Wednesday 28 January 2009

Oh Grave Importance

Firstly, there will be NO MEETING on the 31st of January due to the Chinese New Year Celebrations. The next scheduled meeting is the 7th of Feb 2009, I hope to see you there =)

Secondly and more importantly.

*ahem ahem - significant throat clearing*



I am sure the poster is self explanatory, many more teasers and proactive promotion to follow - watch this space =)

17th January

It was an amazing meeting with new guests and members around!

The meeting started at approximately 9:35am. The guests and members were asked to introduced themselves and tell us about their wish for Chinese New Year. Most of the people wished to have more ang pows.

There are a number of new guests came to the meeting. It seems like the membership drive is working. Good job toastmasters!

Then, it was Table Topic Session which conducted by the Table Topic Master – Jee Aik a.k.a the SAA of the club. Jee Aik has prepared a few non-sense topics for the guests and members to attempt.



The table topic session for this meeting is a bit longer as there are only three assignment speeches. In total, there are six volunteers for the table topic session.



After having six volunteers giving their impromptu speeches, then, it was the table topic evaluator – Teh, from the Midvalley Toastmaster Club to evaluate the TT Speakers. Among the six TT speakers, there are 3 of them were first timer which is Kai Shen, Lavania and Sean. Congratulation to them!





It was then having the speeches from the assignment speakers. There were two ice breaker speeches from Jack Oh and Jo An.
First assignment speaker was Jack Oh with the title of “Myself”. Jack Oh is from Ipoh, Perak. Currently, he is studying Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering at University Malaya and having industrial training in Proton. He loves Chinese foods and don’t like to study but learning. Jack Oh said, learn through experience. We don’t study experience. I agree (: He has tortoise as a pet at home because it is easy to take care of.



Next, it was Jaime had her CCM #3 with the title of C’s and R’s in Anger Management. Jaime told us that anger will affect other people and will leave a wound on the person. So, how can we control our anger? Here comes the C’s and R’s Jaime introduced to us.
1st R: Relax – Take a deep breath, change a position when you’re angry
2nd R: Resolve – Find out the cause of the problem, root it and solve it.
1st C: Communicate – So as to create a fair situation, think and to say, to give time to express each other’s feeling.
2nd C: Cognitive Restructuring – Changing the negative thought to positive one and beware of the words like “Never” or “Always” used in the discussion.



The third assignment speaker was Jo An “Who am I”. Jo An is also having training at Proton with Jack Oh. Jo An told us that she loves Hong Kong dramas and dislike to stand in front of the crowd and afraid of having eye contact with the others.



After that, it was Evaluation session that conducted by the General Evaluator – Gajendran. He called for evaluations for the assignment speakers which is Jason Lim evaluating Jack Oh, Jee Aik evaluating Jaime and Qinmei evaluating Jo An.

The Best Table Topic Speaker: Sean



The Best Speech Evaluator: Jason




The Best Assignment Speaker: Jaime



Congratulations to them!!

The meeting was a successful one having members and a number of new guests to joined the meeting which added a lot of spice to the meeting. Hopefully there are new members joining!

Friday 16 January 2009

The first meeting of the year.

Though it was another typical Toastmasters’ meeting, but this meeting was the first meeting in 2009; and 2009 is the 6th year since HELP University College International Toastmasters Club first established in 2003. John, the President was unable to present on the meeting and so the presidential address was taken over by Gajendran, the VP-E*.



Table topic session is always the ‘warm-up’ session to us; and this time, Michael (as the TTM*) awoke us with his interesting topics. To begin with, instead of asking us to pick a number for topic, he asked us to choose the level of difficulty for the topic to talk about.



First volunteer was Chee Hong who selected ‘Hard’ question, and his question was “If a friend of yours set a goal too high –will you tell him straight to face that he cannot achieve it or you will just keep quiet about it?” Well, instead of choosing the first option or the second choice, he gave his third alternative: To first change our point of view in believing that his friend can achieve the goal; and he related this to his past experience with a friend of him who achieved something that Chee Hong thought he couldn’t achieve in the beginning.



