The SAA called the meeting to order and invited me as the TME to charge of the meeting.  The next part is evaluation. This is an important part of toastmasters meeting.  Members learn how to progress on every front through this evaluation session. I took the opportunity to invite the General Evaluator (GE) to lead in this important section of the meeting. The General evaluator gave a brief introduction and called on the Table Topics™ evaluator  Abdulrahman, PM2 to give his evaluation on the 5 speakers. It was not an easy task. He managed to give his best evaluation. In toastmasters giving evaluation is another milestone in growth in toastmaster leadership.  The GE will also add to what the evaluator did right and areas she feel can add to the value of evaluation. 

Our GE also invited the evaluator for the two evaluators for both the ice breaker speeches. We had Chester Liam, MS1 and Hj Hashim, DTM to give evaluation for the two ice breaker speeches respectively. Once the evaluators had finished the evaluation the audience were given the opportunity to give their evaluation in the open evaluation section.  Later the GE called upon the various role players to give their report. The Ah Counter, Grammarian and Timer all reported how well we performed.  The GE than summed up with a general report and gave areas where the club need improvement.  When the general evaluator finished her report, the club applauded as she went back to her seat.

I then invite our Acting President to announce the best table topic speaker, As the drum roll sounded Victor Wan was announced as the Best Table topic Speaker. There was no voting this time for best assigned speeches and best evaluator as a vote is only when there is more than two. Since the leadership Excellence Series only have a silent evaluator. 

Best Table Topics™ Speech Winner: Victor Wan 

Our Acting President Rey Thean, PM1 invited the President KL Loh, ATMG who managed to make himself available before the end of the meeting, to give the certificate of appreciation to our General Evaluator and give the closing address. The President gave opportunity to the guests to tell how they felt about the meeting. We had two of the guests who gave commitment to join our club.  Later all of us took a group photo and later adjourned to cut cake for the Birthday of all who were born in the month of November. 

As we went back to our homes, we truly felt it was a very memorable evening.  We are looking forward to come again for our next meeting on 25^th November which is the 5^th week of the month.

So, readers watch out for our next blog to hear more news on Money Mastery-Kl Toastmasters club.

Blog Writer: Mathew Philippose, EC1

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020

29.10.2019 Meeting #448- Leadership Workshop

Leaders instil in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” Leaders have a clear vision, mission, and values system. Leaders create stretch goals, encourage self-development, leaders appreciate, give support, communicate, emphasize and Inspire.

With the precise planning by our organizing team, our Leadership workshop at Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club has commenced exactly at the scheduled time on 29th Oct 2019, Tuesday on the 3rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan.

Meeting has kick-started by one of our club's incredible assets, Toastmaster of the evening Mathew Phillippose, EC1. He has given a brief introduction about leadership and how this workshop supports our personal development through professional speakers. This has set the stage for all the attendees to know what to expect in the meeting later. He has invited the first coordinator of the session, Toastmaster Julia Leong, ACS, ALB.

The coordinator Julia has begun the first session with her dynamic speech with a delightful voice. She had an interactive session on Developing Leadership Skills with impressive examples and effective exercises at the end of the 75-minute session. She has covered all the key aspects like effective team development, collaboration, unity, respect, coaching, reward, creating a positive environment and many more. She has interrelated team development and getting success with an extraordinary Dragon Boat race example. She engaged the audience with constant interaction. She divided members into 4 teams and made them do two exercises.  Within a team, members are given roles as a coach, member, observer. A chance is given to all the observers from each team to express their view on the discussion. The session went incredibly productive with enthusiastic involvement from all the members.

It was then time for a short 10-minute break for our members and the guest before moving onto our second Session. During the break, we filled up our stomach with yummy Nasi lemak, Kari puff, sweets, and fruits.

Shortly after the break, the second session was started by Toastmaster Ron Yeap, ACS, CL on the topic 'Working in the team environment'. He has continued the legacy of the fire that Julia has created in the first session. With more humor, more interaction and effective body language. This session helped everyone to know how to survive and get positive outcomes when working with the team in business or any other organization. Working with teams improves the quality of work-life, increases productivity, reduces costs and enhances product or service quality. The coordinator Ron has exquisitely conveyed this with impressive slides containing effective information.

There were some fun-filled exercises at the end of the session. Eventually, both the coordinators made each and every member get involved in the workshop.

After the session timer, Jocelyn chew has given her timer's report.

We were honored with the presence of our chief guests Mama Walia, DTM, Kingston Lee, DTM, Elysia Teh, DTM and all. Certificates have been presented to all the participants and role players. The club then took a group photo and adjourned the day. It was a great and momentous meeting with thought-provoking ideas. And thanks to Coordinators Julia and Ron Yeap.

