A Visit to Shaklee Dynamic Family

Invited by dedicated VPE Gan Ban Heng, I had a wonderful time at my first visit to Shaklee Dynamic Family Toastmasters Club on 13 February 2011. The members of Shaklee had prepared a sumptuous potluck high tea buffet for everyone. Every member brought some food and we had an excellent buffet. I enjoyed the home-cooked food which made me feel that I am part of this dynamic family.

TME Charlene lead us in reciting the Toastmasters oath

President Samuel preparing the grape juice for the toasting ceremony

I was amazed by the special ‘giving a toast’ session which uplifted our emotions. Lead by Division G Governor cum General Evaluator NJ Singam, the ‘toasting’ ceremony gave the highest respect to Toastmasters founder, Dr Ralph C Smedley. The toasting ceremony elevated the meeting.

Giving a toast to our Toastmasters International movement

Although the meeting falls on Sunday, the turn out of members is very encouraging. They are very proactive, not only in taking part in the Table Topics session, but also competing to take part in the impromptu Humour Session.

We were also pleasantly surprised by the unexpected visit of our District Governor Thannimalai and Lieutenant Governor Marketing Ramdas Nayar. Thannimalai told us that he had just finished a Youth Leadership Program in Kuala Lumpur and rushed to attend this meeting.

General Evalutor NJ Singam giving a token of appreciation to District Governor Thannimalai

As the Grammarian for this meeting, I observed that the standard of language is very high. I certainly like Julius Caesar’s quote of ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ used by TM Tee, in his prepared speech.

GE Singam provided the climax in his general evaluation by guiding us on how to benefit from the constructive feedback. I learned a lot from this exhilarating meeting and I would like to thank Mr. Gan for his invitation.

(From left) Area C6 Governor Jamilah, Division G Governor NJ Singam, District Governor Thannimalai, Shaklee President Samuel, Lieutenant Governor Marketing Ramdas Nayar


June, a guest, wins the Best Table Topics Speaker award

My fellow Toastmasters friends, do visit Shaklee on Sunday evenings to boost up your energy level for the week ahead. Even if you are not able to visit Shaklee, have a look at Division W website (http://divisionw.co.cc) to find out the meeting date and time of other clubs. Every club is unique and you will certainly learn new things from each club visit!

Contributed by Chee Hoe

January Club Meetings (Part II)

Friendship on Tues 18 Jan 2011

We were in excellent hands with TME Freddie conducting our “Courage to Conquer” meeting professionally, with well-prepared introductions. “It takes courage”, said our TME, “to say I am sorry, to say I love you, to say I will. It also takes courage to attend club meetings.”

TME Freddie, Evaluator Kim and GE Fong Ming

Our General Evaluator is no ordinary DTM. She is DTM Ho Fong Ming, our District Governor for 2003/2004. The Evaluation Session was conducted flawlessly by our elegant and affable GE.

Using the carefully prepared slides by VPM Chee Hoe, VPPR Alexandra did a marvelous job in creating excitement amongst us when she announced that the front runner for Friendship’s Membership Recruitment Campaign is none other than Past President Tony Lim.


KPMG KL on Sat 22 Jan 2011 By Grace Loh, KPMG KL

Our Saturday meeting was a small group but the response and energy was much higher than the earlier Wednesday meeting with close to 40 people!

Kudos to both Aaron and Suresh for attending the meeting and delivering their speeches despite their hectic audit schedule. They also took up the Ah Counter & Timer roles, a demonstration of their Toastmasters’ team spirit.

Suresh was filled with anger and sadness as he unfolded his past one month’s audit life with us in his project speech #5 Your Body Speaks with the title “Chapter 1”. He was able to arouse our emotion and had the audience sympathizing with him. I agreed with his evaluator, Grace Lee, that we felt Suresh’s pain and tiredness. She then skillfully injected humour in her evaluation to help elevate Suresh’s spirit.

Aaron’s graduating speech #10 with the title “Welcome To The Club”, reminded us of the ups and downs in his Toastmasters’ journey for the past one and a half years. His spirit was dashed to the ground when he received a demoralizing evaluation from an inconsiderate guest evaluator. He was comforted by Joanita’s motherly, loving and encouraging evaluation when he finally picked up his crushed spirit to deliver another speech a few months’ later.

Aaron was lifted up to cloud 9 when he was crowned Champion for Area W3 Humorous Speech Contest 2010. He even shot to fame at KPMG when partners (bosses) recognized him along the hallway, chatted with him at his workstation and fans (KPMG girls) asked him for pictures.

His inspiring speech motivated and moved 2 guests to enquire about Toastmasters membership after the meeting.

Aaron receiving Division W Humorous Speech 1st Runner Up award from Division W Governor DTM Vincent Hor on 18 Sept 2010

Exact ADC on Tues 25 Jan 2011 By Caroline Yap, Exact ADC

During the introduction round, our guest Suzie announced that this will be her last time attending as a guest. She has made the decision to officially join Exact ADC Toastmasters family!


Kacey was our "Formality" Toastmaster of the Day as well as Table Topics Master with topics carefully centered on the "Formality" meeting theme.

For the first speech of the day, Soo Loon reminded us the importance of communication in a relationship in his speech titled “Do we really communicate”. Illustrating marriage as a 4WD going up and down a hill, it is not always smooth sailing.

Soo Loon in his “Do we really communicate” speech

Our second speaker, Andrew presented his Speaking to Inform speech on “Swiftlet Farming”. Sharing some interesting facts on the Aerodramus Fuciphagus species, infamous for the expensive birds’ nests, he imparted facts and figures on the commercial breeding of these birds.

One World on Thurs 27 Jan 2011

The evening started off with President Jessica speaking on being “Proactive”, the meeting theme. She reminded us that business deal does not happen by itself when we take the wait-and-see approach.

Being proactive, TME Alex and Table Topics Master Amenny, in their first attempt at these roles, did a remarkable job in their respective roles.

We had three Ice Breaker speeches from Meifen, Gary and Jessica. Meifen told us of her school days, modeling job and why she ventured into real-estate instead of becoming a chemist. Gary told us of the turning points in his life consisting of his school days in Singapore and the Asian financial crisis. For Jessica, life as the eldest in her family was not always easy as she helped her parents run the family business, took care of her younger siblings and coping with life after her mother’s demise.

Meifen, President Jessica, Gary and TME Alex

In our January meetings, many Area W3 club members had the courage to be proactive in taking up meeting roles, doing table topics and project speeches. Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful Rabbit Lunar Year and many more interesting, entertaining and edifying club meetings ahead of us this year.