Second volunteer was Jaime who chose the ‘Medium’ question: In your opinion, which part in our education that you hate the most; but turn out to be important? In her speech, she told about the homework and assignments are what she hated in education; but marked the significance of them in everyday’s life. On the other hand, Jack chose the ‘Hard’ question and his question (perhaps the toughest amongst all) was this: “Why do you wear your clothes?” and Jack responded with the importance of wearing clothes through civilization and logical needs to wear it. Next was Ernest who also chosen ‘Hard’ question: ..Do you consider luck and chance; fair? He twisted the question a little bit by instead of stating that luck and chance are fair; he made the statement that if we believe that luck is there; there will be luck; if we believe that chances are there; there will be chances for you.



Finally, since Michael ran out of the ‘Hard’ question, Kang Han selected the ‘Easy’ question: “What is your favourite song?” Though it was a simple question, he managed to give the speech by stating the details of the song, and the reasons he love the song; “The Man who cannot be Moved by The Script”. After the session, the volunteers were evaluated by Gajendran on their strength and improvements to make.

Now, for the second part of our meeting was the regular assignment speeches session. First, Kang Han gave his CCM#5* speech with the title ‘T.I.R.E’. Based on his speech, ‘T.I.R.E’ was the acronym for the “Think out of the Box, Interaction, Relax and Error” tips on being creative.



Cassandra was the second to gave her third speech on ‘One Step Closer, Never Too Late’ which touches on the importance and the need of taking care of our face as it is the first part of the body that we will be judged on. In her speech, she taught us the 3 basic steps on cleaning face: Cleanse, Tone and Moisturize.


After that, Jee Aik gave us the insights on distinguishing between bias, presupposition, assumption and how they are related through examples in his CCM#8 Speech title: Facts Speak for Themselves?

Last but not least, Ernest completed his ACM#4* speech on ‘Struggle, Bloody, Satisfaction’ on his witty and entertaining ‘deepest, darkest secret’ of his in face saloon. After which, each of the speaker was then evaluated by their respective evaluator; Gajendran, Jee Aik, Qinmei, and Gajendran.



Calls for report came after the evaluation was presented by LE* Denise, TK* Kevin and AC* Faiq headed by GE* Chee Hong. Finally, the Table topics and assignment speech prizes session was lined by Ernest as the Best Table Topic Speaker and Best Assignment Speaker; Gajendran as the Best Evaluator. Congratulations to both of them!



*P/S: If you are curious of what is VP-E, SAA, TOM, TTM, AC, TK, GE, LE, ACM#, CCM#, and other acronym, maybe it’s a high time that you should pay our club meeting a visit! (or two, three, four....)

Jaime

Sunday 4 January 2009

The last meeting of 2008

The meeting started at approximately 9:40am. This was the last toastmasters meeting for the year 2008! A brand new year is coming people!

Guests and members were asked to introduced themselves and also tell us the goal that they’ve set for the coming year 2009!
After the introductions by the SAA – Abel, the control was then passed to John to present his presidential address. After that, it was Ernest, the toastmaster of the morning took over the control.
After that was the Table Topic Master – Fun, to conduct the table topic section. Fun has prepared total 15 inspiring topics for the volunteers to choose from.

The first volunteer was Abel who is also the SAA of the meeting. The topic he has chosen was “Excited. Get really excited about today.” He thought for a while and tells us what is excited about today which is the toastmaster meeting and a brand new year is coming.

I was the next volunteer for the table topic section, attempted the topic “Win. Winning is not everything”. I said that winning is not everything; the process of achieving something is already winning.
The third volunteer was Ka Chuan with the topic “Shut up! Move on”. Ka Chuan has talked about him making decision to back from UK to finish his A-levels at Malaysia.

Last but not least, it was Lay Choo attempted table topic with title “Today, not tomorrow”. Lay Choo also tell us why are the successful people are successful. That is because they will complete the things that they need to do on that day and will never leave it to tomorrow. Lay Choo’s speech was really inspiring one and she was voted to be the best table topic speaker of the day. Congratulation!

The table topic speakers were then evaluated by Qinmei. She pointed out the strength of each speaker and areas of improvement.
It was then the assignment speakers to present their speech. Firstly, it was by Faiq having his Ice Breaker Speech with the title “People Change”. Faiq talked about his achievement in athletes, the classical old songs that he like especially by Alvis Bradley. He also showed us his skill on playing yoyo which really caught the audiences’ attention. The evaluator for this speech was Jason Lim.