1. Acting President; Abdulrahman, PM2   2. Toastmaster of the Evening: Mathew Philippose
3. Organising Chair: Wendy Sim, CC   4. Sergeant- at- Arm: EK Yeo, CC, CL
5. Timer: Jocelyn Chew   6. Photographer & Blog Writer: Rajendra

Blog Writer: Rajendra

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020

22.10.2019 Meeting #447- The Festival of Light- Diwali

Theme: The Festival of Lights - Diwali
Word of The Day: Prosperous

Malaysia is a unique country. We are a multi racial, multicultural and multilingual society. This provided many opportunities for all residents in Malaysia, to celebrate the festive seasons together. 

On the 22nd Oct, Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club adopted the theme “Festival of Lights - Diwali” as the theme of the meeting. Members attending the meeting, were encouraged to dress up to the theme. The venue was also lightly decorated with flower strings, flower petals and ‘deepam” (floor decoration).

We were privileged to have Kim Chow, DTM to be our General Evaluator on that evening. The meeting was also patronized by members of IJM, Ramesh and Selvan, and a non member Mr. Nanthakumar.

Our Toastmasters of the Evening, Manish Jha, IP1, in his handsome traditional Hindu costume, hosted the meeting smoothly. This was later confirmed by President’s closing speech when he praised the TME for his improved and interactive style in the role.

Our meeting had 3 unique sessions, which each session offering different learning opportunities. The first session is the Table Topics^™ Session and was led by Rajendra as the Table Topics™ Master. The participants of this session was given a random topic to speak on. We saw Ben Hoe, Selvan, Abdulrahman, Nanthakumar and Hai Liang took part in the session to attempt on the impromptu speeches. They were really brave to take up the challenges.

The second part was for the members to present their prepared speeches. We had Ken Chan, DTM, Julia Leong, ACS, ALB, and my self, Ron, ACS, CL, to take part in this session. This session would normally let the speakers and audience learn many things about public speaking. By presenting, the speakers learned about their style of presentation; audiences learn from the presentation and speech delivery method, and of course the content the speakers presented. 

As we were celebrating Diwali, Chitirra, LD1 had brought some Diwali cookies to delight the refreshment menu even more, together with our signature nasi lemak, wadeh, and curry puffs.

In the third session, it was time for us to learn from the feedback of others. Kim Chow, DTM, coordinated the session with her sensational, and commanding stage presence to lead through the session. The speech evaluators comprised of Chitirra, LD1 (Table Topics™ Evaluator), CP Lau, DTM; Hj Hashim, DTM; and Abdulrahman PM2. Through their feedback, the audience got to look at the speaker’s presentation in a clearer manner. The evaluators were trained to be critical and sharp in providing feedback that can help and motivate the speaker to improve.

In this meeting, I learned from Ken Chan, DTM, that different mentor has different approach of mentoring, nonetheless we still can keep our mind open to get mentorship from others as “it is free”. I also learned that "Luo Han Guo" (monk fruit) has many nutritional and medical values that can improve our immune system. And from my presentation, I hope more people will realize how powerful the functions provided in Microsoft Excel that can ease our day-to-day works.

I also felt thankful that Kim Chow, DTM came to our club to be our General Evaluator. Her evaluation given me perspective on how a speaker can command the stage via hand gestures and body languages.

1. Table Topics^™ Master: Rajendra   2. Table Topics^™ Evaluator: Chitirra, LD1
3. Invocation Presenter: KL Loh, ATMG   4. General Evaluator: Kim Chow, DTM
5. Toastmaster of the Evening: Manish Jha, IP1

The Best Performers of the meeting came as below,

1. Best Table Topics™ Speaker: Tan Ben Hoe, CTM, CL
2. Best Project Speech: Julia Leong, ACS, ALB
3. Best Evaluator: Hj Hashim Adnan, DTM.

The final group photo signifies the end of the Diwali meeting, and the camaraderie continues in the hymn of birthday song and refreshment.

Blog Writer: Ron Yeap, ACS, CL

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020

08.10.2019 Meeting #446- Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests 2019/2020

‘’Humour is mankind’s greatest blessing’’ and “Evaluation is the breakfast of champions’’, the two wonderful quotes were such a good sunshine in our house, hooray! The time had come readily to celebrate the annual Club Level Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests of Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club which held on 8^th Oct 2019, Tuesday on the 3^rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan.

It has been weeks of planning for the big night by the organizing team and to make sure it was as memorable and successful to match the weight of legendary MMKL Toastmasters Club, the team was led by the enthusiastic Organizing Chair, Abdulrahman, PM2.

