June Club Meetings

Hasil on Fri 3 June 2011

The Head of Collection, Mohd. Jaafar Embong, walked into the meeting room and asked, “Is this the right room to improve in my English speaking skills?” He had a resounding “Yes” to his question. After that, President Piras started the meeting with his Presidential address and warmly greeted members and guests.

During the Table Topics Session conducted by SAA Khif, Jaafar was surprised when he was invited to participate. He thought only members were allowed to speak. Everyone shared their opinions about double-parking, watching movies at home or at the cinema, and Malaysian food. In fact, it was almost a debate session between Loke and Piras, as they provided contrasting viewpoints about the benefits of watching movies at home and at the cinema.

 

Loke, Joriah, Khif, Piras & Jaafar

At the end of meeting, Jaafar was of the opinion that it has been an encouraging and interesting session and he is interested in joining us for future Hasil meetings.


Friendship on Tue 7 June 2011
By Chor Chee Hoe

As the TME, I definitely enjoyed the meeting with the theme “Leaders aren't born, they are made”. Besides the interesting meeting agenda, another reason for my jubilant mood is that we had 8 guests visiting our club and three of them decided to join as members! They are Sean, Hui Woon and Kui Lim.

Invocation presenter Wai Yee, set the mood for the meeting by inspiring us with the story of her idol, Tony Fernandez. In the Table Topics session, Table Topics Master PP Ben Fong received warm response and participations from 5 guests and 1 member.

PP Lay Theng gave an inspiring speech that highlighted the benefits of Toastmasters. She successfully converted three guests into members with her powerful speech ! Congratulations to Lay Theng who completed her ten CC speeches for the second time. She received a well-deserved CC pin for her achievement.


KPMG KL on Wed 8 June 2011
By Grace Loh

This was truly a meaningful and fruitful lunch break with fellowship and opportunities for self-development. Nasruna testified how Toastmasters have boosted her confidence, helped her and given her a “new life”. We have also seen great improvement and confidence in Chee Sing, Gary, Diyana, Jowy and many active members.

Winners with their respective TI ribbons

General Evaluator and incoming Area Governor Kimmy, KPMG Club will continue to be an excellent and fun club famous for being professional and respecting each other’s time by being punctual. We are thankful to be KPMG’ians and to enjoy this special privilege of being KPMG Toastmasters !


One World on Thur 9 June 2011

It was an exciting election session as members of One World held their first AGM and Club Officers election. It was a hotly contested battle for each post, with the audience being entertained by the candidates’ speeches.

 

VPE CK, VPPR Ivan, VPM Amenny & President Jessica

Right after that, the regular meeting resumed with 3 project speeches from Kwan Yee, Kelson and Ivan. Kwan Yee gave a charming Ice Breaker speech while Kelson shared a “secret” about the laws of attraction. He asked us to think good thoughts only and be prepared to receive from the universe, with gratitude and appreciation.

Interestingly, Ivan spoke about facial expressions from the TV series “Lie To Me”. With the average person telling 3 lies in a 10 minutes conversion, it was certainly worth learning more about micro-expressions from Ivan’s speech!

 

Members & guests of One World

Thank You

One year has passed by quickly, and my journey as an Area Governor has ended on 30 June 2011. Thank you, Area W3 members, for making it a year full of events, meetings and memories.


Exact ADC Club Officers

President Andrew and Team, congratulations in recruiting 8 new members by June 2011 !

Membership recruitment has always been a challenge, which you shared with me when I first visited back in Oct 2009 as Assistant Area Governor Marketing. During the term, there were Games Session, fun and interesting Table Topics sessions, with the intention of making the meetings fun and attracting new members.

With your focus on members’ needs, you ended the term achieving 8 DCP points, qualifying for Select Distinguished Club status. Congratulations !

One of my most memorable moments this year was when Loon, at the end of Division W International Speech Contest asked, "Can I take a photo with my AG?" It was priceless moment for this Area Governor.


Friendship Club Officers

Thank you, President Zaiton and my fellow Club Officers. Serving as VPE and attending monthly Exco meetings with you meant that I knew what was happening at my club and need not ask for regular updates as part of my Area Governor duties. It's a pleasure to be part of a hard-working team and doing our best as Club Officers. 

Thank you VPM Chee Hoe who also served as Assistant Area Governor Marketing. He visited Area W3 clubs as well as keeping our Area Blog in tip-top condition. It was a sweet victory for us when Area W3 won the Best Area/Division Website award for District 51 back in April this year.


