International Speech & Table Topics Contest 2018

Who were present at the event?

• Wendy Sim, CC, President of Money Mastery KL Toastmasters Club.
• Foo Fung Jiun, CC, Contest Chair
• Crystal Chen, ACB, ALB, International Speech Contest Toastmaster
• Joel Silas, Table Topics Contest Toastmaster
• Shain Anand, Sergeant-At-Arms
• Contestants, guests and toastmasters

The long awaited, highly anticipated International Speech Contest and Table Topics Contests 2017/2018 are finally here! “If you want to grow… if you want to be stretched… if you want to become a better speaker, come participating in our club level contest!” wrote the Contest Chair, Foo Fung Jiun. He said “The best way to rapidly improve your communication skills regardless of your experience level is through competition!”. And, here we are, the day of reckoning is here.

The competitions that begin from the club levels will eventually propel contests winners through the competition journeys of the area, the division, the district and eventually the international levels.

It takes serious courage and guts to compete in the contests, regardless of your experience levels. Not only that you have to work through the usual fear of public speaking and getting on stage, you need to have the necessary command of an audience that made up entirely of highly professional Toastmasters or new Toastmasters. 

Everything we learn in Toastmasters, every mistakes that have been pointed out would be put in test. Afterall, we are humans, we make errors but contests are known to be a little bit cruel. When the contestants are up there, the judges/audience do not afford them much forgiveness that would be expected during normal days of Toastmasters meeting. Hardly, any mistakes will go unmarked. 

While these are the excitement of contests that some people are so fearsome to do, a huge round of applause must be given to the contestants listed above. Let us cherish the courage of the contestants. May it be you at the next contest!

What happened in the event?

The highly organized, successfully executed contests would not have been possible without the hard work and contributions of the organizing committee which was chaired by the Contest Chair, Foo Fun Jiun. Backed by a team of highly dedicated members of Money Mastery KL Toastmasters club, the planning of the event has started weeks ahead. Every details from food preparation to photography to awards giving have been carefully crafted. 

As a result, it was a truly smooth sailing event. Kudos to the organizing committees as below.

• Foo Fung Jiun, CC, Contest Chair
• Crystal Chen, ACB, ALB, Contest Toastmaster International Speech
• Joel Silas, Contest Toastmaster Table Topics
• EK Yeo, CC, CL, Sergeant-At-Arms
• Shain Anand, Sergeant-At-Arms
• Olivia Chen, Sergeant-At-Arms
• Shelly Sim, Sergeant-At-Arms
• Daniel Tham, Photographer
• KT Chok, Blog Writer

Special thanks to:

• Henry Fu, ACB, ALB, Chief Judge
• Cheryl Ong, CC, ALB, Ballot Counter
• Ng Yee Chia, ACB, CL, Ballot Counter
• Joshua Chan, CC, CL, Ballot Counter
• Juliana Teh, CC, Time Keeper
• Malcolm Sze, ACB, ALB, Time Keeper

The event started right on time with the calling from the Sergeant-At-Arms Shain Anand. Contest Chair, Foo Fung Jiun CC started by giving his opening remarks to the audience and stated the importance of the contests as well as thanking everyone for making the event a reality. Crystal Chen ACB, ALB, Contest Toastmasters of International Speech stood tall to outline the contest rules for the benefits of all and introduced the Contestants and their order of speaking to the audience. Crystal Chen promised the audience that the contests would bring “lots of funs” to the audience and, indeed, the audience was truly exhilarated and thrilled by the contests.

International Speech Contest

Contestants

• Chitirra Amirthalingam
• CP Lau, ACB, ALB
• Ken Chan, DTM
• Manish Jha, CC
• KL Loh, ATMG

Table Topics Contest

Contestants

1. Ken Chan, DTM
2. Manish Jha, CC
3. Mary de Silva
4. Srikant Marakani
5. Xavier Gomez
6. Julia Leong, ACB, ALB
7. Hj Hasim, DTM

“Do you live to eat, or eat to live”? Never did I thought that eating can be a topic with such a huge impact, given how complacent Malaysians are when it comes to eating. After all, Malaysia is a food heaven!

Nevertheless, that was exactly the topic that was thrown at to the Table Topic Contestants. Table Topics session is one session that requires us to think on our feet and speak in a impromptu way, not to mention this is a Contest of Table Topic. There will be winners and vice versa. 

Our first contestant, Tuan Haji Hashim, through his life experience, described to the audience that the situation is indeed a Catch 22 situation where it seems like a dilemma from which Malaysians always struggle with given the mutually dependent conditions. Meanwhile, Jula Leong stated that it really does not matter as long as we “live life to the fullest”! On the other hand, Ken Chan pointed to the audience that he actually did enjoy doing both but under different conditions..

