Joint Meeting with D'Utama Adv TMC - 24th November

Hi everyone!

24th Nov was the day HELP UC TMC had our first (and definitely not the last) joint meeting of the 2007/2008 term, and this time we collaborated with the highly commended D'Utama Advanced Toastmasters Club!
This makes the joint meeting not just a cross-club effort, but also a cross-division one! Yay us!

The joint meeting initially was suggested by D'Utama Adv TMC's president, Lee Wei Seong, in mid-2007. The VPEs from the two clubs, Debra from D'Utama Adv and Ernest from HELP UC got together and cracked heads to come up with some basic arrangements for the meeting. One of our (relatively) newer members, Gajendran, joined the team after Ernest found that due to a conflicting work schedule, he was unable to oversee the final arrangements.

As HELP UC TMC President, and having seen how the project was organized, the little problems that came up, and the way they were solved, I have to commend Gajendran on the excellent job he did on finalising the end details of joint meeting. Even though he has only been in the club and in Toastmasters for a few months, he was able to help take over the job of finalising the end arrangements on HELP UC TMC's side from VPE Ernest. Excellent initiative and organizational skills!

Of course, thanks also to Debra, Ernest and all the others who helped out with organizing the project! =)

The meeting was held at the HELP University College TMC meeting venue, at the HELP UC Pusat Bandar Damansara campus.

First-time ASAA Jee Aik began the meeting by asking everyone to introduce themselves and tell the audience what was their most memorable speech. A few mentioned their icebreaker as their most memorable speech; and Jason Moi mentioned that his Table Topic with the "Fan of Chen Keat" was his most memorable yet. Haha, that was memorable for me too, Jason!

D'Utama Adv TMC President Lee Wei Seong gave the opening presidential address for this Joint Meeting, and mentioned, among other things, that the learning never stops in the Toastmasters program. It was a very meaningful, dignified, and inspiring Opening Address. I have a lot to learn in terms of Presidential Addresses from these experienced Presidents... One day, people, one day. =)

Gajendran then took control of the lectern in his role as Toastmaster of the Morning. Just like Jee Aik, it was his first time at this role, and I think he conducted himself very well for a first-timer. Well-prepared and well-executed.

Then came the Table Topics session, which was specially modified by Gajendran, Debra and Ernest for this Joint meeting. It was made to be a contest between HELP UC TMC and D'Utama Adv TMC, with three table topic speakers from each club taking turns to give speeches. There were three rounds, with a speaker from each club giving a speech in each round. Later, an impartial (not from either club) Table Topics evaluator would judge which was the winning club, based on which club had the most wins out of the three rounds.

The Table Topics Master was Jean Ee, and she came up with topics relating to the theme of Thanksgiving. There were six topics and six speakers: Peter Yu (D'Utama), Dennis Wee (D'Utama Adv), Tham Chee Wah (D'Utama Adv), Jason Moi (HELP UC), John Lee (HELP UC) and Jee Aik (HELP UC).

The Table Topics Evaluator was Meyya (from Deloitte KassinChan TMC), and he delivered a humorous, constructive evaluation. The overall result of the contest was... a win for HELP UC TM! =)

Assignment speeches were up next, and first on the list was Peter Yu with his 3rd speech from the CC manual. He was energetic and confident, and was definitely good at interacting with the audience.

A speech by HELP UC TMC's immediate past SAA, Seok Mei, followed. Her topic was AIDS, and it was her 10th speech from the CC manual. She informed the audience about the disease and the global need to curb it.

After the break, the assignment speeches continued with two advanced speeches: Ivan Ho's speech from the Specialty Speeches manual, and my speech from the Interpretive Reading manual.

The final assignment speech for the day was from John Lee, who delivered his 10th speech from the CC manual. It was definitely a great speech, good content, well-written and delivered almost flawlessly.

General Evaluator Siew Peng from D'Utama Adv took over for the evaluation session. She led us through a smooth session, and gave constructive, unbiased feedback on the meeting at the end of the session.