Hasil Club Officers

President Piras and Team, you proved that numbers doesn't matter. We had many hilarious moments at Hasil meetings regardless of the number of attendees.

In the month of March, SAA Khif, took the the initiative to invite his boss, Datin Josephine, to attend Hasil's meeting. She was impressed with the Toastmasters educational program and sent out an email to encourage all department heads to attend future meetings. By June, five new members have signed up. A fantastic end for a fantastic Hasil team.


KPMG KL Club Officers

President Grace, without your guidance, persistence and diligence, KPMG KL would not be where it is today, stronger than ever. You have thanked me for my support and help. The truth is I didn't have to do much. When you told me of low membership numbers, due to staff resignation, I listened. Then miraculously, a few weeks later, I had another update from you, that new members have signed up and the club is back to charter strength. Not only that, on 30 June, you registered 6 new members.

Grace, the club's success is due entirely to the effort you and your team of Club Officers have put in. Great job !


One World Club Officers

My role as Club Mentor for One World, chartered in January 2011 has not been a difficult one. With the club officers eager to learn the ropes, members gamely taking on meeting roles and numerous Toastmasters from other clubs helping out, it was possibly the best club mentor job in District 51.

Congratulations, Charter President Jessica for successfully guiding your club for 6 months.

VPE CK Chong was simply fantastic. He diligently ensured that every meeting was well-run, with role players assigned ahead of time as well as keeping track of DCP progress for the club.

A number of General Evaluators were favourably impressed by One World's energy level, enthusiasm and camaraderie among club members. Keep it up, One World !


Area W3 Members

Last but not least, everyone of you has contributed to our "Achieving Greatness Together" term. I am most fortunate to be given the opportunity to serve as your Area Governor while you worked on achieving greatness in the areas of communication and leadership skills. We end the term as Select Distinguished Area. This would not be possible without you and your absolutely amazing achievements. Thank you !

Angeline Lee 

Area W3 Governor 2010/2011

May Club Meetings Part II

Friendship on Tue 24 May 2011

May 1999, Friendship Toastmasters Club, under the leadership of Kim Chow, started our first meeting. Twelve years later, Vice President of Membership Chee Hoe, took the initiative to organize a birthday celebration meeting.

 

Happy birthday to Friendship Toastmasters Club!

With Facebook invitations sent out and members inviting guests to attend, Organising Chair Chee Hoe was slightly worried that we may not have enough food for our numerous guests. Thanks to his foresight, this disaster was averted. We were exultant (word of the day) to welcome 18 guests to help us celebrate!

 

President Zaiton (right) with our guests

The birthday celebration started with a musical performance by guest guitarist Wei Kai, Chee Hoe and Wai Yee. This was followed by a sensational performance by Grace Tan as she sang “Hey Jude”. With her star power, she had all of us singing along with her. We then had a hilarious Games session conducted by Past President James Arokiasamy. Quick thinking skill was required for this impromptu Q&A session which our guests sportingly took part in, with quick fire questions from the Past Presidents of Friendship. Thank you James, for a very enjoyable Games session !


One World on Thur 26 May 2011

True to the meeting theme of “Effectiveness to Greatness”, all our meeting participants were not timorous (word of the day).

GE Cheong Kuok Sum praised Table Topics Master CK for a fun session. He was impressed that there was no shortage of volunteers. In answering the question - Mercedes or BMW, Kelson chose BMW. He hilariously explained that it was “suitable for young men like us”.

With three thrilling project speeches, we were entertained from start to finish. Kelson told us that “Any business can make money. Decide which one you want to focus on.” SAA Alex enthralled us with his sky-high adventure at Eagle Ranch. Lastly, VPE CK told us that the most common language in the world is body language. It also happens to be the easiest language to learn. With his interesting examples and stories, we agreed with him that we should master our body language to be a great communicator.

 

Members and guests of One World

Exact ADC on Tue 31 May 2011
By Caroline, Exact ADC

Toastmaster of the Day, Yuen Kai, kicked off the meeting by introducing the theme of the day “Best places to live in”. Vancouver was voted the best place to live in, 5 years in a row. During the introduction round, members gave their opinion on where was the best place to live in and the consensus was that Malaysia was still the best. The word of the day, “fascinating”, was introduced by Grammarian Lee Lee.