Srikant, the fourth contestant, likened eat to live to survivability where a person would need to ingest to sustain his or her life. Manish Jha, the man with a body that Ken Chan admired whether jokingly or not, announced to the audience that whether we eat to live or live to eat, we are the winner either way! However, it is the emotional hunger that we should be watching out for for it may overtake the real hunger that instigated us to eat n the first place. 

Xavier, our 6th contestant of Table Topic, advocated that eating to live is always a result of the environment which could arise from living pressure and state of life. He said that while foods are for  enjoy, Malaysians are really passionate about living to eat given the choice of foods we have in Malaysia. Eat to live or live to eat, Xavier is continuously wrestling with the idea.

The final contestant of Table Topic, Mary de Silva, meanwhile, indicated that “Do i eat to live or live to eat” is a popular question thrown at Malaysians as we know Malaysians’ life is all about the food, the food and the food. However, too much of food can create adversity and doctor’s advice according to her is always eat to live. She cited that patients with life threatening diseases might not have a choice but to eat to live. 

Therefore, enjoy your choices for now, whatever your choice is!

What are the results of the contests?

First thing first, no one get disqualified due to exceeding allotted time.

Second of all, no reports of protests to the results of winners were reported for both International Speech Contest and Table Topic Contest.


Thanks to the Judges for the head scratching session. Making a decision of who were actually winners were no easy tasks given the strong competence level of those speakers. Nevertheless, every contests are winners and without further adieu, we announced the winners for the contests as below.


International Speech Contests:

First place: KL Loh, ATMG

Second place: A. Chitirra

Third Place: Ken Chan, DTM



Table Topic Contests:

First place: Julia Leong, ACB, ALB

Second place: Hj. Hashim Adnan, DTM

Third Place: Mary de Silva

As our the President of Money Mastery KL Toastmasters club pointed out, we created history that night. We witnessed the making of the champions of our club. However, we can only have one winner in any contests and the winner for the contests tonight are the PARTICIPANTS! Thanks to everyone for making the event a meaningful reality.

Blog Writer: KT Chok

#398 Christmas, Deck the halls

26 December 2017 marks the last MMKL Toastmasters meeting in Year 2017. December is the ‘Season’s Greetings’ and holiday month. Due to that, many members were unable to attend the meeting and special thanks to Tn Haji Hashim, DTM and CP Lau, ACB, ALB both for taking up dual roles as a Toastmaster never refuses when called upon to serve. Besides that, we would also like to extend our gratitude to Noor Ain from Maxis Toastmasters Club for being our Grammarian. After the meeting, she had to travel all the way back to Dengkil. Also, a big thanks to all members who were willing to take up roles to make the meeting a success. 

When I stepped in at sharp 7.00pm, I was warmly greeted by our Madam President, Wendy Sim, CC. Our meeting room was set up properly and also filled with Christmas decorations to upbeat the Christmas spirit. As usual, Wendy came in with her best Christmas outfit with a stunning makeover. She passed me a pair of Christmas themed earrings. It was only then that I realized, our sweet President had prepared each of the lady members with a pair of Christmas themed earrings. 

KT Chok, our new member and first timer role player as Assistant Sergeant-At-Arms called the meeting to order at sharp 7.15pm. He was the first speaker who introduced our House Rules, led the recital of “A Toastmaster’s Promise” and invited Madam President to officiate the meeting. He led the session confidently. Well done, KT!

Madam President, Wendy Sim, CC took over the floor and invited Grammarian, Noor Ain to introduce the word of the day, “Mirthful”. As usual, we are encouraged to use theme of the day and word of the day in our introduction. Our “outsourced” Grammarian was impressed as all of us were using the word “mirthful” in our introduction. Throughout the meeting, some members even used the word “mirthful” three times and more. 

Humour Master, Ron Yeap ACB, CL played the role as an energy booster successfully. His speech on “What Kind of Life Those Programmers Are Living” had lightened up the session. He was telling that programmers would not be swayed from work duty even with the presence of a naked woman. How true is it, needs to be clarified with Manish Jha, CC and Shain, who are earning their living as programmers. 

Our charming Toastmaster of the Evening, Fung Jiun, CC started his session with a clear and loud voice singing “Deck the Halls”. “Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la la la la! Tis’ the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la!” Then he briefed us on the History of Toastmasters International and introduced the role players. 