There was an array of brilliant evaluators for this meeting: HELP UC TMC's VPM Khoo Hui Ven, D'Utama Adv President Lee Wei Seong, Area B2 Governor Dennis Wee, Past D'Utama Adv President Tham Chee Wah, and Past District 51 Governor Low Yat Seow.
All gave unbiased, constructive evaluations on their assigned speakers, and I believe everyone in the room stood to benefit from what they mentioned about the speeches.

The Best Assignment Speaker Award went to John Lee for his speech "Why War", and the Best Evaluator Award went to Lee Wei Seong for his evaluation of Seok Mei's speech. Kudos to the winners! =)

Before the meeting ended, Division W Governor Azmi Shahrin took the stage to present some awards to the club officers who had attended the first Div W TLI training session earlier in the term, and also to several club members who had achieved educational titles recently.
Congrats to John and Seok Mei for achieving their CC titles that day!

Thanks to D'Utama Adv for the opportunity to have this Joint Meeting. I believe all of my club members benefited from this experience: having a joint meeting with an older club full of more experienced Toastmasters. Different evaluators with more striaghtforward evaluations than usual; fresh personalities and new friends.


Looking forward to more joint ventures with D'Utama and other clubs,
Shu Wei

24th of Nov Meeting

Blog post by Jason Moi, Incoming VPPR ..


The word Carpe diem came from a Latin term which meant ‘seize the day’. On November the 24^th, the day was clearly seized to its very essence as it was once again time for another HELP Toastmasters meeting! However, the meeting that was held this time is much more special than any other regular meetings due to the fact that it is a joint meeting between HELP Toastmasters Club and Kuala Lumpur’s oldest advanced toastmasters club, the Damansara Utama Advanced Toastmasters Club. The meeting was started 10 minutes later than expected, at approximately 9:45 am, with Jee Aik conducting the ice-breaking session as the ASAA of the morning. In his ice-breaking session, Jee Aik requested everyone in the room to introduce themselves and to roughly tell everyone about their most memorable speech. After everyone seemed comfortable with one another, Jee Aik handed the stage over to the President of DU Advance Toastmasters Club, Wei Siong, to give his presidential address, who not only presented his speech with vigor and vitality, but also managed to captivate the audience with his solid beliefs that it doesn’t matter who or what one person is that makes him or her a successful toastmaster, it is all about the learning experience one gets that matters.

Wei Siong passed his control over to the Toastmaster of the Morning, Gajendran. As radiant and jovial as always, Gajendran warmed up the crowd with his charm and informed the audience about the history of Toastmasters international and the history of HELP Toastmasters. Eventually, Gajendran gave control of the stage to Jean Ee, the Table Topics Master. The momentum of the meeting began to pick up pace as the table topics session today is actually an indirect duel of wits between HELP Toastmasters and DU Advance Toastmasters, in which 3 representatives from each faction will rough it out spontaneously in a series of impromptu speeches that revolve around the theme of ‘thanksgiving’. First up was Jason Moi, who meekly put up his hand to represent HELP. Jason’s topic was ‘the 3 tastes that represent life’s goodness.’ With a sigh of confusion and a smile of a sporting individual, Jason related his topic with sweets and further elaborated on the three common tastes of sweets to life, which are : sweet which represents the happiness in life, sour that represents the weirdness in life, and bitter that represents the sadness in life. Soon, it was DU Toastmasters’ turn to reply to Jason’s speech, which was responded in the form of their own youth power : Peter. Peter walked confidently towards the stage, and was presented with the title ‘the 3 senses of touch that represent life’s goodness.’ Standing tall amongst his audience, Peter elaborated on his topic with passion, relating the first touch that represents life’s goodness to a warm touch; the kind of feeling when one touches a woman. Peter’s two other points were the painful touch when one gets when he or she touches boiling water, and a confidential touch which remained a secret up to the very end of his speech.

