Meeting on 8 Dec 2009

My record shows that 13 lucky members attended the meeting with one guest Justin, courtesy of Rozine.

Yours truly was 3 minutes late as he has to pick his dear wife from home. She was not working as her eldest daughter was sick and wants to see a doctor. Just wonder how life can be? You cannot plan always - but that does not mean that you do not plan at all; still you do not have to plan but no need to Plan A till Plan Z - leave that to the Kiasu people.

Rozi our TME doing her meiden TME Role did well in preparing for her night and when you over prepare you tend to get too detail and not audience friendly. How to do it perfectly? Good question I don't have the answer. As usual, she likes to be different and bribe us all with gifts for doing a role. Many got chocolates and sweets and naturally sweet words come out from their mouth for her.

Willy was our invocation presenter and Philip conducted the TT Session with Masdiana as the Evaluator. Philip question was very current from Budget to GST, etc and as usual Masdiana very animated in her Evaluation giving examples at the same time suggesting ways to improve the delivery. Best TT Speaker went to Wei Lyn (who disappeared into thin air when the award was presented).

Mano our HM (not headmaster) gave two jokes very clean and very intelligent. Not many can catch them instantly.

After our usual good dinner we had Wong, Jerene and Mano doing their assignments. Wong spoke about his Career Transition telling us how he landed into the insurance industry and never look back. Jerene talks about Men and Women and why they just cannot see eye to eye since Adam days. She spoke very confidently and won the Best Speaker Award. For Mano he turns to space and spoke about the vastness of the Universe. He said we are not alone as there are zeelians of stars in the Universe and to travel by light itself will take us billions years. Mind boggling, perhaps our children in the next century will be able to analyse and appreciate it better.

The evaluators for the three speeches were Leong, Anna and Philip and the winner goes to the lady Anna not the IPP or the Prince.

The other Role Players are Grammarian - Monsieur Tilaka, Aah Counter - Levine Lee and Timer - Justin. They all did wel and Monsieur beats everyone else to be the best Role Player. We must see him more often now.

Mohamad was the GE, (Hokkien say 2nd Auntie) nagging and nagging at all to improve themselves at every meeting no matter what role they are playing.

For the night Willy was extra friendly helping everyone with the food and so he won the Most Friendly Person. I think he derserve it. And for me no honour but maybe someone will give me the Award as the Most Boring Blogger.

Just my observation: People are generally quite reserved in giving their evaluation of another for fear of being evaluated themselves negatively. Let us give positive evaluation to our friends and help them develop. I know it takes time and intelligence too and if we keep sharpening our Evaluation Skills I am sure people who matters will value us as we have helped them; caution though we must always use different strokes for different folks.

Meeting on 24 Nov 2009

I just could not recall much of the meeting on this day perhaps someone who attends will do some justice by adding more info for all to read.

I know Tash could not attend and his speaking slot was given to Mohamad Abdullah. Mohamad's GE role was given to the Area Governor Hazrin. The other speakers were Rozina (the best speaker for the night) and Yuki. Mohamad's Evaluator was Philip and Yuki's Evaluator was Thilo and Rozina's Evaluator was Masdiana (the best Evaluator for the night). Notice how the audience vote?

Table Topics session was great with Willy running it with very profound subject and the winner goes to Anna Hue.

The GE did a good job and got the Best Role Player award and the most friendly person went to Rozi I think. Sorry can't remember.

One thing I can remember is that Mohamad was called to give the closing Ode and he surprised everyone by showing his appreciation to everyone who has helped him during his recent "Idiotic behaviour" like leaving his passport in Subang, his car in Kluang, his luggage in Pulau Sibu and he in Tg Leman. He thanks Willy, Leong and many others for their resourcefulness.

Views of an IPP

Dear Toastmaster Ho Fook Chuan, CC


It is indeed commendable that you have remembered
the club's birthday. It is little things like this that brings
true meaning to our club motto - " For Better Fellowship ".


My Dear Fellow members,

I returned to KL from Kiasuland on Tuesday afternoon and
immediately went to MCOBA-TMC as the GE and the
following evening , i was at ING-TMC again as the GE.