Now the turn for the most exciting session of the meeting – Table TopicTM Session; this is all about impromptu specking. Our petite Table TopicsTM Master, Olivia Chen turned into a pretty Santarina; holding a big red Christmas stocking which was filled with the questions. Just like KT Chok, Olivia Chen is a newly joined member and was playing the role for the first time. She did it excellently. Well done, Olivia. Our long lost member Vijay, kick started the session followed by a guest who is turning into our member soon, Xavier, then the Ah-counter of the night – Kelvin Chong, ACB and lastly the 1st Speaker Speech Evaluator – Manish Jha, CC. Bravo to the 4 participants who volunteered themselves. 

Then it was time for the prepared speeches presentation. There were 4 speakers, which included Srikant, Joel Silas, CP Lau, ACB, ALB and myself (Mandy Chan). Srikant delivered his speech about his adventures in Cambodia. Through 2 trips to Cambodia, he had different experiences and made us realize how lucky we are as many kids in Cambodia are struggling in live. My speech was about obesity issues in Malaysia due to poor eating habits. So, control what you put in your mouth, as you are what you eat. Don’t dig your grave with your own fork and spoon. Joel Silas’ speech was about his “wanderlust” travel to Vienna, Cesky Krumlov and Prague. Not forget to mention he is repeating his speech as he felt like improving from his previous delivery. This round he did splendidly. Good job Joel! The last speaker was CP Lau, ACB, ALB who was promoting his new product, the Big House “Musang King” Coffee. Big House is the largest durian distributor in Bentong and they creatively came up with the idea to mix durian with coffee. At the end of his presentation, we were lucky to have a sip of the Musang King coffee. Thank you, CP. 

We would like express our gratitude to our General Evaluator, Chooi Kum Ying, ACB, ALB to take up the role although she was still wondering who passed her number to our VPE, Chitirra. She led the team of evaluators in monitoring the club’s meeting atmosphere and activities as well as gave constructive suggestions. She did affirm that our club is a performing club with strong seniors’ base to guide the new/junior along the way to become better thyself. All those seniors are our club’s strong pillars. 

It was the time to honour the best performers of the day for the Table TopicsTM, prepared speeches and evaluation. 

Table TopicsTM : Kelvin Chong, ACB

Assigned Speech : CP Lau, ACB, ALB

Evaluation : Tn Hj. Hashim, DTM

Last but not least, we will always be grateful to all the members who took up roles. Without you all, our meeting would not have run smoothly and successfully. And a special thanks to our guest, Xavier, who brought us delicious cookies and chocolates. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the meeting as much as I did; it was a mirthful meeting and we’re always looking forward to coming meetings. We’ll be kick starting 2018 with our club level’s International Speech and Table TopicsTM Contests on the 9th of January 2018. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! 

Blog Writer: Mandy Chan

#397 Blast to the past

Time passes very fast and what is your reminiscence of the month of December? Yes, Jingle Bells and Santa Clause! Christmas day is coming soon.

As usual for every club meeting, the venue before the start of the meeting was arranged by whoever comes early. Ron Yeap, Mandy Chan, Olivia, Crystal, EK Yeo, and our member Vijay arrived early to the venue. Our birthday girl today, Shelly Sim, who was a first time role player as an ASAA called the meeting to order at 7.15 pm. The meeting begun with “A Toasmaster’s Promise” recited by all Toastmasters’ members for their commitment to Toastmasters.

The theme of the meeting was “Blast to the Past” and the word of the day was“reminiscent”.

Our Club President, Wendy Sim, took over the control of the meeting with her welcome address. She greeted the distinguished guest Maria Mutahi, CC, who came from Kenya Toastmasters Club as General Evaluator and the other guests. Then she invited the Grammarian, Shain, to introduce the word of the day “Reminiscent”. She invited members and guests to introduce themselves and encouraged all to use word of the day and speak in line with the theme of the day, “Blast to the Past”. All the members and guests did well during the self- introduction.Today’s club meeting was a lively one because we had guests from Japan and Russia as well.

After the introduction session, the floor was passed on to Ron Yeap, ACB, CL who played the role as the Invocation Speaker

Today’s Toastmaster of the Evening is our sweet Mandy Chan who briefed on the history of Toastmasters International and our club.  She introduced the role players for this meeting in the sequence of Grammarian-Shain, “Ah” Counter- Olivia Chen and Timer-Shelly who played 2 roles in this meeting. All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for this evening.

The exciting session of Table Topics­_­­^TM took place and our President played the role of Table Topics^TM Master. She prepared the topics related to theme of the day. Members and guests were encouraged to participate. She explained the objective of Table Topics ^TM andthe time limitation for each speaker. The purpose of the Table Topics^TM session is to develop the impromptu speaking skills which includes opening, body and conclusion in their speech.