Next up was the promising speaker from HELP, John Lee, to enter the Table Topics arena. He was given the title ‘ the three smells that represent life’s goodness.’ Without hesitation, John Lee casually and naturally related the three smells of life to the sweet smell which represents the good things in life, the rotten smell which warns us to avoid the bad things in life, and the sour smell which teaches us how to appreciate life’s goodness. John’s speech was then challenged by the ever-alert Dennis Wee, who was presented the title ‘the three people that represent life’s goodness.’ As a person with a multi-coloured personality, Dennis Wee decided to affect the audience with his emotional story about his grandfather, whose presence is treasured greatly by Dennis and could have easily represented the three people in his life that reminds him of life’s goodness. This time, HELP Toasmasters was a bit hesitant, therefore DU Toastmasters decided to take the battlefield for the second time, by bringing out another one of their talented speakers, Che Wah. This time round, Che Wah was presented with the title ‘the three sights that represent life’s goodness.’ Che Wah, with enthusiasm and a flare for speaking, enthusiastically related his topic to the sun which represents the love that is always there, the moon that receives the love from the sun, and the stars that represent hope in one’s life. Moving on, the table topics session was ended with HELP Toastmasters’ answer to DU Toastmaster in the form of Jee Aik, who was presented with the title ‘the three sounds that represent life’s goodness.’ Jee Aik related his topic with the sounds of positive words that make one feel good, the sound of encouragement that empowers one’s belief, and the sound of push that drives one to do something (as Jee aik was “pushed out” by the audience to present the final Table Topics speech.)

After a heated Table topics session, it was now time for the table topics evaluation, which was done by Meyyappa. As the Table topics evaluator of the morning, Meyyappa did an exceptionally marvelous job in thoroughly explaining the strengths and points of improvements of every single speaker in a jokingly but yet serious manner.

In no time, it was time for the first assignment speech of the day, done by Peter Yu with his speech entitled ‘Do You Remember?’ Once again, Peter Yu displayed a remarkable amount of passion for his speech, and trying his best to inform the audience about how a human being remembers. Peter Yu was also able to incorporate several effective interactions with the audience into his speech, for instance, making the audience remember 8 cards that are flashed by him. He ended his speech with challenging the audience to increase their capability to remember and never to underestimate their mind.

The next assignment was presented by Lim Seok Mei with her speech entitled ‘AIDS.’ In her speech, Seok Mei produced an elaborate description on what AIDS is, the difference between AIDS and HIV, the perception of AIDS in the eyes of society, and the ways to help a person suffering from AIDS.

Soon, it was time for a break, which lasted for 10 minutes. The meeting was then continued by Ivan Ho with his speech entitled ‘virus, spam, and Trojan horses.’ Calmly, Ivan presented a clear definition on what a virus, spam and a trojan horse is. Ivan also informed the audience about the inconvenience such malicious software are capable of by relating it to his personal experience as a person who has been in the IT feel for a considerably long time and further elaborated on the ways of solving these pesky infections.

Ivan Ho’s speech was then followed up by an interpretive reading by Loo Shu Wei, with her speech entitled ‘the man in a case.’ In her speech, Shu Wei was supposed to play the roles of different characters in a dramatic play, which she did amazingly well at. Through her expressions, Shu Wei was able to bring the two main characters in her story, Verinha and Bulinkof, to life. Shu Wei has also managed to bring the audience into the setting of the play, enticing them in a Victorian setting that took place in a garden.

Finally, it was time for John Lee to present his speech entitled ‘why war?’ In this emotional and controversial issue, John Lee made his message simple by relating war to a simple fight between a brother and a sister. He then related war to the human mind, which begins in the human mind, and can only end in the human mind. He later poses a question to the audience about the goal of war, and opened the eyes of the audience with recent events that show the inhumane side of humans. Once again, he questions the audience on the goal of war when so many innocent human beings are suffering over some silly quarrels that were created by childish men in power. John Lee ended his speech with giving other alternatives apart from war to solve conflicts, and for the last time poses his question on why war should be waged when there are so many ways to resolve a conflict.

