#404 Phenomenal Women

I’m a woman.

What’s your superpower?

Women were born to inspire and to commemorate that today at our club, we celebrated a belated International Women’s Day with a phenomenally themed meeting, “Phenomenal Women”.

The meeting proper began at sharp 7.15pm when our Sergeant-At-Arms, Shain Anand, called us in minutes ahead. He introduced the house rules and we were set to recite our Toastmasters Promise which we take to our heart, under his leadership. He then invited the President over to give her opening address.

Wendy Sim,CC , the proud matriarch of the club gave her Presidential Address with a twist this time by reciting the ever classic poem by Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Women. She then went on to lead the session with ease as everyone introduced themselves by speaking of the theme and using the word of the day “Omniscient”.

The time came for the Invocator of the day, Vijaykumar, CC to then excite us all with his invocation speech. Indeed his in depth research on the first female in Toastmasters and his flowery command of English, set many hearts especially those of the women in the club a sail. Empowering he was on this very empowering day for women.

Following, we had our senior and ever committed member E K Yeo, CC, CL step forward as the Toastmaster of the Evening to bring us through the history of Toastmasters and introduce the role players of the night. Today we had with us Olivia Chen  as the attentive Ah-Counter, Dato Dr. Mary de Silva, PM1 as the articulate Grammarian and Yap Ooi Yee, CC as the alert Timer.

In order to inaugurate the meeting for Women’s Day, I couldn’t have found a more apt General Evaluator than the sweet, stylish and smart Anita Wong, CTM, CL of IEM Toastmasters Club. She’s always been an epitome and idol for the female race in her ways and manners.

We then moved on to the fun and exciting Table Topics ™ session with our first time Table Topics ™ Master, Daniel Tham. Indeed he was willing to learn and steadfast in his role. He had with him an array of topics revolving around the life and times of women and many attempted boldly at the challenging topics.

Women indeed are capable of persuading with power and so to begin the first project speech for the night we had yet another caring female come forth and present her CC#9: Persuade with Power. Mandy Chan spoke on the topic “Money Isn’t Everything” and gave us a reality check that at the end of the day as material as it sounds, there are some things in life that money can never buy.

The next speech was by Xavier Gomez for his 2nd Project in his Leadership Development Pathway entitled Plague of Political Correctness. See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

Following was Crystal Chen, ACB, ALB on her 2nd Project as well under the Effective Coaching Pathway with her title “Hakka Chinese New Year Cuisine”. Oh, the mouth-watering cuisines she displayed left our mouths oozing but the magnificent stories behind each dish left us in awe!

Finally we had with us Dr. Srikant, PM1 who had successfully set foot for his 1st Project under Level 2 of the Presentation Mastery Pathway. His topic was on understanding his own communication style and his title was “The Analytical Method of Presentation”. He described how most of the time he uses an analytical approach in his presentations coming from a strong academic and research background. However, he also managed to derive the others styles of presenting that he may someday adopt.

Various topics and various background of speakers set today’s meeting with much diversity. We shot off to a quick break and returned once more for the evaluations session.

Anita Wong, CTM, CL, led the session with her cheery smile. First up we had Manish Jha, CC come forth as the Table Topics ™ Evaluator to give his detailed wrap up of each Table Topic ™ speaker. Then each project speech evaluator came on to give their opinions to their respective speakers. Aside from our usual senior members who came forth today, we had with us a first timer in evaluation, K T Chok. He was prim yet precise in his evaluation and did an excellent job despite it being his first time. Congrats to you for stepping up to the challenge. Evaluations are no easy task. One is faced with the challenge of having to dissect a person’s speech and deliver their opinion in the most respectable yet effective manner. Thus, a salute should be given to those who evaluate and one should understand and respect that evaluations are merely opinions of the respective individuals.

Since today, giving an evaluation was actually part of K T Chok’s assignment in his Pathways programme, he had for himself and extra special evaluation on his evaluation by Ron Yeap, ACB, CL. Ron gave his best feedback on what he thought was good and could be improved on KT’s evaluation itself.

