16th Meeting 2012-2013 (26th February 2013)

Dear Fellow Toastmasters and Friends, 

As I'm sitting here, trying to recap our last meeting, I realized that words were just not enough to describe the magnitude of positive charge and vibrancy that we felt at our last meeting! But I'll try my best...

I'm sure many of us have received the heartwarming email from our guest, Paul... I must say that I fully agree with him! For a successful meeting is the result of the combined efforts from all the team players!

So I'd really like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart to all my EXCOs for their marvelous efforts and going the extra mile. I honestly think I'm the luckiest president because of this team! 

Of course, not forgetting two thumbs up to our TME Christine Yap, DTM and all the role players! There were a mix and matched of seasoned and also first timer role players, and senior members, assisting the more junior members with their roles. From where I was sitting, I noticed our District Governer, Richard Gontusan, DTM, a seasoned grammarian himself, didn't hesitate to guide Amanda through her first time as a Grammarian!

We had a variety of speakers that evening, a total of 6 quality speakers ranging from Ice-Breakers to Advanced Speakers.

Janice Tan (CC1 "First Impression), already a natural speaker herself with a good command of English and also a sense of humour! She shared with us a short story about herself, her life and her dream goals. She was evaluated by Aaron Vun, who was also a first timer evaluator, but did a great job in pointing out her strengths and points for improvement! Well done, you guys! :) 

Melinda Chua (CC1 "My Journey Starts Here"), started her speech with a thorough research on the origins of "Ice-Breaking", then led us smoothly into her main points of her speech. I really liked how she was so sincere in her speech when telling us about her reserved personality, and taking her first step out of her "comfort-lab" by joining Toastmasters!

Nanthakumar Kumaresan (ACB1 "The Fisherman and the Goblet") shared with us a beautiful story of how a princess who learned that love was all about the heart and not the appearance. It was a really good effort from our speaker who had spent almost a year away from us in India, and now, continuing his speeches. I salute to his enthusiasm, and really looking forward to better speeches from him! Well done! 

Nora Liew (ACB4 "Heroes of KKTMC) presented an award to not one, but three Toastmasters that she felt deserves of such award. I like her take on this because she awarded this to our SAA Darvis, Treasurer Adeline, and Bulletin Editor Amanda, the silent and unsung heroes of the club! I wonder if she were to really choose 1 person for the award, who might that be?

Nora Ridzwan (ACB8 "Silver Lining") with her quote that really struck me "Everyday you do not do what you're passionate about, a piece of you died". Teary eyes, and all, she gave us a heartfelt, flawless speech about finding the silver lining in life. Dancing was her life, but an accident almost tore her life apart. Strong willed she is, she found her silver lining again. Bravo!

Jasmine Leong (ASG8 "Who's your Gonzo?") gave us an interesting perspective. While we're used to inspiring speeches on how to get back up when we fall, Jasmine's speech was about helping others when they are lost. Through the captivating story of 2 huskies, she reminded us of a selfless moral - To find, and be someone's eyes in life, when they are lost. 

As an incentive to deliver their best, we were also voting for the best speaker and evaluator! The recipients are...... 

Best Speaker: Nora Ridzwan

Best Evaluator: Aaron Subash George

Congratulation and well done you guys! :)

We also welcomed the latest addition to our KKTMC family!! Fauziah Mat Noor, who has been a true supporter all this while and finally taking this step to challenge herself!! Welcome mama Fi!! :) 

Everyone did a commendable job that evening and it has truly been a lovely journey! Thank you to all who came, for your presence was what made last meeting such an AWESOME one!! 

Thank you!

Yours in Toastmasters, 

Jamie

Jamie Chieng

President, KKTMC 2012-2013

"LOVE THE JOURNEY"

2012-2013 22 February 2013 ( International Speech & Table Topic Speech Contest)

Dear Fellow Toastmasters and Guests,

Hey there everyone! Greetings from the desk of your President! :)
I trust everyone's week started out well??

As you all may know, we've recently conducted our very own Club Level International Speech and Table Topics Contest, and it was a resounding success!! We had a collection of 4 quality speeches and 5 brave impromptu speakers for the evening and they all performed superbly!!

We also had a great turn out for our contest, a big thanks to all fellow Toastmasters who came to support and also invited their friends. All who attended the contests were moved to laughter, awe and deeply inspired by our speakers.

For those who couldn't make it for the contest, I'm sure you're all anxious to know (if you don't already know) who are the winners right?? So drum-roll pleasee.........

International Speech Contest Champion: Intan Salwana Anis ("Reality Check")
1st Runner Up: Aaron Subash George ("Shine Bright Like A Diamond")

Table Topics Speech Contest Champion: Sivathandavarayan Murugesan
1st Runner Up: Shahar Banon
2nd Runner Up: Nora Liew

Congratulations to all the winners!!

