12th Meeting 2012-2013-Christmas Themed (18 Dec 2012)

Dear Fellow Toastmasters & Friends, 

 

"We wish you a Merry Christmas..... We wish you a Merry Christmas.... and a Happy New Year....!!"

... And Ladies and Gentlemen, was how our TME Santa Rina - Eilvane Chieng started the evening with her guitar and outstanding singing skills, and got everyone belting to the well known Christmas Carol, immediately warming up the room and got everyone geared up for what became a zestful Christmas Joint Meeting between KKTMC and KK Advanced TM Club!

Our young and enthusiastic Table Topics Master then challenged our impromptu speaking skills as she fielded her questions laced with Christmas theme related, life questions and also something fun when she got her respondents to pick out a "gift" and tell us who they'd like to give it to and why. Oh boy, that really shook our bellies with laughters as we observed the respondents trying to talk their way around it! :) While many fear Table Topics, in Toastmasters, we learn how to tackle it with grace. Also, kudos to first timer Table Topics Evaluator TM Raoul Yong who did a good job pointing out the many positive strengths of the Table Topics Master
and respondents! :)

Before everyone went for tea-break, VPM brought out not one but two cakes in celebration of December birthday babies and also for Christmas Celebration!! So we who loved singing sang a hearty Birthday song and Christmas Song again before cutting the cakes. 

 

As tummies were filled, we were all ready with the 2nd half of the meeting where 4 brave speakers attempted on their project speeches. TM Kaori Kawamoto shared with us the holidays celebrated in Japan, and apparently Christmas is a very romantic festival almost like Valentines; or the Obon Festival that takes place in Summer, with weather so HOT they had to tell horror stories.... to get chilled! :D While many have heard that KK Advanced Club member are evaluated by 3 different evaluators, not many have truly seen them in action! TM Kaori was evaluated by KK Advanced President, Margaret Sunam and with her 2 other co-evaluators, they have truly opened our eyes to KK Advanced's Style of Evaluation!

 

Next we had our full-time mother, TM Intan Salwana who then took us on an interesting history lesson of King Henry's 6 wives, but with a message that to all - Never underestimate the power of women! For it was King Henry's daughters that ruled the lands. Our darling VPE Fia Iskandar, CC, roasted our beloved anchor member of KKTMC "Uncle Yee", as she shared with us little details about this witty uncle, and made us gasp when she told us that our calm, poised and gentle looking Uncle Yee is silently a Tai Chi Master, almost like Jackie Chan!! Finally, Nora, oh Nora with her re-enactment of Maria from the Sound of Music in her Monodrama. Nora Ridzwan, CC never fails to entrance and enchants us as can take on a character and let it radiates through her words and expressions! Well done Nora! 

To encourage members for speaking and also award them for dressing up, here are the award recipients: 

Best Speaker Award: TM Intan Salwana

Best Dressed Male: TM Raoul Yong

Best Dressed Female: TM Eilvane Chieng

All in all, we definitely had a GREAT meeting! Enthusiasm level was high and there were good fellowship among everyone, all because of Toastmasters!! Not to mention all the big smiles we saw when everyone got a gift from mysterious person! :) 

 

Finally, A big THANK YOU! to every single role players who played their part and made this meeting a success! Every effort counts and yours was valuable! :) Also, a special thanks to our District Governor, DTM Richard A. Gontusan, Area Governor, Joanna Liew, ACB, thank you for your presence and taking up a role during the meeting. And of course, KK Advanced President, Margaret Sunam, ACB, and all KK Advanced members. Thank you for agreeing to this joint meeting! 

 

What a way indeed to close the chapter for 2012 and look forward to 2013!! 

 

Till then, see you all next year for our first meeting in 2013 - 8 Jan 2013, same time (7.30pm), same place (Celyn Hotel, Citymall)

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 

 

Yours in Toastmasters,

Jamie
 

 

Here are some of the candid photos that can only be seen in this very BLOG! We reveal some of the gifts that our members and guest received during the gift exchange session and I personally adored the hairy gift that Darvis draw! Amir received a classic square box present which contained ARTHUR CHRISTMAS! (Hint hint for a Christmas movie gathering perhaps?) Rachel hit the jackpot by receiving a ginger Christmas hand cream ( girls will never get enough of hand cream!) and Fia received a handy and chic Iphone Case!!