The order of the Table Topics^TM speakers were as follows:

1. Vijay
2. K L Loh, ATMG
3. Guest - Jasmine
4. Guest - Jia Ming
5. Guest - Xavier
6.         Guest - Alex from Russia

Let’s give a big applause to all the 6 speakers. Here, we were asked to cast a vote for the best Table Topics ^TM speaker.

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

1^st Speaker – Daniel Tham

Speech Title – I Have A Dream

Speech Evaluator – CP Lau  , ACB, ALB

This is his Pathway of Dynamic Leadership Level 1 – Project 1 Ice Breaker

He shared with us his childhood life, where he was educated, about his career and his dream.

2^nd  Speaker – Crystal Chen

Speech Title – My Dream

Speech Evaluator – Manish Jha, CC

This is her Pathway of Effective Coaching Level 1 – Project 1 Ice Breaker

Cyrstal has a big dream since childhood. She told us her story about how active she was in school club and organized a drama during her schooling days.

3^rd Speaker – Chitirra

Speech Title – Think, Think, Think

Speech evaluator – Ron Yeap, ACB, CL  

This is her Project 6 which required vocal variety.

Chitirra spoke about ways in which we can enhance our thinking skills for the better.

4^th Speaker – Yap Ooi Yee

Speech Title – Do You Love Your Loved Ones?

Speech Evaluator – HjHashim , DTM

This is her Project 10 which required  her to inspire the audience.

Ooi Yee inspired us with the struggles faced by families when they lack proper insurance coverage.

All the four speakers qualified to be voted for and congratulations to Ooi Yee who completed her CC which took her a 2-year journey to complete.

After the assigned speech session, we took a 10-minute break for refreshment.

ASAA Shelly Sim called meeting to order after the break. Then, she passed the control of the meeting to the TME Mandy Chan.

It was time for the induction of our newest member. Yap Ooi Yee invited our new member KT Chok to come on the stage and recite the rules as a member of the club. Welcome KT Chok and we are waiting for your speech soon.

General Evaluator,Maria Mutahi, CC was invited to chair the evaluation session. She led the session with her panel of evaluators and role players. She began by explaining the purpose of the evaluation followed by the evaluation from the Table Topics ^TM evaluator, 4 speech evaluators, role players’ reports and her personal general evaluation. Evaluation is the breakfast for champions because a constructive and specific evaluation helps to improve speakers and make them better. Finally, we were asked to cast a vote for the best speech evaluator.

The time came for the Awards Presentation and the best Table Topic^TM, assigned speech and evaluation speaker for the night were:

1.       Table Topics ^TM– Vijay Kumar, CC

2.       Assigned speech – Yap Ooi Yee

3.       Evaluator –Hj.Hashim, DTM

The President Wendy Sim, CC was called onto the stage for the presidential closing address. She first thanked the TME who handled the meeting diligently. Then she presented the award for the best performers.

The meeting was adjourned at 9.45pm followed by a group photo and cake cutting ceremony for Shelly Sim and Xavier, the two December babies.

Indeed it was a fun filled meeting and someday when we take a blast to the past to reminisce this meeting it will surely be a sweet memory.

 Blog writer: Olivia Chen

                

Meeting #396 If I were, I’d be

“Every bush can burn if you fire it with your imagination” – Stanishlaw Jerzy Lec

“If I were, I’d be” was the meeting theme for meeting #396. It was not only interesting; in fact the theme had fired our imagination, gave us the chance to make our imagination sparkle with possibility. Our club meeting began with the quintessential flow, that is to start the meeting by reciting the “A Toastmaster’s Promise”. The session was led by our newly joined member, Daniel Tham. Even though, this was his first time in playing this role, he did it with poise. Well done, Daniel!

The President, Wendy Sim, CC took over the floor and invited Grammarian, Chitirra to introduce the word of the day, “Quintessential”. All of us went with the flow by using the word “quintessential” in our introduction. I particularly loved Ken’s introduction. He made humor about how to become a quintessential Toastmaster. He told, “First, you need to show up in the meeting. Second, you need to stand up and speak. Once you have spoken, remember to shut up.” His speech has lightened up the introduction session. After the short introduction session, the President briskly handed the floor to Humor master, Kelvin Chong, ACB.

Humor master, Kelvin Chong, ACB, on the other hand, upbeat the audience by telling why Men and Women could never understand each other. It was a quintessential joke when a man was being accused when he went too closed to a woman. Or he would be accused being disrespectful when he kept a distance to the woman.  Indeed, we had a good laugh, a splendid moment.