In line with the meeting theme, Table Topics Master Edward asked speakers to randomly pick postcard pictures of cities around the world and to talk about the city as the best place to live in.

Loon was first up and picked Macau. It was quite his ideal place as he would love to own his own island and make himself President. Chee Yoong picked the picture of the Temple of Heaven, located in Beijing. He was fascinated with Beijing and found that it had evolved significantly over the years since his first visit. Mount Bromo was Vinci’s pick and she would introduce Malaysian culture and humor to the people of East Java.

 

Table Topics Master Edward with guest Vinci

Boby’s picture was of the Greek islands, indeed a scenic and beautiful place to live in. Love was in the air as Ai Shiang spoke about Paris. She would bring her whole family to visit and explore the city of love.

The most fascinating Table Topics speech ? Congratulations to Best Table Topics Speaker Chee Yoong !

Penang Convention 1 May 2011

District 51 International Speech Contest

In the early hours of Sunday 1 May 2011, 3 Friendship members travelled from Ipoh and KL, just to watch the International Speech Contest. The star attraction as far as Friendship members was concerned? Grace Tan competing at the District finals with her “F.O.C” speech!

 

Friendship members with Grace, contestant for the International Speech Contest

Speaking on the serious subject of human rights, the third placed winner spoke with emotion and said, “Our rights have no colour, it is colour-blind.” He urged us to listen to our inner voice and do what is right. He concluded with a quotation from Martin Luther King, “Judge the content of our character, not the colour of our skin.”

Loud applause greeted the second placed winner as he walked up the stage. He told us that he grew up in the village of Selama. In this village, there was a warm, wise and witty barber named Sinbad. His barber knew something about everything and gave good advice from the heart. From his barber he learnt that perseverance stays but education pays. So he decided to move to the big city to pursue his education and the possibilities this provided. When he was contemplating marriage at the age of 40, the sage advice from his barber was, “It is better to get married at 40 than to get married at 50.”

When the International Speech Champion was asked by his rich (has money) and successful (married an air-stewardess) boss, what was the perfect wedding anniversary, it was like a Table Topics question. He suggested buying a diamond ring. To his surprise, his boss decided to make his own card. When he was shown the card, he didn’t know how to tell his boss that the card was horrible! It had a picture of a chicken and a dragon flying in a plane. When his boss explained that his Chinese zodiac is a chicken, his wife is a dragon and the plane was where they first met and he fell in love with her, the card suddenly did not appear ugly after all.

When his daughter gave him a card for Father’s Day that said “I love you bad” he realized two things. First, love comes from the heart. Secondly, his daughter needed spelling lessons, badly.

He then related the story of his grandmother who kept a Thank You card from him. His sister had taken the gold earring that he gave his grandmother, which he gave with the Thank You card. He found out much later, after his grandmother’s death, that she valued the card more than the gold, as she had kept the card all these years. She was his inspiration as he concluded with, “The power to make the little difference is within you. It can put a man on the moon, or the decision to do your next assignment speech.”

 

Elated reaction after the announcement of the first place winner

 
District Governor Thanni, International Speech Contest Chair Valli, Stephen Fernando (2nd place), Muthukumaran (1st place), Marcus Chee (3rd place), First International Vice President John Lau, Past International President Ted Corcoran

Champion: Muthukumaran Kodiappen, Division S, Renesas Semiconductor TMC – That Little Difference
1st Runner Up: Stephen Fernando, Division C, MIHRM TMC – Lessons from my Barber
2nd Runner Up: K Marcus Chee, Division H, Ipoh TMC – The Colour of Rights

District 51 Table Topics Contest

The Table Topics question for the ten contestants was “To err is human, to forgive divine”.

The third placed winner declared, “It was a mistake to take part in this Contest! I am getting the shivers.” Every day, he looks into the mirror and tells himself, “I can make any mistake and I will be forgiven. I will not make the same mistakes again because I will find new mistakes to make!”

The second placed winner came from a dysfunctional family. In his past life, his vices were cigarettes, drugs and alcohol. Despite this, “my wife forgave me and made me the man I am today. She has a heart of gold. If there is any perfection in this world, in this universe, it is my wife!” As he walked off the stage, the audience was clapping loudly for him.

