MII TOASTMASTERS

DIVISION G International Speech & Table Topics Contest 2011

2011-03-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Fellow Toastmasters & Friends!

MII Toastmasters Club will be hosting the DIVISION G Speech Contest 2011 tomorrow Evening at the Auditorium, Level 4, at the Malaysian Insurance Institute.

There will be an entourage of amazing speakers from the Toastmasters Clubs of Division G! They will be competing to be the Division's Best and compete on the next level.

Don't miss this opportunity to see the very best! Details are as mentioned on the Right hand side tab. ===>

So come and join us! It'll be a night to remember!

Meeting Report: Evaluate to Motivate - Ode from Mdm President

2011-03-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Dear MII Toastmasters et honored readers, May I post the proceedings of the Meeting in the words of our beloved President Toastmaster Goh Wei Lyn.

"Dear Justin (a.k.a VPPR), You are right....with the word exciting.

It was a special meeting a the penthouse last night.

And Dear all to add to the above

An interesting table topics session led by Dr Gan and Adam Fung. A stage performance by Masdiana.

You also missed the great chance to evaluate and observe the practice speech 'COME WALK WITH ME' by Leong.

A special thanks to our invited guest DTM Kiang who came specially for the night and was the Lead Evaluator and GE for the night.
Then followed by an interesting Grammarian report by Wong, a hilarious reminder to all by Peter of our Ah's, our many ehms & etc, a wonderful report by the minutes and the seconds from our Time Keeper Rozina and a well led session by our Toastmaster Of the Evening, Justin Ong.
To those who missed out the wonderful night.....The decision has been made last night.

We also conducted our Election of Club officers, led by our President Goh Wei Lyn. After the routine introduction she called on our esteemed Nominating Committee member Mohamad Abdullah as appointed by our illustrious IPP Levine Lee announced the nomination of our club Exco for the year 2011/2012.
It is an honor to announce the new Executive Officers for 2011/2012 term with no challenge from the floor.

President; Dr Gan Eng Meng
Vice President of Education; Justin Ong
Vice President of Membership; Tasvinderjit
Vice President of PR; Mohd Fazlan
Secretary; Mas Marlena
Treasurer; Rozina Harun
SAA; Ho Fook Chuan

Secretary, Treasurer, President, VPE, VPPR and VPM

Before this term ends, please pay your dues to Leong as we have a dead line to submit to Toastmasters International before the 30th of this month.

Your early payable will be greatly appreciated.

Finally DO REMEMBER THE BIG BIG DAY 30thMarch2011........come and learn and support our Champion Speakers at the Division Level chaired by a member of MII Toastmasters Jerene Yap at our home ground at 7pm sharp. "

Meeting Report: Victorious Celebrations! by Lena

2011-03-20T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone of MII Toastmasters!

Lena here again!

Well, Today I’m your blog writer again due to our VPPR Justin having to work on the upcoming meeting with the AV system, so I’m filling in for him as of today!

The meeting on the 8^th of March was themed victorious winnings OBVIOUSLY because our members Diana CTM, CL won CHAMPION for the table topics contest, and Leong CC, CL on the 1^st of March!

Btw, it was also Mr Samyvellu’s birthday I believe. So don’t drink and drive yah!

Anyway, ON TO THE MEETING!

It started with VPPR Justin standing in for Madam President Wei lyn, by getting the guests and members to introduce themselves.

There were 3 guests that night

Yule from Germany! A friend of CC,CL Jerene

Hanny, Guest of ACB Adam fung

And Suzie, Guest of TM Wong hang hiang

It started at 7:10pm, and SURPRISE! I Mas Marlena Mohamad was the Toastmaster of the evening with the theme above. It was really scary being TME for the first time but thanks to all the supporting members I pulled through!!

Anyway~~

I started with the history of Toastmasters international and also MII Toastmasters club for the sake of the guests and then it went straight on to the Invocation Presentation by our VPPR/TM Justin talking about the meaning of success!!

Then later on we had a nutritious style of table topics and using FRUITS for topics!!

First of was our CHAMPION Speaking on mangoes

Second, ACB Adam Fung on tomatoes

Third, TM, Fazlan with apples

Then, CC CL, Philip on grapefruits

After that, was Mahathir on bananas

Then, Madam president on the colours of lime

And lastly, DTM Mohamad on a plum.

Later we had a gentle evaluation from our lovely Ms Rozina Harun who gave a brief and gentle evaluation of all the speakers. We then had the humourous session by CC CL, Philip wong and of course went to the “penthouse” for our dinner which is generously sponsored by our NEW CC Lim ah wai!!!

After the dinner we proceeded to the assigned speeches, and first to go was CC Lim, with speech title “Improve continuously” which he talked about his journey here in MII Toastmasters. Which was evaluated by CC CL Philip Wong.

Later we had ACB Adam with his inspiring speech on taking charge of your life! A beautiful presentation, with beautiful pictures to illustrate his speech. Which was evaluated by CTM CL Masdiana.

We later had CC CL Jerene with her interesting “TV” interview debut with All-star guest host CTM,CL Masdiana Ooi and evaluated by DTM Mohamad.

Time keeper: TM Fazlan

Grammarian: CC Ho Fook Chuan

Ah counter: TM Justin Ong

Later on our dear Dr Gan gave the general evaluation for the night and President announced the winners and presented the prizes that the winners won on the area contest.

Finally we had CTM CL Diana on the past president speech and ended the meeting for the night.

Double Happiness Happiness, Congratulations Congratulations!

2011-03-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

It was about 941pm yesterday! That MII(my) fellow toastmaster Fazlan, "Whatsapp!ed" me with the legendary;

"MASDIANA WON!"....in small caps. I still recall my feelings of relief and happiness upon hearing the good news. 110 minutes after I flushed and put down the seat back to its original place, I got wind of a second great news! What joy! Micheal Leong Kok Wah won the 1st runner up for the Best Speech Contest!

And then it hit me. How great it fells being on the winning team! It meant being on the side of prestige, honor, and exclusive bragging rights! =)

Congratulations Guys! You are our Champions!...2011. You've given us the inspiration to do more than meets the eye!

Join us in celebrating their Flawless Victories at our next Meeting the 8th of March 2011!

I can sense a theme AND a word of the day coming up! What could it be? Any takers?

This is Trius Blades signing off!
e-VPPR 2010/11

Prelude Meeting to the Double Happiness Happiness!

2011-03-01T19:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Toastmasters,

My humble Gratitude to all who braved storms and phalanxes of chariots to come to the meeting last Tuesday.

There is an old Malay saying "Bagaikan Ribuan Sperma ke Ovum yang Suci" Maksudnya, when we work hard battling again and again toilet bowls and rubber bands, sooner or later, if we do not give up, we will reach the light at the end of the tunnel. Paradise and a new level to improve upon. And I believe that is what Toastmasters is all about, facilitating growth not only internally, but but networks as well.

The 22nd of February 2011 marks Double Happiness Day. A Day of which we should CHERISH, Just like any other. We Have 2 sets of 2s and a double 1. And if we add 2+2+2+2+0+1+1 we get a perfect 10! That's just an observation.

This meeting wasn't just any other meeting. Not only did it facilitate a Toastmaster's meeting just like any other, it was tailored to facilitate the practice of our upcoming candidates for the Area Contest for both Table Topic speech and the Prepared Speech.

Jerene started the meeting just as everyone excitedly settled down and gracefully passed the floor to our Acting President Gan Eng Meng, CC CL to do the president's speech. Our Toastmaster of the Evening cum Birthday Boy Ho Fook Chuan, TM came on stage to address us.

The Table Topics session for this evening was rather special. It was a reverse TTS where audience were to shoot topics at one speaker. If you did not attend this session, you would have missed the chance of getting the insides of our Area Contest represent, Masdiana Ooi ACG CL! She was given 5 topics to speak on from the floor and Mohamad Abdullah, DTM got 2 topics. Like Qigong masters they weaved their way through the topics like experts. Dr.Gan has taught them well!

There after, Thilohthaman AGC CL, gave an excellent comment on their performance.

Then we braked for dinner, where we had a good time feasting and having our Birthday Boy "service" his birthday cake's "Candles". One would not have imagine Ho's ability to blow so many candles at one session!

The prepared speech session was performed by two speakers. Lim Ah Hwai, TM did his 9th Speech titled "the Grass is greener on the other side". And Leong Kok Wah, CC CL practiced his "fire walking" for the Area Contest Speech titled "Challenge the Impossible.

Lim was evaluated by Dr.Gan, but As Area represent, Leong got it "thorough" by an array of Toastmasters best. having said that, I believe the both of them went home with a great experience.

The Roleplayers for the evening were
GE: Ms. Chia Yee Meng, TM
Grammarian: Masmarlena, TM
Ah Counter: Wong Hang Hiang, TM
Timer: Rozina Harun, TM

Thank you for GEing us Ms. Chia, hope you have a fulfilling journey ahead as you progress in your journey as CL. Congratulations.

The meeting was brought to a conclusion by our President, Ms. Goh Wei Lyn,TM and former President, Anna Hue, ACG, CL.

See you next Meeting on the 8th of March 2011!

Gong Xi Fa Chai! Fatt Fatt Fatt Meeting =)

2011-02-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

Fellow Toastmasters,

Gong Xi Fa Choi! Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit 2011!

And to those who are Hokkien, Happy Pai nien! I am sure most of you would probably have had a hard time sleeping last night. That is because on the 9th Day of Chinese New Year, Chinese community of the Hokkien Clan (Including myself) celebrate our "Chinese New Year"! So if you know any hokkien friends that you work with..wish them.... by email or sms cause they probably would have taken a day off. Haha that is just an Easter Egg for you =)

Thank you all for coming and participating on our very special meeting which was held on the Fatt(8) of February 2011. We had a cozy yet prosperous meeting I would say. Which was boldy the Word of the evening. =)

The meeting started off as Wong Han Hiang, TM brought the meeting to order and passed on the floor to our beloved president, Goh Wei Lyn, TM. Her majesty greeted the meeting with warm greetings and explained a little on the spirit of Chinese New Year.

It is not everyday that you find the Toastmaster of the evening dress up as a bunny-funny-guy for you for the entire evening. And I thought Adam Fung, ACB did an excellent job keeping it in the mood =).

Hopping on delightfully, The Table Topics session commanded by the formidable Fazlan, TM used the keychain approach to churn out creative stories from the audience, and to complement him, Levine Lee, CC-CL did an amazing evaluation on the five speakers. Congratulations on all the speakers who came up to speak.

Hopping past the humor session of which we figured out the usage of rabbit tattoos on the scalp and multitasking while driving, the honorable Playboy of the evening took us to the Maxim of the evening which was the "Dinner at the Penthouse"..Did I say Playboy? I meant Toastmaster of the Evening.(I love Innuendos) =)

We had three assignment speeches today and all amazing in their unique ways!

We first had Lim Ah Hwai, TM with his adaptations of the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare". He was evaluated by Masdiana Ooi Abdullah, CTM-CL.

Next was a 3 minute "Just In News" by Reporter Jerene Yap, CC. And spoke on events relating to cherishing today in her speech "Tomorrow may never come". She was evaluated by Mohamad Abdullah, DTM.

The Highlight of the evening however was an amazing Debut by the lovely Masmarlena, TM who gave a summary of her life to date with projects 1-6 embued in it. As PP.Leong might have said "No longer a Ass.ignment Speech V." Congratulations Marlena, Queen Vi.ctoria would have been proud =). And She was evaluated by her mentor Gan Eng Meng, CC-CL.

After the 3 climatically amazing speeches, the Tall-Dark-and most Chinese dressed Toastmaster of the Evening, Robert Ram, ACS-ALB of IEM Toastmasters took over the session as General Evaluator. Thank you for your kind and honest comments especially on the website. =)

Roleplayers of the Evening were;

Grammarian: Shizal Ramli, TM
Ah Counter: Anna Hue, ACG-CL
TimeKeeper: Justin Ong, TM

Award Winners were:
Best Table Topics Speaker & Evaluator : Gan Eng Meng, CC CL

Best Assignment Speaker: MasMarlena, TM

Most Friendly Person: Adam Fun.g, ACB =)

Meeting ended with a Speech by the President Goh Wei Lyn, TM and the Past President Mohamad Abdullah, DTM.

The Next meeting Will be on the 22nd of February 2011, hope to see you there =)

Oh and... Happy Valentine's Day! =)

Trius Blades Out!

Making MII goreng out of the Division level Championships! =D

2010-09-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I'd like to thank Marlena for standing in for me. Job well done!

Dear Toastmasters...."Domo!" I have returned from the Land of the Rising Sun....only to find....That we are Division G & Area G Champions!! This is amazing!

Kudos to Past President Anna Hue, ACG, CL, ECC (Evaluation Contest Champion) for Bringing us to the District Level! You make us Proud! Below are some of the moments last Saturday during the Division Level Championships where according to PP Leong, our legendary ECC Ann Hue overwhelmed 7 men! A feat accomplished only by a gifted few.

Special thanks also to the MII Cheermasters who came and supported our Champion! I am sure she is grateful to have such a huge support!

The Leaders' board for the Division Contest are as follows:-

Humorous Speech Contest

Champion : Tan Siok Looi (Speecom TMC)

1st runner up : Mohd Hadzrin Shah (UEM Academy TMC)

2nd runner up : Shane Lim (AFC TMC)

Evaluation Contest

Champion : Anna Hue (MII TMC)

1st runner up : Jack Lim (AFC TMC)

2nd runner up : Jason Moi (Help TMC)

Congratulations to all who participated. I am sure it was a really close battle!

Well to the rest of the MII Toastmasters, see you this Tuesday....To Celebrations!

Trius Blades out!

Toastmaster’s blog for August 24th 2010

2010-08-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hola everyone, this Lena your temp girl from SJ covering up for the Blades whilst he is enjoying himself in Japan.

It has been yet another great meeting on the 24th August 2010 with loads of guests and thanks to PP Thilothaman for bringing in his colleagues from OCBC (only can borrow coins). They are Ms Felicia, Mr KC, Mr John and MR Eu Jin. I hope I have spelled all your names correctly.

Thank you Mr Willy Tan also for bringing Ms Molly who is a 'vocal' teacher. Thank you Mr Ho for bringing Mehdi and lastly Mr Leong Kok Wah for inviting Encik Mazrul from MII and me for inviting myself to come.

Thank you again.

The meeting started wonderfully punctual thanks to Mr Wong Hung Hiang ASAA for the evening. Madam President gave her opening speech about her past when she first entered Toastmasters; like how her hands would shake uncontrollably and shiver from nervousness. Then she gave the guests a chance to give an introduction of themselves and after that handed the floor to Mr Mohamad Abdullah the TME.

He enlightened us with the history of Toastmasters International, District 51 and our Club with the struggles and the pain that this club has gone through to get where we are today.

Mr Tash our invocation presenter gave a short but meaningful quotation which I hope he can share with us in writing.

We later had a buka puasa which got the guests excited and talking about it for the entire night. Thanks you IPP Levine for the glorious dinner. Oh yes, thanks also to Puan Rozi, Ms Anna, En Shizal for the Buka Puasa delicacy, as usual Mr Willy for the water.

The AGM then started with the President asking IPP Levine to chair the meeting and it went smoothly except for some points of order which was later smoothen.

Later, Mr Fazlan gave his oh so exciting ice breaker “My name is Lan”. He was so bold to bare his past for us to hear. Congratulations Lan! We then proceeded with an impeccable speech by our Champion Humorist Mr Leong.

The evaluation was opened to the floor with members “hantam-ing” him with all they've got; for the sake of victory to the club I suppose. 
The Evaluation started with PP Anna and followed by PP Thilo, PP Masdiana and Mr Wong Chen. The evaluation bit was so intriguing that we even exceeded the time limit with Mr Thilo giving hand signs for members to stop but everyone was just too indulged into evaluating Mr Leong.

We still got our second auntie Dr Gan (GE) to do the General Evaluation. Whilst she pat some she also whack some all in the name of Toastmaster. Our Ms Jerene the Grandma (Gramma rian) was as usual very candid gave good report on the language used, even Lan (our Ice Breaker) was not spared. Mr Willy as usual a very good listener even gave Ms Jerene the Gold Award for the highest Aahs,etc.

The day ended with feedback from the guests and most of them were mostly complimenting on the food and promised to come back and taste more of our proper meeting.

Mr Belushi aka PP Philip Wong closed the meeting with some words of wisdom and advise.

That’s all folks :) hope you enjoy this entry.

Mas Marlena

'Strive for the Stars' Meeting 10th August 2010

2010-08-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

When one wishes upon a Star,
Makes no difference where you are,
Anything your heart desires,
will come to you.

Once again an amazing Meeting at the MII Toastmasters Club! This evening, the theme of the Evening was "Strive for the Stars" and the Word of the evening was "Excellent". Tonight the Toastmaster of the evening was Toastmaster Justin Ong who conducted the meeting for his very first time. Good Job!

Invocation Presenter was by ACG, CL PP Anne Hue who also doubled up as the General Evaluator.

The Table Topics Master was conducted by Lena who conducted it with great topics on parents & children relationships.

Congratulations to the volunteers

1) IPPP Leong Kok Wah,
2) PP Philip Wong,
3) CC Jerene Yap,
4) CC Willy Tan,
5) Guest Elaine,
and 6) Guest Rinoa.

Congratulations at attempting the Table topics! You all did really well!

Before the meeting broke for dinner, the Madam President TM, Goh Wei Lyn inducted TM, Mohd Fazlan into the MII Toastmasters Club. Congratulations Mohd Fazlan, you're one step closer to being a fantastic speaker.

Scheduled were 3 speeches.

1) TM, Shizal Ramli did his 3rd speech of the CC manual on "Principles to winning Chess games". A really informative speech which benefited many fellow chess players in the meeting.

2) CC, CL, Dr. Gan Eng Meng did her 2nd speech of the Advance Manual titled "Time to unwind". A visually enriching speech of the importance of relaxing and avoiding stress.

3) Last but certainly no the least ACB, Adam Fung did a general speech titled "DNA of Success". Really great speech with audience participation on the core ingredients of success.

Respective evaluators were

1) CC, Jerene Yap,

2) CC, CL Philip Wong

3) CC, CL Leong Kok Wah.

Congratulations to all!

The other role players of the evening were

1) Grammarian: Willy Tan, CC
2) Ah Counter: Mohamad Abdullah, DTM
3) Timer & ASAA: Mohd Fazlan, TM
4) General Evaluator: Anna Hue, ACG, CL

Awards that were presented for the night were

Best Table Topic Speaker: Guest, Elaine

Best Prepared Speaker: Adam Fung, ACB

Best Evaluator: Leong Kok Wah, CC, CL

Most Friendliest Person: Justin Ong, TM

Best Role Player - PP Anna Hue, ACG,CL

The Meeting was adjourned by Madam President Goh Wei Lyn, TM and Immediate Past President Levine Lee, CC ,CL closed the meeting with an inspiring message.

Wow it was certainly a very educational yet an enjoyable meeting. I sure did learn alot.

Be sure not to miss the next meeting on the 24th of August 2010 when the club will hold its 19th AGM, Same time, Same place!!

This is Trius Blades Signing off as the MIIT e-VPPR! You have a great week!

MII Toastmasters Humorous and Evaluation Contests 2010

2010-08-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

Howdy-ho Guys!

Great to be read again =) On the 27th of July 2010, we the MII Toastmasters Club held our Humorous and Evaluation Contest. The Humorous contest is where the funniest of Toastmasters compete in a Humor Battle to be the best & win the crowd's reaction... to laugh. The Evaluation Contest instead focused more on listening and deduction skills on evaluating a test speaker invited as an example.

There were four contestants for the Humor Contest
1) Mr. Leong Kok Wah who spoke with humor on corruption.
2) Mr. Justin Ong who spoke on living on overseas and not coming back.
3) Mr. S. Mano who joked about an experience with a headstrong subordinate of his, and
4) Mr. Mohamad Abdullah who's play of words lingered between lead the sheep, leadership and lick the...

After dinner, the Evaluation Contest commenced.

The contestants were

1) Mr.Leong Kok Wah,
2) Mr. Mohamad Abdullah,
3) Mr. Philip Wong,
4) Mr. Justin Ong,
5) Ms. Anna Hue,
6) Dr Gan,
7) Mr. Wong Chen.

The Contest speaker of the night was Mr. Vincent Chow who gave a speech with the title, 'If I were a Girl'. Most likely an adaptation from the original Beyonce Song "If I were a Boy". Vincent gave a remarkable performance of which the 7 contestants each took their turn to evaluate him.

The winners were

Humorous Speech Contest
=============

1) Mr. Leong Kok Wah

2) Mr. Mohamad Abdullah

3) Mr. S. Mano

Evaluation Contest
=============

1) Mrs. Anna Hue

2) Mr. Mohamad Abdullah

3) Dr. Gan Eng Meng

Congratulations to the winners!! And also A Big Congratulations to all the participants who participated during the contests. It takes great courage to compete let alone speak in front of a large audience. You all did really well!

Also a very special thanks to ALL the Role players who made ALL of this Happen.

Credits to...