After the open evaluations and respective role player reports, Anita Wong gave her brief commentary on our club and its ways. She was indeed positive and kind in her general evaluation.

It was drawing close to the end and the stage was passed back to our Phenomenal President, Wendy Sim, CC to go on with the awards for the night as follows.

Best Table Topics ™: K T Chok

Best Project Speech: Mandy Chan

Best Evaluator: Hj. Hashim, DTM

Wendy wrapped up the meeting with some announcements and feedbacks from the guest but most importantly she made a strong point in her closing address that despite having had this wonderful day dedicated specifically to celebrate women, there are still many women out there yet to be empowered and that it is still a real struggle out there for many of us. It is but with the help of both sexes, the educated and the ethical that we can strive to achieve true equality for both genders across the globe.

Until next time, keep rocking on ladies… and gentlemen too… *Winks*.

Blog writer: Phenomenal Chitirra

#403 Chinese New Year: Peace & Prosperity

We had our 403^rd meeting on 27 February 2018, the very first meeting after the Chinese New Year holidays. The theme of the meeting was still surrounding the atmosphere of new year, “Chinese New Year: Peace & Prosperity”.

At 7.15pm, our Assistant Sergeant At Arms, Joel Silas called the meeting to order by reciting the second 5 Toastmaster’s Promise. Soon after that, our Madam President, Wendy Sim, Competent Communicator took on the stage and began her opening address.

She wished everyone a Happy Chinese Year and shared with us what was her thought by the theme of peace and prosperity. She had also invited the members and audiences to do a quick self-introduction.

The Word of the Day was introduced by our Grammarian of the meeting, KT Chok, as “Felicity”. Felicity is a noun, which means intense happiness and the ability to find appropriate expression for one’s thought.

As it was still Chinese New Year, majority of our members and guests were dressed in red, because we believe the color brings “ong” and prosperity to us.

We have our member, Xavier presented the invocation presentation, which was very uplifting and inspiring. He then handed the control over to the Toastmaster of the Day, Mathew Philippose, Competent Communicator.

With a strong voice, Mathew had led us through a very smooth, fun-filling and educational meeting for the evening. Our General Evaluator of the meeting was Sharon Wong, Advanced Communicator Silver, the President of OUM Toastmasters Club.

Our ever young, energetic and humorous member, Kelvin Chong, Advanced Communicator Bronze was the Table Topics Master of the day. He had prepared many topics and each topic was put into an “ang pao” (a packet that Chinese use to put in a token of money and give to someone to wish them best of luck)  in conjunction with the Chinese New Year. The topics were very interesting, with some of them were on the new year wishes/ resolutions and some were on the Chinese Zodiacs. It was amazing to see some of the non-Chinese members as well as guest took on the topics and managed to provide some in depth explanation on Zodiacs.

Our member, Dato Dr. Mary participated and was voted the Best Table Topics Speaker of the meeting. Congratulations Dato Dr. Mary! 

Our assigned speech session started with our veteran and club champion, KL Loh, Advanced Toastmaster Gold, rehearsed on his contest speech, preparing for the Area Contest. The speech title was “The Monkey in Our Lives”. His speech sent out a very timely and strong message to us that we ought not to procrastinate, in our studies, career even in our health. Thank you for inspiring each and every one of us, KL Loh!

KL Loh’s speech was evaluated by our member Srikant, who was taking up this evaluation task as one of his project assignment in his attempt on his Pathway Level 1 assignments. Even though it was Srikant’s first evaluation, he managed to demonstrate the skill of listening and observation and provided evaluation on KL Loh’s speech. He has also given area of improvement on the speech delivery. Srikant’s evaluation, as a project on Level 1, was evaluated by CP Lau, Advanced Communicator Bronze. CP shared some tips with Srikant in order to help him in a more proficient evaluation in future. Well done Srikant and keep it up!