The meeting transited smoothly into the Table Topics™ session. If you were one of the guests, you would be very keen to know how the speakers were going to answer the given questions. We had 5 speakers and they had given their thoughts to the audience. Some of the speeches are very inspiring because they shared their own stories and some spoke with sincerity that touched the heart of others.

Table Topics participants:

A) CP Lau –“What will you do to make this society a better place?”

B) Sugawaran Takuya – “Will you change your citizenship?”

C) KT Chok– “Who has inspired you to become who you’re today?”

D) Wendy Sim–“Are you living the life that you want or you need?”

E) Daniel Tham – “Things that you like to do for your parents.”

F) Hj Hashim-“If you could invent something, what would it be?”

At 8pm, it was the time when the assigned speakers were ready to feed the appetite of the audience. Ken Chan, DTM taught us how to narrate a speech by using story telling method. He used FROG as the example and demonstrated in his speech. Second speaker, Mandy, reminded us to treat our closest family better than our friends. This was because they deserved the best from us. Lastly, Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB talked himself by using butterfly as a metaphor. He went through a metamorphosis and each phases, he received protection, love, encouragement that helped him to escape from the cocoon and transformed to become a beautiful butterfly. 

Whilst our brains were well fed with the performance from the speakers, our stomachs were also looking out for food to digest. It was time to call for a refreshment break. After the break, our General Evaluator Dinesh Jayabalan, ACG, ALB took over the control and invited EK Yeo, CC, CL to give his evaluation to all the speakers participated in Table Topics™ session. In general, he encouraged the speakers to focus on their vocal variety, eye contact, hand gestures and the structure of the speeches.

For the assigned speeches evaluation, we have 3 speech evaluators:

A) Ron Yeap, CC- He suggested Ken Chan, DTM to change his speech title to add credit to his speech.

B) Kelvin Chong, ACB- He encouraged Mandy to fill the pause with the examples to support her point.

C)Hj Hashim, DTM- He suggested Mathew to reduce the speed of his speech delivery.

The meeting was about to come to the end, when all the functional role players and General Evaluator had given their reports. President Wendy, CC presented certificates to the best performers as well as a token of appreciation to our General Evaluator, Dinesh Jayabalan, ACG, ALB.

Finally, the night was completed and while it was sad to see such a great meeting coming to an end. We had so much fun and “good night!”

Blog Writer: Serena Kong ACB

Meeting #395 Bound to be

Expect the unexpected, 
Hope in the darkest of times. 
For if your faith is restricted, 
Then you living, is a crime. 

Come what may,
Have no fright.
For if you pray,
He will show you the light.

And so it goes,
Somethings are bound to be.
Just let it flow,
And you shall receive serendipity.

It was a vague but heartwarming theme and today we had with us a new member taking up her very first role as the Sergeant-At-Arms. Crystal Chen, was bold enough to take up this role and striking the gavel once, called the meeting to order on time. After introducing the house rules and leading us through the Toastmaster’s Promise she passed the floor to the Acting President, Chitirra, to give the welcome address. 

Grammarian, Srikant, enlightened everyone with the word of the day which was “serendipity”. It means the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way or simply good fortune or luck. Something you’re quite likely to find here at Toastmasters. Srikant was articulate and professional. 

Each member and guest of the floor shared their thoughts about what ‘Bound to Be’ meant to them and were very comfortable in using the word of the day as they spoke. 

To shift the ambience of the meeting into one that was bound to be inspiring, Toastmaster Shain Anand shared a fabulous Japanese tale in his invocation speech on how what’s bound to be is merely a destiny that is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice. You need no ‘Liquid Luck’ to succeed in life. You create your own serendipity. 

The meeting proper thus begin when the ever ready Toastmaster of the Evening, E K Yeo, CC, CL too control of the floor. He brought us through the history of Toastmasters, where a single meeting that began in the basement of a church in Santa Ana, California was bound to be global. 

Following, the respective role players introduced the purpose of their roles. Shain Anand played dual roles today by also being the Ah-Counter. Srikant and Shelly Sim respectively were the Grammarian and Timer for the first time.  

We were blessed today to have with us a very humble individual as our General Evaluator and she was none other than Nurhayati Hassan, ACB, ALB. 

Alas the battle of being impromptu begin as the Table Topics® session was led by Manish Jha, CC. His questions were short and simple and members and guests stood up to the challenge vivaciously despite not knowing what they were bound to get. 