Madam President cum Organising Chair: Goh Wei Lyn
Humorous Contest Chair: Miss Jerene Yap
Evaluation Contest Chair: Mr. Wong Hang Hiang

SAA: Mohd Fazlan

ASAA: Ho Fook Chuan

2nd ASAA: Mas Marlena

Time Keeper: Tiffany Ng
Assistant TimeKeeper: Lim Ah Hwai

Ballot Counter 1: Eugene Lau

Ballot Counter 2: Ms. Siow Fei Yau

TestSpeaker: Mr. Winson Chow

Honorable Contest Judges:
1) Chief Judge, ACG Lee Wei Seong
2) Judge CC, Teoh Chun Ming,

3) Judge CC, Marcus Loi
4) Judge ACS ALB, Nancy Liew
5) Judge ACB, Eu Choi San
6) Judge, Ginger

Your services were very much appreciated =D

After the certificate and prize giving session, announcements were made to the floor.

Area W4 is having their Humorous and Evaluation Contests on the 21st of August, 1-3pm @ the MIA Resource Center.
Ernst & Young Toastmaster's Club is having theirs on the 1st of September 2010.
& The Final announcement was for a call for unused medicines at home. Anyone who has unfinished medicine kept in your closets please donate them to our MII Toastmasters Charity Rep. Masdiana. Your drugs will be tested for usability and dispensed in rural areas where medicine is scarce but required.

And that wraps it up. The next meeting shall be on the 10th of August 2010. Hope to see you there!

Same time, Same place! New Theme!

This is Trius Blades, your 2010 e-VPPR signing off!

MII Toastmasters INSTALLATION NITE 13th July 2010

2010-07-19T09:06:00.001-07:00

Good Evening extinguished readers, Welcome back to another exciting blog entry!

This week, the MII Toastmasters club successfully Installed the 19th Executive Committee during their 19th Installation night held last Tuesday on the 13th of July 2010. (For those heading to the 3D+1 box office to buy your tickets for Jack Neo's New movie "Money not enough: 4D" the number to buy is 1913 and 7201)
... That's just a joke, I tell it every time.

The theme for the Installation night was Black & White. And as an incentive, The Best Dressed of the evening would be given a prize as well (even if he or she did not come up to flaunt it).

Guests from as far as the Allianz Toast Masters club consisting of their President, Mr. Charles and his Exco members, Winnie and Azlina travelled down to attend our Installation of which we are truly grateful. Amongst the other guests of honor who graced our session with their presence was Past President Larry Toh and the new Area Governor Jane Wu. Welcome.

The session started off at 7.15 on time as our ASAA TM Ho enthusiastically wield the club gavel to call the meeting into session. The TTE was none other than DTM Mohammad Abdullah who conducted his role flawlessly. Also a reminder to our members that we are no longer under area W but we have been placed in G2 for 'Graciously Great!'

The Table Topic Session was conducted by CC S.Manogaran who cheekily coaxed the speakers into revealing juicy opinions of which everyone enjoyed. The speakers who volunteered did really well...at handling the topic.

Thank you Patrick for his take on single mothers,
Charles on egoism and self-centeredness,
Lim who was also our humor master with his opinion and experience in infidelity.
Masdiana on Mother in Laws,
Willy on the women behind fate of mankind,
Justin's opinion on expressing love to our partners,
Fazlan on Mutual respect,
& Maslena's POV on courting life.

IIPP Leong rounded up the session by giving encouraging remarks which focused on the strong points of each speaker.

The Laugh however had not yet begun, and TM Lim Ah Hwai fulfilled that void with his trademark Ah Beng jokes. Lim, We look forward to having Ah Lian join in the second season.

As a special treat, AASA Ho then called the meeting to a pause for a 30 minute dinner break. MII Toastmasters is well known for their food, and this session was no less. It is tradition that we celebrate the birthday Toasters of the month, and this month was none other than our beloved TM, Rozina Harun.

The Installation Ceremony was next in the agenda, and Immediate Past President CC,CL "Lovingly" Levine Lee successfully conducted her last action as the President by discharging her executive committee and appointing TM Goh Wei Lyn as our new President of the club for 2010/2011.

Our Current president then, picked up her gavel and ushered in a new line of executive committees.

Vice President of Education, CC CL Dr Gan
Vice President of Membership, TM Tash
Vice President of Public Relations, TM Justin
Secretary, TM Shizal
Treasurer, TM Wong
Sergeant-at-arms, TM Fazlan

A BIG Congratulations to all!

The General Evaluator our Area Governor Jane Wu then took the floor and gave her evaluation of the meeting.
Big thank you to the role-players Grammarian Wong Chen, Ah Counter Fei Yau, and Timer Rozina for their reports.

The Most Friendly person of the day was Gavel wielding ASAA Mr.Ho!

Best Table Topic Speaker went to Masdiana for her opinion on Mother in Laws.

Best Role-player went to DTM Mohammad for his role as the TTE.

Last but not least Best Dressed for the evening went to TM Justin Ong.

Finally, special thanks to the Past Presidents Larry Toh and Leong Kok Wah, and electronically by Philip for giving their closing message to the meeting.

Meeting was adjourned by our new President Goh Wei Lyn.

This is Trius Blades(AKA Justin Ong) your 2010 e-VPPR signing off...

You have a great week ahead!

Meeting 27 April 2010

2010-05-01T00:27:00.000-07:00

Thank you for reading this blog. Much appreciate it and I would be happier if you let me have your feedback on the blog or email me directly .

We had 20 people attending the last meeting and 25% of them are guests and thanks to Jerene who brought in Susan and Tan, directly and with assistance from IPP David and Wai Ling from MUI and a visiting TM from Shaklee Family Vincent Soon. As for our members they all played a role and I would record their names accordingly.

President Levine came and due to the massive traffic which cause PP Anna, GE+EVP Rozina,some guests and yours truly were late and could not hear what our President had said.

HH Wong was the TME for the first time and am glad he did prepare himself well for the role. TTM was Masdiana also well prepared with Quotations for the speakers to agree or not to agree. The speakers were: Leong, Willy, Philip, Anna, Jerene and Mohamad. The vote goes to Mohamad on the topic, "Turn your scars to stars." The TTE was Monsiuer.

Following this we had an induction of Wong Chen our new member and I must congratulate our IPP for the way he conducted the session, very professional - maybe we make him the permanent inductor.

Picture of Wong Chen being inducted by President Levine.

Dinner was great but considering there are 20 mouths to feed the food seemed just enough and no extra helping for the hungry ghosts.

We have a full house of Project speakers starting with an Icebreaker well crafted by Wong Chen. In a short time of 6 minutes he bares himself as a 41 year old lawyer and at the same time help the family business, born in Kelantan, studied in Singapore and UK and now work in KL, a Toaist, sbna and a member of PKR - watch this guy he will be going places. He has a well chosen Evaluator PP Anna who seemed has no recommendation for him except that don't be too humble and apologise; just speak.

The next speaker was called Justice Ong aka Justin Ong. This is his 2nd Project speech and he shared with us on Photography something that he is passionate about. Now I know that "Photo" is light and "Graphy" is draw. He told us about aperture, focus, etc. His Evaluator was Willy.

After Photography we got motivated by Jerene when she advices us to package ourselves well otherwise don't leave the house. She feels that every one judges you by your look first and that is why nice looking products got sold fairly quickly. Her Evaluator is PP Philip.

Our last speaker is Mohamad who wants to commit suicide by doing a project on "Addressing the Opposition" and asking the audience to give the government a chance. In this project he is requested to conduct a Q&A session for 2 minutes but the crowd was so eager to fire him that he has to be stopped at 6 minutes. His evaluator was Dr Gan who correctly said that Mohamad's arguments are not strong enough, not convincing enough and not persusive enough. Mohamad needs to work harder if he believes in what he is saying.

After all these speeches GE Rozina took control and we all listened to Vincent Soon on the language used, Wei Lyn on the Aahs, Willy on the time after the respective Speech Evaluators. GE Rozi in her usual self, soft and sweet but firm gave her views about the meeting and profusely apologise for coming in late and strongly recommend that future GE cannot be late.

The Winners for the evening were:
1. Best Table Topics Speaker - Mohamad Abdullah
2. Best Project Speech - Wong Chen
3. Best Project Speech Evaluator - Dr Gan Eng Meng
4. Best Role Player - Goh Wei Lyn
5. Most Friend Person -

Picture of Dr Gan receiving the Best Evaluator Award from President Levine.

Finally, the Past President Philip takes over and closes the meeting.

District 51 Area W2 2010 Contests

2010-03-25T02:38:00.000-07:00

MII Toastmasters Club can be proud to have won 50% of the Awards for the Area Contest, from the words of our IPP. As in all contests there will be winners and there will be losers. Some are happy to win and still there are some who are happy to lose. The Contests was professionally conducted by OC DTM Renganathan cum CC for International and Janice for TT.

The Winners for the International went to Johan Shah Aman Shah, Mohamad Abdullah (MII) and Leong Kok Wah (MII). As for the Table Topics the winners are Tuck Yew, Roger (Speecom) and Cherylyn Goh Wei Lin (MII).

MII was well supported with 9 members present. See them below.

Great photography by Stanley Ho. Our Club Champions from left Cherylyn Goh Wei Lyn 3rd for Table Topics, IPP Leong Kok Wah 3rd for International and Mohamad for 2nd in the International.

From left: PP Philip Wong, Mohamad, Jerene Yap, Wei Lyn, Rozina Harun, Leong Kok Wah, Shizal, Stanley Ho and Levine (hiding behind IPP)

The three stooges waiting to be called.

The Inspirator of them all. Guess who?

The Towkay

The 4D guy

Our photographer Mr Stanley Ho Fook Chuan, without him this cannot happen. Am still waiting for his vdo shots.

Meeting on 9th March 2010

2010-03-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

Thank you for following this blog. I truly appreciate it.

This meeting with a theme "Lets March together" coupled with the word of the day "Celebrate" marks another milestone in MII history. We have IPP Leong Kok Wah practising his contest speech, the EVP Rozina Harun as acting President inducted a new member Justin Ong and our newly inducted member doing his Ice Breaker.

Acting President Rozina Harun confidently took the role and announced that our meeting on 23rd March 2010 has been cancelled as it coincide with the Area W2 Contest where our club will be taking part. She announced that IPP Leong Kok Wah and Goh Wei Lyn for Table Topics and IPP Leong Kok and Mohamad Abdullah for the International Speech Contest.

The Toastmaster of the Evening was Willy Tan and he conducted the meeting well. Induction was done by HH Wong and Chung Yoke Wai lead the Table Topics Session. Speakers for the session were not short as there are far too many volunteers. Monsieur, HH Wong, Wong chen, Philip Wong, Shizal and Dr Gan took part in the session and Wong Chen our guest took the honour of being the best TT Speaker.

Just before we break for dinner Ag President inducted Justin. It was a little confusion on the part of the ASAA Monsiuer who brought out another person who is a guest of LKW and that brought the house down with laughter. To err is human.

Dinner as usual but this time we had IPP Leong Kok Wah, Goh Wei Lyn and Jerene Yap standing at the head table for us to sing them the birthday song.

Speeches made for the evening were from IPP Leong on 'The Politics of Perception', Jerene on 'Plastic Money' and Justin on 'Just an Icebreaker'. Their evaluators were Masdiana, Anna for Leong, Goh Wei Lyn for Jerene and Dr Gan for Justin.

The General Evaluator was Adam Fung, as usual witty and humourous brought in the other evaluators like Philip for Grammarian duty, Monsiuer for counting aahs and Mohamad as time keeper.

The meeting closes wit PP Philip Wong advising members the greatness of the organisation and to drive safely home.

Roaring Red Meeting on 23 Feb 2010

2010-03-03T19:47:00.000-08:00

The meeting started a little late, though 10 minutes but the club is not tolerant to lateness, eventhough the traffic is notorious. The meeting went a little out of the ordinary to create a little creativity and also to accommodate practical situations.

We have the President introducing a speaker and the speaker introducing the TME - to accommodate the Speaker's assignment as an emcee. The speaker is Thilo and the TME is Leong; both a past president of the club.

Everything went well especially with the Table Topics Session. Ho a right brainer came out with creative topics going against the culture, norm and tradition that startled our table topics volunteers. Philip, Garry, Masdiana, Willy and Wei Lyn got the chance to participate and I reckon the audience like Wei Lyn response and gave her the Award of BTT Speaker.

Since the new member did not turn up for the meeting, I guess it must be due to the trafic we had to skip this session and go straight up for our dinner.

Dinner was always good and for this meeting it was slightly better as we celebrate the Tiger year starting with Yee Sang a Malaysian favourite during the Chinese New Year.

After dinner we had the normal speech making and again the Assignment Speaker Thilo takes over to introduce the various speakers. He specially took extra time to introduce Mohamad who will be doing his Area Contest Speech entitled KILL KILL KILL.

After that the General Evaluator Dr Gan Eng Meng was called to conduct the Open Evaluation. Whilst PP Anna and PP Philip was assigned to do the evaluation but by the number of hands raised it looks like everyone wants to express themselves.

Anna's opinion is that the title is too negative and should be changed. She recommended that the story be expanded. On the Rumour side she suggested to bring the Tan Sri Lim's story to give more impact.

Philip commented that Mohamad did not give enough punch. He suggested more drama and should capitalise on May 13.

Next came Thilo who supported Philip's suggestion by giving more vocal variety, facial expression and also show the wound to add credibility. At the same time he said that audience may not be happy to ban the media as they need to receive information from the media.

After the three PP spoke, a rookie Jerene Yap states that Mohamad had too many glitches and too casual in his delivery. She suggeted to use a few more power words to add impact.

Surprisingly we also had a guess who volunteered to stand and state his views. I can't remember his name but by the end of the meeting he had already signed up as a member. Shame on me for not remembering his name. Anyway, he rightly commented that Mohamad must make a stand as to what he believes in. He must state his argument with pros and cons and give the example of the controversy in the use of the term ALLAH.

Our General Evaluator too could not hold herself and wanted to express her comments. She concurs with Anna that the title be changed and Mohamad should not whack the word 'whack' as it is mentioned too often. She also observed that Mohamad also looks down a little and should give more eye contact.

Our IPP then stood up and suggested that the title should be "The Biggest Loser" and Mohamad should focus on hatemails.

Finally, Mohamad's wife could not stand it anymore as she too likes to take this opportunity to whack her husband in public and yet would be praised for it. She counter suggested that the title be "For the sake of...." She also suggested that Mohamad talk less about his experience and May 13, just give a little info on his personal experience and move on. At the same time she felt that his transition was not smooth.

Everyone thought it was over but S Ho insisted on taking the floor and spoke like he never spoke before. He gave one of his best speech I ever heard. He spoke with conviction, vocal variety and facial expression. He said, "I know Mohamad has given better speeches before with all the ingredients of facial expression, vocal variety, drama, etc." He then said, on Mohamad comments on his wife remarks to him, 'to whack the Chinese back' he felt that it was hanging and not very clear.

Finally, Mohamad stands up and thank all for giving their feedback and have agreed to improve his speech taking all their recommendations. However, to change the title to The Biggest Loser does not seemed right to him as the Contest Chair will introduce him like this, "Mohamad Abdullah, The Biggest Loser; The Biggest Loser, Mohamad Abdullah". Instead he may consider changing it to "For the sake of ...Mohamad Abdullah".

The meeting ends with Best Role Player to Lim Ah Whai for his Time Keeping and Adam as Most Friendly. Attendance at the meeting was 17 members 4 guests and 1 visitng TM.

A special interview with Mohamad after the meeting:

Editor: What do you think about the Evaluation given by the members of your club?
Mohamad: I have always appreciated the confidence of others in evaluating me as a blessing. An evaluation is a positive feedback and it is a gift. Only when people have faith and trust in you that they will give the 'gift' or feedback. Many would have just lock it in their hearts for fear of a reprisal.

Editor: Why do you allow people to tear you down in public?
Mohamad: I don't consider it as a 'tear me down'. I consider this as a family gathering where we express ourselves for the sake of improving each other with no malice or evil intention. We want each other to be better and at the end of it our family/club can be better and well respected by other families or clubs.

Editor: You have been a Toastmasters for 30 years and most of them are less than 3 years.
Mohamad: It is not the number of years in Toastmasters that makes you a better and a know all. The longer you are in Toastmasters, the more you will learn that you know less and less. In fact, the new members will give you better feedback as they are the audience who will be doing the listening and they will share with you what they perceive your speech to be and how it impacted them. They do not have any preconceive ideas about you or the speech.

Editor: A member of another club who said that he has been an Area Governor and involved in judging said that your speech is political and racial in nature. What do you say about this?
Mohamad: This subject has been covered many times. Toastmasters International have also responded to us on this and that is there is nothing that we cannot say in a speech contest. As Toastmasters we should be responsible enough to speak without malice to any one person, race or beliefs. If the judges deemed my speech as political then I consider them as incompetent.

Editor: Are you happy with the response from the members?
Mohamad: I am grateful to the members and I know sincerely in my hearts that they want me to be better and that is a great gift you can receive from your family members.

Meeting on 12 Jan 2010 & AGM

2010-01-15T05:31:00.000-08:00

Our President made a good speech to open the meeting by saying that we are the only club that she knows in our District or the world to have our AGM and election early in December or January. She believes that with early election, our incoming officers will be able to emulate the current officers and perhaps do better during their time. Furthermore, with more time the incoming Team will be able to have more time to plan for their year.

The President then pass the control of the AGM to Mohamad and the result of the Nominating Committee list was accepted in toto after IPP reported his year's activities and the accounts for his year passed. Our new incoming Exco with be as follows:

1. President - Rozina Harun
2. VP Education - Dr Gan Eng Meng
3. VP Membership - Chung Yoke Ki
4. VP Public Relations - Stanley Ho Fook Chuan
5. Secretary - H H Wong
6. Treasurer - Manian
7. SAA - Tash
8. IPP - Levine Lee
9. Auditors - Mano and Thilo

Anyway, on the general meeting I can say that all the role players seemed to be very proud member of this 'illustrious' club. They kept on saying the 'best club in the district', and many more praises.

The Role Players were:

ASAA - Tash
Table Topics Mistress - Jerene
Table Topics Evaluator - Dr Gem
Speakers were - Leong and Lim
Evaluators were - Anna and Mano
Language Evaluator - Masdiana
Aah Counter -
Timer - HH Wong
General Evaluator - Thilo
Tee Em EE - Mohamad

Oh yes I almost forgot that Justin had signed in as a member of the club and we had three guests present and they too look promising in joining us.

Happy New Year guys take care. Will post some pictures soon.

Meeting on 28 December 2009

2010-01-04T01:25:00.000-08:00

It was our Anniversary, in fact our 18th birthday and it was celebrated in a subdued way although happily.

Here we see some Past Presidents and the Exco cutting the cake.

Our ever hardworking Stanley Ho working on the Listening Skill test for our members.

Our young man Mr Khung trying to gestulate (hope it is the right spelling) to express himself.

Some of the guests attending the Anniversary Meeting.

Well I hope pictures speaks a thousand words as words I do not have and time I could not afford.

Briefly we had a brief meeting with Madama President giving us a very long speech, thanking us all and Mohamad going down Masdiana memory lane. With questions from the floor it looks more interesting.

Dinner was exceptionally great and we continued our meeting at the 4th floor with games conducted by our able and willing Stanley Ho. Oh yes the best Table topics went to Monsieur Tilaka.

Everybody went home with a gift extra as Willy as usual very generous gave us an extra load to carry. Thanks Willy for being thoughtful.

Meeting on 8 Dec 2009

2009-12-14T00:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-03T03:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-19T01:48:00.001-08:00

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

2009-10-28T03:07:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-10-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T23:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-16T23:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T01:27:00.000-07:00

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 )

Meeting on 8 September 2009

2009-09-09T01:33:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I felt it is too boring for me to write that every meeting is a great meeting with good fellowship, excellent food with great speeches, evaluators and role players. I need another adjective to spice up the report.

Themed "Friendship" the meeting went well with ASAA Khung (our 'youngest' member) hitting the gavel to signal the start of the meeting sharp at 7pm. The President Levine took the floor and as usual welcome all present for the meeting. President Levine then pass the control to Anna and as usual with confidence and competence she short circuit the briefing by saying that 'since there is no guest tonight' she begin the meeting with words of appreciation to the MII Management and Staff for their support and cooperation. Later she called on the President to show our appreciation by presenting a small gift to En Mazrul on behalf of the staff of MII.

Following this we break for Buka Puasa and the food was good and plentiful. Thanks again to our good friends Khung for supplying the bananas and Willy for the water and Rozi for buying the cakes. We start our dinner sharp at 7.18pm (Buka Puasa time)a respect reminded by our TME Anna.

It is also a night where we inducted a new member Tashvinderjit Singh aka Tash Beriana. He was presented with our Folder and a T Shirt and in response he shook hands will all the members present. Anna also told us that he was a recent father of a boy and being a happy father he gave us chocolates, more food.

We even celebrated our Waterman his 37th Birthday and he was smiling from ear to ear. The cake as usual was great and Mohamad took three portion to prove it.

When we resume our meeting, immediately our TME Anna calls on H2Wong to present the Invocation and as usual in MII the invocation was well presented. This followed by our HM, S Ho who gave a slow, well crafted speech with suspence but the audience was waiting for more - but as usual we all laugh not at the joke though.