Imagine, Phones buzzing, human voices, the ambiance on a buzz surrounding the 3rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan as all arrive early to set the last-minute touches for the contests.

We were honoured with the presence of our Chief Judge Chan Yen Shen, CC, ALB, the Area directors, Past Area Directors and all distinguished toastmasters and non-toastmasters guest. The refreshment was served between 6:45pm to 7:00pm, with legacy Malaysian local food, nasi lemak, curry puffs, bananas and drinks.

Between 7:00pm to 7:30pm multiple briefings were done concurrently. Chief Judge’s briefing to role players, Contest Toastmasters to contestants, Organizing Chair to the SAAs. With everybody in check, at 7:30pm when the clock struck, the gavel was struck and the contest was called to order.

The charming SAA is none other than Wendy Sim, CC. She called the contest to start and did excellence job of gathering everyone on time, welcoming everyone with cheerful smile. After she informed the contest house rules to audience and the floor was then passed to the Organizing Chair, Abdulrahman, PM2 to give his opening address.

He welcomed the audience and sincerely thanks all the distinguished guests, diligent role players and contestants to be part of this magical night. The floor was handed to our Humorous Speech Contest Toastmaster, the brilliant Manish Jha, IP1 who outlines the contest rules and introduced the contestants and their order of speaking slots. Let me hear a big laughs ha…ha..ha …ha . he said this is to get you all ready for the anticipated unstoppable laughs out, our contestants coming up with their best punch lines to make the crowd lough loud off their seats and he then called for the Humorous Speech Contest to begin. 

The contestants were called according to the sequence they had drawn.
1) KT Chok
2) Hj. Hashim Adnan
3) Jocelyn Chew
4) Rey Thean
5) Chitirra
6) Ken Chan

The audiences were certainly entertained with these humorous stories. With big laughter and happy beating hearts we all adjourned for a short 10 min break before the next contest begin.

When we returned from the break, Wendy, CC called us in and invited the Evaluation Contest Toastmaster, the graceful Julia Leong, ACS, ALB to begin the contest. She introduced and welcoming the contestants and then passed the floor to The Test Speaker, Szi Yiing to share with us a test speech titled “Emotional Intelligence’’.

She was vibrant and informative and shared a worthy content on emotional intelligence and the importance of the topic to our life. But that is not for me to say! It was left to our Evaluation Contestants.

The contestants were brought to the holding room to write their evaluation speech while the hall was open for air time. The contestants was called in by the sequnce they were drawn as well. 

1) Vijay Kumar
2) Rey Thean
3) Jocelyn Chew
4) Hj Hashim
5) Ken Chan
6) Ron Yeap
7) KT Chok 

So many varieties of input for Szi Yiing and audience to pick up and learn from MMKL’s glorious evaluators. Honestly I felt the humour and the hysterias laughs were presented in room even though we were actually conducting evaluation. ‘’We learn more in the moment of excitements’’ a quote which were livening it.

As the contests ended and as the Chief Judge went on to tabulate the results, Manish Jha, IP1 took on the stage to interview contestants with interesting sets of questions. The feedback and the contestant’s impression were fantastic of course.

Following, with the tokens of participation to contestants and tokens of appreciation to role players were given. 

1. Humorous Speech Contestants
2. Evaluation Contestants

Reaching to the epic moment of the night arrived. Curiosity was killing us all and so the Chief Judge was called to hand the results to contest toastmasters on twice for the announcements of each contest winners. Drum rolls were filling the air through out and the results stated wait for it as below.

Humorous speech contest 2019/2020 results

1^st place. Ken Chan

2^nd place. Hj. Hashim bin Adnan

3^rd place. Rey Thean

Evaluation Contest 2019/2020 results

1^st place. Hj. Hashim bin Adnan

2^nd place. Ken Chan

3^rd  place. Ron Yeap

⭐ BIG CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WINNERS ⭐

Finally, the President, KL Loh, ATMG was called on to the stage to give his closing address and call it a night. He gave some words of encouragement and motivation and special thanks to everyone whom made the night memorable and successful and called for all to stay for a group photoshoot by our official photographer Sunil Kumar to cherish this momentous contest night.

Contest was a big success and joy. Yes, we made it, 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 ours whether your are 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 if you become a Toastmaster. Until the next contest period good vibes, don’t get too critical and just keep laughing and smile because life itself is a Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest where you’re the participant and the judge yourself. 

Thanks to photo editor, and reviewers.

Blog Writer: Abdulrahman Azazi, PM2

Regards,

MM-KL EXCO

2019/2020