Walking into these "distressed novice" clubs constantly reminds
me to cherish my presidency and membership here in MII-TMC.
I have visited more than 30 clubs during my short membership
here in MII-TMC and i dare say that there is hardly a handful of
clubs here in the Klang Valley that matches our stature and the
prestige that goes with the introduction -
" I am from the Malaysian Insurance Institute Toastmasters Club ".

Like the mighty United States of America that has been brought
down to its knees by its arrogance, we too may suffer the same
fate sometime in the future if we do not constantly remind ourselves
that we must ;
accept our mistakes , learn from our mistakes and along the way
profit from our mistakes.

This process of of self-development is the reason why we are
members of this illustrious club. I am absolutely certain that
the road ahead of us is bright and full of promise.
Lets continue to pave this road with knowledge and we will
continue be together - " For Better Fellowship "


Happy Birthday MII-TMC .


Saya yang masih bertugas,

ipp

Happy 18th Anniversary MII Toastmasters Club

I must confessed that I am now not in the best of spirit but having been inspired by our friend Mr Ho Fook Chuan who remembers our Anniversary Day and wishing all the members I like to record this here too.

ROZI,

CHEER UP !!!!!!!!!
AND YAM SENG!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MII TOASTMASTERS CLUB... LONG LIFE TO THE CLUB TILL ANOTHER 100 YEARS TO COME...SAME GOES TO THE PAPA MOHAMAD AND MAMA MASDIANA FOUNDER OF THE CLUB...

ANOTHER 100 YEARS LONG LIFE FOR THEM TOO...

CHEERS,

MII Toastmasters Club was actually formed much earlier and I could recall as far back as 1985 when I was called to form the club. A circular was sent out to all the staff of the Insurance industry and to my surprise there were over 60 people who came. I did some introduction to Toastmaster and finally we elected En Zainal Che Din as the Protem President of the club.

Though I did come once in awhile to help the meeting were infrequent and after few years it dies off. I was again called to help resucitate the club and with the help of Masdiana I managed to round up a few guys and started the club. We got a lady from Prudential Assurance then to lead the club but the club still could not survive.

My memory has failed me as to how I came back to the club, then I was with Perdana Toastmasters club that help to initiate the formation of the district 51 by organising the first District get together at Hyatt Saujana Hotel. Only Singapore and Indonesia came besides the host Malaysia so we got Gerald Green (Malaysia) as District Governor, a Singaporean as Lt Governor Education and Indonesia as LT Governor Marketing. That was in 1990.

After lots of hardwork, difficult times and good money spent I managed to Charter the club on 19.11.1991. At that time I did not realise the significance of the number, we have the first and the last digits only.

As time goes by we were up and we were down. But the best time was when I got the three Ds to support me to revive the club till what it is today. I like to honour the three Ds and they are Diana, Daniel and Devan. They have stood by me and worked hard to make MII what we have today. I hope the present set of members will work equally hard to bring MII TMC to lead the District if not the world.

The Past Presidents of the Club are:

1. Levine Lee
2. Leong Kok Wah
3. Sherine Lim
4. Jeffrey (left)
5. Larry Toh
6. Philip Wong
7. Mike Teng
8. Anna Hue
9. Kiang Faang Pyng (left but now President of KL Advance)
10. Keats Markandu (left)
11. Daud Creelman (now in Canada)
12. Daniel Liew (left)
13. G Devan (left)
14. K L Yen (left)
15. M S Maniam (left)
16. Masdiana Ooi Abdullah
17. Mohamad Abdullah (two terms)

Meeting on 27 October 2009

We started on time with Tash as SAA calling on the President who as usual ask us to give ourselves a round of applause before she starts the meeting. After a brief announcement President Levine pass the gavel to the TME PP Philip Wong. Since there were not guest except for his wife who happens to be his driver cause he just had an operation but yet come to the meeting to carry out his obligation. A great Toastmaster I must say and a supporting wife who is prepared to venture into the mysterious Toastmasters world.