The Table Topics Champion told us, “Please forgive me, it will not be a perfect speech.” He had a stone thrown at him at age 7. At 51, he still remembered that incident but he realized, “If we really want to live, let’s learn to forgive.”

 
Table Topics Contest Chair May Cheah, District Governor Thanni, Selvaraj (3rd place), Philip Wong (1st place), Kishin (2nd place), First International Vice President John Lau, Past International President Ted Corcoran

Champion: Philip Wong Wan Ming, Division G, KL Advanced TMC
1st Runner Up: Kishin Shan Mahtani, Division N, Achievers TMC
2nd Runner Up: Selvaraj KS Maniam, Division H, Ipoh TMC

May Club Meetings Part I

Friendship AGM on Tue 3 May 2011

With the successful conclusion of our club officers’ election, Friendship is pleased to announce that the Club Officers for term 2011/2012 are

President – Angeline Lee
Vice President of Education – Chor Chee Hoe
Vice President of Membership – Alexandra Lau
Vice President of Public Relations – Susan Lim
Secretary – Daphne Au
Treasurer – Ian Tai
Sergeant At Arms – Andy Supramaniam

Past President Freddie has nothing but praise for our President, who has also completed the project requirements for Competent Leader (CL) and Advanced Leader Bronze (ALB).

President Zaiton deserves heaps of praises for her strings of achievements during her tenure. The term is filled with many events which she led persistently from the drawing board to fruition.

President Zaiton, your dynamism has certainly taken Friendship on a higher plane. Congratulations and a big THANK YOU for your outstanding leadership!

 

President Zaiton (center) with members of Friendship

Hasil on Fri 6 May 2011

President Piras never fails to amaze (word of the day) us with his eloquence and enthusiasm on his reading habit. After sharing with us nuggets of information about Tun Mahathir’s book, he then asked us to pick up the reading habit, as reading leads to information. Information leads to knowledge, and knowledge is power.

With Table Topics Master Khif providing interesting topics on Malaysians’ reading habit, sending children to music school and Facebook, everyone spoke their mind on the various topics. Timer Joriah had to remind us that time was up for the 20 minutes session.

 

Members of Hasil enjoying their club meeting

First-timer TME Sotimin warned us he might frighten us with his performance! When he attended his first Toastmasters meeting back in September 2010, his nervousness was apparent to us as he did his first Table Topics. However, his determination to improve and his willingness to take up meeting roles have paid off. Today, we witnessed a remarkable transformation to a confident speaker, as he performed his TME role with ease.


Exact ADC on Tue 10 May 2011
By Caroline, Exact ADC

Table Topics Master Edward prepared topics which were closely related to “Mother”, the theme of the day. First up, Brenda was asked to brag about her mom. She spoke of her mom’s great cooking and how it has resulted in her acquired taste for good wholesome cooking, made with motherly love. Our first time guest, Kang Ling Chee spoke about her strict mother when she was a teenager, which resulted in her siblings and her growing up as obedient children. Second time guest Judy Cheong, expressed that it would not be any different if Mother’s or Father’s day no longer exists, as you do not need a specific day to celebrate or spend time with your parents. Next speaker, Andrew, would bring his Mom to Singapore for a vacation if she were still alive.

 

Brenda is Best Table Topic Speaker

In the assignment speech session, Wan Suzielawati was a natural at delivering her Ice Breaker speech. Suzie told us stories of her childhood and upbringing, living with “Mak Tek”. Mak Tek is her foster mother, whom she still lives with, and is someone very close and dear to her. Mak Tek was always there for her and they spent a lot of time together.


One World on Thur 12 May 2011    

In this meeting, TME CK Ho informed us that we will be travelling from Europe to Japan as we listened to two project speeches on “How To Say It”. VPPR Ivan brought us to Europe while President Jessica shared with us her hilarious tale of her first visit to a Sento, a public bathing place in Japan. General Evaluator Kang, Area W2 Governor, had us laughing out loud when he said that Jessica’s demonstration of the size of a handkerchief had our imaginations running wild as to how she made used of it before she dipped into the hot water.

 

Members & guests of One World with John Cheah (seated, at the right)

At the end of the meeting, Division W Governor DTM Vincent introduced John Cheah, the incoming Area Governor for One World, which will be aligned to Area W5 wef 1 July 2011. John has started on his club visits to get to know his clubs before his duties officially starts on 1 July.

For John’s entertaining evaluation of Jessica’s speech, he won the Best Speech Evaluator award whereas Jessica was the clear favourite for the Best Project Speaker award.