The Table Topics was conducted by Mano and as usual, always prepared with beautiful printed full colour pictures of unique friendship between animals from different species. The speakers have to comment on the statement and it was not easy but PP Philip, PP Mohamad, PP Thilo, TM Wei Lyn and VPM Gan took the challenge and the winner was our new member Wei Lyn, the young, beautiful and enegetic lass flooring all the experienced speakers.

The prepared speakers for the night were TM Chung Yoke Wai #2, PP Thilo ACL#3 and VPE Rozi #2 - Believe me it is the 7th month and they are all talking about, The Hungry Ghost, Heaven and Hell and H(a)unted Down by Chung, Rozi and Thilo respectively. The winner goes to Rozi who really tickled us by declaring that she was conned by the Devil IPP.

The Evaluators were PP Mohamad, IPP Leong and PP Philip and being the 7th month we allow the Devil IPP to win. The other role players were Imported GE Ng Lay Choo, Granma Dr Gan, Ahs Counter, Wei Lyn and the two timer Willy. The best role player for the night went to.....Lay Choo (we always take pride in voting our guest to win something). Finally, the meeting ends with the usual closing ode by our PP Philip telling us how blessed he is to be a member of MII.

Oh Yes, this night belongs to the young, beautiful and enegetic lass Wei Lyn. She took the Most Friendly title, Best Table Topic Speaker and also for the last meeting title which were not recognised with a certificate.

Good night and wishing all our Muslim brothers and sisters, Selamat Berpuasa, Selamat Beraya, Maaf Bersama dan bergembira selalu.

COLORS OF INDEPENDENCE

2009-08-31T23:55:00.000-07:00

Meeting held on 25TH August, 2009
The cleverly-chosen “Colors of Independence” was the theme of this week’s meeting in honour of Malaysia’s 52nd national day celebration, 31st August, 2009.

In spite of it being the fourth day of the fasting month of Ramadan, 3 muslim members attended the meeting. At the specified time, they were accompanied by other non-muslim fellow members to break fast, reflecting a show of unity among our multi-racial members.

It was an evening when things didn’t go as planned too! In her excitement, our Madam President overlooked the order of the programme and instead she jumped-the-gun by introducing the Toastmaster of the Evening when it should have been done after the break of fast. There was also a time when Leong could not run the video presentation of his humorous act (recorded from a contest performance), when the laptop failed to read the DVD. To add salt to his wounds, Mohamad remarked that more preparation should have been made before the presentation! Unfortunately, when it was Mohamad’s turn to present his Table Topics presentation on Power-point, he too encountered technical problems and this was when Leong teased back at him. Could it be that its ‘puasa’ time when even the laptop was affected? I would call this an “impromptu” humour session with moments of light bantering, which provided amusement for everyone.

Our honourable guest for the evening was Mohd Hadzrin Shah, the W2 Area Governor, who took the honour of being one of the evaluators for the project speakers.

As the evening progressed, the programme fell into place and it all proved to show that “to err is human and to forgive, divine” in this holy month of Ramadan! After the ‘buka puasa’, everything went ‘boleh - Malaysia sure Boleh!!!’

Raja the King gave us food for thought with his invocation after a sumptuous dinner.

Wei Lyn was baptised as a member of MII TMC in the New Member Welcoming ceremony. Immediately after that she was put into action as the official toastmaster of the evening. With her bubbly and enthusiastic disposition, Wei Lyn impressed everyone with her spirit of patriotism. All sang the national anthem with flags held in our right hands led by our MIA (missing in action) member, Monsieur Tilaka. Flashes of fond memories came back to us, memories of the time we were taught to sing ‘Negara Ku’ in our early days in school.

Mohamad, the Table Topics Master, conducted the table topics session using his laptop, projecting the topics on the projector. The creative approach got everyone on their feet giving their views relating to Malaysia. Members got to pick the topics based on the letters they chose from the word Malaysia.

Ho, who was one of the table topics speakers, chose the letter S and the statement upon which he had to elaborate was “Solidarity amongst all races is important”. He kept chanting the word “Merdeka”, as though he was possessed by the spirit of the first prime minister of Malaysia! At that moment my imagination went wild, Ho was suddenly transformed to Tuanku Abdul S Ho!!!

The best-speaker award for the table topics session went to Anna Hue, who was presented with a leather wallet, compliments of Mohamad.

Meanwhile, the Immediate Past President, sandwiched by the Madam President on his right and the Lady Vice President on his left, was in need of “Kwan Loong-Cap Kapak “ medicated oil throughout the meeting to calm his nerves while guiding both women in their new roles.

Members were later entertained by 3 project speakers, comprising two gentlemen and a lady. Wong Hang Hiang with his ice-breaker speech, Jerene Yap and Khung Varn Fatt with their second project speeches. The 3 speakers had everyone perked-up listening to their refreshing speeches.

The evening ended as scheduled and everyone was happy to take home a hand-held Malaysian flag each, as a token of appreciation from MII Toastmasters Club.

Our 3Jokers, The AG Mohd Hadzrin, Mano and Kok Wah celebrating a 1Malaysia, The Drafter, The Speaker and the Conspirator at the recent Humorous Speech Contest coming together at last at our Meeting. Believe it, Hadzrin is wearing Kok Wah's and Kok Wah is using Hadzrin whilst Mano using his own. Guest what?

Another meeting among fellow toastmasters has ended. The next one to look forward to will be on the 8th September,09 with new project speakers and role players, ever-eager to play their roles. Until we meet again in two weeks time, Selamat Berpuasa!

Specially Reported by Robin Hood (RH) aka Rozina Harun

2 ICE BREAKERS AND 2 JOKERS

2009-08-17T02:04:00.000-07:00

Warm greetings to all,

As it turned out, “2 ice breakers and 2 jokers” was a very appropriate theme for the evening. We had two ladies giving their maiden speeches and two humorous gentlemen giving their respective project speeches.

The Club was graced with the presence of Bryan Soo, from MIM TMC. He was the General Evaluator for the evening. His evaluation was full of praise and he was impressed with the record of the Club’s achievements displayed on the meeting room wall. He felt right at home with the members. It was indeed a delightful experience for both Bryan and the Club!

Our Madam President Levine invited Grace Tan from Friendship TMC to be in charge of the Table Topics session. Grace came up with an innovative method of getting members to express their thoughts during her session.

Anna eagerly volunteered to be the first table topics speaker. She was very eloquent when asked to elaborate further the opening sentence “I am sexy……

Leong was given the task in convincing the other passengers on board a plane that is about to crash, as to why he should be given the last parachute. His reasoning was that he was once the most powerful President of MII TMC!

Wong was cornered to speak and was asked to choose from 3 creatures (panda, piranha and hyena), which one he thought would be appropriate to rule the world. He chose the panda, naturally.

T. Raja was given a very comical hypothetical question: What if he were to become invisible, where would he go? His response was amusing when he said he would snoop around the government offices and eavesdrop on officers who were involved in awarding Tenders.

Raj, a guest of T. Raja was a good sport when he was thrown a question as to choose an animal tattoo which signifies his love for his girlfriend. His tongue in cheek response was he would choose a rabbit and since he has dark complexion, the tattoo would have to be white, or luminous.

Our new member, Tashvinderjit did a commendable job in the role of Sergeant at Arms, the first role assigned to every new member.

During dinner we celebrated Lim Ah Wai and Manian Birthday and everyone sang them the Birthday song. You must be there to see the smile of happiness on their faces.

The Project Speakers for this meeting were:

1. Chung Yoke Wai - “Looking Back”. Fondly known as Yuki, she gave a brief
recollection of her childhood and an account of her career progression to date.

2. Rozina Harun - “The “S”s in me” – in an unconventional way, approached a senior member to give her perception of the speaker, before she proceeded to describe her own personality.

3. T. Rajasingam - “4 bottles of life”. Raja, the king of all kings,
enthusiastically shared his thoughts on the cycle of life that most people go through.

4. Mano – “An Overdose”. Mano narrated a true story about an overdose of motivation that had left a friend stuck in a rut instead of achieving his goals.

The meeting ended on time- (the Immediate Past-President made a remark that during his presidency, the meetings always exceeded the allocated time, while during the Madam President’s term-of-office, meetings end on time and attendances are always high!).

And as we all know, it is not just the time-keeping that counts, but it’s how the members learn and enjoy the experience of the MII TMC!

Reported by: VPE Rozina Harun

An Unusual Evaluation!

2009-08-12T03:22:00.000-07:00

At our meeting yesterday evening Tuesday, 11 August, after a nice hearty dinner and dessert (our usual monthly birthday cake), I sat back in a relaxed manner looking forward to listen to the speeches from the assignment speakers. I was suddenly jolted when our 3rd assignment speaker, Rozi, called out my name and said to everyone “Anna will be my evaluator this evening and I want her to evaluate me before I make my speech”
My goodness….when on earth can Toastmasters do evaluations BEFORE the speech?!
I was flabbergasted. I was amused. I was challenged. I waited for her further instructions.
Then Rozi said “Please give us a quick evaluation on what you think of me?”
“Boy-oh-boy”, I thought, “how shall I do this??” In that split second, I think this is what I said (I cannot remember all the exact words but the gist of it goes something like this –
“In my 12 years as a Toastmaster, this is the first time I am asked to do an evaluation BEFORE a speech. Well, fellow Toastmasters and friends---what can I say about Rozi? In the brief time I have known her, communicate and interact with her, I find that this is one special charming lady, always smiling. She is hospitable, helpful and warm to those around her and is someone that is easy to get along with. However, mind you, this is no ordinary lady – I believe she plays golf in the morning, bowl s in the day, shops in the Pavilion in the afternoon and have tea in the Shangri-La in the evening. Such is her life. She dresses well, has a delightful personality and I am glad to know her”
Prepared by: Anna Hue (12 August 2009)

2009-07-30T03:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Members,

As the VPE, I am pleased to announce the winners of the recently held Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests.

Our heartfelt congratulations to these winners and we are confident they will do us proud in representing MII-TMC at the Area W2 contest on 19th Aug.

Humorous Speech Contest Winners
1. S. Mano
2. Leong Kok Wah
3. Chin Kong Meng

Evaluation Contest Winners
1. Dr. Gan Eng Meng
2. Anna Hue

Rozina Harun
Vice President Education

Congratulations Dr Gan Eng Meng, AMN

2009-07-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

Just to share with you guys that our Dr Gan Eng Meng has recently been conferred the Award Ahli Mangku Negara (A.M.N.) (Member of the Order of the Defender of the Realm) by the YMM the Yang diPertuan Agong.

The Ahli Mangku Negara is a fifth rank award of the Darjah Yang Mulia Pangkuan Negara. It is conferred for extraordinary and meritorious service. The Ahli Mangku Negara is also conferred on those who have carried out their duties beyond the normal limits. Under certain circumstances, the award can be conferred on civil servants who belong to the Administrative and Professional Group and those in Grade 2 and 3. In an extraordinary situation, support officers can also be considered. There is no limit to the number to be awarded this honour.

The design the badge is the same as that of the Darjah Kesatria Mangku Negara but the kris lies in the centre. The badge has a radius of 1¾ inches. It is pinned to the chest. It suspends from a riband which is of the same colour as that of the Kesatria Mangku Negara. For women, the riband is tied in a bow and the badge suspends from below the centre of the bow. The Ahli Mangku Negara was instituted on 6August 1958 and gazetted on 25 August 1958.

(This has been extracted from the research done by our Mr Resourceful from MSIG Manogaran Sinnathamby.)

Let us all jointly congratulate Dr GEM (Gan Eng Meng) for her recent Award by posting your comments in the Blog.

Meeting on 14 July 2009

2009-07-21T01:58:00.000-07:00

IPP Long Kok Waaaah making a statement

Masdiana receiving her Certificate from President Levine for Best Table Topics Speaker

Dr Gan Eng Meng, AMN smiling so sweetly at someone

VPE Rozina Harun receiving her Certificate from the President for Most Friendly Person of the night

This is the inaugural meeting under the new term and a new President, Levine Lee; and the attendance was encouraging. We had two guests from AIG, another guest who was busy clicking away on his camera throughout the night, yet another who was brave enough to come out and handle the table topic, also one that came late but he made it, and one from CIMB who came and sign on as a member straightaway.

Mohamad receiving his Best Assignment Speaker from President Levine Lee

IPP is a firm believer of Fung Shuei and he had planned all these by getting us room #2.01 where he saw many members fall in love with MII Toastmasters Club and without hesitation had joined in.

To those who had joined in we wish to welcome you and to those who are still thinking about it, stop thinking about it but just join us; it will be a decision that you will never regret – believe it from someone who has been in Toastmasters for over 30 years.

The meeting went as planned, just like before and the President gave us her maiden speech, a little nervous though. Everything went well and the TME for the night was our newly promoted Dr Gan Eng Meng. Want to know more about her, well you have to ask her personally, come for the next meeting. All I can say is that she is now heading one of the major public hospitals in KL.

The Invocation was presented by a ‘new’ member joined on 1 July 2009, a young, vibrant and energetic member Wei Lynn and she just tell us to move on – just like a train.

The Table Topics Master also her maiden role is Rozina Harun. She did it differently. She asked the first speaker to speak on a subject and the following speaker to speak on the last word uttered by the earlier speaker. Adam came up first and followed by Wei Lynn, Masdiana, Seow (a guest), and two others.
The Evaluation was done by yet another virgin role player Manian. Considering it was his first time I must admit he must have been paying a lot of attention before to know the way to handle the Table Topics Evaluator role.

The Humour Master for the evening is our Joker S Ho L E @ F C Ho. Well in the old days such humour would be frowned upon but at the meeting everyone seemed to enjoy the joke about this guy with the two S Holes.

Dinner was as usual, good and we have to thank Mr Khung again for his long bananas and of course Willy for his Holly Water. MII TM Club members and guests are really blessed lots; we have people who took the trouble to bring these stuff every time they are there – to me it is not easy to go and buy the bananas and to bring the heavy water up to the 2nd floor and then to the 4th floor. Thank you, Khung & Willy for your contribution.

The prepared speech were presented by PP Thilo on the Advanced Manual regarding presenting an award he gave to IPP Leong and the next one was our Ice Breaker Jerene who bare herself to tell us who she was and is. Finally, Mohamad gave his Advanced Speech #5 from the Persuasive Speaking and told us about being united.
The Evaluators were PP Anna, PP Masdiana and FP Adam respectively. Each of them gave positive feedback and the best Evaluator for the evening went to PP Masdiana. (Oh yes FP stands for Future President).

Our GE Leong wrap up the session and called on the Evaluators named above, the Grammarian Willy (who won the best role player), Ah Countant Khung and Timer Wong.
The closing Ode was done by Leong who also took the opportunity to award his outgoing Exco who were not present during the Installation.

If you see the picture please don't pass judgement on why some are big and some are small - I just downloaded it the same way but don't know how it appears this way.

Get Up

2009-07-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

I hope this video will inspire you especially those who are now feeling down and out. Make sure you have your tissue box with you when you view this.

2009 Installation Dinner

2009-07-06T04:04:00.000-07:00

This time our Installation night was held at Dataran Prima Condo and all the members and family were invited for FREE. Which club can provide this? On top of it some of our members even got lucky and bring home some prizes, including their family members. Our IPP Leong was very generous, he donated back his gift for another lucky draw and a young lady (possibly Adam's daughter) was happy that she brought home something.

Assembly of members present for the night. Were you there? Sorry if you have missed it.

Our new Vice President Education Rozina Harun being installed by President Levine Lee.

Dr Gan Eng Meng being installed as Vice President Membership.

Adam Fung getting consultation from Dr Gan.

Two old classmates discussing about old flames.

Dr Gan receiving a Ginseng root from her President (now IPP) Leong for her service as SAA during his term.

Your VPE posing for Ho (I think) trying to get his attention.

2009 Installation Dinner

2009-07-06T03:57:00.000-07:00

The members present during the Installation Dinner at Dataran Prima Condo. Sorry if you were not there as we had a wonderful time with the family.

Our VPE Rozina Harun just been installed by the President Levine Lee whilst the rest are waiting in Queue to be installed.

Farewells & Thank You's

2009-07-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

23RD JUNE, 2009 – Farewells & Thank You’s

Warmest greetings to all,

The 23rd was a truly memorable day for me, not least because of the horrendous traffic! At MIITC, it is important for members to be punctual and in the past, meetings always began on time. It was imperative for me to be punctual for I was assigned to an important role and this extremely heavy traffic was a severe test of my patience.

That evening’s meeting was an important event; it was a Farewell for our dear President. He must have been pleased, for there was a record attendance of 38 people, despite the heavy traffic. To the members, President Leong Kok Wah was a special person. It was a lovely gathering as the President was accompanied by his First Lady.

Everyone was tinkled pink when Mrs. Khung announced in her introduction that she had come so as to check and see if these MIITC meetings were as real as her husband had claimed every time he left her at home!

Members and guests were further entertained when Adam Fung (ACB) and S. Manogaran (TM) had every one in stitches with their short act in the form of eulogy to the out-going President. It was an impressive eulogy, detailing a long list of the fine qualities of Leong Kok Wah. It was a list of the qualities required to be an outstanding President of MIITC, including the qualities of being persuasive, forceful, compassionate, passionate, dedicated, caring, creative, resourceful and the list goes on!

There was a special appearance made by Keats Markandu (PP), a past-president of MIITC, who gave a presentation on “Glimpses into Storytelling”. Keats is a good storyteller who has organised storytelling sessions with children at the local bookstores and libraries. During her presentation, she shared her experience as a storyteller and also gave some pointers like using props, good facial expressions and a variety of voice tones in order to be a good story-teller. Also, the most important quality of a good storyteller is the ability to enjoy telling stories to others.

The grand finale of the evening was of course the farewell speech by our dear President. It was a very touching and emotional speech, I felt, full of fond memories, a recollection of a year’s achievement and an inspiring statement dedicated to the 3 newly wed couples (who got married during his presidency tenure). He wished them well, that they would have a marriage as lucky as his, where they could wake up every morning with their lovely partner next to them and be able to say “I don’t want anything more”.

The evening ended with two bottles of sparkling drinks being popped-out and poured in paper cups, sipped with muffins made by Mrs. Leong Kok Wah.

No regrets, according to the President. It was a wonderful evening for Mr. & Mrs. Leong Kok Wah.

TI Tips

2009-07-05T22:13:00.000-07:00

July 1, 2009

Announcement
Club Presidents! Last Call for Proxies!
Make arrangements for your club's votes to be cast in August at the 2009 Annual Business Meeting in Mashantucket, Connecticut. There are three ways a club can use its proxy. Do you know all three?
More..

Last Chance for Early-Bird Registration for Convention & Hotels
Act fast and take advantage of the early-bird discount by getting your registrations in by July 20. Don't miss this opportunity. We'll see you in Connecticut!
More..

Plan Now for Success in Jun
It's time to start strategizing for the new Distinguished Club Program year. Smooth your progress by using the Club Success Plan in the DCP manual and make use of social networking tools to mine the knowledge of other successful clubs.
More..

Features
Start Off on the Right Foot
With the start of a new program year, make sure your club is well prepared to build and maintain its membership.
More..

Can Your Club Top That?
Last year 820 clubs were awarded the Smedley Award. Can your club reach a new number to top this?
More..

Please Follow the Contact Rules
You may be unaware that the e-mail you just sent out to a group of members is in violation of policy on the use of Toastmasters' member contact information.
More..

Welcome 2009-2010 Club Officers
Did you know there is a club officer section of the TI Web site tailored just for you? The Club Officer Resources page provides a host of information and tools to help you succeed in your new role.
More..

Why Have Two When One Will Do?
In order to provide the most relevant information to all new prospective clubs, the community and company new club information kits (now Item 123) have been combined.
More..

Interested in Volunteering at the International Convention?
In less than two months the 2009 Toastmasters International Convention will commence at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut. There will be over 600 volunteer opportunities to serve your fellow Toastmasters and you can be a part of this adventure by volunteering for one of these many positions!
More..

Calling All Toastmasters Educators
If you're a middle school or high school teacher who is also active in Toastmasters, and you're interested in test-driving the new TI Youth Communication materials, we'd love to hear from you.
More..

Meeting Report 9 June 2009

2009-06-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

TM Mano presenting a Cheque to Mr President

TM Mano donating a VDO Cam to the Club

My warm and joyous salutations to all,

I took a brief break from writing on the Toastmii Blogspot, so I may have missed a report on the Club’s meeting held on 26th May, 09.

Not filing a report for this Blogspot does not mean that there was nothing much to report or that the event held on 26th, May, 09 was uneventful. On the contrary, the evening was fun, hilarious, entertaining and of course had some interesting moments when assigned speakers gave their prepared speeches to the attentive audience.

The theme of the evening was “Guest is King” and we were truly blessed with an overwhelming attendance of invited guests. (to post photo of guests).

The evening’s highlights were the four speeches, delivered with gusto by:-

Leong Kok Wah with his Advance Manual, Project No. 2 titled “Life is short, do not have an affair!”

Lim Ah Hwai and his Competent Communicator (CC) Manual, Proj. No.2 “Six Sigma for Life”

Ho Fook Chuan completing his CC Manual, Proj. No.10 “There is Hope” and

Simon Soh , CC Manual, Project No. 7 with the title “ PAEI”

Meeting Held on 9th June, 2009

Like I mentioned earlier, there will never be a dull moment in MIITC once the Sergeant At Arms strikes the gavel to announce the start of the meeting.