After John’s speech it was time for the general evaluator, Chan Siew Peng, and her team of role players to step up to the stage to conduct the evaluation session, which included the evaluations for the 4 assignment speeches, the language evaluation, ‘ah’ counting evaluation, time evaluation, and finally, words of wisdom from the general evaluator. Being the general evaluator for the joint meeting, Siew Peng sang words of praise to every single expect of the joint meeting, stating her overwhelming satisfaction on how the meeting was conducted, albeit a late start.

As the meeting was coming to an end, Azmi took centre stage for a moment to present the awards to the present committe for their outstanding job! Praise the current committee! Then, Shu wei finally gave her closing address as HELP Toastmasters’ president. All in all, it was a fun and educational meeting that will still be remembered by the participants for years to come as friendships were forged and business cards were exchanged in this meeting.

~ it is simply amazing, this meeting is certainly more than what I expected it to be,

Chan Siew Ping (General Evaluator for the Joint meeting)

Meeting - 17th November

ASAA Jason Moi

Ming Haur introducing himself

Ming Haur's friend; first-timer to a TMC meeting!

Shane from Sunway TMC

TOM John

Presidential Address

Ah Counter Chee Hoong

Timer Jee Aik

Table Topics Session:

*chortles* Fong Wen.

And Satchit catches sight of Fong Wen's expression.

Assignment speeches:

GE Suresh

We know. ;)

Jean Ee's evaluation

Awards:

Closing Address

Guest comments:

Elections:

Joyce as the Parliamentarian

Your new exco (Jan - June 08)

Everyone =)

3rd of Nov Meeting

Blog post written by Gajendran...

First meeting of November…another glorious Saturday morning, mainly due to the fact that there was NO traffic jam. The guest speaker for this week’s meeting was Daniel Teh from Maxis Toastmasters Club, who was giving a demo speech for the 9^th speech from the Competent Communicator manual. The Sergeant-at-Arms for the morning was Gajendran and he called the meeting to order at 9:40am. After a brief introduction, he handed the control over to Shu Wei for her presidential address. Shu Wei warmly welcomed the members and the guests from Nottingham University to the club and gave a refreshing speech to kick start the meeting.

The Toastmaster of the Morning, Ernest was up next with a nervy yet motivating speech in which he inspired the new members and guests. He then introduced the role players for the morning. The Table Topics session led by Jason Moi followed soon after, and Jason, a young blood of this club ( as he always puts it =D) who never fails to impress, stunned the audience with his choice of topics for the session. He adapted a unique way of differentiating the topics by categorizing them by level of difficulty. All his topics for the day were thought provoking and serious as showed by the volunteers who took some time before stepping up as they knew that this was a new and dangerous territory they were stepping into. Nevertheless, Kai Ming who was a guest, bravely took up the challenge with his topic ‘The overrating of logic’ . Despite its in-depth meaning, Kai Ming pulled it up impressively by adding in humour appropriately.

Next up was Nini Yeoh with her topic ‘Is immortality a curse?’. Nini was as inspiring as ever with her powerful speech that wowed the audience. She had never ending anecdotes and quotes which were apt at the same time, meaningful to all of us. She's definitely someone who is very well read.

The third speaker was Jason Lim who was another guest and his topic was ‘The impermanence of reality’. Jason made the topic seemed so simple at the same time delivered his speech with much charisma and confidence. He must have definitely had some sort of experience in public speaking prior to this, or no?

Then it was our season guest of our club who volunteered for the final table topics session. It was Dennis Wee with his table topics title, ' The role of evil in the world'. I must say that experience comes in handy in cases like this. He was quick at diverting his speech from the role of evil into his own stories which were executed effortlessly and professionally. He totally surprised the audience by how he injected humour into such a topic with a very well-planned closing. Finally, the last volunteer was yet another guest,William with his topic ‘Is money the root of all evil?’ which he did a commendable job.

