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
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
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
Saturday, January 26, 2013
14th Meeting 2012-2013 (22nd January 2013)
Dear Fellow Toastmasters and friends,
Gong Xi Fa Cai and Happy Chinese New Year!! I hope everyone enjoyed a great Thursday of……no work? I’m blessed because I’m in Malaysia, a country that celebrates its multicultural backgrounds and honors them with public holidays!
Speaking of multicultural, we just celebrated our exuberant Chinese New Year Themed meeting on Tuesday! Our normal meeting room was decorated with red packets and right in the middle of the room, a huge “Jin Yuan Bao” (Translation: Gold Ingot) that was supposed to bring us prosperity and everything that is good! You’ll see what I mean in the photo embedded here below. Thanks to Celyn Hotel!
Our meeting started on time as our first timer ASAA Aaron Vun called the meeting to order before handing control over to, also first timer, invocator Melinda Chua, where she reminded us to give thanks and count our blessings, something that we tend to forget in the midst of overwhelming busyness! Thank you Melinda for that thoughtful thought of the evening!
Our TME Joanna Liew, ACB, CL took the stage with a breeze and in no time getting us warmed up and conducting us to a CNY song with just “Dong, Qiang & Gong Xi Fa Cai”! She first divided us into 3 groups; then as she pointed to each group, we’re supposed to sing out our group name “Dong, Qiang, or Gong Xi Fa Cai”! I think we did very well even though in the absence of music and beats! I would like to specially commend her for she took her responsibility as the TME seriously, and she diligently called up members to fill up roles and made sure they came on time and properly briefed! Thank you Joanna!
Then as our Table Topics Master Abu Bakar Sheriff, DTM took control of his session, he got me excited because he swished and flashed ang paos around and told us that there are hidden goodies in the red packets! Some were doubtful until respondents open up the packets and found money and also their Table Topics questions attached to it! Definitely a great touch to the session! Thank you Bakar!
Our Table Topics Evaluator Richard Gontusan, DTM had also given us quite a few useful tips on how to handle table topics questions “Express and you’ll impress; try to impress, and you’ll depress”! Wise words indeed!
We also celebrated the birthday for all born in the month of January! As we were preparing the birthday cake, we realized that the cake knife wasn’t given with the box! So our darling SAA Darvis Chong rushed to get one from the hotel and guess what? He came back with a knife longer than the birthday cake itself!
After the break, we prepared ourselves for 2 talented speakers. Intan Salwana (project CC8 “Toy Story”)decided to give us an unconventional method of visual aids. Instead of using the usual power point slides, she brought along a boxful of toys and a photo of her 2 darling boys! Between her props and humorous speech, she gave us some useful tips on choosing toys wisely for children, and a nice message of learning from a child’s pure spirit of fun.
Her evaluator Yee That Hian, DTM raised some good points for improvement though – even though this is a project on visual aid, props or slides used should be apt so the audiences’ attention is kept on the speaker.
Next, we have Eilvane Chieng (project CC7 “Om Nom Nom”) touches on a subject very dear to all Malaysian. FOOD! More importantly, food or snacks for the weight watchers. Dark chocolate, popcorn, peanut butter… Didn’t know these foods if taken moderately can be healthy and not weight hazardous, right?
Her evaluator Jasmine Leong, ACS, ALS, pointed out that a research topic should be backed up with credible research to render the speech better.
All in all, both speakers were marvelous and improving at a rocket pace! Well done!
This CNY themed meeting we gave out prizes to the best Chinese costume of the night:
Best Dressed Male: Ronald Tang, DTM (with his gold Wong Sifu shirt)
Best Dressed Female: Jasmine Leong, ACS, ALS (with her red Cheongsam with embroidered flowers)
Finally, and I must say this every time, Thank you! Thank you to all the role players, members and guests who had chipped in your efforts, laughter and most importantly, your presence!
Till then, I look forward to seeing everyone again at our next meeting 5 February 2012 – Valentine’s Themed Meeting! So do come and join us and dress in a color that reminds you of love!
Wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai, and have a Happy, Prosperous Chinese New Year!
Yours in Toastmasters,
Jamie Chieng
Jamie Chieng
When I speak, Listen! Listen! Listen!
Happy Chinese New Year from KKTMC gorgeous looking people!
Intan and the dinosaur
Ready!? Take 1,2,3,4,5..andddd it's a wrap!
Another KKTMC Permanent Resident (PR)
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