This time, our dear Mr. President organised an impromptu debate to blend with the theme of the evening, “Battle of Wits”. Everyone was energised to capture the meaning of the word of the day “Energise”.

My favourite toastmaster of the evening, Adam Fung (ACB) became the Moderator for the debate and he took centre stage.

The topic of the debate, “Couples are encouraged to live together for a period of time before they get married”, was picked by the President himself. No one knew about the title of the debate until it was presented by Adam, the Moderator, after the two teams were set up that evening. It was indeed the “battle of wits” cum “battle of the sexes”!

The Proposer: Mohamad Abdullah (Captain)
S. Manogaran
Willy Tan

The Opposer: Anna Hue (Captain)
Dr. Gan
Jerene Yap

The men’s team began the debate with all kinds of unreasonable statements, arguments and excuses that I find too shameful to record in this blog. As a show of support to my kind, I shall not elaborate further.

The women on the other hand pointed out that men “stray” both before AND after marriage. There is no guarantee that the man will marry the woman after cohabitation and the man has to gain more than the woman with this arrangement. Without the responsibility of marriage, the man is free to stray as he pleases. The bottom line is that cohabitation is an excuse to take the girl to bed! (I could carry on listing down the reasoned arguments of the women’s team, but in doing so I might appear to be biased!). Suffice to say, all speakers from both teams contributed to a great debate that left everyone feeling impressed and happy.

Before the meeting ended, Mr. President made a surprise announcement, informing members that TM S. Manogaran, out of his good heart has donated a brand new Sony Camcorder to the Club. The Club is indeed blessed with such kind-hearted members like TM S. Manogaran. Thank you Mano, your thoughtfulness will go a long way. Such gesture shows that MIITC is where good people congregate in the spirit of comradeship!

Your BlogMaster: Rozina Harun

Meeting on 12 May 2009

2009-06-02T01:13:00.000-07:00

MII Toastmasters Club extends its warm greetings to all the wonderful people out there. If you are reading this MII blogspot and you are not yet a member of this great Club, let me tell you this - you may be missing out on something special in life!

We welcome guests with open arms to our regular meetings which are held on every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at Level 2, Malaysian Insurance Institute, Jalan Sri Semantan Satu, Dmaansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur.

Meeting Held On 12th May, 09

The theme for the evening was “Dare to Dream” and the word of the day was “Courage”.

Ho Fook Chuan was the centre of attention this evening as he was the sole designated speaker. His General Evaluator was Thilohthaman (ATMS, CL). Our tall, dark, handsome and bald General Thilo had teasingly advised Ho to have another go at his Project No.9, knowing that that was already his second attempt and to try for the third time would spell bad luck. In spite of that teasing, we have all given Ho our blessing to proceed to his 10th Project.

The most talked-about person whose name I heard so often during my first few weeks at the Club is, of course, our dear Dr. Gan. It was really a great privilege to be able to meet and rub shoulders with her for the first time. Dr. Gan had taken great trouble to be with us this evening and, true to her personality, the unassuming medical doctor exuded warmth and gentleness.

Enough of bodek-king, but according to General Thilo (my nickname for him since he was the General Evaluator), one of the Club’s great strengths was its members, who were a knowledgeable, seasoned and caring lot. Among the other plus points of the club is the current President, who has the great vision, leadership and organizational ability to bring the Club together in good and bad times. The meetings are always well-organised, with ample stationery and both name tags and a printed programme provided for all members. Furthermore, the Club’s banners and emblems decorate the walls at every meeting. In short, the Club takes both pride and pain in the presentation of the meetings which are always conducted with great decorum.

This is my fourth time attending the Club’s meetings and I have already learned the skill of multi-tasking. I was given the role of the timer, where I need to time every activity of the meeting from start to finish. It may sounds easy- peesy but try and man the stop watch, listen to the speakers attentively and jot notes for the blogspot, all at the same time…that is what I call multi-tasking!

Immediately after dinner, the MIITC had its AGM and its new office bearers were elected unanimously as follows:

President - Levine Lee (pronounced as Lovingly)
V. President Education - Jerene Yap
V. President Membership - Dr. Gan
V. President Public Relations - Willy Tan
Treasurer - P. Maniam
Secretary - R Harun
Sergeant At Arms - F.C. Ho
Committee Members - Monsieur Tilaka
- Wong Hang Hiang

3 female names holding the 3 top positions, I reckon the men had vested their power on these women or the women had decided to overpower the male dominance.

Three cheers for the new office bearers- Hip Hip Yahoo!!!

Yours truly the Honorary Secretary 2B

Meeting on 28 April 2009

2009-05-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

Helloooo, is there anyone out there? If you have accidentally opened this BlogSpot, I welcome you to the MII-Toastmasters Club BlogSpot with warm hugs. Writing this blog and not knowing if my blogs are being read by others is like writing a love note to myself!!

The sweltering hot and humid weather has taken a toll on me; therefore I need to be excused on medical ground, from doing this next blog!

Ah shucks…! Mr. President alias Ah Leong has been breathing down my neck. He does that often by checking on me every time he sees me on line via Google.

Don’t worry Boss, I was just pulling your legs…Wah… such long legs you have!

Meeting Held on 28th April, 2009

Theme for the evening was W.I.N.E. It stands for “Winning is not Everything”. The word of the day is ‘Impossible’.

TM Khung the Invocation Presenter of the evening took the liberty to share a short write up on “Don’t Quit”. An inappropriate topic for those who decided to quit smoking!

TM Mano took charge of the Table Topic Session throwing simple but yet interesting topics like men are better cooks than women, would you dare put your parents in the old folks home and can women cohabit in the same house.

There was another induction ceremony held and this time Mr. President was proud to induct Jerene Yap as a new member of MII Toastmasters Club. Before the ceremony began, Jerene was accompanied out of the room, while Mr. President asked the floor if there were any objections to induct Jerene as a member. CTM Masdiana cheekily commented that Jerene is too pretty. We took that as compliments to our new member and also to MII-TMC as it has attracted beautiful people to the Club.

Three main speakers for the evening were:

1. DTM Mohamad Abdullah with his project titled “Focus NOT on the
Bottom-line”

2. TM Ho Fook Chuan with his project titled “Feeling Down”

3. TM Willy Tan with his project titled “Care and be Cared”

Mohamad gave a speech related to MII-TMC goals reminding office bearers not to focus so much on garnering points for the Club but instead to focus on building fellowship, help members grow by developing their skills, be different and to add value to the Club.

TM Ho’s “Feeling Down” presentation was back fired when his evaluator, ACG Anna told him that his speech content did not meet the requirement of the manual. He needs to redo the presentation again. I was particularly amused when the A4 size papers which he distributed to members as part of his presentation depicting negative emotions such as anger, shit, and upset had to be used on him instead.

TM Willy has a good reason to celebrate that evening, it was his 10th speech and with that he is now granted the title CC or Competent Communicator. Let us congratulate Willy for his perseverance. We were also touched by his generous gesture in footing the dinner bill as a celebration to his achievement. May he be blessed to give more speeches at the next level! It must have made his day too when he was awarded the Best Speaker for the evening.

A big hand goes to TM Lim, the Sergeant At Arms who managed to control the programme with his excellent time management. By the time Mr. President took over the rostrum, it was just 9.00 pm, half an hour ahead of time.

As a closure Mr. President took the opportunity to share a comment made by an outsider who attended one of MII-TMC meetings a long time ago. The person told Mr. President that he felt embarrassed when he attended the MII-TMC meeting, and this was because all the male members of MII-TMC wore blazers except for him. To interpret Mr. President’s sharing, all members are expected to continue the legacy of dressing smartly to show their pride in attending such prestigious meetings.

Mr. President also presented a box of Brand Essence of Chicken to TM Mano as a cheerful gift after his recovery from a Dengue sickness and an unfortunate car accident; a caring gesture indeed by our beloved Ah Leong in helping boost TM Mano’s low morale.

With that, I end this report with a happy note –‘Saya Yang Dipaksa Bertugas!’

Rozina Harun

Meeting Held on 14th April, 09

2009-04-17T22:36:00.001-07:00

I don’t have the faintest idea why I was asked by Master Leong aka Mr. President to take charge of MII BlogSpot. I doubt it’s because of my writing skills or because of my proficiency in English but when I asked my master, he said “it’s because you are capable and no one wants to do it!.” Will someone out there attest to my Master’s claim?

Whatever the reason may be, I have to oblige my Master because he is my Master and I am his ever obliging new servant.

(Kindly take note that some of the information shared with you here might be factually true or they were simply being made up to fill up the space.)

14th April, 09 was a first to everything for me in MII Toastmasters Club. As a new member, it was my first meeting; I was also assigned the Sergeant-at-Arms as my first role play. CTM Masdiana, the Toastmaster of the evening announced my role as “Rozi’s virgin role in MII Toastmasters Club”.

The theme for the evening was “Multi-Faith Holy Days”. Like I said earlier as it was my first meeting, my brain was overloaded with information that was toasted. I am unable to explain here precisely what the theme was about as I was busy switching on and off my hearing aid when my Master did the elaboration. The only thing I could recall was that April is a month where some religion/races in Malaysia have their holy day celebrations. To those who don’t believe in holy days, April is considered as the Fools Day for them.

We were honoured with the presence of two honourably young guests, possibly being dragged or arm twisted by the father, Mr. Wong. Mr. Wong was inducted to the club with a simple induction ceremony. I guess it must be a memorable evening for Mr. Wong because during dinner my Master has brought out a birthday cake to celebrate his birthday. Mr. Wong deserved to be mentioned in this BlogSpot because he had taken the efforts and initiative to join the MII Toastmasters club without being lured or harassed to the Club. According to him, he was hunting cum window shopping for an ideal club to join and after numerous disheartening queries, MII TMC was the only club that responded immediately to his request. Three cheers to Mr. Wong and to MII TMC, they are destined for each other.

I got to meet Monsieur Tilaka who has no resemblance of a Frenchman at all. The members gave him warm welcome back hugs after his holiday retreat in the hospital.

Interesting enough I need to highlight here that the word of the day was the interesting word of the day and that was “interesting”. The most appropriate word of the day because we had 3 interesting speakers who had interesting topics to entertain us such as ‘Cold Calls’ from En. Mohamad Abdullah, ‘the Demonstration Talk’ by Anna Hue and ‘Joint Management Bodies’ by F.C. Ho.

The ‘no-no’ word for the evening was ‘should’. Mike the General Evaluator for the evening brought to members’ attention that, that word was a very strong word, in fact too strong to be used during evaluation moments. No one has the right to tell the other person that they should or should not, therefore the word should, should not be used.

In the midst of sharing our enthusiasm among members during the handing over of roles on stage, we were reminded by our mother hen, the Toastmaster of the evening to observe the stage protocol. The rule is, nobody is to leave the rostrum until the next speaker goes forward to take over the rostrum. There must be change of guard, that’s how I would put it.

Ok lah Master, I have given this work way ahead of the deadline which is this weekend. My weekend is for my golf and there is no way I am going to sacrifice my golf to attend to my Master!!!!

Rozina Harun
Your New Blog Master

Monsieur Tilaka - President's Report

2009-02-26T19:36:00.000-08:00

My Dear Fellow Members,

Yesterday afternoon, Past Presidents Anna Hue & Philip Wong
together with 2 term VPPR FC Ho + the current president visited
VPPR Monsieur at Room 515 Block D , Pantai Hospital.

When we arrived, Monsieur was wheeled out of ICU not too long ago
and from the picture attached you could see that the nurse is checking
his pupils response to light. From our observation, Monsieur is lucid but
i am deeply concerned that although he constantly addresses me as
mr.president, he cant seem to remember that i have a name.

His abdomen on the other hand is in a sorry state.
I counted NO less than 6 incisions and the scars all over his
abdomen was something like a spreadsheet full of " cut & paste ".
Even Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon would give up this case.
He is so pumped up in steroids that his waist has ballooned out
of proportion to the rest of his body and he is on adult diapers as
the doctors dont want him to get out of bed. ( I believe he is still
mildly sedated but not hallucinating as he still remembers that i am
the most powerful man in the club ).

My dear fellow members, while we have already celebrated CNY
and also our clubs 17th anniversary, VPPR Monsieur's only
celebration has been our visits to the hospital to cheer him up.
Since being admitted to Pantai on the 24th Jan, he has been
battling one surgery after another. In fact he was only home for
about a week for the entire month.

My heart goes out to this young man who despite having the odds
stacked up against him at this moment, is still able to maintain a
cheery disposition. Lets rally around Monsieur by calling him or
sending him a text message at 012 - 295 3668.

Monsieur's words to me as i was leaving his room -
" I want to go home and attend the next meeting "

Good night,

leong

Addendum to Anniversary Meeting

2009-02-26T19:25:00.000-08:00

I have just been informed that I made a grave mistake by forgetting that our IPP did the wonderful Invocation. She has done it the way I would love to do it. She pick an appropriate Poem, print it and distributed it, read it with clarity and vocal variety including style.

How can I do this to her? Sorry IPP Sherine Lim, it is my omission and I bid for 1001 apologies.

To the person who has prompt me on this I like to say Thank you to you too.

Anniversary Meeting - 24 Feb 2009

2009-02-26T02:15:00.000-08:00

We were honoured by the Division Governor for giving us a 5 Star rating for our Anniversary Meeting. This too has been echoed by members from other Clubs. Personally, I agree with them. We have 1 Star for Hospitality, 1 Star for Punctuality, 1 Star of Quality Program, 1 Star for Great Role Players and 1 Star for Food. Sometimes I like to give 2 Stars for our food, especially for this meeting as Khung brought his Bananas and this time he even brought some Nyonya Kuih, whilst Anna brought a Layer cake. The food we had was great and to my surprise they even have Bread Pudding for dessert; my favourite.

President did the usual thingy and pass it to Larry who as usual, slow and steady set the meeting atmosphere to warm. Pyng our Table Topics Master or Mistress, chose a controversial topic, Men and Women and really got the speakers excited and the audience tickled. The Speakers were Masdiana, Low Yat Seow, S K Leong, Anna, Adam Fung, Willy Tan and Philip Wong. The winner goes to our visiting TM from Speecom Mr S K Leong - no relation to our President. Dr Choong from Taman Indrahana TM Club gave a kind Evaluation of the speakers.

Oh yes, Puan Khadijah was also present and we cut the Anniversary Cake - the Presidents (Past and Present) together with her. Later she gave a short speech congratulating the club and wishing the club better success.

After dinner we had 'Prepared' Speeches from Past Presidents of our Club. Masdiana starts with her 17 Years of Pain and Pleasure, Anna with her Addiction (to Toastmaster), Mike with the Networking thingy and Mohamad on the Tools for Success - that is communication skills. Finally, the main speaker was PDG Low Yat Seow who spoke on the Fun and Frustrations of a District Officer. This man has been a TM for over 15 years and I saw the tremendous improvement in him that night. He as humour and he has substance with great delivery. I am proud of him and truly appreciate that he took the time to prepare and come to the meeting - inspite of having another commitment elsewhere.

Besides those named, I must also add that we had Levine as the Timer, Chin as Grammarian, Mano as Aah Counter and Ho as ASAA. Ho really surprised me when he start the meeting with his remarks which sound something like this, "With the Power in me I will now call the meeting to order." Even after almost 30 years in TM I have never seen an ASAA speaking so commandingly like this. PP Philip did the closing and IPP Sherine sitting pretty and doing back room work.

After the meeting the President calls all the members together and told us the news about Monsieur who was re-admitted to Hospital for the blockage again. We have to pray harder guys.

We had 15 members present and 15 guests - a big crowd no doubt but the food is more than enough to feed 40 pax. I saw Jerine our 2nd time guest who had decided to join us and Salmah, Willy's guest who would consider after the next meeting. The Guests that I remembered but not mentioned above were Mrs Choong from Taman Indrahana, Miss Toh (Larry Sister) and some others that I just could not recall. Please forgive me.

Whilst writing this I got a call from a friend Leanne Yeoh a former member of our Club. I was surprised that she called as I was expecting her at the meeting but strangely she thought it is today and she was disappointed to find no one at the meeting. I am sorry Leanne for the confusion and I hope you will come back again.

Meeting on 10 Feb 2009

2009-02-11T02:49:00.000-08:00

Inspite of the rain and inspite of the heavy traffic I am pleased to see 13 active members present and two guests with three visiting Toastmasters. The visitors were Kiang Faang Pyng, DTM from Premier Advanced our Past President, Wei Lin from TTDI and Lincoln from Gurney, Penang. The guests were Jerene (Pyng's guest) and another a guest of Lovingly.

Thank you guys for bringing your guest to the club and I hope more members will make an effort to bring one for the next meeting. Identify them now and start your strategy in wooing them.

This time our VPE Levine started the meeting and introduce the TME our Mr Leong Kok Wah. After the ritual he called on Ho to present his Invocation which I though was well done but it should not be a speech as it has a negative impact. Just read a poem or motivational piece it would be more refreshing.

Table topics was carried out by IPP Sherine and he let us dig into her bag and took out red stuff. The speakers were Mohamad, Willy, Philip, Jenine and Mano. The winner goes to Willy. The Evaluator for this session was Anna.

For the Manual Speech only Philip took the rostrum and give his project #10 whilst Leong did his preparation for the Area Contest. Dr Gan was Philip's evaluator whilst the rest of us were having a fun time poking at our President.

Birthday boys for Feb were Mano and Ho. The food was good as usual and Mr President also brought a goodie bag for each of us. Some of us brought more than one bag home. On top of this he gave us an Ang Pow with 1+3D in it. (Didn't know about it until Thursday). Tough to keep up with him always bribing us with good stuff.

Anyway, the Most Friend Person for the night goes to .......and the King... YES its ANNA Hue and the Best Role Player for the night went to non-other than another PP Kiang Faang Pyng as GE.

Some Announcements were: Area W3 Contest will be on 22 Feb 2009 at Sai baba Club at 3.30pm and our 17th Anniversary will be on 24 Feb 2009 at our Club. Members are strongly recommended to take note of this and bring their friends especially for the Anniversary meeting.

FAQ on Contest rules

2009-02-10T01:26:00.000-08:00

Downloaded from TI

Speech Contest Frequently Asked Questions

At World Headquarters, we get hundreds of speech contest questions each year. Here you can find some answers to the questions which we are asked most frequently. As we get more questions, we'll add them to this page, so check back to see if we've answered your questions! If you don't see your question here, you can e-mail us at speechcontests@toastmasters.org.

What are the situations in which it is permissible to nominate a contestant to move forward in a speech contest?

What is the standard protocol regarding timing? Since we’re supposed to have two timers, should both timers be timing simultaneously?

During an Evaluation contest, will paper be provided for me to take notes on or should I bring my own?

What are the rules regarding bringing children to a speech contest?

Are contestants permitted to play music during their speech? What about using a PowerPoint presentation? What are the rules regarding usage of props?

What happens if I paid my dues on time, but my club treasurer did not submit my dues to World Headquarters by November 30?

If there is only one contestant at a speech contest, does the contest still have to be held?

I know that immediate past district governors are ineligible to compete, but what about immediate past lieutenant governors marketing (LGMs) and education (LGETs)?

If I'm thinking of becoming a candidate for district governor, director, or international officer, at what point do I become ineligible to compete in a speech contest?

If there are only two contestants in a speech contest, and the first place winner is unable to attend the next level of competition and the other contestant was disqualified, can we nominate someone else to attend the next level of competition in their stead?

Are contestants required to have completed a minimum number of manual speeches to participate in a speech contest?

What are the situations in which it is permissible to nominate a contestant to move forward in a speech contest?

At the club level, a contestant may be chosen by whatever means the club desires, therefore, a club may nominate their contestant to the area level contest. However, in the event that a club contest is held for a single contestant, should that contestant disqualify themselves by not meeting the timing requirements, the club may not nominate a different contestant to represent them at the area level. Similarly, at the area, division or district level, if there is only one contestant participating in the speech contest, should that contestant disqualify themselves by not meeting the timing requirements, a different contestant cannot be nominated to represent the area, division or district at the next level of competition.

What is the standard protocol regarding timing? Since we’re supposed to have two timers, should both timers be timing simultaneously?

It is up to the discretion of the contest chairman as to how the timing is handled during speech contests. However, please note that in the case of the International Speech Contest, at the World Championship of Public Speaking, two timers are used, with one timer managing the stopwatch and the other timer managing the timing device that displays the green, amber and red signals. This helps to avoid the confusion of two timers having different results.

During an Evaluation contest, will paper be provided for me to take notes on or should I bring my own?

Each contest varies in their speech contest procedures. The important thing to remember about the written materials used during an Evaluation contest is that they must be collected by the sergeant-in-arms before the first contestant gives their evaluation. Each contestant will have their written material returned to them prior to their evaluation.

What are the rules regarding bringing children to a speech contest?

There are no official rules against bringing a child to a speech contest, and having the support of your family when you compete is wonderful, but please practice common courtesy. Make sure that your child is well-supervised. If your child is disruptive or distracting to contestants, please handle the situation appropriately.

Are contestants permitted to play music during their speech? What about using a PowerPoint presentation? What are the rules regarding usage of props?