 

Christmas Carolling (15th December 2012)

Dear fellow Toastmasters and friends,

"Feliz Navidad..... Feliz Navidad! Prospero Ano Felizidad....!"

T'was a jolly good night of caroling, house visiting, laughters and fellowship between old and new friends!! :) I thought KKTMC Carolers did a fantastic job singing, belting the highest note and with that blessing the hosting family with songs of happiness and joy! 

We went to a total of 4 houses, starting off with our mama Christine Yap's house and she prepared for us her famous, lip smacking NASI LEMAK!! Yummm...!! Everyone was enjoying it so much that we just had to get more of that amazingly delicious Nasi Lemak and Sambal!! After that, we moved on to the Liew Family of Toastmasters -- Christopher Liew, Joanna Liew and Nora Liew, where we were served on a healthy Red Bean Soup and fresh oranges, something to wash down our yummy nasi lemak earlier! 

Dean joined us after that and led us to his beautiful home! I think many of our jaws dropped when we saw the size of his family mansion! :) We sang very well there because we earned ourselves a tour around the house as we ooohs and aaahs and waaaah all the way... :) Our final stop was Ronald Tang's residence, using all the voice we had left, we sang with all our hearts and all our might ending with a resounding MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR...

It was indeed an amazing evening as we brought home good memories of a jolly good Caroling session! I saw new friendship established and friendship bonds strengthened, all in the good spirit of Christmas! 

So I wanted to take the time out and once again thank all 4 hosts: Mama Christine Yap & Family , Liew's Family, Dean Yee & Family, Ronald Tang & Family. Thank you for your hospitality and generosity in opening your house to us and also prepared delicious meal for us.  

Also a big shout out to all carolers who had chosen to spend your time with us! For it was with all your splendid voices and your great company that last night was a Fantabulous night! Please give yourselves a pat on the back!! Thank you!! 

More importantly, this event wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for our ORGANIZING LADY - NORA LIEW!! She send out countless emails, approached members individually to invite them to come and now already uploaded most of the photos on Facebook and blogspot! :) Well Done VPPR - Nora Liew!! :) 

Once again, thank you all for making our caroling event such a pleasant and fun one! I hope to see you all at our next meeting NEXT TUESDAY, 18 Dec, same time (7.30pm), same place (Celyn Hotel, Citymall)! I assure you next meeting is going to be a phenomenal one because we're having a JOINT MEETING with KK Advanced TM Club!! Yes, you read me, 2 Toastmasters club will join together as ONE! So braced yourselves for another evening of inspiring speeches, fresh and new ideas, and more importantly, the camaraderie between Toastmasters! 

Till then, see you on Tuesday. 

Merry Christmas,

Jamie

11th Meeting 2012-2013 (11th December 2012)

 

10th Meeting 2012-2013 (27th November 2012)

During 27th November 2012, we have held our 10th meeting of the term 2012-2013 and the mood of the day was set right by CC Raymond Wong when he decided to break the ice by introducing a fascinating word "GHOTI" to the audience. Do not be fooled by the spelling of the word as there is more that meets the eye, this 5 letter word is pronounced as:

• the gh = f as in rouGH
• the o = i as in wOmen
• the ti = sh as in naTIon

Yes, it is pronounced as "fish". Raymond really know how to  trigger our senses and made our brain squeeze some juice out of our thick skull. Then, our cute and cuddly Darvis Chong was the star of the evening as compliment by our DTM Yee. He has managed to speed up the momentum  and we were truly warmed up by his warm up session when we were instructed to link the sentence up by each and everyone in the audience!

If that is not interesting enough, the fearful table topic session was conducted by our AaronSubasheGeorge, which he improvise and innovated it up by asking everyone to write down a classic dirty little secret and put it into a box where the volunteers all have to choose from the box  one of the paper notes we put in, read the dirty secret out and guess who it is. The tricky part is justify why they think that it was that person that wrote it. It was superb fun and fresh!

Our brave speakers for that evening are one step closer to achieving their goals and also succeed in becoming a better speaker then they were yesterday, bravo and I really hope to see more and more senior and new members take up the role to give a speech in the future.