Table Topics Participants:

1) Yap Ooi Yee
2) KT
3) Kelvin Chong ACB
4) Crystal Chen
5) Jia Ming

We then transitioned smoothly into the Assigned Speech Session and we had with us tonight 3 speakers ready to serve a feast. The first speaker was C P Lau, attempting the Specialty Speeches Series from the Advanced Communication Manual. His purpose was to uplift the spirit of the audience with his title ‘To Repeat to Progress’. Indeed he reiterated in his unique style that practice makes perfect. 

The second speaker was Olivia with her very first speech under Pathways and in MMKL. Under her pathway of Presentation Mastery, she delivered her ice breaker entitled “Olivia from KL to KL”. 

We learnt her inside out and indeed she’s bound to be a great speaker. 

The final speaker was Chitirra who delivering her Pathways: Project 2 for the second time in an attempt to meet the requirements of the improvements from the evaluation that was given to her during her first speech. There was indeed vast improvement but there was also an equally sized room for it in her speech ‘Thanatophobia’. 

Three’s a charm and once the three speeches were completed, a charming new Toastmaster, Crystal, was inducted into the club by the VPM, Yap Ooi Yee. There was jubilation in the air as she raised her hand into it to give Hi-5s to each member of the club. Welcome aboard the Money-Mastery KL TMC family dear Crystal and may you sparkle as your name sounds, in this Toastmaster journey of yours. 

A brief break was given and we proceeded for the bigger breakfast afterward which was the Evaluation and Reports Session. The panel of evaluators for both, the Table Topics® and the Assigned Speeches gave their best and honest opinions to the respective speakers. Members from the floor too gave their views to the speakers during the Open Evaluation Session. Well, that’s what friends are for isn’t it?  

The string of reports were then shared respectively by the Ah-Counter, Grammarian and finally Timer. 

Panel of Evaluators: (Speakers evaluated are in the brackets)

1. Ron Yeap, ACB, CL (C P Lau, ACB, ALB)
2. Ben Hoe, CTM, CL (Olivia Chen)
3. C P Lau, ACB, ALB (Chitirra)

All things are bound to come to an end, and so as the meeting drew closer to its end, the awards were given to the winners who deserved it for they earned it not through sweet serendipity but instead solid hard work. 

Winners for The Night:

Best Table Topics® : Jia Ming
Best Evaluation: Ron Yeap, ACB, CL
Best Speaker: C P Lau, ACB, ALB

The Acting President, Chitirra took stage once again to recognize the club’s effort in achieving President’s Distinguished Club status for the 1st Term of 2016/2017 and Immediate Past President, Ron Yeap, ACB, CL received the award in front of the members of the club once again as he had originally received in the ‘Hall Of Fame’ ceremony held on the 12th of Nov 2017 by District 102. 

After a small token was given to the GE, announcements were made and the closing address was delivered, the gavel was hit once again leaving everyone curious as to what was bound to be in the next meeting. A group photo was taken and the November babies of the club were celebrated with our routine cake cutting session. 

Indeed it was a blessed meeting. Changes came along the way but every member helped to embrace it vigour for sometimes what is bound to be is merely the outcome of our actions. Nevertheless, forget not the quote by Aristotle that if something's bound to happen, it will happen. Right time, right person, and for the best reason. With that, I wish you the best serendipities in life. Until next time, goodbye!

November Babies

 Blog Writer: Chitirra

Meeting #394 Halloween: Trick or Treat

If you really want to enjoy this blog, then wear your Halloween costume once again, to join this voyage through Money Mastery KL's 394th meeting. On the 31st of October 2017, we turned to page 394 of Money Mastery KL's meeting book. The page unleashed the Halloween Genie. The Genie had both tricks and treats under its sleeves. Voila. The Genie granted the meeting with a spooky ambience. Members arrived in Halloween costumes of all sorts, ranging from Wednesday Addams to the so called Toilet Paper ghost.

The Assistant Sergeant At Arms for the evening Olivia Chow, who was taking up the role for the first time, called the meeting to order followed by reciting the Toastmaster's promise.

Madam President Wendy Sim, CC, in her pumpkin orange coloured attire, welcomed everyone present there and invited the Grammarian Manish Jha, CC, with the Ghost Rider mask, to introduce the word "Aghast" which means amazement or horror. The entire club was aghast when they saw Manish in his mask. Afterwards, the control was passed over to the Snake Oil Salesman a.k.a Toastmaster of the Evening Ron Yeap, ACB ALB. With his big Moustache and the top hat, he took over the charge. Not only he nailed the attire, Ron maintained a bulky voice throughout the meeting giving a uncanny aura to the meeting as a whole

As it was a speech marathon, no Table Topics® Session was conducted. The Snake Oil Salesman spilt the snake oil on the audience and we were teleported to the Assigned speech session. We can see 6 speakers souls, waiting for their turn to  let go their fear of public speaking.

