Marathon Meeting - 28th July

From the desk of the President:

Hello everyone!

We had a great meeting today!

As Lucky put it, the guest-member ratio today was very interesting; almost half the attendees were guests. Besides the members from HELP University College TMC, there were 10 other clubs represented: Stamford College TMC, Sunway TMC, Exact ADC 1 TMC, KL Advanced TMC, Money Mastery TMC, Deloitte KassimChan TMC, Pidato Perdana TMC, Bangsar TMC, KPMG TMC, and even guests from Terengganu, from LEKOR TMC!

Not just that, we had the pleasure of having both our PAST and CURRENT Division P Governors, Francis Ng and Azmi Shahrin, attend this meeting.

=D Awesome.

The blog post for today was written by our Treasurer, Chan Chee Hoong. And whee hee hee, we have loads, LOADS of pictures this week =D.

Enjoy.

Shu Wei

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There was something to cheer about for the marathon meeting on the 28th of July. Firstly, the meeting commenced at 9.33am, which was only 3 minutes past the exact starting time for the meeting and secondly, there were notably more guests than usual who attended this meeting. Toastmaster members from Sunway, Deloitt KassimChan, KPMG, Stamford College and other Toasmasters clubs showed their support for us by spending their lovely Saturday morning here. A fortunate day indeed for our club, as even Lekor Toastmasters Club members from Terengganu paid our club a visit.

The meeting was started by the ASAA , Claudia Ting who kindly requested for a short icebreaking session where the guests and members introduce themselves and, yes.. tell all the others what their favourite soap opera is. The soap opera part startled many, especially me for instance, and I casually answered "TVB dramas" (I had no idea whether those are considered soap operas). Anyway, a great way to start off a meeting by getting to know others and letting people to know you. Suria really warmed us up by mentioning “Baywatch”!!.

Next on our meeting agenda was the presidential address by President Loo Shu Wei. She welcomed all the guests as well as members and handed the control over to TOM Ernest, who did a fantastic job on charging up the audience throughout the whole meeting.

Toastmaster of the Morning, Ernest

The first speech of the day was an icebreaker speech by John Lee, titled “An introduction”. His icebreaker speech was extraordinary, as he introduced himself in story mode way, mentioning his weird hobbies such as drowning beetles in a bottle and tearing up paper mindlessly. I think his strongest point is his vocal variety, as I can feel the melodious tones throughout his speech. He summed up his speech with a bang, pledging to himself to be proud of who he really is. He received a standing ovation from the crowd for his first and great attempt. (I wonder if we will get one if we re-do our icebreakers again).

John: My Introduction

John's standing ovation

Second speech of the day was delivered by Jee Aik, titled “Chess, My Past Hobby”. His speech was about his passion for chess and the reasons he chose chess to be his hobby. One of the reasons he mentioned was that he was able to command his army of chess pieces like a general going for war without any complaints from chess pieces. He also jokingly mentioned that it is convenient to play chess unless tsunamis and tornadoes arrive. It was really sad to hear that he lost interest for chess due to it being hard to find a people who have a similar passion for chess. After his speech, Ernest quipped that he would be by his side whenever and wherever when it comes to toastmastering =). A true friend indeed.

Evaluator Meyya reading Jee Aik's speech objectives

Jee Aik: Chess, My Past Hobby

Third speech of the day was by Claudia Ting, titled “The missing puzzles of our life”. In fact, she was doing her second speech. (Wha!..two weeks only and second speech liao…gotta craft my third speech soon…) The earlier part of the speech was the about the spiritual foundation she lacked for the past few years and how she managed to feel the meaning of life after being attached to God and His teachings. I am glad for her that she had found her missing piece. Her life experiences of playing with orphans and cheering them touched and motivated us to contribute to these unfortunate people.