Joel Silas attempted to deliver his final speech on the Competent Communication manual, to inspire the audience! His speech title was “What is Life?”. Despite the delivery was not as smooth as how Joel wanted it to be, he completed his speech. The speech was evaluated by our senior member, Tn. Hj. Hashim, Distinguished Toastmaster. He had provided a very sincere evaluation to Joel, pointed out how he should have approached he delivery of this speech. He has recommended Joel to work on the speech again and arrange to deliver it for another time. We look forward to hearing a more powerful speech from Joel in time to come. Keep up the good work, Joel!

Last but not least, our last speech of the session was a speech from Dato Dr. Mary, completing her final project on Level 1, the path Presentation Mastery. The title of the speech was “Colours. Awesome Colours.”. The speech caught us surprise when the content was related to rainbow instead of any other “things” that we could guess. The speech was beautifully and colourfully delivered by Dato Dr, Mary. She has improved speech by speech. Kudos to you, Dato Dr. Mary! It was so colourful. Her speech was evaluated by Mathew Philippose, took up dual roles as speech evaluator as well as the Toastmaster of the Evening.

After the break, our General Evaluator, Sharon Wong, Advanced Communicator Silver led the 4^th session, the Evaluation Session. She had invited the Table Topics Evaluator, Ron Yeap, Advanced Communicator Bronze. Ron was very good in listening and observing. He has highlighted the strength of each speech, which could also be a learning point for other members. Besides, he has also managed to suggest some useful tips for all the table topics speakers. Thank you Ron!

Each and every speech evaluator had delivered their evaluation. The technical role players had also delivered their reports accordingly. We had:-

•        Mandy Chan as the Ah Counter
•       KT Chok as Grammarian
•       Olivia Chen as the Timer

A round of applause to them for their hard work, demonstrating the skills of listening and observing. I am sure the speakers as well as the audiences had benefited from their reports presented.

Our Madam General Evaluator, had provided her “evaluation” on our meeting. One very good point shared by her, which perhaps our members should take note, “Do not down grade yourselves by saying sorry!”. Until we have mentioned it, the audiences do not know if you had made mistake. Thank you Madam General Evaluator and we shall take note on the suggestions provided in conjunction with our effort to bring our club to the next level!

Congratulations to Dato Dr, Mary voted as “Double Best”, the Best Table Topics Speech and the Best Assigned Speech! You have made it and the night was so colourful! Tn. Hj. Hashim, Distinguished Toastmaster was voted the best speech evaluation. Congratulations to all and keep it up!

Madam President Wendy Sim, Competent Communicator presented her closing address and announced the meeting adjourned followed by a happy group photo. The night was very special, where we had celebrated the February born babies. In addition, we had the tradition of Chinese during Chinese New Year, “Lou Sang”. Lou Sang is an activity where we will stir on a plate of nicely cut vegetables, with some raw fish on it. It means great happiness, great health and prosperous year ahead. The higher we stir, the better we are!

Till we meet in the next meeting, Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Blog writer: C P Lau ACB, ALB

#402 Valentine's: To Love & To Be Loved

February, the month full of cheers! Valentine’s Day has arrived!

As usual for every club meeting, the venue before the start of the meeting was arranged by whoever comes early. Our madam President, Wendy Sim and our member Vijay arrived early to the venue. Our lovely VPE Chitirra took the role player as an ASAA, Table Topics Master cum Timer. The meeting begun on time with the recital of a Toastmaster’s promise by all members for their commitment to Toastmasters.

The theme of the meeting was “Valentine’s: To Love & To Be Loved” and the word of the day was “Endearment”.

Our Club President, Wendy Sim, took over the control of the meeting with her welcome address. She greeted the distinguished guest Ken Koh, ACS, ALB, who came from Extol Toastmasters Club as General Evaluator and the other guests. Then she invited the Grammarian, Xavier Gomez, to introduce the word of the day “Endearment”. She invited members and guests to introduce themselves and encouraged all to use the word of the day and speak in line with the theme of the day, “Valentine’s: To Love & To Be Loved”. All the members and guests did well during the self- introduction. Today’s club meeting was a lively one because we had guests as well.

