19th September 2009 Meeting

The meeting started with SAA Michelle breaking the ice by getting all the members to introduce themselves. She also requested all the members to reveal their Hari Raya holiday plans as our meeting was just a day before the Hari Raya celebration.

Meeting moved with Qinmei giving her presidential address. She gave a message to fellow members to make full use of their toastmasters membership for personal growth and advancement.

jee aik our TOM for the third time in the row..

Lorna Fisher as our LE..language evaluator

Next up was table topic session. Denise, the Table topic master gave a common speech title to all speakers which goes: “Action speaks louder than words. Do you agree or disagree?”. I volunteered myself to be the first speaker and was able to pull through the session. Cassandra took a stand of disagreeing with the statement. Kok Weng, the 3^rd speaker agreed to the statement only to a certain extent and gave examples with regards to politics. Lorna Fisher, a guest from KL Advanced Toastmasters Club playing the role of the language evaluator gave us an interesting perspective where action can be more appropriate in certain circumstances than words, vice versa. Last but not least, Qinmei affirm the statement and gave examples where she personally experience the power of action over words.

Table topic evaluator Boon Keong gave us a detailed evaluation by summarizing our good points and pointing our weakness coupled with ways of improvement.

denise as our tabletopic master=)

Chee Hong is giving his opinion on the topic given..

Table topic evaluator Boon Keong gave us a detailed evaluation by summarizing our good points and pointing our weakness coupled with ways of improvement.

Next on the agenda were assignment speeches. Firstly, Qinmei gave us a speech on how to sell a product effectively. She even performed a demonstration with TOM Jee Aik to give a picture of how to sell effectively using her key points in the selling process, which were establishing rapport, identifying needs, solving problem and obtaining commitment.

Ernest was the second speaker. He gave us a short presentation on the importance of the Toastmaster of the morning’s role and detailed points on serving as a TOM. In his speech, the TOM should introduce the speaker in which the following questions are answered: 1. Why this speaker? 2. Why this audience? 3. Why at this time? 4. Why this subject?

Last on the list was Joyce Hue, our club’s past president. She gave a speech on hypnotherapy, a form of therapy which is relatively new in Malaysia. Its purpose was to unleash the power of the mind to overcome fears and problems. She even conducted a simple session on the audience which gave us a feel on hypnotherapy.

Evaluation session was conducted by the general evaluator Sze Ling from D’Utama Toastmasters Club. Janice from TTDI Toastmasters Club evaluated Qinmei. The language evaluator Lorna Fisher gave her report and stressed on the importance of proper pronunciation of words. Roon Hui gave his Ah counter report for the 1^st time. Timekeeper Jamie presented her report as well. General evaluator gave her comments on the meeting. She enjoyed herself very much in this meeting and gave a few pointers for improvement such as starting the meeting on time and giving a warm applause after every speech. Respect and recognition are 2 values which toastmaster embodies and as members we should also put them into practice.

Janice Lee giving her evaluation for Qinmei's first ACM Speech.

Sze Ling played her role well as a GE; General Evaluator.

Lastly, Qinmei gave a closing address by expressing her gratitude to all the guests and members for making the meeting a success. The best table topic speaker was awarded to Lorna Fisher.

Lorna Fisher was the best Table Topic Speaker

Qinmei giving her closing address.

It was definitely a fruitful meeting and hopefully the coming ones will be even better.

Prepared by,
Chee Hong, TM

5th September Meeting and Farewell Lunch to John Lee, Jason Lim and Gajendran

It's a pleasant thing to have your camera. That's number 1 case. Contrary to the number 1, it's not soo pleasant thing if your camera's battery was dead half way for the second half-day. okay, forget about my rambling introduction; let's skip to the main menu of today. Today; besides having our first September meeting; unfortunately it is the final meeting for our three musketeers of our club: John Lee, Gajendran and Jason Lim as they are going to UK for their law studies.

Cassandra as the SAA-of the meeting gave us an introductory question by asking the latest movie we've watched or we want to watch. After that, Qinmei took over by giving her presidential address and asked us to 'Be Sad' as she announced about John, Gajendran and Jason Lim's departures. Nevertheless, the moody atmosphere was brighten by TOM Jee Aik who gave us the brief Toastmasters history and proceed with the agenda of the meeting.






After that, Ernest Wong gave us an insight on 'Creating the Best Climate for Your Club' through his workshop. As he mentioned, he stressed on the importance of creating the good atmosphere and setting in order to invite and retain people in and out of the club.

After that, we went into the Table Topic session headed by Jaime as the TTM. She divided the choices of questions into two paths: the Chance or the Destiny/Fate. Jason Lim was the first who chose the Destiny: The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B.

Next, we have Gajendran for the tough destiny choice on 'A big shot is little shotsd that kept shooting'.

De Ren was pretty unfortunate to choose the Destiny path on the longest quote given; 'The World is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil; but because of those who look on and do nothing'. And this quote was by Albert Einstein.

Finally, our newly joined member Daniel also gave his second Tabletopic speech who was the first and final person who chose the Chance path and his question is 'If I wasn't me, I'd be...?"