Claudia: The Missing Puzzle of our Life

We had a short break for 15 minutes after the third speech. After the break the meeting resumed with 3 more fantastic speeches. The fourth speech was delivered by Gajaen from Sunway Toastmasters Club titled “Have a happy ride”. I had expected the speech to be something related to a fun ride at some fun fair, but it turns out to be unexpected stuff. It was about having 3 C’s when a person is driving, which are Charisma, Courteousness and Cautiousness. The introduction of his speech was a about a guy who was badly injured in tragic car accident coupled with good acting for dramatic effect, and I felt he should consider acting as career =D. Anyway, I learned to be a charismatic, courteous and cautious when driving or I had to dump my car keys.

General Evaluator Lucky reading the notes to the evaluator

Gajaen: Have a Happy Ride

Next on list was an interpretive reading session by Loo Shu Wei with her speech title “Wild Swans, by Jung Chang”. It was a great story with serene sceneries expressed through her speech.

Shu Wei: Wild Swans, by Jung Chang...

...and half of her evaluator's face.
Finally, there was a speech, or more of a proposal by Tan Kian Yoong from Deloitte Kassim Chan Toastmasters Club titled “ Life Education”. His speech was to challenge the current education system by teaching pupils to be financial literate and not just obtaining a degree. Education is to prepare us for life according to Kian Yoong. How I wish that exams are abolished haha…All in all it was a great proposal by him.

After the speeches, evaluations were given by evaluators under the General Evaluator Lucky.

Lucky...

... and his army

Speakers were advised to be more expressive and have more enthusiasm when delivering speeches. Some of the comments were to have more power vocally and more variety in facial expressions. After the speech evaluations were the reports from the language evaluator, timekeeper and ah counter, followed by the awards ceremony. An icebreaker award went to John Lee. John Lee was voted the best speaker whereas Meyya was voted the best evaluator.

John's icebreaker award

John, Best Speaker

Meyya, Best Evaluator
A token of appreciation for our guest evaluators and general evaluator:

Lucky

Azmi

Jasmine

Meyya

During the closing address, president Shu Wei sought comments from guests about the meeting. All of them were good comments, which means no complaints for lateness.

Presidential address

A happy guest: Loon, President of Exact ADC1 HELP UC TMC meetings: Satisfaction guaranteed!

Ernest Wong had the chance to promote our club’s installation dinner on the 4th of August(had the date jot down in my mind) and Hui Ven got to announce a humorous speech contest which will be organized on the 25th of August. Our past Division W Governor Francis gave a short speech and awarded our club two advanced manuals for achieving Presidents' Distinguished last term. Meeting adjourned at approximately 11.45 am.

District 51 Public Relations Officer Francis
A well organized meeting I would say, with some minor crutches for the voting part. Great speeches make great meetings. Hopefully my next speech will contribute to another great day of toastmastering.

Chee Hoong.


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5 of our club officers (myself, VPE Ernest, VPM Hui Ven, VPPR Tse Han and Treasurer Chee Hoong) attended the TLI at Wisma HELP later in the afternoon.

Pics from lunch while waiting for the TLI:

Munchy munch...

Such diligent-looking eaters, aren't they?

'Cause Hui Ven and I like taking pics.
But Ernest thinks he can take better ones than us ...

... Such as this:

Your verdict?

Jee Aik's face says it all.

Pictures from the TLI:

Something I have to note:

My Man-of-the-Day: Today I really have to thank Chee Hoong for all he's helped with this weekend.

Firstly for staying back WAY after his classes on Friday to get the flat-rate parking stamp from Commander Tang so that the Toastmasters who attended the TLI in Wisma HELP could pay only the flat rate of RM3. Otherwise I would have had to make a special trip to HELP to get the stamp.

Secondly for taking over SAA Ashrel's duty this morning in making sure the room is open and all the equipment is set out for the meeting (Ashrel is away on an emergency).
When I arrived early to help set out the place, I saw: the timekeeping device plugged in and in place, the role-players' folders and cards at the appropriate seats, the banner upon the lectern, and everything else in place... all done by Chee Hoong singlehandedly.

Thanks man =D

See you all at the next meeting on August 4!!

Shu Wei
President
013 2609 551