1. The first among them was Joel Silas who can be called as the Toilet Phantom because he made himself a phantom out of the toilet paper. Quite innovative. He was delivering his 8th speech from the CC manual with the speech titled "Wanderlust". The speech was about his tour to Europe which he presented with the help of photos. As usual, Joel's humorous conversational style made the speech entertaining.

2. Second soul was Ken Chan DTM who was doing the Ice Breaker speech for the 9th time with the title "Ken, He Can". Only one word about his speech: awe-inspiring.

3. Time for our third soul, CP Lau, ACB, ALB. He was delivering the speech from the Advanced Communication - Speciality Speeches Series Manual.His evaluator was given the option to select his speech title from a list of 5 speech titles.  His speech title was "Progress is More Important Than Perfection". Cool as you like, the maestro delivered the speech with perfection.

4. After those seasoned speakers, it was the turn of one of the newest souls of Money Mastery KL, Shelly Sim going to kick-start her Toastmasters journey. "Who is Shelly?" Those were the words reverberating among us when she came to the dais. She took us on a short trip about her life. Even though it was her first speech she delivered it like a pro with less fear and full of confidence. At the end of her speech, we were able to say She is Shelly. She was also given a standing ovation for delivering her first speech.

5. Have you ever heard of the word Thanatophobia? Well, we also didn't know about the word until our fifth soul Chitirra started her speech. Ooh la la! Her speech had the closest resemblance with the theme of the day. She was doing her Pathways Level 1 Project 2 speech titled "Thanatophobia". Her unhurried style of speech delivery gave the meeting a frightening.

6. Last but not the least, Srikant was the final soul who delivered his Pathways Level 1 Project 2 speech titled "Adventures in Cambodia". He shared about his experiences in Cambodia which was no less than an adventure filled with excitement and amazement for him.

Abracadabra. That was the perfect speech session for a Halloween night. The credit goes to those 6 souls who challenged themselves on the Halloween night. We voted for the Best Speaker. It was time for a short break. But this time, the magic was on the refreshments. We had the refreshments which were based on the Halloween theme, thanks to Madam President Wendy. Thank God, we didn't need the Halloween Genie for that. Else the Genie would have been annoyed by our requests.

After the break session, General Evaluator Ching Lee Hwa, ACB, ALB was handed over the stage to walk us through the Evaluation session. She invited the Speech Evaluators to give their evaluation. Each evaluator gave their best evaluation for their respective speakers. After each evaluation, the GE gave her personal evaluation to the speakers which was indeed a bonus lesson for the speakers.

The panel of evaluators are as follows with speaker's name inside brackets:-

1.    Serena Kong, ACB (Joel Silas)

2.    E K Yeo, CC, CL (Ken Chan, DTM)

3.    Kang Fong Luan, CC (C P Lau, ACB, ALB)

4.    Ken Chan, DTM (Shelly Sim)

5.    C P Lau, ACB, ALB (Chitirra)

6.    Ng Yee Chia, ACB (Srikant Marakani)

Finally, it was the time to recognize our best performers:

Best Speaker    : CP Lau ACB, ALB

Best Evaluator  : Ken Chan DTM

Arthur Conan Doyle quoted - "Where there is no imagination, there is no horror". Well, MMKL definitely has that power of imagination and The Halloween Genie was  the result of that imagination. The credit goes to the entire club for making every meeting entertaining and meaningful. At the end, MMKL turned the 394th page and the Halloween Genie went back with the hope that exactly one year later MMKL will re-open the page.

May the force of Halloween Genie will always be with Money Mastery KL. 

Role players for the meeting:

1. Olivia Chow (ASAA)

2. Ron Yeap ACB, CL (TME)

3. Shain Anand (Ah-Counter) 

4. Manish Jha CC (Grammarian)

5. Mandy Chan (Timer)

6. Ching Lee Hwa ACB, ALB (General Evaluator)

Blog writer: Shain Anand

Meeting #393 Deepavali: Light It Up

Light it up! Light it up! In conjunction with the Diwali celebration, our meeting was in jubilation. Our 393^rd meeting had made a few records. We had most of the members in their Indian costumes attending the meeting and we had the most number of guests visiting our club. Thank you to each and every member’s effort in bringing our club to a reputable mark. We had a record of 31 members and guests attending the meeting!