We had a quick break of 10 minutes before we had our first and only one assignment speech by John Lee. It was his fifth ACM speech where he gave us the new term; new meaning; and the new information about 'Schadenfreuder' [Sha.den.fr0y.the] (it's german, by the way). The meaning? The joy/pleasure for seeing sufferings. He stressed that it is a 'social comparison' phenomenon; where people in nature love comparing; thus, they fell pleasurable when others do badly than them.

Next, John also conducted a workshop on 'Finding New Members for Your Club'. He gave many tips on how to attract new members and making sure the members' interests are attained in order mantain the flow of the members in and out of the club.

Next session was evaluation session where GE Dr.Sharon Tan CTM, ALB gave us the detailed general evaluation about our meeting and the role-playing for the benefit of the guests and new members. She also encouraged us about involving in Toastmasters for the future.

Next, Gajendran took over and evaluated John's speech.

As for the best table topic speaker, Jason Lim pulled off with his 2-min speech on reasons why plan A will fail and why plan B will be used instead in order to be successful.

After two years! Gajendran finally gained his CC and CL title before he flew to Wales.

And John managed to get his ACS title as he completed his ACM manual!

After that, we headed to the farewell lunch at Marco's Pizzas.



Ernest Wong, Jason Moi, Qinmei and Jess Foong from UNITAR TMC gave their farewell mini speech to three of future lawyers respectively.







And of course the three future lawyers had to gave speech. And so John spoke about Gajendran, while Gajendran to Jason Lim and Jason Lim to John Lee. We had our group photo before we left=) All those moments captured!



To Gajendran, John Lee, and Jason Lim!

"May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand. ~Irish Blessing"

and

"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch. ~Garrison Keillor"


Jaime

29th August Speech Marathon Meeting

As the main blogger of this club, I should be equipped with cameras all the time. *tsk* *tsk* *tsk* And i apologize for not being able to fulfill the above statement. Nevertheless, as the saying goes; you just take anything you got and make something out of it. Yes, 2..0 megapixel camera phone's effect on the following pictures.

Anyway, keep things short, another bad news ahead in this post. Due to the unbelievable speeches and amazing scenes, I forgot to snap those scenes. My bad. But seriously, for those who missed the previous meetings, you should make up for the upcoming meetings even more:

Date: 5th September 2009
Time: 9.30am-11.45am
Venue: DSA, Main Block of HELP, Pusat Bandar Damansara
p/s: There will be two workshops conducted by John and Ernest respectively, so you just couldn't miss them!

Okay, back to our 29th August 2009 meeting.

We started off 5 minutes late; and SAA Jaime began the meeting by conducting the introduction section by members and guests and asking the question; "Name one thing about Malaysia that doesn't have to change". After that TOM Jee Aik gave his own version of brief Toastmasters' history before John took over for his evaluation workshop titled; Evaluate to Motivate: Mould A Winner with A Winning Evaluation'. He gave us the importance of evaluation to both the evaluators and the speakers, evaluation methods, and tips and tricks from John himself.

TOM Jee Aik

John Lee gave his ideas on better evaluation in his workshop

Later on, Janice Lee, CC, CL from TTDI Toastmasters Club gave her third ACM speech on topic "Sell a Product". By asking us (audience) to pretend that Toastmasters is an alien term, she tried to sell / introduce 'TM (toastmasters)" to us.

Janice Lee trying to get us to get inspired by Toastmasters in her speech

After that, Cassandra gave us the stunning CC speech number 5 on 'There is no perfect ones, only better looking ones". The word 'stunning' is used for describing her speech simply to acknowledge her boldness in demonstrating us on wearing a bra! Unfortunately, I didn't manage to snap her photos because I was totally taken aback!

Nevertheless, we managed to have 10 min short break and refreshments before continuing with the marathon speech session. Jess Foong, CC, ALB from UNITAR Toastmasters Club gave her first ACM speech on 'Keynote Address for the Asean+3 Youths'. Again, i forgot to snap her photos though she was wearing a cute green turquiose kebaya=).

Last but not least, John Lee gave his interesting speech on 'Let's Talk Scientology'. Then GE Kuok Sum, CC, ALB from TTDI Toastmasters Club called for the evaluation session. Firstly, Qinmei, CC, CL gave her evaluation for Janice followed by Jason Moi, TM for Cassandra's speech. After that, John Lee, ACB, CL gave his evaluation to Jess Foong before Hadzrin, ACB, CL from UEM Academy Toastmasters Club gave his to John.

Jason Moi on giving his evaluation for Cassandra

Later, GE Kuok Sum also called for the role players' report respectively: LE Jason Moi, TM; AC Chee Hong, TM; TK Abel, TM; and finally from himself.

At the end of the session, President Qinmei gave out certificates to the best speaker of the meeting; Cassandra and best evaluator of the meeting; John Lee. After that, there was a little award-giving ceremony from our Immediate Past Area W2 Governor Ernest Wong to our Immediate Past President John Lee for achieving the President Distinguised Club Award 2008/09 term. Congratulations once again to all the winners and our club for the award!

Best Speaker: Cassandra Wong

Needless to say, John Lee for best evaluator

President Qinmei giving us end-note after presenting certificates...

John Lee, IPP and Ernest Wong, IPAG for the President Distinguished Award ribbon

To all who have read this blog, you know what you should do; visit our 5th September meeting!

Jaime Liew, TM