Second assignment speech speaker was by Jee Aik doing his CCM #7 with the title “Mysterious Creatures Co-existed with us”. Jee Aik has showed us a bird type thingy and asked us whether we know its name if we saw it flying in the sky. We didn’t know. Jee Aik then said it was UFO – Unidentified flying object. This brought a laugh bomb to us. It was a humorous one. Jee Aik then told us that it was a dinosaur. With the credible sources that Jee Aik has provided to us, there’s a reason to believe that dinosaur do exists. We’ve understand more about dinosaur through the speech Jee Aik presented.

Third assignment speech speaker was our president John presenting his ACM #5 “The Ballot or the Bullet”, evaluated by Lay Choo. He talked about the black and white community, which the black fight for the freedom. It’s either to achieve the freedom or to die in achieve them. It was very interesting.

After the break, we have Lay Choo to present her ACM#4 “Demystifying Audit”. Lay Choo has explained hows the internal audit works. She also conducted a Q&A session with the audience in order to let the audience understands more. She also introduced a FAMA Association to us which stands for Father-Mother association.

As usual, after the assignment speech session, it was evaluation session by the evaluators and calls for reports from the role players. All the role players have done a good job in giving a detail report. Jee Aik as the Language Evaluator has done an impressive job by explaining to us. Jack, first time as the Ah-Counter has done a good job also. Well done toastmasters!
The meeting has come to an end. The general evaluator – Chee Hong has evaluated the progress of the meeting. Then, it was John to deliver his closing address.

Well, who is the best assignment speaker, best table topic speaker and best evaluator?

*DRUM ROLLS*

Best assignment speaker was John Lee, the president of HELP UC Toastmasters Club. While the best table topic speaker and best evaluator was Lay Choo!

Congratulation to both of them!

Last but not least, Faiq has finally delivered his ice breaker speech! Congratulation Faiq! We look forward to your next speech!

On 3rd January 2009, we’ll have a rather different meeting compared to last time. We’ll have a vocal meeting which we focus more on your vocal and less focus on your gestures. Do visit our club to experience a rather different toastmasters meeting!

The XMAS PARTAYYYYYYY

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveler, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!” by Charles Dickens.

I as the SAA of the meeting started the meeting with the quote above and invite toastmasters and guests to introduce themselves and tell me about the gift they wish to receive for this Christmas and why.



Then, it was Table Topic Section, Ernest as the Table Topic Master has prepared 5 Christmas characters for the volunteers to choose. There are Santa Claus, Santarina, Reindeer, Elf and Angel.



The first volunteer was Ka Chuan. He chose Santa Claus. He is the Santa Claus and was stuck in the chimney. His task was to explain to the owner of the house who found him stuck in the chimney. Ka Chuan stated that he will wish them a Merry Christmas and grab something from the house to give the kids.



The second volunteer was Jee Aik. He wanted to be an angel. He was asked to sing a song that he would like to sing to the earth. Jee Aik was struggling and the audiences were all looking forward for Jee Aik to sing! But at last Jee Aik chose to return to the earth and be a toastmaster because he really couldn’t think of any song.

The third volunteer was Meyya. He chose to be a Santarina and asked to convince Santa Claus to keep fit by telling him how hot ‘she’ was. The speech he gave was humorous. He event told us his hips is only 27 inches and has a flat tummy. We’ll receive a warm welcome if we visit his club as he is hot. Santa Claus’s temperature will increase because he is HOT!



The last volunteer was Gajendran. Gajendran’s character was a reindeer. There are vacancy for reindeer and tell us how would he get the job. He said that he is able to go with Santa Claus on time. Instead of being the charming prince on a horse, he will be charming Santa on a reindeer.

Overall, the table topic section has warmed up the atmosphere of the meeting. Next was Qinmei as the Table Topic Evaluator to evaluate all the speakers. I’m sure everyone has done a good job. Stepping out to the stage and to attempting a topic you never prepared and to speak for 2 minutes is already a great start in Toastmasters Club.

Next, the toastmaster of the morning Jason Moi introduces the assignment speakers for their assignment speech. First was Jason Moi himself presenting his CCM #7, title “The Meaning of Christmas” and it was evaluated by Qinmei. Christmas is now more commercialize. Christmas is actually a peaceful and a gathering day.



Next, was Gajendran doing his CCM #6, title “Partying with Lawyers”. Gajendran told us about his experience partying with his law lecturers. It turned out to be a fun party that he didn’t thought of. Gajendran concluded the speech by saying that the Malaysia Law is secured because there are future comedian inside.