April Club Meetings (Part 3)

KPMG KL on Sat 23 April 2011
With the evaluator roles filled by visiting Toastmasters from AFC, Friendship, Mid Valley and MII Toastmasters Club, it was a meeting of learning and sharing for members from 5 clubs.

With two Ice Breaker speeches and two advanced manual speeches, we were glad that we did not have to curtail the meeting to resume work as it was a Saturday meeting.

New members Janice and Michelle presented “So You Think You Know Janice” and “The Other Michelle”. Coincidentally, the other Michelle, namely Michelle Yip, presented her Monodrama speech from the Interpretive Reading manual. We heard the evil and gloating voice of Green Goblin from the Spider Man movies. Last but not least, Joanita presented her Interpersonal Communication speech.

Joanita & Michelle with their District 51 pins. Janice & Michelle with their red Ice Breaker ribbons

Thank you to TME Joanita who treated us to fruit tarts which she had baked for us. It provided a sweet ending to this lunch meeting!



Exact ADC on Tue 26 April 2011
By Caroline, Exact ADC

TME Andrew introducing the theme of the day “Friendly” (also the word of the day). As Malaysia was recently voted the 9th friendliest country, Andrew asked members their thoughts about the friendliness of Malaysians. In his President’s speech, he talked about the values of friendliness and the role Toastmasters play as an avenue to make more friends.

Table Topics Master Hoey Teng prepared two sets of cards – one set with the table topic title, and another set on the stand which the speaker is to take, i.e. if the speaker agreed, disagreed or remain neutral on the topic from the first set of cards. Instead of having volunteers, Hoey Teng handpicked speakers and invited them to come up to the stand.

General Evaluator Brenda pointed out that the table topic session of handpicking speakers instead of getting members to volunteer, exemplified real life situations where you would most likely be called upon and asked an opinion. It is a good experience to test how fast your brain thinks. With that, Table Topics Evaluator Chee Yoong was inspired to evaluate differently too. Instead of doing the evaluation from his viewpoint, he invited the speakers themselves to answer (i)How well do you think you did? and (ii) If you were to do it again, how would you do it differently?

President Andrew presenting the Best Table Topics Speaker certificate to Lee Lee

This was followed by Caroline’s Project #3 assignment speech, from the CC Manual. Her speech titled “Ipoh Mali” served to introduce the little wonders Ipoh had to offer from the colonial architecture to the natural limestone hills and many local delicacies. It would have been a nice touch if some of the Ipoh food spoken about were shared at the meeting!

Area Governor Angeline also shared news of Area W3 Blog being selected as one of the best website of District 51, with the results to be announced during the Penang Convention. She thanked Chee Yoong for his contribution to the success of the Blog, as he was the creator of the Area Blog.

One World on Thur 28 April 2011

In the Table Topics Session headed by Meifen, Sam told us he would give us his candid (word of the day) opinion about his favourite colour. With 5 other volunteers giving us their candid opinions, we were enjoying impromptu speeches about love, happiness, confidence, success and even about pirated DVD.

Best Table Topics Speaker Alex, Acting President CK Chong and TME
Ivan

In Amenny’s presentation about DISC, we learnt that knowing whether someone is in the Dominance, Influence, Steadiness or Compliance quadrant will help us to understand and handle various personalities that we will encounter everyday.

Lay Choo, visiting from TARC Toastmasters Club, provided a CANDID evaluation for Amenny, consisting of the words Clear, Awesome, Nice smile, Descriptive, Interactive and Direct. For her outstanding CANDID evaluation, she won the Best Speech Evaluator award.

Members & guests of One World

April Club Meetings (Part 2)

One World on Thur 14 April 2011

For the Project Speech Session, Kelson amazed us with his Ice Breaker speech, VPPR Ivan impressed us with his property investment speech and VPE CK Chong dazzled us with his mountain climbing exploits.

President Jessica presenting the Best Project Speaker award to VPPR Ivan

We were fortunate to have DTM Lum Woon Foong, a highly regarded Toastmaster, as our General Evaluator. She was impressed with the strong bond and camaderie among the club members. Her verdict ? It was a very enjoyable meeting !