After the introduction session, the floor was passed on to C P Lau, ACB, ALB who played the role as the Humour Master.

Today’s Toastmaster of the Evening is our Manish Jha, CC who briefed on the history of Toastmasters International and our club. He introduced the role players for this meeting in the sequence of Grammarian- Xavier Gomez, “Ah” Counter- Vijay and Timer- Chitirra who played 3 roles in this meeting. All the role players introduced their roles and objectives for this evening.

The exciting session of Table Topics­­­TM took place and our VPE played the role of Table TopicsTM Master. She prepared the topics related to theme of the day with “Ang Pows” sponsored by Manish Jha, CC. Members and guests were encouraged to participate. She explained the objective of Table Topics TM and the time limitation for each speaker. The purpose of the Table TopicsTM session is to develop the impromptu speaking skills which includes opening, body and conclusion in their speech.

Some of the Table TopicsTM speakers were Mathew Philippose, Hj Hashim, General Evaluator-Ken Koh and 2 guests.

Let’s give a big applause to all the 5 speakers. Here, we were asked to cast a vote for the best Table Topics TM speaker.

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

1st Speaker – Mandy Chan

CC#8: Get Comfortable With Visual Aids

Speech Title: Travel with Parents: A beautiful Adjustment

Speech Evaluator Hj Hashim , DTM

She shared with us her memory of travel with parents in Taiwan.

2nd  Speaker – KT Chok

Speech Title: 72

Speech Evaluator Mathew Philippose ,CC, ALB

This is his pathways of Presentation Mastery: Level 1: Project 2-Evaluation & Feedback.

He shared with us his knowledge of Rule of 72, the calculation of interest in FD, and investments. We could learned more in accumulating our wealth. It is a very interesting knowledge.

3rd  Speaker – Olivia Chen

Speech Title: Ikebana

Speech Evaluator C P Lau, ACB, ALB

This is her pathways of Presentation Mastery: Level 1: Project 2-Evaluation & Feedback.

 Olivia Chen also did her Project 2: Evaluation & Feedback speech. Olivia’s repeated her 2nd speech with her speech entitled “Ikebana”. She restructured her speech and demonstrated with real flowers the Japanese flower arranging concept and what it actually symbolises.

Finally, General Evaluator, Ken Koh, ACS, ALB, was most observant and completely in charge when he told us as a whole club on what we are good at and what needs to be improved. An amazing evening it was with this bunch of enthusiastic, friendly and supportive people. This kind of environment can most definitely bring out the best in you.

Here, our Toastmaster of the Evening was enjoying the entire show and then took charge of the show again and called our club president Wendy Sim, CC to acknowledge the best performers of the evening. Yes, we do it in every meeting.

Best Project Speaker: K T Chock

Best Table Topics ™ Speaker: Ken Koh ACS, ALB

Best Evaluator: Hj. Hashim DTM

Indeed there was love in the air that night and we went home with our hearts dipped in love for the coming Valentine.

Blog Writer: Crystal Chen ACB, ALB

#401 My Spirit is a Roaring Sea

Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club just finished their 400^th meeting in our Toastmasters’ history of 15 years. This was our 401^st meeting to show our roaring sea spirit in every conduct of this meeting. ASAA of the evening, Yap Ooi Yee, CC, took the control at 7:16pm with only a one minute delay from the scheduled time. She assured everything was in order to kick start the meeting. “Raise your hand if you have not received the voting slip? The voting slip is to vote for the best speakers. Another very important point, toilet is not working temporarily on our floor and downstairs is already being occupied today hahaha.” This was not humour but a reality. Believe it or not the whole evening went on very smoothly. She recited the Toastmaster’s promises with us and handed the floor to our acting-president, Chitirra.