The last segment of the Table Topics session was the evaluation session by Shu Wei. As usual, with her experience in evaluations, Shu wei gave excellent feedbacks on the impromptu speeches. Her constructive advice and praises definitely went down well with the guests and new members.

Later, the assigned speeches followed suit with Jee Aik kicking it off.His 3^rd speech from the Competent Communicator manual entitled ‘Getting the right career’. Jee Aik impressed his evaluator and the audience alike with his speech as he projected an immense improvement from his last speech. His informative about careers definitely caught the audience’s attention which was pointed out by his evaluator Fong Wen.

Next up was John Lee, fresh from his first runner up triump in the District evaluation contest the week before. John did his 9^th speech and he titled it ‘Inspiration to Inspire’. His inspiring inspirational speech was well delivered and very informative as well. After John’s speech, the TOM called for a 15 minute break.The meeting resumed with Daniel Teh with his demo speech for the 9^th speech and what a speech it was! Very well structured and informative, Daniel’s demo speech had the audience hanging on to his every word. He even had a magic trick in his speech and as props he had a glittering glass diamond and a smooth rock. All these factors made the speech even more interesting. An open evaluation session was held after his speech. Daniel took questions on his demo speech and proceeded to give his answers to the audience.

After the quick evaluation session, General Evaluator for the morning, Francis Ng came up to deliver his overall views. He definitely gave each and everyone something to ponder about as he gave a very detailed and informative evaluation on the meeting that covered almost every aspect of a meeting. The final speech of the morning was the presidential address by Shu Wei. She made sure that her closing address was longer than her opening address which was a bit short. But it was a long speech with substance as Shu Wei thanked the guests and new members and informed everyone on the latest on goings regarding the club.

See you on the 17th of November 2007.

27th of Oct Meeting

There was a awesome meeting on the 27th of October.

Meeting started at 9 49 am. We had a very nice introduction session thanks to our SAA Park Sujin doing a great job. Most members of the floor used the word of the day "orator" in introducing themselves which really helps making "orator" command a permanent place in our memory bank. Toastmaster Meyya joined us on that pleasant Saturday morning as one of the assignment speakers and we truly appreciate his support and presence.

Moving on to the interesting and always exciting Table Topics Session, John Lee came up with fantastic topics which required the speakers to sell the product, or in some cases themselves. The session was filled with many laughs. Just look at the topics below, Im sure you get my point :)

speaker `1 Gajendran - Britney spears latest album entitled " looking for the next husband "
speaker `2 Meyya - Covergirl's latest lipgloss
speaker `3 Park Sujin - food with high content of fat from MCDs
speaker `4 Claudia - Latest Ferrari car
speaker `5 Fong wen - Men are idiots
speaker `6 Jee Aik - Samsung Magic Toilet Bowl

Ernest followed it up with a good evaluation for all the speakers.

Then came the assignment speeches.

First was Ming Haur with his speech entitled " Wind-catcher ". I loved the title. It was very mysterious and enticing. It totally captured my attention. Also, he managed to weave stories into his speech so seamlessly making it very believable. It was a job well done!

Then came Gajendran with his speech entitled " Green Tea the saviour?" This speech was extremely informative yet interesting. The organisation was well thought out and the speech flowed very nicely. The ending was brilliant as it gave the audience the power to decide - Green Tea the saviour? or not?

Break time! Always loved that. Everyone was busy chatting and interacting with one another and time just flew by so fast.

Then came Shu wei with her speech from the advanced communicator manual. Personally, i do think that Shu wei is an orator. Her speeches are always top quality. She walked away with the Best Assignment Speaker award.

Evaluations were fantastic as usual. The evaluators are always trying to encourage us to improve and give us good pointers. They don't bang you left, right, center and leave you feeling discouraged.

All in all, it was a great meeting so next time you have a saturday free, do come and join us!!!

claudia signing off ^.^