KOTA KINABALU TOASTMASTERS CLUB: 4th Meeting 2011-2012

Dear Fellow Toastmasters & Guests,

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

MERDEKA!!!

Happy Merdeka Everyone! Yesterday's meeting was definitely a night filled with patriotism! You can see our Malaysia flags EVERYWHERE! On the walls, on the tables, and even on some of our members' clothes! (Ahem, you know who you are! Yes, Christine & Kamal.. We know you love Malaysia!) To add cherry on top, our captain of the evening, Kamal Surin aka Danny Tra-botak even gave out Malaysia flag as door gifts to every participants! Thank you Kamal & also everyone for setting the mood for a great meeting to realize our dreams! That's the spirit of patriotism! A pat on the back everyone! :)

"Shiny" TME - Kamal Surin, ATM-G

"PERFECT practice makes perfect!" That's our thought of the evening! Very philosophical but yet, very very true! Yes, in order to deliver a perfect speech, no only we need to practice, we have to perfect our practice! Otherwise, we will be practicing something which is wrong until it's perfect! We don't want that, don't we? Thank you TM Nora Liew for the very philosophical quote! Then, came our highlight for the first session of the meeting, the Table Topic Session! Our table topic master is of course our ever humorous DTM Abu Bakar Sheriff! Thanks to our seasoned Table Topic Master, we had an enjoyable, fun & humorous session! And, we even made history! 3 person commented on the same table topic questions! Looked like our Table Topic Master has picked out some very interesting topic there!

Our 2nd session was filled with enthusiasm from 6 speakers, 3 speakers from the basic CC Manuals, and 3 speakers from the Advance Manuals. From our ice breaker speakers, TM Adeline Thien & TM Maxwell C Majalang have given us some sneak peeks about themselves. Yes, Adeline, I know now you're a 'kedekut' monkey! And Yes, Maxwell, we now know that scars can tell stories too! :). Our CL Raffaelia (Not Competent Leader, but Competent LIAR) also taught us how to lie confidently.. Just relax (Don't touch your hair & remain eye contact) and breathe deeply! Then, of course yours truly who has given a toast to our incoming International President, DTM Dr John Lau. CC Jamie also told us the truth behind ghosts & superstitious! And it's ok to break some mirrors! Last but not least, CC Sophia has told us something about Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!

Maxwell giving his Ice Breaker Speech: "Each scar represents something in my life."

Sophia: "I left my coffee on top of my car!"

Even though all the speakers were nervous, I would still like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the speakers for not using any notes during your speech. However, like TM Nora Liew has mentioned earlier,perfect practice makes perfect. Thus, I would like to encourage all speakers and future speakers to perfect your practices so that your delivery will be more polish & within time allotted! :)

Fellow Toastmasters and guests, how could we end the meeting without giving out any awards, right? This meeting, we have given out 4 awards, ie Best Dress for Male & Female & Best Speakers for CC & Advance Manuals. And the awards were given to... (Drum roll please.... ):

1) Best Dress (Male): TM Nanthakumar Kumaresan

2) Best Dress (Female): DTM Christine Yap

3) Best Speaker (CC Manual): Competent Liar TM Raffaelia Yong

4) Best Speaker (Advance Manual): Ghostbuster CC Jamie Chieng