Both music and PowerPoint presentations are allowed during speech contests. Please note that World Headquarters does recommend against the use of both, as they have a tendency of eliciting negative responses from judges. Also, it's the contestant's sole responsibility to handle any props or technical gear used in a speech. They may have an assistant help them set up and take down props, but the stage must be cleared for the next contestant.

What happens if I paid my dues on time, but my club treasurer did not submit my dues to World Headquarters by November 30?

In this situation, you would unfortunately be ineligible to compete, because in order to compete in a speech contest, you must be a member in good standing of a club in good standing. The only way to maintain your good standing is to make sure your club treasurer submits your dues to World Headquarters before the grace period expires (by November 30 for contining members, or by the date of the speech contest for new, dual, or reinstated members).

If there is only one contestant at a speech contest, does the contest still have to be held?

Yes. And if the contestant speaks over or under time, he or she is disqualified and may not continue to the next level of the contest.

I know that immediate past district governors are ineligible to compete, but what about immediate past lieutenant governors marketing (LGMs) and education (LGETs)?

Immediate past LGMs and LGETs are eligible to compete in speech contests, unless they have announced their candidacy to become district officers for the term beginning July 1.

If I'm thinking of becoming a candidate for district governor, director, or international officer, at what point do I become ineligible to compete in a speech contest?

The moment you announce your candidacy, you are no longer eligible to compete in a speech contest. Any firm declaration of intent to run for district governor, director, or international officer for the coming year may be construed as an announcement for these purposes.

If there are only two contestants in a speech contest, and the first place winner is unable to attend the next level of competition and the other contestant was disqualified, can we nominate someone else to attend the next level of competition in their stead?

No. You cannot nominate a new contestant to compete at the next level of competition, nor can you allow the disqualified contestant to compete.

Are contestants required to have completed a minimum number of manual speeches to participate in a speech contest?

The only speech contest with a minimum manual speech requirement is the International Speech Contest. To participate in any level of the International Speech Contest, a full member must have completed at least six manual speeches from the Competent Communication manual prior to the club contest. A charter member of a club chartered since the previous July 1 may compete without having completed six manual speeches in the Competent Communication manual. The club must be officially chartered before the area contest.

Talk on Current World Financial Problems

2009-01-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

MII Toastmasters Club is organising a Talk on the above on Tuesday 13 Jan 2009 at the Malaysian Insurance Institute, 5 Jalan Semantan Satu, Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur from 3 pm.

This is a Tea talk by a well connected gentleman and well qualified too to speak on the current world financial problems. He will share with us his views and observations on the subject so that we will be informed and can make a conscious decision as to what we should or should not do.

This talk is opened to anyone who are interested in the subject. Refreshment will be served and a door fee of RM18 will be charged to each person. If you are interested plese call Linda or Mohamad at 03-7880 8687 to book your seat. As there is a limited seats available prior booking is recommended.

BIODATA OF THE SPEAKER
Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Lau Ban Tin
PSN, DSSA, JPCA (M), FTII, FCMA, FAIA, MBA, DBA (SCU)

Y. Bhg Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Lau Ban Tin, aged 48, is a Chartered Management Accountant by profession and a member of Malaysian Institute of Accountants. He is a fellow member of the Malaysian Institute of Taxation, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Association of International Accountants. Tan Sri Lau obtained his MBA and DBA from the Southern Cross University, an Australian Government University. He is in the Adjunct Faculty, Faculty of Accounting and Management of University of Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). He is also member of the Young Presidents Organization, The International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI Malaysian Chapter) and an adviser to the Klang Chamber of Commerce.

Currently, Tan Sri Lau is the Chairman of Malaysian Red Crescent Society, Klang Chapter and an active patron to Persatuan Penjagaan Kanak-Kanak Cacat Klang where he is taking care of 70 handicap and down syndrome children. Tan Sri Lau is also the President of Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman School of Business Studies Ex-Students Association and the President of the Federation of Tunku Abdul Rahman College Alumni Associations. He is also the Vice President of Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance (MICG). Tan Sri Lau has also set-up a student loan fund in UTAR known as "Tan Sri Lau Ban Tin Student Loan Fund". At present, he is also running a charity body called the Malaysian Centre of Entrepreneurs whose aim is to promote entrepreneurship in Malaysia.

At present, Tan Sri Lau sits on the board of 3 Public Listed Companies namely Yong Tai Berhad, BIG Industries Bhd and Ngiu Kee Corporation (M) Bhd. He is also a director of more than 25 other private limited companies.

Meeting 6 Jan 2009

2009-01-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

I heard from the grapevine that I should not write too much as most of our members are more visual that is they like to see pictures more than words.

At this time I do not have pictures to show but just give you a glimpse of what has happened during the meeting.

Attendance

Visiting Toatmasters 4 DTM Soh (Dutama), Sam (MIM) Eu (Premier Adv)and another pretty lady I did not get her name from TTDI.

Guests 4, Mah from China (Adam), Andy from Malaysia (Adam), Thomas from Australia(GEM) and Yan (Willy).

Table Topics Speakers

1. Lim Ah Wai
2. Adam Fung
3. Chin Kong Meng (Champion)
4. Manian
5. Andy
6. Thomas Chua

Manual Speakers

1. Zarini Najimuddin on Criminal Mind
2. Willy Tan on Seaweed
3. Sam Wei You on The Unrewarded Sacrifice (Champion)

Evaluators

1. Dr Gan Eng Meng
2. Adam Fung
3. Masdiana Ooi Abdullah (Champion)

Role Players

1. President Leong Kok Wah
2. SAA Khung Varn Fatt (Most Friendly)
3. Invocation Presenter Levine Lee
4. Toastmer for the Evening Philip Wong
5. Table Topics Master Mike Teng
6. Table Topics Evaluator Ho Fook Chuan
7. General Evaluator Soh Fong Wai (Champion)
8. Grammarian Mohamad Abdullah
9. Ah Counter Lim Ah Wai
10. Timer Sherine Lim
11. Closing Ode Philip Wong

Highlights of the Evening

1. Induction of Lim Ah Wai as a memebr.
2. Announce of the Talk by Tan Sri Dato' Dr Lau Ban Tin on 13 Jan 2009
3. Award to Philip (as his Birthday Present) for his Award by TI during his term of office as President of the club.

Before I sign off, I like to thank Adam, Willy and Dr Gan for bringing guests to the club meeting. Let us do this more often.

Humourous One-Liner

2009-01-03T00:59:00.001-08:00

Schizophrenia beats being alone.

If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.

You have the capacity to learn from your mistakes. You will learn a lot today.

A thing not worth doing isn't worth doing well.

Hard work never killed anyone, but why chance it?

All true wisdom is found on T-shirts.

I don't have a solution, but I do admire the problem.

Lord, if I can't be skinny, please let all my friends be fat.
Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die

Confession is good for the soul, but bad for your career.

Sometimes too much to drink isn't enough.

It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.

Don't get married. Find a woman you hate and buy her a house. It's a lot easier on you.

A closed mouth gathers no foot.

When blondes have more fun do they know it?

Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps the kids in touch.

Is reading in the bathroom considered multi-tasking?

Seen it all. Done it all. Can't remember most of it.

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

Borrow money from pessimists- they don't expect it back.

A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.

If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

From me:

If our President is so good, let him keep his job.
Why change when it is not broken?

Meeting 23 Dec 2008

2008-12-23T23:24:00.000-08:00

DTM Logandran receiving his Award for Best Role Player and Most Friendly Person from our Vice President Education Levine Lee, CC.

Dr Devi was recognised for her Evaluation of Lee Hin Chong as Best Evaluator for the evening. The Award was presented by our VP(E) Lovingly.

Mr Simon Soh stole the Best Speaker Award for the night from our VPE Lovingly. Besides the Certificate Simon was also awarded with a Christmas tree from our President.

Masdiana Ooi was also Awarded as the Best Table Topics Speaker for the evening.

The President of Speakers Dream Chow Mun Yuen giving her Closing Address. Smiling, full of confidence and happy that the Speakers Dream members came in full support of the meeting.

Gwendoline Gwee the Evaluator for our Past President Philip Wong - very gentle and very firm with her Evaluation.

Our Past President Larry Toh sbna (Single but not available) very poised and sharp in his Evaluation of Simon Soh speech.

Our Humour Master Low Gain Drain always smiling and tickling everyone with his wits and humour without offending anyone - very clean jokes.

Lim Hing Chong, attempting his difficult (to me) assignment - reading a Poem but he started by singing.

Our Area Governor Dr Devi very serious when reading the Objective of Lee Hing Chong's speech. On her left is the DOT from MII looking at some phono I guess.

Another PP from MII Mr Thilothaman - a shining example - sharing his views as he Evaluated Ng Lay Choo a member of GE TM Club.

Ng Lay Choo making her presentation that allows every part of her body to communicate to the audience.

Our General Evaluator listening attentively together with the Time Keeper on his right and the Table Topics Master on his left.

It was the last meeting for the year 2008 and I was glad I came. I was told there were 46 members, (Speakers Dream and MII) with family and guests. The two rooms were crowded and sad to say that some members went home without uttering a word, except of course during dinner.

The President of MII was as usual, gave a speech about Christmas and also told us about turkey the chicken. He said the turkey did not come from Turkey it came from North America, for the Malays turkey is Holland and they called it the Dutch Chicken and to the Chinese it is the Chicken from Fire not to the Fire. We learned something last night. I did not managed to check with my Indian friends what turkey is to them and also from the French Foo Chow Association President, Monsieur Tilaka. Maybe they have thier own version.

He later introduced us to our PP Anna dressed with a Santa Hat and called her Santa Anna where our Toastmasters International Head Quarters is now. Santa Anna briefed us in dtail on the history of Toastmaster and also the meeting schedule.

The Invocation Presenter PP Masdiana read to us a touching poem from Mother Theresa on LIFE.

The VPE of Speakers Dream Lawrence Who oops it is a HOO gave us unpredictable questions as to what we should give to someone and even the most experienced speaker got stuck. Volunteers were Monsieur, Dr Devi, Masdiana, Thilo, Teik Lee and Suresh. The Winner goes to Masdiana for giving Joy to her family during Xmas.

Mohamad was the TT Evaluator and he really meant what he said "to whack the speakers". From the President of the French connection, to Area Governors (past and present), Division Champion, Past President to Lady Diana all got whacked.

The Humour Master was Loghandran (prounced Low Gain Drain) our Malaysian highest achiever that was placed first runner-up at the International Speech Contest in Canada this year. He made fun of the Singh though not negatively.

Dinner was better as it was a Christmas Dinner with Turkey and Apple cinnamon (I do not know what it is but I hope the spelling is correct). Oh yes it was also to celebrate the birthday of Dr Gem, 27 year old Khung (am poor in maths the numbers seemed to switch places) and also World FRU TISC (please figure this out - but no prize for winners).

The Prepared speeches came from Speakers Dream and Simon say........don't ask WHY but ask HOW. Philip from MII our Taipan selling his property in Kuching at a discount for those present, Lay Choo (formerly from Great Eastern) telling us the concept of Kungfu Panda and Lim Hin Chong from Speakers Dream sharing with us a poem from Lord something.

The Evaluators were: PP Larry, GG (Gwenddoline Gwee), PP Thilo and AG Dr Devi. The Grammarian was Dr Gem, Ah Counter was Monsieur and Time Keeper from Speakers Dream, (sorry I forgot to ask her for her autograph). Oh yes the GE is Hi Loss Drain or Loghandran Krishnasamy

Observation from the GE were: Only two father Christmas or rather one father and one mother for the night; one to represent China and the other India (the two most populous country in the world), the food was great and they want to come back next year, the session was easy for him and the Evaluators did their job well.

The Recognition Session saw Masdiana taking the Best Table topics speaker, Simon as the best project speaker, Dr Devi - best Evaluator, and Low Gain Drain took the Most Friendly Person and Best Role Player. MII members are very fair, they try and please their guests by recognising them so that they will have fond memories of MII and will come back soon

Finally the President of Speakers Dream MY Chow (people call her Mun Yuen) close the meeting and also announced that the Speakers Dream Speech Contest will be held on 12 Jan 2008 and all are invited.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU!

At this time of giving, I like to give my best wishes,to you, your family and your friends too (and that's me) for a happy holiday and don't believe what you hear about 2009 - It is going to be a great year for all of us. Just believe it and it will come true.

The Newly Wed

2008-12-18T04:12:00.000-08:00

My Dear Fellow MII-TMC Members,

Life trickles down to a few precious moments.
Today is one of those pure moments.
The happy times and the best years of our lives can come
in our carefree childhood, the growing up years in school,
in full romance, followed by marriage and finally parenthood.

Sunday 23 Nov 2008 - TM Ho Fook Chuan will join
the exclusive men's only section of the club where
the married men get together after each meeting
for a few drinks and cry their hearts out for falling into
the oldest scam in the world - Love & Marriage.

With divorce rates climbing all over the world, its
no wonder that marriage has lost its lustre.
But before we lose faith in man's oldest known institution - marriage,
lets sits back and share today's wonderful memories with TM FC Ho.

Tonight, i will share with you the love story of my fellow
Toastmaster and my very good friend - TM Ho Fook Chuan.
Just after the Asian Financial crisis of 97/98 , Ho also
emerged from an equally devastating commitment failure.
He swore to himself that he had given up on the oldest trick in the world - Love,
and proceeded to bury himself 24/7 in his advertising agency.

But then Love works in mysterious ways and as we celebrated the arrival
of the new millennium, bringing with it a new ray of hope, along came a friend
who introduced him to a shy & demure girl called Shy Yen. Boy, was she shy.
( Shy Yen is a junior education facilitator pursuing her MBA )
( FC Ho is a senior Toastmaster still pursuing his CC )
But through the cloak of her shyness, Ho said to himself -
" Ho Fook Chuan, if you had any sense, you will marry this wonderful girl " .
He practically held a shotgun over his head and said " I do " on the
18th Feb 2008 at the Registry of Civil Marriages, KL.
Even as the Registrar pronounced the both of them husband & wife,
Ho wasn't so sure. Make no mistake, Ho was sure about Yen,
but he wasn't so sure about matrimony and he wasn't sure about himself.
You may think that this is not very complimentary to Yen, but the truth is -
we can never be sure that we are sure , we can only be sure that we are Not sure.

There exists a verse in the Holy Bible that says it perfectly,
" There remains then - Faith , Hope & Love.
But the greatest of these is LOVE. "
1 Corinthians 13.

It is indeed one of the most memorable highlights of my Presidency to see my
fellow members Find Love, Discover Love and finally making that Commitment to Love.

Let us all here in MII-TMC propose a Toast to this young couple who truly deserve each other,

To Ho & Yen,
A Toast to a Long & Lasting Love.
May the days ahead be always filled
with Fun, Happiness & Laughter.

Cheers,

leong 23rd November 2008

P.S - for the rest of you, all your club leaves has been cancelled by the president.
therefore, please report for duty this Tuesday 25th Nov @ 6.30pm sharp.

Message from our new Competent Communicator

2008-12-18T04:10:00.001-08:00

Dear all,

Thank you for your kind wishes.

To be awarded the competent communicator award is a great way to cap the year. It has been a fruitful year for me in M11, in terms of learning and fellowship. I especially felt the strong teamwork in the speechcraft program that was held in the middle of the year.I was proud to be given the opportunity and to be representing M11, even though I was a novice then.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the 'seniors' for the invaluable feedbacks you have given to me throughout my 'training' in M11. I have 'swallowed' my ego and pride from the beginning, having realised that to learn and improve - the best teachers are my fellow TM at ground level. A special thanks to our infatigable President, who has ensured the smooth running of the club's activites at all times.I think it will be an unanimous vote for you to stay a second term?

Achieving the CC award is not the end of the learning for me. it is the beginning of another milestone . It is a reminder for me to continously put into practice what I have learnt, to keep on improving what needs to be improved, and that I will be a 'model' to those who are still striving to reach that level.

Let's continue to enjoy our journey in learning !

warm regards,
Dr GAn

Meeting 16 Dec 2008

2008-12-18T03:38:00.000-08:00

I am back and this is due to two persons who have responded. Thank you for your support and I will continue and hope to get more fans to read it.

Our meeting on Tuesday 16 Dec 2008 was as usual but our TME was William Shakespeare Ho and our GE was Anna. As usual our MPM=Most Powerful Man in MII took the stage and he shamed us all including the Muslim as to how much he is aware of the Qurban Celebration. Well done MPM.

After his Surmon he introduce us the newly wedded Mr WHO, William Ho as the TME. I am happy to note he prepared himself well and did a great job inspite of his shortcomings (puns not intended).

Quickly he introduced the Invocation Presenter our Foo Chow President from France Monsieur Tilaka who gave a rendition of Don't Quit. Though he has to go to the Airport he did sacrifice his time and be with us till the dinner break.

Our Virgin TTM Chin Kong Meng really surprised us with gifts from people he selected to speak on SACRIFICE. Great work and well prepared. People will always need incentives to move. The speakers chosen were: Khung, Dr Gan, Rosli, Mano, Willy and another. The best speaker title for the night goes to the Waterman Willy Tan. The Evaluator Masdiana gave her usual kind of evaluation firm and hard.

Today's unusual program was the Roast of our NMM - newly married man Mr WHO. Questions were posed to him by our Powerful Man, like a table topics session but restricted to be answered by NMM only. Ms Goh our visiting TM from TTDI said that we laugh a lot in this club. Well what do you expect when our powerful man roast a NMM?

Dinner was as usual, a little better food I must say and we missed our Banana as Khung just couldn't get it. Funny, Khung volunteer to bring it and he felt sorry and apologise for not bringing it. I think it is time for other members to contribute something as well and not depend on Mr Khung all the time.

The Prepared Speech Assignments from Mano, Willy and Dr Gan went well and they were evaluated by three Past Presidents Masdiana, Thilo and Mohamad. The best speaker title went to Dr Gan and the best Evaluator title goes to her Evaluator.

Mano spoke about the insurance on Landslip and Landslide and Willy on the same thing but more on his experience in helping the victims. For Dr Gan she gave us a Inspirational speech on giving hope. One of her best speeches and that makes her our new Competent Communicator. A standing ovation was given to Dr Gem.

Our GE Anna takes over and invited Ms Goh the Grammarian, Rosli the Aahcountant and Khung the keeper of time besides the three Speech Evaluators before she starts rendering her evaluation. I like to record that she recommends that the club conduct a Role Play Workshop as we have several new members and they are not quite conversant with their roles. She also recommends that Khung takes up bigger challenge by doing his speeches or bigger role.

Our GE also commended on our President during his Presidential Speech which she said is different from the many clubs she had visited in Malaysia as well as Overseas. For the TME she commends that he did well and recommends that he find out the biodata of the speakers before he calls them up.

The other winners for the night were Best Role Player goes to Anna and Most Friendly Person goes to Chin Kong Meng.

In the Closing Ode, Anna said that she was a member since 1977 and she enjoyed her time in TM and encourages everyone to make TM interesting. She brought in PP Larry her nephew and Dr Gan her school mate and they have done well. She also recommends everyone to visit more clubs and feel the difference.

Total Members present were 13, Visiting TM 1 and Guest 1 ie Chua Koon Tsing Dr Gan's son.

Send me your feedbacks soon.......

Lost Steam

2008-12-10T01:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Members, with the response I have it looks like it is a waste of my time to write the report as no one sees it and no one responded to it except for the hardworking President.

I may have lost my steam but I have not lost my enthusiasm as a member of MII TMC. I believe there is another way of getting through to you guys.

Until I find that way, I shall close this site unless of course there are people who are interested.

If you read this just say, "I've read." would be enough to encourage me to proceed.

Meeting 14 October 2008

2008-10-23T03:33:00.001-07:00

Our President first 100 days was on 08X08 and I am sure all the members would agree that he has done so much that very few of us can dare to challenge. The next person in line has to work much harder to be near to what he has done.

Anyway for our meeting he has done the usual fixing up of the roles and you can see that almost everyone of the role player came. Everyone came on time except the couple the so called Founders came late. They claimed that they were illegally detained by UHMC.

Present for the meeting were: Leong, Levine, Mohamad, Monsieur, Larry, Dr Gan, Joyce, Raja, Mano, Adam, Chin, Ho, Thilo, Diana, Mike, Khung, Manian and Guests Lim and Yian. With 17 members we have a 61% attendance score. With 2 non-members we have almost 10% of the those present as guests.

After a long break, Joyce managed to take a break from her high flying activities and oblige with a TME job. Considering her long absence I must say she has done her job well. Raja did his Invocation and Mano conducted the Table Topics with Adam taking the TT Evaluator role. The subject was current and controvertial Thilo, Masdiana, Lim, Yian and Mohamad volunteered. The winner went to Mohamad with his machine gun rattling from opening to the end telling us how to look at our commonalities rather than our differences.

The speakers for the evening were Chin speaking on "My Philosophy in Life", Ho on "Vote for Change", Mohamad on "We must open up" and Thilo on "When the going gets tough the tough gets going". I suppose everyone was emotional that night and the vote goes to Ho as the best speaker after he showed his temper and throwing away temper. I guess everyone was afraid that if he does not win he may throw us out of the window. He was so emotional and passionate about what he spoke and all of us can feel his anger.