Our acting-president intrepidly addressed the meeting and asked, kindly introduce yourself and use the word of the day ‘Intrepid’ and the theme of the day ‘My Spirit is A Roaring Sea’. It is our club culture to let everyone speak at least once throughout the meeting. She then passed the floor to the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), Shain Anand who then introduced the Humour Master, Distinguish Toastmaster (DTM), Ken Chan.

Ken chan is a professional speaker and mentor. Sometimes he comes with his inspiring speech but today he decided to begin this evening with some humour. We laughed like wild emojis. We got excited to move on. 

Our TME then took the stage again. For your kind information, Shain is also our VPPR of this term 2017/18 and a wonderful Toastmaster and friend. He came up with his attitude like a roaring sea. He briefed all on the history of Toastmasters International and our club, especially for the guests. Yes, most of the time we have some guests in our meeting. One of the guest today also accepted to sign up in the same evening. Shain then proceeded to introduce the role players, the Grammarian, Ah’ counter, Time keeper and General Evaluator for the night, Distinguished Toastmaster Dr. Devi Menon who comes from Sai Toastmasters Club. 

Now as the excitement was soaring high, our Table Topics ™ Master Dato Dr. Mary De Silva was called on to the stage. Table Topics ™ session is a frightening yet fun filling session. We actually have no idea what topic is about to be received and what we will speak. She came up prepared with very inspiring and beautiful topics. We found 4 intrepid speakers. Shin (Guest), Joel, myself (Manish) and Victor Ong , DTM (From Liquid Gold TMC). Everyone spoke well. Do you know why? Because the topics were amazing? 

Drop by on any 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Tuesday of the month in the evenings at 7.15pm if you want to participate in our fun filling session. This evening our time keeper Yap Ooi Yee,CC displayed the green signal to the TME to proceed with the prepared project speeches as the time was up for Table Topics ™. Now the 1^st speaker of the day Ken Chan, DTM came up with his speech entitled ‘Negotiate to Win’. This speech was as per the Competent Communication manual speech #8, Get Comfortable with Visual Aids. Negotiation is very important in our life no matter what you do, but in business it creates great impact if you can negotiate well. I hope you know what I mean. It was completely worth it watching his negotiation techniques as he is the subject matter expert.

The 2^nd Speaker of the day was Joel Silas with his speech entitled, ‘Power, Influence & Politics’. He is a very good learner. He proved it too. He proved that practice can make anyone perfect. Keep up the hunger of learning Joel! I was privileged to be his speech evaluator. It means I was more observant. Hahaha. He was doing his speech from the Competent Communication Manual, speech #9 which was “Persuade With Power”. He did very well and persuaded the whole audience to earn the power, use it wisely and serve yourself and the community. That will make not only you proud but also the whole nation and the whole world.

The 3^rd speaker is none other than CP Lau, ACB, ALB. He is an entrepreneur by his profession in IT and in other Industries as well. He is a very good communicator and speaker.  He was a speaking from the Advanced Manual called “Speaking to Inform” which required him to give a speech on an abstract concept. His speech title was ‘Are you happy? ’ Interesting right? He tried to get to know the audience and see how happy they were. He also talked about what real happiness is. H mesmerised and captivated us throughout his speech. Thanks CP for the lovely piece.

The 4^th and final speaker of the day was our brand new member “Xavier Gomez”. He was doing his Ice Breaker speech from the “Leadership Development” path, Level-1. He came with his speech title “The Owner of The New house”. We were very curious about what he was going to talk about. This was suspense until he made it clear that his name Xavier has a meaning called “The Owner of The New House”. As there is a saying, everyone has a story to share, Xavier found the perfect story to share about his life. He talked about his initial life, love life and career. It was amazing to know Xavier. Keep it up!

Do you want a break? Let’s break for 10 mins.

Despite knowing that our Toilet was not operational that night, everyone served their tummies non-stop with the wonderful dinner. We were still eating then our time keeper rang the bell, “Guys, times up. Please get back. You can even eat after the meeting”. 