Sequence of speakers:

1. Jamie Chieng
2. Raoul Yong 
3. Sylvia Maten
4. Intan Anis

All of us especially me had a lot of fun, thanks to Darvis and his dedicated team members that made our night a fruitful session. I cannot wait for the following meeting and also everyone, remember to bring presents for the Christmas themed meetings :)

24th Meeting - LAST MEETING for term 2011/2012

It's been a while since the last update ya? :p Sorry for not updating you guys... :( I thought that since I started writing a summary report for "almost" every meeting, I should also end this term properly by writing this email/report to all of you! So, do bear with this bubbly and animated president for the one last time! :D

Last night's meeting was just AWESOME! Everyone relished every moment of the meeting! We had 40 participants coming to the meeting last night, where it also include members from other clubs like UTC and SWEPA TMC and a few long lost members, ie. Enoch Khoo and my dear dear VPE Nanthakumar! Thank you for coming to the meeting and give us all the support! The meeting started on time, thanks to our cute ASAA, TM Darvis. Our invocator was non other than our very own DG-Elect, DTM Richard. He said: "The fun part of tennis is not watching the game, but to go into the court and play!" Yes Richard, we must participate in the Table Topic and Manual speeches session in order to be a better speaker, and not just sit in the meeting and watch! Thanks for reminding us! 

And who's our Toastmaster of this Evening? He is non-other than our President-Elect..... ACG Mohd Kamal Surin! He started off the evening by getting us to guess the Capital of the Country that he mentioned. And boy, I think our team, Team A really need to brush up on our Geography! :p But overall, we all had fun and that's the most important thing, don't you think so? :) This meeting, we had a few first timers.　First timer timer TM Aaron Vun did a commendable in keeping the time! TM Siva Murugesan as well, First Timer AH Counter! And first timer Table Topic Master, TM Amanda Chung conducted the Table Topic Session. Though the session was short, only 5 questions posted, the responses were phenomenal! Now I know if you need to sell something, get Darvis to help you sell it, and.. NEVER go shopping with Raymond Wong because he will "help" you to spend half your money! :D

 

Before we end the first session, we also conducted the Induction Ceremony and celebrated the June babies' birthdays! 6 new members were inducted, and they were: Aaron Vun, Captain James O'Keefe, Wellin Gaban, Eilvane Chieng, Eddie Lim and Intan Salwana! Welcome to the KKTMC Family! And, we also celebrated the June Babies' birthday, Ginni and Fia by inviting them to cut the specially made "Realize your Dream" Cake! Happy birthday darlings!!

Specially made "Realize Your Dream" Cake

Then, the manual speeches session! Tonight, we had 6 speakers! From TM Hiew Ejinn who told us anything and everything about "Perfection", to TM Captain James who told us his life story as the father of his 2 wonderful boys, to TM Eilvane Chieng who spoke about thankfulness and remind us to always say thank you, arigato, terima kasih and etc, to TM Intan who told us the secret to look young naturally (Yes Intan, I will exercise more, sleep more and stay positive all the time.. I will look like Jennifer Aniston in no time, right? :p), to TM Ahmad Izzat who told us the story of 4 phenomenal person, ie. Adele, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and.... Ahmad Izzat?! (hahaha.. Don't worry Izzat, your life story is still by far the best among the other great icons!), and lastly, to our secretary, CC Fia who gave a toast to...... (I can't believe it....) Yours truly! It was an honor to be the subject of her speech/toast! All the speakers did a marvelous job tonight! Well Done!

TM Hiew Ejinn with his "PERFECT" speech

Proud Father of two wonderful boys, TM Captain James

Thank you Eilvane for the "thankfulness" speech

The naturally young looking Intan sharing her secrets on how to stay young

Izzat was too phenomenal till the photographer's hand was shaking while taking the pic! :D

A beautiful ribbon for Fia for the great toast! :)

After such inspiring speeches, our enthusiastic DTM Christine Yap, aka mama, took up the role as the humour master after so long.... hmm.. maybe, not so long ago... And her jokes, really tickled our funny bones and made us laughed like mad! Great job Mama! Looking forward to seeing you taking up other roles in the near future! Again, our forever humorous DTM Abu Bakar took up the role as General Evaluator and conducted the GE session like a true Toastmaster!

Since this is the last meeting of the term, of course, we will be giving out tons of awards.