Yoke Wai did the Invoccation as Willy our Table Topics Master was delayed and Adam being ever ready jump to rescue with Leong taking over the TT Evaluator Role since S Ho is stucked somewhere. The Table Topics Session was impromptu as well and Adam did well. The speakers were Mohamad, Khung, Manian, Dr Gan, Willy and Masdiana. The winner voted by the members present were ..... Masdiana.

The Humour Master for the night is our Life Insurance man 2H Wong he gave a profound joke and only those intelligent people got it whilst the rest I think laughed when they are at home.

Dinner as usual was good with Khung supplying his banana and Willy as always with his water. He even brought Patrick Ooi, our former member Janice brother. And as usual we were late by 10 minutes enjoying the food.

The first speaker called for the night is Adam Fung giving us an impromptu speech and was evaluated by IPP Leong also as SBVPE. Adam spoke about being successful and as far as I can recall he told us that we need, Money, Time, Friends and the most important one is purpose. We all have our purpose in Life and that is to ENJOY but it is more than that; why are we here for?

The next speaker is Lim Ah Hwai and he told us to Fight. Fight for our rights fight for our left and fight for everything. He said by fighting only that we become successful. He was evaluated by Dr Gan.

The last speaker is PP Thilo who was doing his Advanced Manual on reading and as usual he read with lots of animation and action. He was evaluated by Adam. I thought he ought to dress up a little to give the audience some respect when he is reading the story; perhaps as a Samy.

The Evaluators did a great job and Leong also did well I thought by giving example of another speaker which I thought was creative. The Best Speaker went to Lim AH Hwai and the best Evaluator goes to Leong.

The Grammarian reported that only two persons used the word of the day "Resilience' and I guess it is not a common word but I felt that it is a good word to know to align ourselves to it - to show that we are capable of getting up when we are down. His report on the grammar used was a little lengthy as usual wanting the members and audience to keep improving themselves. He even got the audience to repeat the words that have been wrongly pronounced.

Ah Counter report came from Manian and the Timer's report was done by Khung whom I understand do a job without his tool - a stopwatch.

Finally the lecturn goes to the the fiery and feared Masdiana the General Evaluator. She lambasted everyone from lecturn protocol to language, from clapping to walking and from speaking to evaluating. With such fury everyone voted for her to be the best Role Player - dare they choose another?

The closing Ode was carried out by PP Thilo and as usual he loves to advise everyone to take care and drive safely home. However, the President jumps in again and detain us by showing us the Better Speaking Series program organised by the District which I thought did not go well with the audience.

Finally we managed to close the meeting at 9.35 pm and the usual gang stayed up to clean and pack the stuff. We must thank these guys for doing this and Salute to IPP Leong, President Levine, Tash, and some others as I had to leave home....sorry guys.

Oh yes, my record show that we have 17 members and 2 guests present for the meeting. We miss our bubbly VPE who is now cuddling her Grandson in Dublin, Ireland and of course people like Mike Teng, Anna Hue, Mano, Chin, Patrick, Joyce, and especially Sherine.

While Dr. Gan and my big sis, Diana are still caught up with the issue of national unity and the 'hantu spirit' of 1Malaysia, here I am in Dublin happy and proud to be by the side of my grandson whose father is an Irish decendent. If this 1Malaysia spirit is forever going to be an issue, just think what it's going to be like if my Mat Salleh grandson decides to live in Malaysia.


An email from Mr. M asking me whose turn to update the MII blog has got me worked up. Well, in the present freezing condition where the VPE is holidaying, she is unable to contribute much to MII. With a frozen brain, her hands are tied up playing masak-masak for her family in the cold Dublin kitchen. Talk about the freezing cold weather, even her stools are hard and cold everytime she wants to poo-poo.

Rozi and her Grandson in Dublin recently.




Anyway, if the VPE is forced to update the blog, the only recollection she has at the moment of the MII toastmasters meetings were that of the Madam President's favourite phrase - 'Lets give ourselves a round of applause' and then of course the IPP's common saying 'fed up betul'. This could only mean he is genuinely fed up with everything and anything that comes under his nose. Could this be the cause of his sinus? Over in Dublin, my grandson's favourite phrase is ''Whaz's Dat!!!