The ball was now in the General Evaluator, Dr. Devi Menon’s, DTM court. She is a wonderful Toastmaster, a friend and an amazing evaluator. She bravely followed the agenda. She called out Table Topic’s Evaluator, Kevin Khoo,CC. Kevin was brilliant, another fantastic speaker and evaluator. He was attentively listening to all the 4 speakers and highlighted in his evaluation, the speakers’ strengths and area of improvements. He encouraged and gave an utmost valuable feedback. We felt accomplished.

Now it was the project speech evaluators’ turn. Firstly, Dato’ Dr. Mary De Silva called to evaluate speaker Ken Chan’s, DTM speech “Negotiate to Win” as she was doing her evaluation project from pathways (“Presentation Mastery”). There was another evaluator to evaluate Dr. Mary’s evaluation who was Victor Ong, DTM from Liquid Gold Toastmasters Club. Both of them gave wonderful insights to Ken to improve further in his speech and praised his strengths. Dato Dr, Mary De Silva also got some pointers to do a better evaluation next time from Victor Ong,DTM.

Next, I was doing my best evaluation to evaluate Joel’s speech ‘Power, Influence & Politics’. I did my best and I was doing my project on evaluation from my path ‘Innovative Planning’. Therefore, I also got an evaluator to evaluate my evaluation. I particularly liked this part of the meeting on the evaluation of the evaluators. We tried our best to learn from each other.

Following after us Mathew Philippose, CC, ALB appeared on stage and the way he soared with the spirit in his evaluation, he won the best evaluation of the evening. He is also a professional speaker and mentor.

We called out our final speech evaluator Ron Yeap, ACB, CL. He is our Immediate Past President. He was attentive in listening to Xavier’s speech. An evaluator’s job is to comment on how the speaker has done well. An evaluator should acknowledge and provide a constructive feedback so that the speaker will be able to perform much better in their next speech. He did exactly that. Along with the speaker Xavier, we all felt once again accomplished.

Finally General Evaluator Dr. Devi Menon, DTM, was most observant and completely in charge when she told us as a whole club on what we are good at and what needs to be improved. An amazing evening it was with this bunch of enthusiastic, friendly and supportive people. This kind of environment can most definitely bring out the best in you.

Here, our Toastmaster of the Evening was enjoying the entire show and then took charge of the show again and called our club president Wendy Sim, CC to acknowledge the best performers of the evening. Yes, we do it in every meeting.

The Best Table Topics ™ Speaker goes toooooo , Joel Silas,

The Best Project Speech goes toooo ,Joel’s mentor Ken Chan, DTM.

The Best Project Speech Evaluation goes tooooo: Mathew Phillippose, CC, ALB.

What are you thinking now? That’s it!  The club president gave her closing address, summarised the whole meeting and adjourned the meeting. See you all again on 13^th Feb 2018.

Blog Writer: Manish Jha, CC

 Note:  

ASAA- Assistant Sergent At Arms.
CC- Competent Communication speaking manual.
ACB ALB- Advanced Communicator Bronze, Advanced Leader Bronze.
DTM- Distinguished Toastmaster.
TME- Toastmaster of the Evening.

For more details do contact us           

A Flourished 400th

The first chapter of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich says it all. Thoughts are things. An ideology, a concept or a simple hope could spark at any given moment and it takes a great visionary, a hopeful dreamer, a transformational leader to take that of which merely exists in the mind and materialize it.

And who would have known that what started in a small basement in Santa Ana, California on the 22^nd of October 1924 would end up flourishing on the 3^rd floor of MCA PJ Selatan on the 23^rd of January 2018.

As a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, so did the journey to Money-Mastery KL Toastmasters’ (MMKL) 400^th meeting. An ordinary meeting with an extraordinary history behind it.

