HELP University Toastmasters Club: 9th of July: Dreamzzzz! + Interview with Mohammad and Mark

The meeting was held at DSA Level 5, Wisma HELP on a beautiful morning. The meeting kicked off as usual, but this time with a special guest.

Before advancing, there was a humorous speech done by Joshua. He was talking about how he and his friends had eaten their food in the toilets. The chicken rice from canteen which tastes like paper, and he had our applause with laughter.

Table topics session was the next, which we had our guest and members come up to deliver their speeches.

After that was the prepared speech session. First speaker, Kai Yuen, did her CC1 and talked about appearance and personalities. She told us that she may look cool outside, but she will talk non-stop once you get to know her. She will become a lobster (her face will turn red immediately) when she laughs. She mentioned that she wants to transform herself from an introvert to an extrovert.

Nedsome, who is known as the sifu (master) of communication gave us a speech entitled "Bridge Between Humans". He showed us some insights about inward and outward expressions, and how little things help you in communication, such as talking to a stranger as well as shaking hands with a mentally impaired child even if the hands were coated with saliva. The next speaker was Joshua, with his speech entitled "Come With Me and You Will See". He gave us some futuristic visions with many descriptive, imaginative and creative ideas, as well as brought us into a new beautiful age.

Before the end of the meeting, Weng Kin had delivered a farewell speech, as he was going to leave Malaysia to further his studies soon. A card with our appreciation was handed to him by our president, and all of us sincerely wish him all the best in the future!

Well, still remember the special guest mentioned earlier? Time for the fun - we had Mohammad, the longest standing toastmaster in Malaysia! To inspire us all, we decided to have an interview with Mohammad and Mark. The interview with Mohammad and Mark went well, as everyone was hoping to learn a thing or two from the experienced toastmaster.

DTM Mark and DTM Mohamad (middle) were answering the
questions asked by John Ng (left) and Vincent (right)

Below are some of the scenes from our interview:-

DTM, Mohamad have been a toastmaster since year 1969, from Butterworth Toastmasters Club.
DTM, Mark was first introduced to toastmasters club in year 1992, while he was in Jamaica.

-To share some differences between the toastmasters club back then and now-

Mohamad: "During my time, the first manual was 15 speeches, to become a Competent Communicator. Believe it or not, I have to take 10 years to complete that. The reason is this, at that time, the evaluator can fail you. You will have to repeat and report, it is tough; but that is also one way to teach us to be stronger. There is also one of those thing that I believe, when we are the evaluator, we have to be sincere, open and direct, because I want them to improve and get better. And I am happy to see them getting better."

-Reason to become a toastmaster-

Mark: "I believe I was influenced by Michael Madele, who was elected as prime minister in year 1972. He was a good speaker. And then, I was exposed to Martin Luther's speech, and I have always been attracted to the spoken words. In high school Kingston while in Jamaica, I was exposed to music and drama, and I am consequently passionate to become a charismatic speaker."

-Share the reasons of a falling club; and how to revive and bring back the club-

Mohamad:"This brings back some history (laugh). Well, when we had meeting in Bangsar, somehow the attendance was windowed down, that we only had 5 members attending the meeting. But still we have our meeting, double roles also doesn't matter. And eventually, comes to a stage that I told them we cannot go on. Just by con, I have four guys whose names started with D, one is Diana, Daniel, Daven and Dulcan. I asked them to wake up and do something, and somehow that particular speech really pushed them and boom! Until we are how we are today. We are so proud that we even hold the world president to our club for meeting, that is how proud we are. I think it can be done if there is a few of you that are determined, because during that time we only have 6 toastmasters club around."

-What makes you to stay on and not leaving the nest-

Mark:" I got my DTM in year 2013, and I have to decide what to do next. I provide more guidance and membership to young members, as five years ago, the average age of toastmasters was 54 years old. Back in those days, younger people were not so determined to go on, as they saw this as something for elderly. But young people have good energy, they embrace technology, keep the integrity of the program, and they will need to learn to communicate with each other and be creative with the table topics."

Mohamad: "I still have some objectives with toastmasters. My objective is quite difficult to achieve in my lifetime, and I hope my children will get to help me, and that is to make every household has one toastmaster. I believe that with that, communication will be better at home and our world will be more peaceful. But since I am here, I still want to push until get more new people to come in and join toastmasters; the more people then I will get closer to my objective. It can be done, I know, I can see the enthusiasm, but it'll need more time."

Interested in the full interview? Well, there is a link to the video taken for interview: https://www.facebook.com/HUTMC/videos/1075362002558025/
(Note: Please do not forget to like our page for more surprises or details!)

Of course, last but not least, we had our group photo taken!
It was an interesting meeting attended by different people with their dreams, where toastmasters club is the very first step of many people in achieving their dreams.

We sent our gratitude to everyone for attending the party, and we shall meet again in the next meeting! For those who had not yet joined our party, do come join us as we had our meeting on the morning of every Saturday. See you!