Words cannot describe how proud I am of each and everyone of the contestants, for taking up the challenge and actually pulling it all the way through! Bravo!!
As I mentioned "The only competition that needs focus on, is the competition against the person you were yesterday". So for that, everyone was a winner to me!

And of course to all the role players, this contest wouldn't have fall into place so smoothly if it wasn't for you. You know who you are! So thank you!

All in all, it was a great event and I look forward to seeing everyone again this evening at our meeting!

Yours in Toastmasters,
Jamie

15th Meeting 2012-2013- Valentine Themed Meeting ( 05 February 2013)

Dear Fellow Toastmasters and Friends,

Hello there and how is everybody? Well, my holiday just started and I got the time to sit down and properly write to you. Woo Hoo!!

For those who were present at our last meeting, I hope this will remind you of what a great time we had, and if you had missed it, here are some of the highlights from our last joint meeting with KK Advanced Toastmasters Club, coming together for a Valentine's Themed meeting! :)

Our invocator Jasmine Leong, ACS, ALS encouraged all the single folks to not just look for Mr or Ms Right, but also work at being someone else's Mr or Ms Right with values that lasts. I'd raise a glass to that!

Oh, and I must commend our TME Vijay Panickar for going the extra mile in decorating our meeting room and it was imbued with the colors of love, little heart shaped balloons and also pink / purple streamers! He was also very creative with his ice breaker where he gave us each a piece of a broken heart and told to look for our better half! 3 pairs were lucky that night and earned themselves some chocolates! :)

Table Topics session was another interesting one! Bravo to our Table Topics Master, KK Advanced President, Margaret Sunam, ACB! She fielded a variety of questions and I thought all the respondents handled it very well (even if they were breaking into cold sweat!) But I personally thought 3 respondents stood out: Fia Iskandar, CC as she embraces her true Malaysian side and told us she's more excited about CNY than to Valentine's; Yee That Hian, DTM who made us all laugh when he said "if you marry a dog, you lead a dog's life" on the subject of his children's ideal life partners; and Jasmine Leong, ACS, ALS who practiced on talking her way out from an awkward moment with her "mother-in-law"!

To make the evening interesting, we had 5 brave speakers:

Ily Iskandar (project CC2 "Superwoman x Infinity), a visiting Toastmaster from Monash University, a sister to our dear VPE, captivated our hearts with her natural speaking style and also her stories of love for her mother, aka Superwoman, who possesses super strength, super energetic and a magic crystal ball in taking care of the family!

Dean Yee (project CC2 "I do what I do"), really cracked our funny bones as he described interesting moments with his job as an environmental consultant. We thought it was going to be all flowers and rainbows but it turned out more like a series of unfortunate events with bamboo paddles, or a flat tyre in the midst of heavy rain! My, oh my!

Siva Murugesan (project CC3 "Yes, I can") captured our attention with his rendition of "fatty bum bum", and shared with us his vision of losing weight! I personally thought he has improved a great deal and this time successfully injected humour and exuded enthusiasm! Thumbs up Siva! Let this be an encouragement to you to take part in speech contests? :)

Intan Salwana (project CC9 "what did I get myself into?"), a mother of two, but powerful in her speech, blew us all away with her story and how she fell in love with Toastmasters, and today persuaded with power to everyone who has yet to be a Toastmaster! Quoting from our District Governor, "Don't wait for the right moment, for if you wait, the right moment will never come. So MAKE THE MOMENT RIGHT!" hear hear!

And of course, Kaori Kawamoto (project CC8 "Be my Valentine"). I've always enjoyed Kaori's speech because she never fails to bring onto the table interesting cultures practiced in Japan! This time, she got all the men excited about Japan because, on Valentine's Day, it's the LADIES that initiates and express her love to the MEN! Hmm... I wonder if that's how she got her husband... But she was quite mysterious about that... :P

Our Humour Master Jackie Miao also did wonderfully in tickling our funny bones!

KK Advanced TM Club President, Margaret Sunam, ACB, was very nice to bought flowers and chocolates for our 3 Bests:

Best Dressed Female: Jasmine Leong, ACS, ALS

Best Dressed Male: Abu Bakar Sheriff, DTM

Best Manual Speaker: Intan Salwana Anis

Congratulations to all the winners!

Oh, and we were also privileged to have visiting Toastmasters all the way from Beijing, Rolf & Monica Chew! Thank you for coming and sharing your Toastmasters Journey with us!! :) And finally, a big thank you to all the KK Advanced members and all role players for making this club meeting a success!

With that, I wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous year of the Snake! and Happy Valentine's Day too!! :)

P/S: There'll be more photos posted on our facebook page and our blog. So please do check us out!

Yours in Toastmasters,

Jamie

Jamie Chieng

President, KKTMC 2012-2013

"LOVE THE JOURNEY"

016 8034180 / tze_vern@hotmail.com

http://kktoastmastersclub.blogspot.com/