Best Table Topic Speaker Award: Sophia H. Shaw, CC
Best Project Speaker Award:　TM Ahmad Izzat
Best Evaluator Award: Nora Ridzwan, CC ALB and Jasmine Leong, ACS ALB
Best Humour: TM Darvis Chong
Best Enthusiasm Award:　Christine Yap, DTM 

 

Fellow Toastmasters & guests, the biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams. Thank you for allowing me to live the life of my dreams, being the youngest president in KKTMC History! This adventure has been a WONDERFUL and MEMORABLE one for me! So many events happened this year. A special thanks to OC Jasmine Leong and her team for the successful and significant event held during this term, the KK2012 District Convention! Thank you to all the senior members, my personal adviser aka my DAD, my anchors (you know who you are.. :)), my dream team, and all the members who guided me along the way and allowing me to witness your growth and give me the opportunity to sharpen my leadership and people skill for the past year! I really can't thank you enough!

At the beginning of the meeting, our TME said: Let's end the meeting with a BANG.. and... did we achieve our objective? Yes, we did. It Ended with a HUGE BANG!! With tears (Happy tears.. of course) and laughter and all!! Haha..

Thank you for bringing out the magic, moving, expressing and inspired others and lastly, REALIZED YOUR DREAMS with me this term. It has been my honor serving you as the Madam President for the term 2011/2012.

So, for the one last time, as your Madam President,

Thank you for realizing your dreams with me.. And Happy Toasting ...    :):)


Yours in Toastmasters,
Joanna Liew
President 2011-2012
"Realize Your Dream"

D87 2nd Annual Convention 18-20 May 2012

This was it! After 1 year of preparation, finally, the day has come! 350 delegates all over Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and US came to Kota Kinabalu for the District 87 Toast-masters Annual Convention to grow and flourish together at Promenade Hotel, Kota Kinabalu.

Welcome Night
The 3 days 2 nights convention started with a bang! Yes.. It’s the Grease 60s-70s Welcome Night! Everyone dressed in their poker-dots skirts and their thunder bird leather jackets! It was indeed a fun night with lots of Rock & Roll decorations. On this very night, KKTMC also performed our very own 25min Grease Toastmasters Musical that WOWed the crowd. We also invited the dele-gates to be part of us by teaching them the famous HAND JIVE moves! (“Clap, clap, Cut, cut, Punch, punch, hand to the back, hand to the back!”)!

19th May 2012 (Saturday)
The Opening Ceremony the next day started with class with the Grand March-In by all the Past & Current District Officers! Our Guest-of-Honour is none other than Yang Berhormat Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai, Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Resources Development & Information Tech-nology, Sabah. After his inspiring message, our keynote speaker, Dr. Dilip Abayasekara, Toast-masters International Past President and twice 1st Runner-Up at World Championship of Public Speaking took the stage and presented his keynote speeches. Then, the day followed by a series of educational and interesting workshops by Datuk Adeline Leong DTM, Dunstan Chan DTM and Li Yo Wei DTM.

Gala Night
The Gala Night is normally known as the Toastmasters Oscar Night for the fellow Toastmasters where Appreciation Awards, Educational Awards and other notable achievement awards were given out. This year, all delegates glam up the Gala Awards Night with a shade of BLUE! The night started with our very own Giuliana Rancic and Ryan Seacrest on TM Network interviewing the delegates while walking on the Red Carpet!
This year, once again, KKTMC achieved the President’s Distinguished Club Awards and congrat-ulations to ALL members. On this night, we also witnessed our very own Richard A. Gontusan DTM being installed as the 3rd District Governor of District 87! Congratulations Richard… We will “Go-To-The-Sun” with you!! Of course, what is a good function without entertainment? Again, KKTMC brought to the delegates our very own musical medley! And believe me, everyone went GAGA!!

International Speech & Table Topic Contests
What an inspiring and mind-blowing District level International Speech and Table Topic Contests we had this year! This year’s International Speech & Table Topic Contests was really of high standard! Our Division’s representatives, who “happened” to be our club members as well, Mohd Kamal Surin ACG and Shahar Banon CTM have made us proud by getting the 1st runner up for the contests.

The results are as follows:

International Speech Contest
Champion: Dinesh Vaswani
1st runner up: Mohd Kamal Surin
2nd runner up: David Pranata

Table Topic Contests
Champion: Kelly Tiong
1st runner up: Shahar Banon
2nd runner up: Neeraj Khiani

 

This Convention was definitely a huge success! Thank you to the Organizing Chairperson, Jasmine Leong ACS and her team for organizing it with a song in their hearts, and a dance to their steps!