Friendship on Tue 19 April 2011

For our Visionary Leadership meeting, first-timer TME Ian performed his role with gusto and enthusiasm. It was evident that he had prepared assiduously for his role. We were impressed with his TME skills, as he showed no signs of nervousness and empowered (word of the day) all of us to have an awesome meeting.

TME Ian

Was it “The Curse” as claimed by Immediate Past President (IPP) Ben when he found out two weeks ago that he had a speaking slot for 19 April ? He presented a hilarious and highly entertaining tale of how events seem to conspire against him while he was preparing for his speech. It was an AA (Absolutely Awesome) speech for its humorous content and we wished that it has been recorded so that we can enjoy it all over again.

Congratulations to IPP Ben who has completed his ten speeches for his Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award. Well done to our IPP, as he was also the Best Project Speaker for this meeting!

Ben receiving his well-deserved ACB pin

KPMG KL-CIMA Joint Meeting on Wed 20 April 2011

At this joint meeting hosted by CIMA Toastmasters Club, SAA Ai Ling immediately caught our attention when she announced that there will be S.E.X. during the meeting. She then explained that S.E.X. stands for Smile, Enthusiasm and eXcitement.

During the Table Topics Session, we had entertaining and eloquent speeches from 5 “Ministers” comprising of Abu Bakar (Kelab Pidato KL), Grace (KPMG), Michelle (KPMG), Kok Loon (Money & You) and Victor (CIMA). Minister of Works, Victor, was voted the Best Table Topics Speaker.

Congratulations to Ling Sim of KPMG who presented her Ice Breaker speech and also won the Best Project Speaker award.

We also had 3 IBM guests, Kenneth, Wendy and Anthony, who had attended to observe the meeting proceedings. All of them were impressed with the Toastmasters educational program and told us of their intention to set up a Toastmasters Club for IBM.

Charming and enthusiastic TME Soo Qi confessed to us after the meeting that she was nervous, as her boss, HR Director of IBM, was at the meeting. We hope that her boss was impressed with her TME skills as it was a thumbs up performance.



One World Club Officers Installation on Fri 22 April 2011

At this Installation Ceremony, we were joined by One World Group CEO, Dave Lau, who is also the Charter President of Roof Toastmasters Club, Singapore. Just before the Installation ceremony, he asked us to write down 3 weaknesses that we faced and clip it to a RM100 note. He then challenged us to burn the RM100 note and the paper attached to it, if we think it is worth paying RM100 to erase the 3 weaknesses. A number of One World members stood up and pledged to burn the money and banish their weaknesses.

With that dramatic start, we then moved on to the Installation Ceremony of One World Toastmasters’ club officers, followed by the official opening ceremony for One World Damansara branch.

Division W Council members with the Club Officers of One World

April Club Meetings (Part 1)

Friendship on Tue 5 April 2011

At our “Magical Transformation” 5 April 2011 meeting, Past President James Arokiasamy who was our TME asked us, “How are we feeling?” Then he held up a cue card with the word “AWESOME” written on it. Indeed it was awesome, as we had 7 visiting Toastmasters from 5 clubs ! They were

General Evaluator DTM Geoff Andrew from MIM KL
Invocation speaker DTM Mohamad Abdullah from MII
Evaluators Daniel Teh and Jocelyn Lim, and guest Alireza from AFC
Evaluator V.S. Ravi from UEM
Patrick Lim from ITC Bintang

Another awesome fact was that we had 4 non-Toastmasters guests and two of them, Rosalie and Sylvia, signed up as members !

Guest Rosalie, Jocelyn (AFC), Phileo, guest Sylvia, VPPR Alexandra, Past President Lay Theng & Alireza (AFC)

Thanks to the effort of VPPR Alexandra to send out Facebook invitations, Patrick of ITC Bintang decided to attend our meeting as well.

Patrick of ITC Bintang

Exact ADC on Tue 12 April 2011
By Caroline, Exact ADC

For the first part of the meeting, Table Topic Master Chee Yoong prepared table topics based on pictures. Volunteers were asked to select a number and the Table Topic Master revealed a picture which the speaker had 2 minutes to talk about. The table topics session was definitely a nice change and an innovative way to encourage most of the members to participate.

In the assignment speech session, Boby delivered his Ice Breaker speech, titled “Life is Unpredictable”. Hailing from West Sumatra, he shared about his family and his ambition to study and work abroad. He felt that life was full of the unpredictable, just as how he came to work in Exact.