Themed “A Flourished 400^th”, the meeting was set to go despite the heavy rain. Even the sky was crying with joy for our 400^th. Our respectable Immediate Past President, Ron Yeap, Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB), Competent Leader (CL) called the meeting to order and we got into mode. Something about reading the 2^nd half of our Toastmasters’ promise that night that made us recollect why we were all here as Toastmasters.

The beautiful President, Wendy Sim, Competent Communicator (CC) who sponsored golden 400 shaped balloons for the occasion came on stage to give her admirable address of our 400^th meeting. She welcomed the guests, speaking of which, it was nothing but a pure privilege to have with us for the special night a VIP as our General Evaluator (GE). We were blessed with the presence of District 102 Director, Azizah Abu Hassan, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) as our GE for our 400^th meeting. Alongside we were visited by Division C Director, Danny Bong, ACS, CL.

The first time Grammarian and our newest member, Xavier Gomez introduced the word of the day “Vigour” with much vigour indeed and following on all the members and guests spoke on their feet during the introduction about the theme whilst applying the word of the day.

Oh, we had past presidents still full of vigour take us on a nostalgic ride as they spoke of their first memories at MMKL. It was surreal today’s introduction as even I recollected the moment I first set foot into the door of MMKL as a guest. It’s not just the doors that are open here but the arms of the members that extend straight to their hearts as well. You wouldn’t find camaraderie and friendship elsewhere like how you find it in MMKL. Which is why I vividly remember my sentence as a guest 1.5 years ago before I even signed up as a member “I think… I’ve fallen in love with this club”.

We then had one of our pioneer members, Hj. Hashim Adnan, DTM, the jolly golfer who’s always having a cheery smile on his face to deliver us an impactful invocation speech. It was melancholy but uplifting, it was simple but thought provoking, it was full of variety but with a steady purpose as well. Friendship. Revolving around the motto of our club “Friends Helping Friends Succeed”, Hj. Hashim delivered like a true Toastmaster and left us with some food for thought.

The impromptu, fun-filled Table Topics ™ session thus followed, with our Table Topics ™ Master of the evening, Crystal Chen, ACB, Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB). Crystal played this role in the club for the first time but managed to string an array of topics that were absolutely apt to the occasion. Members from the floor Nini, KL Loh, Advanced Toastmaster Gold (ATMG), Hj. Hashim, DTM and Danny attempted at them and tested their abilities.

Alas, we moved on to the Project Speech Session with our first speaker, myself, Chitirra, who carried out my CC7: Research Your Topic with a speech entitled “Insomnia”. Something I tend to struggle with as I type this blog out at 4.15am when clearly I could be sleeping. I spoke of its symptoms, causes and some simple self-help remedies that could suppress the condition.

Next we had 3 Pathway Project speeches, all of which were from the Path “Presentation Mastery”.

The second speaker was K T Chok, with his Ice Breaker, “The Rising Sun”. He spoke of his origins from Tawau, Sabah and his passion for compounding figures as an investment banker. From Borneo Boy to Banker Boy, indeed KT himself is a rising sun.

Next we had, Dato Dr. Mary de Silva deliver her Project 2: Evaluation & Feedback speech entitled “Yes”. Dato Dr. Mary may be a new member but she speaks like a true professional and “Yes” her speeches contain so much valuable lessons all the time. This time she summarised Jim Carrey’s movie ‘Yes Man’ and shared with us on how a ‘Yes’ to take up a simple task, can take us a long way in life.

Last but not least, we had Olivia Chen also do her Project 2: Evaluation & Feedback speech. Whilst Mary’s was full of vigour, Olivia’s was full of peace. It was serene but captivating as she brought us into Zen mode to understand the art and science behind the eastern culture of flower arrangement. With her speech entitled “Ikebana” she even demonstrated with real flowers the Japanese flower arranging concept and what it actually symbolises. It was truly a treat for the eyes.