The speech evaluators were Levine, Masdiana, Mike and Larry. The winner went to Masdiana who evaluate Ho. Apparently, the speech winner has some bearing on the Evaluator too. Her main advise to Ho is don't litter the place - Bandaraya will take him to court.

Monsieur was our General Evaluator. He admit that he has been GE for other club but this is the first time he was given a chance to do it in our club. Khung our Grammarian did well, Caren was absent and the role goes to someone I forgot to note, and the timer is Manian.

President took over from the GE and wanted to close the meeting until he was reminded to pass to Larry to close the meeting. Larry did well to close the meeting as he prepares a poem for us all to ponder and bring home.

Well, the theme 100 days went well without crisis a negative word chosen for the day.

Another great meeting I must add and I am sorry to all who were absent as I was delinquent in writing this report on time. I must try and do it but sometime I just could not as I have to take care of my injured wife, you know ferry her through KL traffic.

Meeting 23 September 2008

2008-09-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

We had a DOT to be our General Evaluator and this DOT was imported. He seemed to give good commendations about everything and one that really struck me was on Punctuality (we even have a clock directly opposite him) and how he felt about our members enthusiasm and commitment. I am proud of you Dr DTM William Lau for recognising us and you members of MII for the way you have projected the club to our Guest.

Our meeting starts sharp at 7pm with Levine our ASAA calling the meeting to order and quickly pass the control to our President Mr Leong Kok Wah (no relation to Teresa Kok). This time our President amaze us with his understanding of the Ramadan and Shawal festivities and he also named the 12 Muslim calender month. Good research and this is what I believe Malaysian should practice. We should not be afraid to learn about other people's culture and we should not also be afraid to let others learn our culture. With better understanding we will achieve better harmony.

From my count we had a good attendant with 16 members present, one guest brought my Monsiuer and one visiting TM Dr William.

The TME was Mr Monsiuer Tilaka, a 3 in 1 guy. In the morning he is a Tourist Guide, in the evening he is an Insurance Agent and in the night he is Disc Jockey and whenever he is free he is also a Transporter, taking Test Speaker from one club to another. He got everyone with a Role to briefly explain their job and due to his excitement he forgot to call upon our General Evaluator to do his.

Next Session was the Invocation and this was presented by Chin. Someone need to mentor him before he attempt to handle this role as in our club the person just have to read a motivating verse or poem to start the meeting.

After Chin it went to Adam who conducted the Table Topics and he limit it to only four as time was limited. Only Khung, Mano, Chin and Mohamad were called and the winner went to Chin with his Horizontally Challenged poser.

Oh yes, I forgot this time we went for dinner just after the President's address and we had the usual food but Khung as usual brought his bananas, Mohamad brought Raya kuih called "Akok" named after our President and Teresa and the Birthday cake for Willy I believe was bought by Levine. We got kurma too and I failed to find out who brought it. Too much to eat and we shared it with two from MII office.

The prepared speeches started off with Manian (Evaluated by Masdiana), Philip (Evaluated by Anna), Dr Gan Eng Meng (Evaluated by Mike), Willy (Evaluated by Levine). It was an interesting variety of topics. Manian spoke about himself - how in 5 years he changed 6 schools, Philip on how to play the Stock Market, Dr Gan appealing for support for her Tai Chi Association and Willy talking about Health. The best speaker award goest to Dr Gan and the best Evaluator Award went to Mike.

GE Dr Willian, DTM take over the last session and praise and praise the club for everything. His recommendations were to restore the Humour Session, (actually we will if time permit) and his observation as to how lost Khung were during the Table Topics Session. His recommendations were for the Table Topics Master to explain before starting the session.

The President then took over and presented the Awards. The Best Role Player went to Dr William Lau. Apparently, someone forget about the Most Friendly Person for the night, much to the disappointment of the regular winners like Mike & Adam.

The Closing Ode was conducted by Masdiana and she gave an inspiring speech whilst at the same time thanking all the members of the MII TMC for the support during her recent accident. She felt that MII is like a family to her and besides going for our journey in Communication and Leadership she felt that the rapport amongst members is equally important.

I am waiting for the pictures taken last nigh to come and I hope to post to you soonest possible.

I am not lost of words now as Khung said during the Table Topics I am short of time. Hope you guys enjoy the reading and do give me your feedback. Cherio......

The Area Contest

2008-09-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

MII TM Club became the host again and this time our President took the role of Contest Chair for both the Contests. As it falls on the Ramadan month, he quickly start the contest session at 7pm and then declare the meeting adjourned for Buka Puasa. This is just like the translation of Marine Open Cover Policy. In Malay it is cal Polisi Buka Tutup Marin.

There were four Contestants for the Evaluation and three for the Humour. I can't remember the names of the Contestants and the test speaker - perhaps due to my age or the puasa but I must speak up for the sake of freedom of the press - Anna Hue ought to be the Champion for the Evaluation Contest. Just could not understand how the judges gave it to another who in my personal opinion is not even near enough. All the other Evaluators speak from the Rostrum and they kept their eye contact on the speaker - as I have many timesbut we are not talking to the speaker but to the audience at large.

Not to sound like a sore loser I guess, Judges need to be effectively trained if they are trained at all.

As for Humour Session, I believe Mohamad did better than the last time when he won at the club level but the other two contestants were better than him. The other contestants were smooth in their delivery, have enough body gesture or 'slapsticks' and they are good with their words. They deserve to win.

If I may just make by comments here, I find Toastmasters are over dramatic in their presentation. Almost every word they express must have a gesture and this to me is distractive. Perhaps I like to open this discussion with the readers....if any lah.

Let me put this in better perspective, should a speaker use gesture for every word they use and make a speech so dramatic like a clown? I think a speaker should speak and from the words he or she selected the audience is able to picture it without graphic display of our body. Send in your comments and we will debate over it.

P/s. Sshhhh don't tell anyone, whilst Mohamad lost the contest he is happy with himself. He thinks he has done better. If you do not agree tell him and if you agree tell him too.

Am Back Again

2008-09-21T23:19:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, I hate to start a conversation with an apology but this must be an exception. I have been missing for sometime now and here I am back - as no one wants to do the job. Huh...pity me huh.

Our meeting on 26 August 2008 was a little different as the President wants all our contestants to redo their speeches at the club and members present to whack them hard into shape. I will leave the details out just concentrate on the program - fine with you guys?

Mohamad, you know who he is, still talking about the DOT, the dirty or Distinguished Old Toastmaster stuff and the members didn't seemed to be very entertained. Everyone gave their opinions on how they view his Humour Speech and I guess Willy hit him right on the head - Be yourself. I guess, I can speak for him as he just cannot relax and be himself. When he is on the stage he is a different monster. He needs to change.

Another Mr M, Mr Monsier he told us about the same thing and Mohamad told him to make it like he is being reborn, getting out of the hole for the second time, but this time he is fully aware of what is going on. Unfortunate for him, nothing went wrong with Mohamad and he has to stand by till next year perhaps.

On Evaluation, Anna was great but our President felt that being too confident is not good. Anna should go behind the rostrum and speak like the rest. Whilst this is true to some point but for the Division and District levels, you would not be able to win if you stay behind the rostrum. Anna as usual, motherly type, giving her evaluation witout notes and very structure. You want to be a good Evaluator, buy her lunch and she will help you improve by leaps and bounds.

I should also report on the Table Topics Session conducted before the Humour Speech Rehearsal. Zarini was the Master and gave topics related to Patriotism and the best speaker went to theis Cellgen guy Willy, very calm and composed kind of a guy. When Adam Fung is the TME all the best roles will be his. He took the Best Role Player and the most friendly person for the evening. Next time he should be graceful enough to bestow his award to another as he is getting too many already.

That is all I got for you and I hope you are happy with the brief reporting style.

MII Installation Dinner Photographs

2008-07-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

Past Division W Governor making his presence Our Past VPPR Master Piece - the sign at the door.

Rear Picture of our guest from Australia
Another rear shot by our cameraman.
Good piece of photography.
Our (Immediate Past) District Governor K K Chee chatting with his TLI Chief Ramdas Nayar with Mohamad busy interrupting them.

Meeting 22 July 2008

2008-07-28T00:51:00.000-07:00

I can now proudly said that I have completed 100 posting in this blog and I am now starting with the 101. Looks like I will pursue until someone will be kind enough to take over from me to post this blog.

Our President starts the meeting with a touch of humour and quickly pass the control to the Toastmaster of the Evening PP Mike Teng.

As usual Mike Teng lots of pain in explaining about Toastmasters and took lots of time too but his humourous way of presenting it made it fun for most.

The Invocation was done my first timer Mano and he did research well to quote us from Mother Teresa. This reflect on his nature of being a person who is caring and concerned for the less fortunate.

Our Dr Gem took over the Table Topics Session and gave various topics. Zarini who volunteered was asked to comment on Environment, Philip on how to break an ice. Willy our new member was great with the subject of "Your Idol". Our veteran Masdiana Ooi could not sit too long and volunteered. She was given the topic Ladies should wear make up. The last speaker was Patrick our new member from MSIG who spoke on Old Habits die hard.

Levine was the TT Evaluator and as usual gave us some good and some not so good things about the presentation and how to improve it.

The highlight of the evening was actually for Willy and Rosli. Both of them were inducted by our President Leong and Levine and Mike Teng their respective sponsors were made to be their respective mentors.

We had dinner as usual but the surprise was we got some bananas - kind contribution of Khung. Keep it coming Khung. Durian for our next meeting?

After the dinner we were back at it again and since all the four speakers are from the first Manual Anna read the objectives for all to know.

Rosli was called first to speak and all of us got to know him a little more. He speaks Japanese and still a bachelor at 41. Such a nice man and I just wonder why the ladies are shying from him. Maybe his destiny is in MII????

Chin was the second speaker and he is very focused. He wants a title before his name so he worked hard but got it at the end. We told him that when he finished his 10 Assignment, we will give him the title CC in from of his name.

The third speaker is Zarini, who loves to sing like her mother. She spoke about herself and we all get a glimpse of her. Well you know what she even brought her husband to support her first speech.

Willy our last speaker said, "It is not how much you learn but how much you use it." He quoted his grandfather very fondly.

Evaluators were Mohamad, Sherine, Philip and Anna in that order of speaking. The Gramarian is Mano and doing it for the first time he really learn fast. Khung was our Ah Counter and he really a firm and no nonsense man. Ho our Time Keeper was very strict and even hit the bell twice for our GE Masdiana.

The Awards for the night went to: Will Tan for Best Table Topics Speaker and Best Assignment Speaker. Anna Hue go the best evaluator vote, Mike Teng got the Most Friendly Person whilst Masdiana won the Best Role Player vote.

Oh yes, I forgot we got two guests, Zarini's husband and Patrick's colleague. Beside those I named earlier, we have a few other members - one of the best attendance. Keep it up guys.

Div W - Club Officers Training

2008-07-08T02:22:00.000-07:00

In Toastmaster I have been trained to "listen, think and speak" and I believe our new Leaders ought to be reminded of this basic principles. I was at the COT (Club Officers Training) for Division W at the WIM and I believe that I should take some time to do a review and hopefully, my views rightly or wrongly, can be discussed amongst those who value the training we gained in Toastmasters to further improve the organisation and its members.

Before I proceed to state my views I must qualify myself here that what I state here is my personal view and not of any club, district, division or any individuals. It is not my intention to be critical of any individual but as Toastmasters I felt we must be thankful for the evaluation we receive.
I like first to question the leaders of the District as to what COT is for. To me it is to prepare our Club Leaders when they take up office. How can a leader learn something on 28th June to take office on 1st July? Is this too short a time for anyone to learn, plan and prepare their task during their term? If we notice the high rate of clubs collapsing and lots of members disheartened I am not surprised as we have half-baked leaders - though it is not entirely their fault.

It is about time our District and even International Leaders rethink about this. Can we have our election, say in December and have our COT before April the following year so that they will have time to learn, prepare and plan. If we are elected in May and be trained in June (which I learn is the earliest so far) and most of the time in July or August, how can you do our job well?

My next issue is on the subject or the substance that is being provided to the trainees or club officers. Most of the time, I observed that the subject is more on how to become a President Distinguished Club by getting the 10 points. Here we are taught on the bottom line alone. Why are we so concerned about the points when what we should be focusing is how to make our members to be better members and better leaders.

In my opinion, the purpose of the COT is to train the club officers and what we are doing is totally irrelevant. What I like to see is a session focussing on the individual club officers portfolio. If he is the President, how do we train him to be an effective President. I am sure if each club officers are empowered with the respective knowledge and skills the club would function better and members would benefit from it. Here again, as a President, we should also train him on the duties and responsibilities of the various club officers so that he is aware as to who is doing what. Of course he can read all the books and expect him to know everything and if this is so then we do not need the COT at all. The COT should be more focused on issues that will help the club officers to do their job better.

My next point is on the quality of the Facilities. When I was at WIM for the training, I was asked to go to a room somewhere at the top and a bunch of us went and then someone else told us that is further at the top. We waited and waited and finally the door is opened and we sat. Unfortunately, the trainers were not able to proceed for some reasons or another and I left in disgust. How can this happen? Why can't someone do something whilst we wait? It is just a group of non-comunicado affair to me; when we teaches people to communicate. This may not be the fault of Dr Sharon but I hope someone in WIM must be alert enough and rectify the situation.

Finally, my disappointment is with the selection of Trainers. Whilst I like to encourage Division and Area Officers to take on the job, I strongly recommend that all these people must go for training themselves - and be trained thoroughly. How can they impart to us when they themselves are 'green horn'? We want the best and we expect the best. We want to have great clubs and if the kind of trainers we have I am afraid we would not go far.

Trainers should not deviate. They should only focus on the syllabus but with the topic given I don't blame them. As I have said we should train the club officers to be prepared for their respective role but what I hear is that personal opinions are expressed. To me trainers personal opnions should be kept to themselves. Let the participants suggest on ways to improve their club and let the participants share their experiences. Trainers should shut-up - just listen and let the participants contribute. Your job is a facillitator and not to express your personal likes or dislikes. Worst never to argue with the participant who merely ask a simple question.

Before I conclude, let me also say a few good words to the organisers. They have done well, starting on time and ending on time - this is something I commended. They may not have the power to secure good premises and trainers but I hope future leaders should consider future trainings be don for the whole District and be held in Bangi where Maybank, Petronas, RHB Bank, and others have their training centres there. We must invest in training as the club leaders of today will be the International Leaders of tomorrow.

I must also commend on our three District Officers for being present and being there. Please recommend to TI that we need to have some changes, like our AGM & Election should be held earlier and our COT be done at least three months before they take office.

Our District is now most likely to be in the top 6 spot in the world and I hope we can achieve better result in the years to come.

18th President's 1st day at Office

2008-07-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT LEONG KOK WAH:

My first 24 hours as President of this club has been rather eventful.

The day started with a congratulatory call from PP Mike Teng early in the morning.
Mike was so relieved that he can finally drop the Incoming and address me as just plain President.
Quote: " Get your lazy A** out of the bed and start working !! ".

My first official duty as President of MII-TMC was to attend the Club Officer Installation of our baby club -
Great Eastern Toastmasters Club. All i had to do was just attend, sit, smile, clap , eat ,
pose for a few photos, engage in small talk ( sodomy and the likes ) and collect my designer GE T-shirt.
If this is all a President has to do, darn, I want to be President forever.

My visit to GE-TMC however was not without fanfare.
Both the "parents" in our club, aka the founders of the club "accompanied' me to the function
just like any other ordinary parent would do on their child's first day at school.
I guess, like all parents, they have found it very hard to let go, lest this very green President
"misbehave", "conducts himself improperly in an inappropriate manner" , that will bring
disrepute to this great institution called MII-TMC.
I guess, i passed with flying colours because i was even chauffeured driven home
in a Mercedes Benz !!!!
Darn, if this is the lifestyle of the MII-TMC President, I want to
be Presiden seumur hidup lah !!

That my fellow Toastmasters is my first 24 hour report as President of MII-TMC.
I will no doubt keep all of you informed till that momentous day -
7pm - 08 - 07 - 08.

Cheers,

leong

Something from VPE LKW

2008-06-24T19:22:00.000-07:00

My Dear Fellow Members,

The podium finish of the F1 race,
The Oscars at the Academy Awards,
Centre Court at the Lawns of Wimbledon.

What do the above 3 events have in common ???

" Winners Never Quit and
Winners always drink Champagne "

Ok maybe we had the "halal" version of the champagne,
but only winners celebrate with champagne, whatever
version you may choose to have.

Yes, we have just completed another eventful year here
at the MII Toastmasters Club.
Yes, it was a year of twists and turns but once we
turned the corner , it was a race to the finish line.
Cross the line we did and we crossed it in style.

And what a glorious year it was..................
Our "rebranding " exercise was completed.
We secured 2 speechcrafts, with more on the way.
President Sherine found the one true love of her life.
And along the way, came a lovely surprise by the name
of " The Presidents Distinguished Club Award ".

The lessons of the past year here at MII-TMC has
reaffirmed my lifelong belief in the motto :-
" Winners Never Quit & Quitters never win ".

Winners are always ready to succeed in whatever
they have set out to do.
Winners are always ready to reach out to their dreams
with conviction and commitment.
Winners do not merely start the race, winners always
finish the race.

Our success here at MII-TMC is proof that the key to
success is to keep moving, learning & training and
eventually, we will be able to improve and speak better
& longer the next time.
To all our new members - Khung, Jimmy, Mano, Chin,
Zarini, Kasturi, Manian, Patrick, Caren, Rosli & Willy,
this is the MII Toastmasters Club promise to all of you.
It is one small step leading into the entrance of the MII
building but one giant step for all of you.

To my fellow EXCO members, President Sherine, Levine,
DTM En.Mohamad Abdullah, FC Ho, Joyce, Monsieur,
we did it because we believe we could reach the stars.

To my Past Presidents & fellow members, your
unwavering support throughout the year was the key
to unlocking the Treasure Chest of knowledge.

This will be my last report as the VPE and before I sign
off for the final time, I want all of you to know that the
winners of tomorrow were born here today at MII-TMC.

Ribuan terimaksih for a truly memorable and fabulous
year here at the MII Toastmasters Club.
Till we meet again on the 8th July.

I remain,

Yours truly,

vpe - kok wah

Night of Leong Kok Wah

2008-06-23T02:48:00.000-07:00

Ok guys pictures speaks a thousand words and thanks to our DVG Azmi Sharin DTM who supplied the photos I am able to exhibit some.

Will revert with some stories later.

Meeting 10 June 2008

2008-06-13T02:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you, thank you and thank you for reading this blog. I know not many would like to see or read about others but the some or few would still enjoy reading it. Do drop me a line if you think I should change my style of reporting so that it is more friendly for readers. Whack me if you think I deserve it.

Our first meeting in June was great, we have 19 persons attending and what is greater we have only two guests; meaning we have 17 members. This is almost 85% of our membership. If you are one of them, my salute to you for the support and again for reading this blog.

The meeting theme was "Toastmasters Transform" and the word for the day is "HIKE". Toastmaster has transform so many of us from a timid kancil to a assertive tiger, from a small atom into a devastating bomb, from a softie to a hardie. Whatever it is we must thank our organisation that empowered us to be better everyday.

Our Acting President Leong Kok Wah came on stage sharp at 7.00 pm to address the floor and in a short 3 minutes he handed the control to the TME, Mohamad Abdullah. Our TME strongly emphasised that he intends to end the meeting sharp at 9.13pm and requested all Role Players to help him achieve this by being on time.

Our TME quickly introduced the Role Player and briefly explained the roles for the benefit of the guests except for some Role he had asked for the Role Player to explained it themselves. Later he introduced the members and asked the Guests to introduce themselves. All within time.

Anna then came on as Invocation Presenter and read an article from our old Invoccation booklet to inspire the members. After that the TME introduced the Table Topics Master PP Philip Wong. He had some easy and some difficult questins about current affairs and 5 members participated. The winner goes to Leong Kok Wah.

The Table Topics Evaluator for the evening was PP Thilo and PP Anna. We had a double dose of Evaluation from the floor due to a confusion. The TME thought he would discount with the Evaluation session but Ag President appointed PP Thilo and Anna on her own accord seeing that the assigned TTE was not present cover for her. In view of their efforts the TME allowed both to give their Evaluation.

Just before dinner we had an Induction Ceremony conducted by our President Sherine. As usual she confidently and professionally conducted the session to induct our new member Zarini Nazimuddin and Chin Kong Meng. Time allotted was 10 minutes but she finish it within 8 minutes. Great ceremony, official yet not boring.

Dinner was as usual on the 4th floor and surprisingly we had a new catering staff and the food seemed to have finished before the TME could take his share. Anyway, Levine as usual arranged for the cake to celebrate our June birthday Girls or Boys, and for the night it was only for President Sherine. We sang her a song, she blows the candle, only one, cut the cake, made her wishes and distributed it to all.

During the Prepared Speech Assignment Mr Khung Varn Fatt did his maiden speech on "Opportunity" by telling us something about himself. We now know he is 70 and not 17, has been in insurance for over 20 years with the Harpers and later on his own. Now happily married to one woman and have one son and three grandchildren. This day we can claim that Mr Khung is the most senior member of our club.