Then, it was John, our president giving his ACM #4, “The Importance of being Earnest”.



There is exception for this meeting because we have a 30minutes break for the guests and the toastmaster to have savour the sweetness of Christmas. We’ve prepared cakes, cookies and drinks for the guests and toastmasters.







Then, it was the general evaluator Chee Hong call for the evaluations for the assignment speakers. First assignment speaker Jason Moi was evaluated by Qinmei. Second assignment speaker Gajendran was evaluated by Jee Aik. Last but not least, third assignment speaker John was evaluated by Joyce.



The members have prepared some chocolates as gifts for the best table topic speaker, best assignment speaker and the best evaluator. The best table topic speaker and the best assignment speaker goes to -----


* drum roll *


GAJENDRAN! Congrats to him! While the best evaluator goes to Joyce!
Congratulation to both of them!





The meeting ended with the general evaluator Chee Hong for evaluating the progress of the meeting and closing address by the president John Lee.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Wish you have a blessed Christmas and hope the New Year bring you happiness, health and success 




The blogger of the week,
Cassandra.

From the keyboard of our SAA

SAA feels disturbed seeking members when he is not free but likes disturbing members when he is too free.

November month was such a busy month for me! Since the previous meeting, I could only contact members on Friday to fill up empty roles I was not free on other days. Certainly not my style of managing matters! When I was having my holidays in the last semester, it was fun “disturbing” members to fill up roles, but for November, it was “disturbing,” but adventurous as the stress makes it exciting...haha… I am just expressing my feelings for fun in this paragraph and the above topic is only for this paragraph…haha… The following paragraphs are regarding the meeting.

For today’s meeting, there were problems like missing roles players which was not settled until that morning. Luckily, members are proactive, so they made suggestions and solved the problems for me. For unknown reason, this meeting only 11 members (including 1 guest) came. Therefore, it is no surprise that some role players had to dual play.

Qinmei, as SAA, called meeting to order and threw an interesting question, “If you were an SAA, what would your question be?” This question allowed many to throw in humorous replies. For example, Boon Keong said his question would be what you would think my question would be if I am the SAA.

Ka Chaun, first time TOM, came and asked role players to introduce themselves. Next, John gave his presidential address and made us of Jee Aik’s comment during the introduction session by Qinmei, “Why is SAA called sergeant-at-arms?” Then he brought up the question of the SAA’s purpose which led to asking us the purpose of giving speech and filling up our manuals.

Then we had our Table Topics session conducted by Michael. He gave us 2 broad selections of topics: interesting, challenging. After selecting one of the broad topics, he showed the speaker a topics list and the speaker was to select one. The first speaker was Ernest. His message was that we should overcome challenges and avoiding is not an option. The second speaker was Qinmei. She concluded money is the world’s greatest injustice and it is also the solution to it. Third was Benny from Maxis Toastmasters, who concluded that fame is a good thing regardless of one’s intention. Fourth was Jee Aik. He told about his first taxi ride alone as an example of courage. The last speaker was Boon Keong who said learning from mistakes when we fail is as or more valuable than just winning. We then had our long, lost member, Ashrel as our evaluator who was or is back in Toastmasters.

Now came the assignment speeches session. The first was Michael with his topic “Dislocated, Disturbed, Disappointed.” He was performing martial arts as he was describing but got his arm dislocated in the story. He was disturbed and sought help but was disappointed with that help. He closed by saying that you have the abilities because you are able. Next was Ernest who was interviewed by Boon Keong, acting as radio talk show host, about his Cheras community organization to make Cheras a better and safer place. Last was John who did a monodrama. He was role playing Jesus’s final moments at Gethsamene talking with God in frustration before he got arrested.

After the speeches was the evaluation session. First time role players recognized were Mustafa as Timekeeper and Ka Chuan as Toastmaster of the Morning. Final was the presidential address and prize giving ceremony. The best Table Topics speaker went to Jee Aik. The best assignment speaker and evaluator went to John.

Overall, the meeting was dynamic despite few role players and low attendance. Quantity does not always make a good outcome; quality makes a good outcome too. Both quantity and quality are important for a successful meeting. Until next time, let’s hope to see both quantity and quality in our future meetings!


Tan Jee Aik

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