Cold, cold hugs to all!

Recollection 091013

Aidilfitri about to end and another celebration is fast approaching, the Deepavali or Diwali. As usual, very boring the meeting went well, am happy we had everyone in the meeting schedule coming to carry out their obligations.

This time Jerene did her maiden role as TME and as a confident person she did well. Rozi has mentioned some of the things that has happened during the meeting and I just like to highlight that Masdiana did the Closing Ode after the President did her closing and later IPP did the final by putting the meeting to an end but yet we ended on time.


This meeting we saw three birthday child (if we add their ages all together we can have over a century)and from the picture the cameram S Ho caught all three in the act. Masdiana the oldest on 6th Oct, Lyn on 23rd Oct and Mohamad the youngest of them all on 29th Oct.

The GE gave a good report card and that is not what we want. We need our own members who love to bash us so that we can be better.

All in all we were happy except that we miss Uncle Khung bananas.

Meeting on 13 Oct 2009

Fellow Members,

I would like to be the first to wish all my fellow friends, irrespective of their religion or race, Happy Deepavali.

On a personal note and in retrospect, I would like to share my thoughts after last night's meeting. It's invigorating to witness 5 highly respectable senior members coming in full force to lend their undying support to the Club. As a new member who has been with the club barely 7 months, I could detect the strong sense of belonging and the pride and joy the senior members have for the Club. Their genuine commitment was proven with their regular attendance and their unrelenting participation in the role plays. Believe me you, these continuous display of support will certainly go a long way in building a strong bondship among the old and new members.

As you all know, I have this phobia of speaking and expressing myself under the scrutiny of others. I have always had the thought that it is better to shut my mouth and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubts! It was really heart warming and encouraging to have my 3 big sisters couching and giving me tips on how to overcome my phobia during dinner last night. With that I will be taking leave from MII toastmasters for a while and I hope when I return I will be the toastmaster with a refreshed mind, fully energised to assist the Madam President and the Bossy IPP (aka Slave Driver) with the energy zapping tasks of coordinating and organising the Club meetings.


Warm hugs to those who are in need of hugs,

Message from IPP Leong Kok Wah

My dear fellow members,

Green Green Grass of Home was a song made popular
by the evergreen Tom Jones in the 60's. Its a song about
the wonderful feeling of homecoming.

Too often we always say that the grass is greener on the
other side of the fence. But this evening , for those who
attended the " joint meeting " with WIM, we definitely walked
away with our heads held high. No, in fact very High.
The final score was MII - 17 members , WIM - 4 members.
By the time , the meeting ended, WIM were reduced to being
just mere guests in our club and not a joint meeting as was
stated in the meeting schedule.

We have come a long way since we were founded in 1985.
The founders, - DTM Mohamad Abdullah and Masdiana had
to labour on when we were down to our last 6 members during
the early years. Those were the difficult days.
Even during my time as Acting president, we went below charter
strength ( below 20 members ) at the half-way renewals.

Tonight, the 4 Past Presidents who attended the meeting must
have beamed with pride that the MII-TMC have put those
dark days behind us. Let us not forget the legacy that have been
left behind by the Past Presidents, for history punishes those
who choose to ignore the hard lessons learned along the way.
Consider the LGM's plea to all club presidents this morning -
only 58% of the clubs in District 51 Peninsular have renewed their
membership to TI USA before the deadline 30th Sep.

There will inevitably be hiccups along the way especially on our
membership ( which Madam President will address the club
during the next meeting ) but as long as the members remain focused
on fellowship, the EXCO remain focused on teamwork and the
Past Presidents remain focused on guiding the club, the future will
remain brightly lit here at MII-TMC.

Let us continue building on the strong foundations here at MII-TMC.
We have every reason to stand proud tonight and we will continue
to record achievements this term.

Good night and till we meet again on the 13th Oct.

ipp.

( btw, our capable VPE has informed me that the speech slots
for our 13th Oct meeting are full already )