The next speaker is our lady Dr Gan Eng Meng attempting her C&L 8th Project with the topic 'Bones, moans and groans'. She prepared a great power point presentation on osteoprosis (I hope the spelling is right) but more importantly how we can prevent it when we are old.

The third speaker for the evening was our friendly Adam. I am pleased with his presentatin lately. He is well prepared and he must have read the Manual a couple of times before he make his presentation. His enactment of how to influence a member to do his manual by asserting his wish seemed natural. I must also congratulate Ho for taking the role of co-acting with him as he seems to be a natural actor. I suggest he should go to Hongkong and follow Jackie Cheung.

After all the excitement we have to come down to the routine of calling the General Evaluator and this time is another virgin RP Ag President Leong Kok Wah. Considering his length of service and time with the club I am proud that he handles the role well. He gave a run down as usual. However he was interrupted by Masdiana Ooi when she pointed out that Dr Gan's PPt presentation and that is when Anna joins in and time went by - though he still think that we were ahead of time. Anyway, who would like to fault the new boss?

The other evaluators are: Grammarian goes to King of Toastmaster aka T Raja. The Aah counter was the Football Club of Holland aka F C Ho and the time keeper was new born baby Zarini Najibuddin. For the speech evaluators are Levine for Khung, whilst Anna evaluated Dr Gan and Thilo evaluated Adam.

Due to time, the TME quickly invited the President to conduct a simple business session. The TME being the Hon Secretary of the club announced that our incoming Treasurer has withdrawn from the post due to her work commitment and there was a proposer from Leong Kok Wah for Zarini to take over. Since there was no objection the motion was carried and Zarini will now be our incoming Treasurer.

Next the President gave away Certificates to the following:
Best Table Topics speaker - Leong Kok Wah
Best Assignment Speaker - Adam Fung
Best Speech Evaluator - Anna Hue
Best Role Player - F C Ho
Most Friendly Person - Mohamad Abdullah

Since someone forgot to prepare the Certificates, everyone was given the opportunity to take a picture with her. Hope I can load it up when the pictures are in hand.

I would also like to aknowledge the following who came for the meeting:

Guests: Miss Ng and Mr Willy
Present and Past Presidents: Anna, Masdiana, Philip, Thilo, Mohamad and Sherine
Members: Leong Kok Wah, Mano, Chin, Levine, Kasturi, T Raja, Ho, Zarini,Dr Gan, Khung and Adam.
Absent with apologies: Mike Teng and Larry King (Toh)

Drop me a line and tell me the other way of writing this that would make you enjoy reading this article.

Bye and may God bless you all.

Year 2008 - Exciting But Taxing Outing FRIM Trip

2008-06-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Dear All,

Hi, on the first day of June 2008, 8 members and their family members plus friends from MII TMC wearing MII T-shirts were gathered at Forest Research Institute of Malaysia ( FRIM ) at 8am for an exciting outing - Picnic Breakfast + Jungle Walking + Canopy Walk !!!

See the pictures and you will know how enjoyable we were ................

These are our members and their family members + friends ............

See, what do we have ? Curry Chicken, Bubur Cha Cha, Fried Mee Hoon with hotdog, Fried Chicken, Sandwiches, Fruits and Drinks............ Yummy ! Yummy !

We are enjoying the food and fresh air !

After a delicious breakfast, we are heading to meet up with our Tour Guide

Half way of the trip, before reaching the Canopy Walkway ............. see what our VPPR doing ?

Group photo .............. at the ' Toilet Tree ' ............

Yes, we did it ! All of us managed to climb up to the Canopy Station ............. see Khung is still with full energy

With such a lovely wife taking care of him all the way up to the Canopy Walkway, how can Khung not enjoying the walk ???

See our VPPR - a man to get marry soon, so excited over the " Tongkat Ali " tree

Can you see the quality of our member - 71 years old Khung !

VPPR + Forever " Joker " of the Club = Ho !

Our Young and Energetic Past President - Larry

What are they looking at ?

Yes, we did it !!!

After this activity, the members became wiser and they know what kind of President to be elected in the coming term !

From : " Not The Usual Reporter "

Message from Incoming President Leong Kok Wah

Hi all,

Looks like we are all online discussing club matters.

First of all, I would like to thank Madam President for
taking the lead in organising this fun but taxing event.
I was surprised that i could finish the course without
much problem as I dont exercise.
My kids enjoyed the the whole event too as they dont
get to go out often. I am sure Mike and Yip Sau's
kids also had something great to remember this holiday.

Now that we have established the fact that although
we are above average speakers, we are below average
walkers/climbers. As the incoming President, I have
decided that there will be more outdoor events for the
benefit of members who do not exercise very often.
We have a need to be all rounded - speak well, play well.

As for you Mike, I will ask your kids for permission and
Daddy have to go along - no choice. I would also like to
thank Mrs.Teng, for the delicious curry chicken and the
bubur cha-cha which I had at least 5 bowls ( tambah
more coconut next time ). As for the nasi lemak, well I
believe Mrs.Ho will have to answer for it. (replaced with
karipap )

Our next school holiday will be from 16 - 24 Aug and I
am sure Madam President or rather Madam IPP by then,
will organise another fun event for all.

Before I say good night, cramps on my thighs are
beginning to set in. How are all of you doing ???

Good cramp night.

kok wah

Meeting 27 May 2008

2008-05-30T01:36:00.000-07:00

It is a pressure having to complete this meeting report within 24 hours of the meeting when work in the office is escallating and tasks at home is increasing. If the news I am writing now is a little stale, please give me some space as I am going through a busy time of the year.

I must say at the outset that the last meeting was another fantastic meeting with 24 people attending and participating. Only 11 members, 11 guests and 2 visiting members and with the TME Adam Fung at the centre, all went well. I must confess that Adam has improved with his dressing and his preparation. Keep it Adam and we are confident you will be successful in whatever you are doing right now.

The Acting President Leong took over as usual and he did well getting the guests to introduce themselves. Later he introduced our Adam Fung to take control of the meeting. Adam fully prepared took the stage and after the routine rituals call on the Invocator or rather the Invocation Presenter Mohamad to come forward.

Mohamad took a little longer this time and presented an invocation, a writing from his friend Lawrence Walter Ng a well known trainer, and read it. Full version of the invocation will be published with some small variation.

Later a member from MIA TM Club Thilaga was invited to conduct the TT Session. She did well introducing the subject clearly and get people to participate. The crowd like her style and awarded her the best Role Player for the evening.

The TT Evaluator is Ho and he too surprised me with positive feedback on the various speakers. Keep it up Ho, I am proud of you and I hope you will continue to give your dedication to your own improvement.

The humour master for the evening was, let me see, is - nevermind I come back on this when I remember who he is. Oh I was joking it is not a he it is a SHE a doctor call GEM, a darling. It was her first attempt and from one who is serious, she really took her job seriously and lost some sleep over the presentation. Humour is no laughing matter.

We went for dinner and as usual, very boring to report that our dinner is great. We had good food and enough for all inspite of the large turnout.

After dinner we had a little trouble to show the VDO of Poor Yarn's. We managed to show the full excerpt of the presentation but the speaker was a little soft though. Leong, Mohamad, Adam and Ho gave their evaluation on her performance and generally they are happy with her presentation. Mohamad however, felt that she should dressed up like those F1 girls and recommend that there must be director to organise the show.

Anna Hue took over from the VDO and she was the Cindralella for the night speaking to herself with her back against her Evaluator (by accident I guess) and deliver a perfect rendition of a poor girl fantasy that came to reality. Her Evaluator is Gan from KDU TM Club and he wants Anna to be more dramatic.

Next is Mohamad giving a Status Report entitled Creating Robust Talents. He shared with us the acronym STATE = Solution to attract talented employees. At the same time he also state that S=Skill, T=Time, A=Attention, T=Talent and E=Equipment. Briefly we have to give them skills, time, attention, talent and equipment to realise their unrealised potentials.

His Evaluator is Leong and aptly he said that the statistics given and the facts are insufficient. He felt that Mohamad based more on his opinion than factual evidence.

Later the GE Levine doing her maiden role gave a good run down of the meeting and gave a few good suggestions to improve the meeting. One of her suggestion was to use only one note book for the evening to avoid time wastage.

The Grammarian for the night was our 'young' rookie Khung. It was his first attempt and he took his job in his stride and did well considering the areas he recommend for even some senior members. People when speaking just forget that 'just' and 'recently' are two words of the same meaning and this is called redundant. Another is about people who like to introduce themselves as "married with two kids". You did not get married with two kids (only kangaroo have kids, humans have children), in fact you are married to your spouse. Keep it up Khung, looks like you are good at it and may be given the job again later.

Our PP Larry came back today and close the meeting.

Oh, I forgot, President came before Larry to get feedback from the guests and also gave the Certificates to the winners. The Best TT Speaker goes to visiting TM Gan and the most friendly guy for the night goes to none other than Adam Fung.

If you read this till this part, send me an email to tell me how you like or dislike the report and how I can improve it.

Meeting 7 May 2008

2008-05-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

Time really flies and there seems to be so many things happening that takes priority over your schedule and work cannot get done. This delay in reportting has no excuse and I take the rap from you. If at all there is an excuse here is one, my dear wife complains of a chest pain on Friday night and I immediately took her to the nearest clinic and to my surprise the doctor was attending to another patient but on seeing her condition he immediately excuse her and let my wife in. On seeing her he immediately checked her blood pressure and asked me to send her to the hospital. Then off I went to University Hospital. We were there and the doctor kept her for observation till 3 am before she was released.

On Saturday my daughter went to school for Ninjitsu class and was stung by a bee. I thought it was a mere stung which I got plenty when young but the swell was alarming and I took her to the clinic. The doctor gave her an injection and we go home as normal. The next day the swell got worst and I went to the clinic again and the doctor now asked me to send her to the hospital - off again to UH.

That is my Wesak week holiday. Positively speaking it was lucky on a holiday.

For our meeting on 7th May I must say it was a historic day. The CEO of MII Puan Khadijah herself was there and she was earlier than most of our members. Luckily our VPE was there and had time to brief her a little whilst he shift the tables and chairs with her assistance.

We had over 30 pax for the night one of the best turn out and with 7 came from AAO, 4from Takaful Ikhlas, 2 from MSIG, one from Anika and Mike and Levine brought one guest each. The other guests were AG Lim and Soo Pon from Speakers Dream.

The meeting started punctually with our Acting President Leong take control. He briefly explained the theme for the night "Strangers in the Night" and the word of the day "Charm" before passing the control to the TME Mike Teng.

Mike as usual take pains in going through the details of the meeting and the usual rituals before calling on the TTM AG Lim Hin Chong. This evening TT Session was conducted differently - he asked the speaker to continue with his story of a dark night..... The session was well responded and the winner went to Soo Pon.

The Table Topic Evaluator was Masdiana and as usual she was Candid, Open and Direct.

After that we had Ho who did one of the best delivery of his Humour; slowly and got me so impatient and finally he drops the punch line.

Dinner was great, there were enough food though the crowd was larger than normal. Puan Khadijah stayed on but before the break she made a few observation which was welcomed by all. She was happy to see the response to her letter and look forward to further meeting with the club.

After the dinner Kasturi gave her rendition of Breaking the Ice and as usual we were all directed to give her a standing ovation after the speech by the TME. Next was Philip still giving us an account of his to be published book. This was followed by Adam who gave us some insight into MLM. The winner for the best speaker goes to Adam.

Mohamad was the General Evaluator and due to time he has to run the Session quickly. Generally his comment was that the club has done very well when compared to all the other clubs that he knows. However, he also urged the members to continue to be better, though a little at a time.

The winner for the Best Evaluator goes to Anna, the best Role Player to Mike Teng and most Friendly again to Mike Teng. It is about time the other members strive to topple him. The closing Ode was done by Anna and it was appropriate with the many guests we have that night.

Happy Wesak day yesterday and Happy Mothers Day last week and Happy Teachers day this week, Happy Fathers Day next month and above all Have a happy day everyday.

MII Toastmasters got Toasted

2008-05-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

On Labour Day we are supposed to lie on our soft bed, relax and dream but yesterday our Labour Day 13 of us were made to lie down alright on a hot floor with a thin towel and a small stool to rest our heads on. I used a small towel to protect my soft cranium but do not know what the others did with their small towels.

Well we were there from 10 am till 2.30pm over 5 hours but got toasted for only 40 minutes. This is a SPA of a kind that allows your body to excrete the moisture from your body through your skin. Our club exco was happy to sponsor all our members who could come and enjoy the anti-oxident exercise (I hope I got it all right) and perspire. As I have said to someone there we don't sweat only horses do - men perspire and ladies only glow.

President & her new husband (sorry her only husband) was there, Leong with his one wife and one son, Mike with his entourage, Ho with his wife 2B, Thilo, Anna, Jimmy (our latest member), Philip, Mohamad, Masdiana came with their respective spouses whilst the singles were Levine, Adam and Dr Gan.

It was fun, meaningful and I believe it certainly brought us closer together. We got closer with the spouses and children of our members and friends.

President briefly took the mike and welcome everyone and VPE Leong briefed the members on the program and what to expect at the SPA as well as gave a run down of our Membership Campaign, Installation Night, Guests Night and Club activities.

Later Mike with the help of Masdiana explain about the trip to Bali in November for the Half-Yearly District Meeting.

We had good lunch and the SPA has given us two more tickets to go back there as well as have our blood check for free. Sincerely, I do not think any club has done this for their members. Glad to be an MII TMC member. For those who overslept and those who are in Nebraska and those who were lost in transit somewhere, I am sorry for you as you have missed a great opportunity to learn something about being healthy.

Thank you to Leong and his Team who organised the session and may we stay Forever Young - Together.

Meeting on 22 April 2008

2008-04-23T04:11:00.000-07:00

Each time I go into this page to write I just wonder who will read it and whether they enjoy reading it or not but as my President Sherine said, it does not matter as the one that reads is just like the star fish that the 'boy' helps to throw back to the sea to survive.

Just happy to tell everyone that our President was back from her honeymoon and looking very radiant and reserved. Glad she came and took part in the table topics though she could not speak for more than 60 seconds.

Our Acting President carry out the meeting just like before and conduct the introduction session seeking their names and places they want to go for honeymoon. You should be there to hear the exotic places those present likes to go and some wants to have another honeymoon with a new partner. Believe it?

The Invocation Presenter was Leong Kok Wah our AP (bukan anak perempuan dan bukan the other AP) and he tells us about someone whom I do not know and the message is "Winners never quit and quiters never wins." Actually we can debate on this but not in here.

Table topics was managed by ever loving 'mother' Anna Hue and she really get us all worked up with the current 'political' affairs. Almost everyone spoke more than 2 minutes and our President has to cut hers by 60 seconds. The speakers were Monsieur, Ranjit Singh (guest from Bungsar TMC), Philip, Mohamad, sherine, Leong, Ho and Adam. And the winner went to our guest Ranjit Singh. MII members are very polite they always vote the guest in.

Humour master for the evening was our lovingly lady Toastmaster Levine Lee. She must have bad men around her that make us really sympathise her. When she was scolded she got angry and the man told her that she is too sensitive so she scold the man and he got angry and the man told that she is aggressive. 'How also u cannot win lah!'

Dinner was as usual plenty of food as there were only 12 members, one VTM and one guest. Our VTM is Ranjit and our guest is Jimmy Hooi a guest of Leong. The members present were, Sherine, Leong, Ho, Levine, Monsieur, Anna, Philip, Dr Gan, Adam, Kasturi, Khung and Mohamad.

There were two Project Speakers. PP Philip Wong gave us a speech on "leverage - A Rich Man's Game" talking about his former boss again on how he make his money. He gave us basically three main points - polish the banker, have good friends and take risk. Whilst Adam became a Coach for the evening, not that Air-Cond Coach but a 'trainer'. He gave us one of the method he would use to coach a person and that person is the Presidential Director. Interesting Project and all members should get a copy of this Project and practice it in their daily life. Evaluator for Philip is Monsiuer and Adam is Mohamad.

Our General Evaluator was Ranjit and he did the routine and at the same time add in his comment when the evaluator did not quite cover. Briefly, his comments are positive. He likes the rythm of the meeting - that was the first time I hear someone describing our meeting and I like it. Next he commented on the need for the TME to explain the various Role eventhough there were no guest. His justification is for the members to be able to stand up and express openly the task they are doing for the night. Well we can debate here. He take pain to touch on our Table Topic Evaluator Dr Gan who was doing it for the first time. He likes her focus on 'connecting with the audience'. Her evaluation was basically centred on this area. As usual, invited GE always find our hospitality warm and he felt welcome though the room temperature was very cold - that is why the men wear jacket. His next point was directed at our Grammarian who was whitewashing he claimed. I quite agree with him and he also gave his view why we should HELP our friends by giving them positive feedback besides the 'bouquet'.

The vote for the Best Table topics speaker and Role Player went to our VTM Ranjit and the most friendly went to the person who came late - Adam Fung.

In conclusion, I like the meeting as I learned from Philip and Adam. At the same time I was focusing on the words used and how those words struck me. Philip said, Good Debt vs Bad Debt and Leverage. Leong on Winners never quit and quiters never wins. Ho when he said to 'kick off' the meeting, I find it strange though it is commonly used. Someone also said, Repeating it again and again - just left me wondering on redundancy. The last one is "Give them a round of applause." What does it really mean?

Whatever it is, see you all again soon.

Pictures at Meeting on 25 March 2008

2008-03-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

Some of the pictures at our meeting on 25 March 2008.

Meeting on 25 March 2008

2008-03-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

After the back to back Contests we were back at regular meeting with 11 members and one guest. Our Guest was from Sai TM Club (our incoming AG) Dr Devikamani Menon and our members present were: Leong, Levine, Monsieur, Masdiana, Khung, Dr Gan, Mike Teng, Kasturi, FC Ho, Philip & Mohamad.

Everything went smoothly except that Dr Gan had to take over Thilo's job as Timer as well and when she handles the Table Topics Session, Philip had to handle the Timer job. Great team work.

The Acting President Leong took the rostrum from our ASAA Khung and start the meeting by saying a few words on the theme for the meeting REINVENT. He later hand over the control to Monsieur as the TME.

I must say that Monsieur has matured somewhat and was comfortable handling the TME position. He did it well and deserved to be voted as the best Role Player for the meeting.

Masdiana took the Invocation session by quoting a poem she got from her research. Very motivating and that should be the way Invocation presenter should do - rather than saying it in her own words.

Dr GEM handles her first Table Topics Session and I must congratulate her for a job well done. Except for some questions which are a little bit long the rest was specific and provoke the speaker to express their own personal views on the theme of the night that is Reinvent.

Six speakers took the challenge to speak at the Table Topics Session and the vote for the best speaker goes to Mike Teng. The Evaluator was FC Ho, his virgin attempt as well and did it very well. (He was so eager to participate and our PP Philip has to give way to him to participate as a speaker.)

The Humour master for the meeting was given to PP Philip Wong and he really made all of us tickled with his story, "At age 35 you still believe in Genie?".

Dinner was as usual great but this time we had more share with less people. The birthday boy is none other than our Presiden berlakun, LKW (not related to Singapore LKY). Thanks Levine for getting the cake.

The two speakers for the night was Levine doing her successful club series that earned her the title of CL and also a point for the club whilst Adam did a splendid sales pitch about some magic stones with lots of demo. Great education for me.

Our guest was the GE for the evening and commented favourably on the club performance. She commented our role players were exemplary, our TTM has chosen good questions, our voting slips was professionally done, Role Players (RP) handles more than one role and members were versatile. On top of these she also commended on our Award for most friendly person and the display of our achievements.

On her recommendations, she suggested that our TTE should not participate, which I agree as he should give others a chance but for someone who is eager to speak I guess we don't mind. She also noticed that we were too friendly and interject a speaker - here I reckon we should be more flexible as it gives the speaker a chance to train on how to deal with it; as you wouldn't know when your next public speech will have such or worst interrupters.

On her suggestion that a project speech must be evaluated by someone who has done the assignement is not right. TI has made it clear that if a person has done three Assignements he or she can evaluate anyone. After all it is all about training ourselves. What happens if a club has no one who has done an Ice Breaker, does it mean that we have to import all the evaluators? What happens if the nearest club is 12,000 miles away? Let us be a little open about this. For me I would appreciate if the Evaluator is my junior as I am listening to a lay person view of my speech not someone who used his or her experience to tell me how to do it.

Anyway, Mike in his usual self always fooling around and worked hard to earn the title of most friendly. I guess if each and every member of the club and also guest could strive to be friendly - I am sure we will all enjoy.

The closing Ode was missed out somehow as time was not with us - sorry Mike.

IS and TT Contests - 26 Feb 2008

2008-02-26T21:32:00.000-08:00

This is my personal view of the Club Contests last night and I hope no one will assasinate me for it - all done in the interest of progress.

Last night contests was the first ever I have seen in MII where there are more Judges than speakers; in fact, I saw there are more guests than members. Where have all our members went? My survey seemed to say that they are all over the world carrying out their official duties. I don't fault them. It is also my policy that work must come first and for that matter too, family must also come ahead of the club.

To Anna, Philip, Larry, Thilo, Joyce, Jeffrey and Richard, I know you are not in town and I hope you are well wherever you are. For the rest who are in town but could not attend, I guess you must have your reasons - I must respect your decision.