Today, we also made time to induct our newest member, Xavier Gomez and led him to his guiding light in Toastmasters, his mentor, Manish Jha, CC. Our VPM, Yap Ooi Yee carried out the protocol and with a round of Hi-5s flying in the air to welcome our newest guest, we set his spirit high with vigour and wished him all the growth and happiness in his Toastmasters journey as he set his first step in his thousand mile journey.

A short 10 minute break was in order as our MMKL members truly indulge in our tantalizing favourite, Nasi Lemak and can really go bananas with the bananas we serve.

Having filled our tummies, it was time again for another round of breakfast. The breakfast for champions as we call it here in Toastmasters, we continued with the very vital evaluation session. To conduct the session, our GE, District 102 Director, Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM took control of the stage.

The Table Topics ™ Evaluator, Manish Jha, CC gave a very detailed and distinctive evaluation on each of the speakers. Then the panel evaluators each came on stage to deliver their project speech evaluations, each with a style of their own. K L Loh, ATMG evaluated Chitirra in his unfastened but honest manner. Foo Fung Jiun, CC gave his first ever evaluation to KT. He truly observed the speech and displayed a smooth evaluation even remembering to encourage the speaker to return for more speeches. He understood and applied the sandwich method despite being a first time evaluator. Hj. Hashim, DTM, danced and pranced in his movement and toned down and toned up in his volume and gave an intricate evaluation on Dato’ Dr. Mary’s speech, which is why he never fails to bag a prize at any given Evaluation Contest. Finally, we had Ken Chan, DTM evaluate Olivia in his technical manner of evaluation. Known for his abbreviations and mastery techniques, this time Ken Chan, DTM was on a roll with his evaluation.

Honest and genuine open evaluations were given at random to all the project speakers and we finally moved on to the technical reports. We had a precise Grammarian report from Xavier Gomez, a well observed Ah-Counter report from EK Yeo, CC, CL and a timely report from the Timekeeper, Yap Ooi Yee, CC. Following, we had the general summary of what was pleasant and what could have been more pleasant about the meeting from our poised and professional GE, Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM.

On this special occasion of our 400^th meeting, having had also the fortune of the District Director’s presence, we set aside some air time for her special address and it was nothing but pure words of wisdom. Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM drilled into our minds that we can be more than what we already are and that the possibilities are endless. Having been a President’s Distinguished Club since 2003, she reminded MMKL that more can be done if we choose to raise the bar, that even a fine club can always be fine-tuned, that a little difference can make a big difference, that a “Yes” as mentioned by Mary in her speech can go a long way. I was pumped, I was boosted, I was driven by her encouragement and truly it was a gain to have heard her express her views and ideologies.

It was time again for our President Wendy Sim, CC to take the floor with the awards and announcements for the evening. Upon presenting a token of appreciation to our GE, we once again called upon Azizah Abu Hassan, DTM, to give away the Smedley Award Ribbon we gained to our President. We then invited Division C Director, Danny Bong, ACS, CL, to give away some education award ribbons that we gained for the term. It is important that members are recognized for their achievements and efforts, for a little motivation can do wonders in retaining the spirit and drive in a club.

Finally, the long awaited moment to award the best speakers arrived. Drumrolls drummed in our ear drums as the Best Table Topics award went to Hj. Hashim, DTM, the Best Speech Evaluator was bagged by Ken Chan, DTM and last but not least the Best Project Speech was rewarded to Olivia Chen. Truly deserving were they.

With joy in the air and inspiration in our hearts, the meeting was adjourned and we got together to snap a fantabulous 400^th meeting picture. We had props and the balloons to complement the occasion and add a burst of fun into the picture that will go down in history henceforth.

Come to think of it though, it’s not about celebrating how long we’ve been around. 100^th, 200^th­­, 300^th or 400^th, they are but numbers. Tonight, what we really celebrated was the vision of a great man who saw this day coming and the spirit of millions who made it happen. Nevertheless, it’ll be cool if I’d stick around to celebrate our 500^th wouldn’t it? Goodbye… just for now!

Blog Writer: Chitirra

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