The scene looked busy and joyful during the fellowship session. Members and guests had some good chats while enjoying our signature nasi lemak; while some of us were getting the venue ready for the meeting

The meeting was kick started by our Sergeant At Arms, Shain Anand, who led us in reciting the Toastmasters Promises. As many may see this as a routine, it serves as a constant reminder to our members.

Our Madam President, Competent Communicator Wendy Sim, with her beautiful smile and shining saree costume, officiated the meeting. She gave her opening speech to light up the meeting, with our theme of the day: Deepavali: Light It Up! Wendy is getting more comfortable in front of an audience, becoming more confident and improving meeting after meeting. Keep it up, Madam President!

The word of the day: Jubilation, was introduced by our VPE, Chitirra.

We were honoured to have one of the senior Toastmasters, Distinguished Toastmasters, N. J. Singam to be our General Evaluator.

Advanced Communicator Bronze, CP Lau was the speaker for the invocation presentation. He reminded all, that besides the lights decoration at our houses, it is time to also light up the lights of knowledge and the lights of truth within us. It is time to reflect and admit our bad habits and wrong doings. With the arrival of the festival of lights, it is time to transform to be the  better us. He ended his speech with a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change, to change to a better world”.

Our handsome Toastmaster of the Evening, Competent Communicator, Manish Jha, in his favourite costume, took over the control and led us through the rest of the meeting.

The ever fun and exciting table topics session was led by our charming and calm Table Topics Master, Advanced Communicator Bronze, Serena Kong. To be inducted new member, Shelly Sim took on the challenge to be the first speaker of the session. That had triggered the interest from the audience and we had 3 guests who stood on their feet and challenged the topics from Serena Kong. Well done everyone! This the platform provided and that is the attitude to take on the challenge!

Our first assigned speech speaker of the evening, Mandy Chan came on stage during the second session of the meeting. She delivered her 5^th speech from the Competent Communication manual, on body language. Her speech title was “Never Ending Voyage!”. It was her experience of her pre-wedding photography shoot in Europe. We had a Europe trip and witnessed how beautiful the couple were in their poses for the shooting. Such a romantic trip! We look forward to your wedding ceremony invitation, Mandy Chan!

Our second speaker, Yap Ooi Yee, attempted her 9^th speech from the Competent Communication manual, To persuade with power. It was convincing in her speech that, everyone is going to die one day, so let’s “Have a Meaningful Life”. What are the list of “things” we would like to do before we finally “call it a day”? Ooi Yee had persuaded and encouraged us to have a bucket list. In life, let us prioritize our plans and execute them one by one, diligently and satisfactorily and we shall have no regrets when we leave the world one day. Well said Ooi Yee!

Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva and Srikant Marakani delivered their second speech on the Pathways education system.

Dato’ Dr. Mary de Silva’s speech titled “The Time is Now!”, had shared with us the journey of her career. It took a lot of courage for her to move out of her comfort zone. With that courage and determination, she is what she is, where she is today. She has even authored books. Fellow members, look for her for advice if you desire to do something different, something big! Seek her advice if you also have plans to author your book. She is going to be a good dictionary for all of us!

Srikant had done a research and delivered a speech on his research, “Why Is The Night Sky Dark?”. He had provided some scientific explanation on this matter and it changed our “normal” perception of why the night sky is dark. Well done Srikant and we look forward to listening to more great speeches from you!

The “talk” continued during our break time. It was in jubilation that we had so much to share and to learn from each other. Our Sergeant-At-Arms had to ring the bell several times before he could gather everyone to continue with the meeting.

We always say, “Evaluation is the breakfast for champions”. Leading us in sharing the nice and good “breakfast” in the late evening, was our beloved General Evaluator, Distinguished Toastmaster, N.J. Singam. He is one of the very sincere and honest General Evaluators that we ever had. There were lots of sharing from him as well as good tips from him in helping us to bring our club’s standard to a new height. Thank you very much Distinguished Toastmaster, N.J. Singam.

The panel of evaluators are as follow:-

1.    Ron Yeap, Advanced Communicator Bronze– Table Topics Evaluation

2.    Ken Chan, Distinguished Toastmaster – Evaluator for Mandy

3.    Tan Ben Hoe, Competent Toastmaster – Evaluator for Ooi Yee

4.    Tn. Hj. Hashim, Distinguished Toastmaster – Evaluator for Dato’ Dr. Mary

5.    CP Lau, Advanced Communicator Bronze – Evaluator for Srikant

Once again, thank you everyone who had attended this wonderful meeting! Join us on 31 Oct 2017 for a speech marathon meeting. See you soon! Vanakkam. 

Blog Writer: CP Lau