After the break, General Evaluator Ai Shiang, who filled in at the last minute, professionally handled the role even though it was her first time. She suggested to provide an additional stopwatch for the timer, so that it was easier to time entire sessions, while timing individual speakers.


KPMG KL Wed 13 April 2011
By Grace, KPMG KL

At this meeting, our guys took over the stage !

Tell me which club has 3 IT guys bravely giving their CC speeches PLUS they are not talking about computer or programming.

Jowy, Chee Seng and Gary with their TI ribbons

Jowy told us how he got his unique name "JOWY" and it is indeed different from the norm. Be unique, be different and stand out from the rest.

Chee Sing inspired us to dream and to create our own future. He reminded us about the dreams and stories of Thomas Edison and his light bulb, the Wright brothers and the airplane and even Tony Fernandes and Air Asia.

Gary confirmed that with his experiences in IT, with changes, comes resistance. He assured us that the world is moving ahead with time and new technology. He concluded that it is time to be, "Out with the Old and In with the New"

We also had a large group of visitors! Lead by Samantha Tai of MAICSA Toastmasters Club, who is also head of Boardroom Corporate Services, her team of 15 staff visited our club.

Impromptu Speaking Skills Workshop (II)

As a conversation is a two way street, we should also be a good listener. When we compliment someone, be sincere and be friendly. As practice makes perfect, she then asked us to put into practice what we have just learnt in her interactive workshop session.

Practicing our social impromptu speaking skills

In his closing address, Division Governor Vincent gave us an analogy. Seven spoons of sugar will not make a cup of coffee sweet until we stir it. Similarly for us, no matter how many workshops we attend, if we do not take action with what we have learnt, we will remain where we are and will not improve.

DTM LeAnn in action

Short Q&A session with LeAnn

After the workshop, we were fortunate to be able to spend a few minutes with DTM LeAnn. We seized the opportunity to ask her a few questions.

Division W Secretary Marian, Division W PRO Kimmy, AG W3 Angeline, AG W1 Siew Fun, Division W Treasurer Christine, DTM LeAnn & Division W Governor DTM Vincent

Q: How did you transform from the wallpaper to the confident speaker that you are today?
A: Thru Toastmasters! In a Toastmasters meeting, even though you would rather not speak, there will be someone cajoling you to give it a try.

Q: Do you still get nervous each time before you give a speech ?
A: No, I don’t. I tell myself to just enjoy it.

Q: For the rest of us who may still feel nervous, what would you recommend ?
A: Your fears will be because you do not want to disappoint the audience, you do not want to let them down. There will be club meetings where you felt you did great. There will other meetings where you felt disappointed with your delivery. When that happens to me, I acknowledge it and then let go. Life is too short to be unhappy about it.

Thank you DTM LeAnn, for your sharing your insights with us !

Impromptu Speaking Skills Workshop (I)

Parking was perhaps the biggest challenge for attendees of Division W’s Impromptu Speaking Skills 101 Workshop on Sat 22 January 2011 at Tiffani Hall. However, where there’s a will, there’s a way, for 100 Toastmasters who attended this workshop.

Angeline, Joanne, Elaine, Andrew and Caroline from Friendship, Monash & Exact ADC Toastmasters Club

Division W Governor DTM Vincent started the workshop with his presentation on Impromptu Speaking Skills in the Corporate Environment.

DTM Vincent in action

When we communicate, do not complicate, said DTM Vincent. The 6 C’s to effective communication is clarity, conciseness, correctness, courtesy, completeness and consistency.

We create an impression when we create conversations. His tips to us include thinking fast but speaking slower. When we are selling a point or concept, it helps if we were to use powerful quotations.

MMU Cyberjaya member trying out Vincent’s tip to introduce your name, your profession and what you do best, in 20 seconds

DTM LeAnn started with a shocking revelation in her session on Impromptu Speaking Skills in a Social Environment. She used to be a wallflower. In fact, if there is such a thing as wallpaper that is able to drink, that was her, she told us. One would never have guessed that this confident and commanding speaker was once a wallflower.

Stressing on the importance of small talk, she told us that
· Small talk can lead to big talk
· Big talk can lead to big people
· Big people can lead you to big opportunities

The secret to be successful in small talk is to stretch ourselves by stepping out of our comfort zone and broadening our horizon. Start with a smile as it is the shortest distance between two people. Then explore by asking questions. It also helps if we are knowledgeable.

...to be continued