For those of you who were there like, Sherine, Leong, Levine, Mike, Masdiana, Adam, Ho, Monsieur, Dr Gan, Khung and Mohamad I salute you for your presence.

The Contests went well and I must congratulate our OC Leong for the way he conducted them single handedly - fast and proper. My only recommendation was not to switch roles with Mike too often that it looks like a circus. Cut all the formalities and move on.

Well on the Table Topics Contests, I cannot commend much as I was not there to see how they perform. Only four Contestants took part and they are Ho, Monsieur, Mohamad and Adam. Monsieur took the first place and Mohamad the second. The winner went to Monsieur and Mohamad was the runner up.

On the International Speech Contest I must say that Mohamad could have done better. He did not elaborate enough on his topic "WAT - A3T" (What a Treaty) and his points were not clear. As an experienced TM he could have done a better job. Anyway, he took the first place and from my point of view it could be due to the originality of the message and the way he deliver it. I also overheard his wife Masdiana commented that "...his examples were not clear but this time he uses his vocal variety well".

The next speaker was Adam who spoke on Opportunity. In my view this is one of his best speeches - he seemed to have prepared it well; the contents and delivery. He started off well and structured the speech perfectly. The only area I can recommend is that he needs to move out from motivating speeches as Judges, I believe had enough of it. If he insist on speaking on the same subject for the Area I would suggest that he take out the examples and make new ones that are personal to him. For example, how he misses to see an opportunity and lost and how he embrace another opportunity and gain. Make it more personal and I believe the Judges will appreciate it more. (Adam got second place and since Mohamad will be in South Africa during the Area contest he will represent the club and I am sure with a little bit of polishing he can win the Area Contest.)

As for Monsieur, he uses his personal experience but I miss his message. From Fat to Fitness I like him to tell us how he encourages us to lose weight. Anyway, the title could be better in my opinion if it is 'Fatness to Fitness'. The contents should not have too long an example of being stuck. That example was good but too long and the additional part of it is unrelated. Focus on how you have slim down would be great and use more other examples.

Our Dr Gan to me was at her best for the night. The topic relates to her profession and she delivered it well. I thought she had crafted her speech splendidly and I give her full point for it. Areas where I believe Dr Gan can win, I repeat can win in a speech contest is to introduce vocal variety, emotion and quote some quotations. I find that most Judges are attracted to people who speak loud, full of action and humourous. However, Dr Gan may not win the contest but she win my votes for being the most improved speaker.

The above are my personal views and I hope readers will look upon it as a way TM evaluate speakers to make them better. The recommendations may not be correct but if you agree adopt it and if you do not just ignore it.

Before I forget, let me thank the Chief Judge Area Governor Paul Tan, Time Keepers were Fong (Money Mastery) and Levine Lee, TME Mike Teng, many guests and Sherine our bride to be.

Please post your views to encourage future contestants.

Meeting 15 Feb 2008

2008-02-16T21:30:00.000-08:00

We usually meet on 2nd and 4th Tuesdays but this is a special change due to the Chinese New Year season. Still in the mood, I like to wish you Happy Lunar New Year - hope you made your way to KTM (Kuda, Toto and Magnum) and gots lots of return.

I was late for the meeting but am proud of the guys that came early to decorate the meeting place. This is sheer dedication and commitment to their club - a belief I believe reflected in their everyday lives. Oranges were laid on the table, Ang Pows were pasted and posted all over the place and even the club's name was decorated with the APs. The birthday cakes was there, the food was sufficient to cater for the extra crowd and the room was well laid out. To the silent heroes of our club, I salute you for your commitment. As for the others, I hope you too can come a little early just to help them.

Well the meeting started off with the Acting President Leong Kok Wah and the room looks too small to cater for our meeting. Thank you to the HLA team (Ho, Leong and Adam) for bringing the guest. Joyce also brought in a guest but I missed them after the break.

Since I was late, I guess our newest member Khung must have done a great inaugural job of being the ASAA for the meeting. Thank you Khung. Ho did the Invocation and gave his personal views on the benefits of becoming a Toastmaster.

Mohamad took over as TTM from the TME Leong and gave 8 topics on Chinese New Year. From my observations, we Malaysian need to learn a little more of each other's culture to build a better relationship. Masdiana came later to conduct the Evaluation.

Just before the dinner our Humour Master gave a joke about a lazy preacher. Dinner was as usual at the 4th floor and there was Yee Sang to celebrate CNY. This hardworking guys really remembers everything. Can you guess who he is? Anyone who can guess it right, I shall give him or her 10 APs - of course lah with nor money.

The speakers for the night were one PP doing the C&L for the 2nd time, one LTM (lady toastmaster) doing her #6 Assignment uner the C&L and the 3rd is our joker who teaches us on how to be a Minister for Education. Well done PP Philip Wong, LTM Dr Gan Eng Meng and CTM Adam Fung.

The meeting now focusses on the Evaluation with another joker taking control and that is ADVG Mike Teng. He whacked everyone with a touch of humour and before that he has to invite the Evaluators. Monsieur evaluated Philip, Masdiana evaluated Dr GEM and Thilo evaluated Adam. All of them were great.

Oh yes, the Grammarian report was given by Monsieur, Aah Counter by Thilo and Timer Ho.

The Award presentation was done by Leong and the winners for the night are:

* Best Table Topics Speaker - Masdiana Ooi
* Best Assingment Speaker - Adam Fung
* Best Speech Evaluator - Thilothaman
* Best Role Player - Mike Teng
* Most Friendly Persons - Adam Fung

Before the meeting was closed PP Philip did the Closing Ode.

SIN NIEN KWAI LERH

2008-02-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

The PIG will soon make way for the RAT to take over and there start a new cycle. On 7 Feb 2008 the Chinese the world over will celebrate a new year. I cannot predict much about the year of the RAT except that it will be a great year for MII Toastmasters Club. Why? Because we all believe it will be and so it will. If each of us just do our part, I am sure the sum of this small parts will add up and at the end of our term we can all celebrate because we made it happen.

For the benefit of the non-Chinese and also the Chinese who are not not informed of the Lunar Calender let me show off a little of what I know.
. Rat
. Cow
. Tiger
. Rabbit
. Dragon
. Snake
. Horse
. Goat
. Monkey
. Rooster
. Dog
. Pig

And do you know why the cat was not in? The Rat was so smart and told the cat to come later and the cat miss the boat when Buddha took the first 12 animals. Since then the cat still hold grudges against the rat and that is why your mother would have scolded you when you quarrel with your sibblings by saying "You are just like the cat and mouse(rat)". Rat is an intelligent animal and has helped the human being plenty with their sacrifice in medical research.

I heard someone asked who I am. Well I am a Gorilla to my children a bigger form of the monkey. We are supposed to be very intelligent and bright but as always there will be an exception to the rule.

Want to know more of this just buy Lillian Too (my Harvard Club Past President) or Joey book ( I do not know him). Believe it or not just enjoy it.

In conclusion, may I wish all Readers of this blog who are celebrating the Chinese New Year "Sin Nien Kwai Lerh" or New Year Happy lah! (word for word translation) and the rest Have a good break from your work.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008

2008-01-23T02:28:00.000-08:00

The Club AGM was conducted professional with proper Minutes and Report by the President and also the Minutes of the last meeting. Of course we can do better the next time.
For the information of members MII conduct their AGM early to enable to newly elected Executive Committee time to prepare for their year that starts in July. President promised that by the second meeting in July we can call for an EGM to approve the account for her year starting 1st July 2007 till 30th June 2008.
Just to report that the following has been elected and to take office comes July 1st.
• President Leong Kok Wah
• VP Education Levine Lee
• VP Membership Mohamad Abdullah
• VP Public Relation Monsieur Tilaka
• Hon Secretary Larry Toh
• Hon Treasurer Joyce Chung
• Sergeant at Arms Dr Gan Eng Meng
• Immediate PP Sherine Lim

• Hon Auditors Anna Hue
• Hon Auditor Phillip Wong

Meeting 22 Jan 2008

2008-01-23T02:26:00.000-08:00

The meeting started a bit late than usual due to the bad traffic outside. Mohamad saw a bus at Damansara broke down and caused a massive jam from PJ. Anyway, we were happy it got started a little earlier though unofficially by PP Mike Teng and VPE Leong with an introduction to Toastmaster to a few staff of MII who came to learn about Toastmastering.

We started about six minutes late with SAA Mike Teng briefly called the meeting to order and surrender the rostrum to our VPE Leong. Leong as usual apologise to everyone about our President who will be late due to some office matter. VPE also update us on our SAA, saying that we do not have to visit him as he has been discharged earlier the day. He also touches on the use of words and how his email may have offended some people so he has chosen not to use the work ELECTION but put it on a card. He later explained that he and another member is not as free as some people may think but they have control of their time and can spend the time for the club. Actually, he is trying to garner more members to come forward and ease his pressure a little. He, later introduce one of the club founder Masdiana to take control of the meeting for the evening.

The TME Masdiana Ooi as usual, being candid and being her true self, started the meeting and tells us about the club past which most members do not know. She did all the routine which I do not have to report here and then call on our Grand Ma Anna to introduce the word for the day which is ‘VENT’.

As we do not have the table topics session this evening due to the AGM that is going to be held after the meeting she called on the speakers for the evening. First was PP Philip Wong who did his Ice Breaker for the 2nd time round talking about his milestones. All I can remember is how he was so close to Malaysia’s top Billionaire. Next, she called upon Dr Gan to present her C&L #5 Project. Dr Gan spoke on “Breaking the News” – about how she being a doctor having to tell a patient the bad news. After that PP Jeffrey was called to deliver his CL Assignment.

We were late having dinner at 8.15 pm and had promised to come back at 8.35 pm. During dinner we sang the birthday song for Phillip as he is the only January child present. He cut his cake and we wish him well. This will send me money on my birthday but I do not even know when his birthday is. Will check this up and still try to send him a card.

After dinner we went straight to Evaluation and PP Larry took over. Speech evaluator for the evening was Levine for Phillip and Mohamad for Dr Gan. According to the GE Levine did well considering it was her first attempt and Mohamad was a little critical. The other evaluator took their turn to report and I also heard our Aah Counter reporting that Phillip uses two words not in his dictionary, “Ai Yoh” and “Insha’allah”.

Positive comments by our GE were: Carpets has been replaced, toilet renovated, noticed Mike explaining to guests on Toastmastering, opening speech by VPE was well done and he even commented that the Blog was active. Phooh – gave me more pressure lah! His recommendation was to start the meeting promptly and the Exco to consider buying a new Time machine.

Mike Teng did the Closing Ode and spent more than 5 minutes to tell us about the new Competent Leader Manual. Our VPE went up again to advise members that our next meeting will be held on 15 Feb instead of 12 Feb as he suspect that many members would still be away on holiday. He had also organised the meeting schedule and distribute this to all the members and plead that those who cannot handle their role to please find a replacement by themselves. I agree with this as it is too much to ask for one person to go hunting for another replacement for you. I guess, if you have a buddy, get your buddy to help so that when he is not able you can stand in. I will announce the program separately.

Oh yes I forgot, we had two guests from MII and they are Wan and another. I forgot her name but will certainly find this out. 14 Members present were: Sherine, Leong, Joyce, Levine, Anna, Masdiana, Mike, Larry, Jeffrey, Phillip, Dr Gan, FC Ho, Khung and Mohamad. Apologies came from Monsieur.

That’s all folks for now – Happy Taipusam!

Update on Monsieur

2008-01-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Members,

A thousand apologies. Wrong room. Wrong Time.
The new wing in Pantai Hospital is a pretty big ward.

I visited SAA CC Monsieur Tilaka on Friday
and have this to report.

As you can see from picture 004, 005 & 006,
surgery was performed from the side of Monsieur's
head and all the way to his abdomen. I am not able
to specifically comment on what ails him.
I suppose Dr.Gan will be in a better position to
explain to all of us. The more Monsieur talks
about it to me, the more I am confused and worried.

Nevertheless, I have decided that in Monsieur's best
interest, I should stop sending him "alcoholic beverages ",
just to be on the safe and sober side.
Therefore, with Madam President and the EXCO's
permission I bought him a fruit basket courtesy of
all members of MII-TMC. ( picture 008 ).
Monsieur sends his appreciation to all members.

What came next was very depressing ( picture 009 ).
A nurse delivered Monsieur's dinner and his immediate
grim facial expression says it all. At this junction,
Monsieur lamented that our club caterer's food tastes
like French cuisine anytime. I have come to the conclusion
that the reason why half of all patients who enter the
hospital do not get to leave is because of the food they
serve there !!! Any debate on this matter ??

Anyway, the point is this. Again, what would it take to
elicit a response from all of you ??? A funeral ??
Judging from the tepid response so far from only
a handful of members, Monsieur would really have to
fake it before anyone notices.

The MII-TMC is not a 200 member club.
We have only got 20 members at the last count.
This poor guy has spent 16 days ( out of 20 ) so far
this year in Pantai hospital. That I can guarantee all of
you is not a statistic all of you want to start the year with.

Granted Monsieur may not be the most popular guy
in the club,
Granted Monsieur may not be the most like able guy
in the club,
but he is after all a member of MII-TMC.

So , let's see all of you walk the talk.
If all of you are going to preach - " For Better Fellowship "
at the very least send him a text message or call him
at 012 - 2953 668 or better still, go the distance and
surprise him at Block D , 5th floor, Room 515 ,
new wing Pantai Hospital, Bangsar.

By the way, Monsieur spoke to me on the phone
this afternoon that he is contemplating sneaking
out of the hospital on Tuesday, so that he can be
with us at the meeting. The poor chap is bored and
practically "rotting" to death at the hospital, not
forgetting also that he is being "abused" by all the
pretty nurses there. ( remember the picture of the urinal ).
Hell !! I want to check in too !!

Selamat Malam.

Update on SAA Monsieur

2008-01-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow MII-TMC members,

There is a time for humor and there is a time for prayers.

Sargent-at-Arms C.C. Monsieur Tilakasekaran underwent
brain surgery today and at this moment is still warded
in the ICU at Pantai Hospital.

His family members have requested that Monsieur be allowed
to rest in the hospital until he is well enough to receive us.

I will continue to keep all of you updated with the latest development.

For Better Fellowship, let's us all pray for Brader Monsieur's quick recovery.

Yours truly,

VPE - Leong Kok Wah 012 - 366 7780

Our SAA in Bed with his Bottle!

2008-01-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow MII-TMC members,

The journey of life is like a roller-coaster ride or as
Forrest Gump would say - " Life is like a box of
chocolates, you never know which flavour you will get ".

I got a call at 4.14am this morning.

Caller : Good morning, Is that Leong Kok Wah ??

VPE : Yeah, and this had better be good.

Caller : I am calling from Pantai Hospital.
We are losing him. You had better come over.

VPE : OK. I'll be there. Just tell brader Monsieur
to hang on there.

Wife : who is that ??

VPE : It's the neighbour. Apparently, our dog is over
at their place again "pumping" their dog.

Wife : zzzzzzzzz

I slipped out of the bedroom and sneaked into
the basement of my house. ( ala Brad Pitt in
Mr & Mrs. Smith ). I opened the secret
compartment and retrieved from my treasure chest -
the " life saving miracle cure" and rushed to Pantai.

When I arrived at 4.44am in his room, candles
were already lit in his room and guess what ??
In Pantai, they also have a "timer" there getting
ready to record the exact time.....................

I politely requested every body in the room to leave so that
the VPE cum Presiden Berlakon can prepare the last speech
worthy of a Toastmaster - ( obituary + eulogy ).

When everybody vacated the room, I locked
the door and brought out my bottle of -
" life saving miracle cure ".

PRESTO !!! MAGIC !!! MIRACLE !!! SURE BOLEH !!

Sargent-at-Arms C.C. Monsieur Tilakasekaran
rose from his "sleep" and grabbed the bottle of
" life saving miracle cure " with the thumbs up.

What else can I say ???

Believe it or not ? See it for yourself !!!

Life has a funny way of testing our resolve.
It is how we respond to the test that matters.

In this case, the response was - vintage " Cabernet Sauvignon 1991 ".

Meeting 8 Jan 2008

2008-01-09T02:56:00.000-08:00

Attendance at this was poor with only 9 members present, two guests and one visiting Toastmaster. The theme for the evening was BE INVIGORATED and considering the small turnout the theme certainly invigorates those present.

The SAA Monsieur Tilaka was temporarily domiciled at Pantai Hospital and the ASAA Mohamad took the gavel to start the meeting at sharp 7 pm according to the room time. The control was handed to our VPE ever hard working Leong Kok Wah and got the meeting going with an introduction. And for this evening he asked them to tell the their dream at the end of the year.

He later passed the gavel to the TME Dr Gan Eng Meng who took the control for the first time like a fish in water. Being well prepared she did what she needed to do and introduced the Table Topics Master Masdiana. There was no Invocation this evening as time does not permit.

Masdiana wasted no time in introducing the table topics session and asked for volunteers. On this 8th day of the year 2008 only 8 speakers were allowed and they were Adam, Jalini, Ho, Leong, Sherine, Khung, Mohamad and Siew Foong. And the winner goes to our guest Siew Foong.

After the session Dr GEM called on our PP Philip to handle the evaluation and with confidence he gave his views with candour and encouragement.

Tonight is a special night when we have to induct a new Member Mr Khung. this was elaborately done by our President at exactly 6 minutes. As usual, our club's ritual is to get the inductee to read his Promise and the members have to re affirm theirs to him as well. Our GE Mr Lucky was very impressed with our Members Promise, well printed by our VPPR Ho. Thank you HO. The President also requested our VPE to notify the new member his new mentor and Mr Mike Teng was named.

We then proceed to the 4th floor for our dinner and as usual everybody was happy with the food except that our VPE gave us a distress signal that the food cost may go up by RM1 (fine with me) except it is for each person.

After coming back to the room we were ready for the next session and our Dr GEM introduced our next speaker Lovingly Levine Lee who is doing her CL project from the Successful Club Series 'Finding new members for your club' to take the floor. This followed by Adam who tackled the Advanced Project with a title "Beware of Toastmasters". Whilst Levine was soft and warm, Adam was loud and funny. We enjoyed their presentations and only one evaluator was invited as Levine's presentation does not provide for Evaluation. Masdiana did not minced her words when she presented her evaluation and Adam now understands clearly what need to be done for his future speeches.

The grammarian for the evening was Leong Kok Wah, the Ah Counter was handled by Levine as Jeffrey was MIA and Mohamad took the time job. He must be so hot that the machine blew up before he could touch it. As usual the always prepared VPE, put his Plan B into motion and we had to settle for a manual sign - a little exercise for the 'slim' Mohamad.

Our GE Mr Lachmichand MA encouraged us to encourage members to use the word for the day by giving the speakers signs placed all over the room. He also commended the well designed Members Pledge card done by Ho Ho Ho. Finally he mentioned that "Some people are afraid to speak in front of other people but there some people (like him) who felt not stimulated to speak to a small group." Those who did not turn up for the meeting see what you have done to a good speaker? Next time turn for the meeting.

Finally our President took over the control of the meeting and presented the three Awards. The Most Friendly Person for the evening goes to Adam Fung and the Best Role Player went to our TME Dr GEM Gan Eng Meng. (I've mentioned the name of the Best TT Speaker earlier - scroll up a little more)

when Jalini was invited ny the President to say a few words, she readily commented that she has known TM for over 10 years but no one has invited her except Levine. She felt our meeting is fun and the location perfect. She will be joining us soon.

For Siew Foong, she said that she is still thinking about giving her commitment to the club. This is her 3rd visit and will give serious thought about joining. She was invited by Dr GEM.

The Closing Ode was done by our PP Philip who said that since he was as young as 20 years old he has been a leader but has always the fear of speaking in front of an audience until she met Masdiana when he was working for Sin Chew Press. He gave acknowledgement to Masdiana for introducing him to Toastmaster and no matter how busy he is, he is willing to spend time at TM meeting.

That's all for now folk, Happy New Year 10.01.08(Muslim Calender) - Awal Muharram

Regular Meeting 27 Dec 2007

2008-01-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, I am back again. Just had some misunderstanding with the President as to who should be reporting on this. Anyway, am glad to continue and if you are reading this, whoever you are just give me a note to show that you took the time to read.

Our Last meeting for the year went well inspite of the holidays and people going on leave, etc. My record shows that we had a total of 21 people present comprising of 7 able members from the Speakers Dream, two guests of MII TMC and 12 supportive members of MII TMC.

The theme was simply Happy New Year 2008 and the word of the day is Promulgate. You can find the meaning in the dictionary if you so desire. We had to speakers and yet the meeting went overtime.

Adam our ASAA was his usual self, humourous and making everyone very cosy when he introduce our acting President Leong. Leong ably conducted the session with a round of introduction. He also mentioned that Mr Khung has signed his application form to be a member and will be balloted at the next meeting. He has taken 6 minutes extra before he introduce our TME PP Thilo.

PP Thilo still in his style make sure that everyone understands the history of TM and our club and also the program for the meeting. Then he introduce our President of the FooChow Association from France Monsiuer Tilaka to handle the Invoccation. He did well and did it within 2 minutes.

As usual our Table topics always is fun and this time is conducted by our veteran PAG Anna Hue. She made us all be somebody for the night and force us to tell what we would be doing for 2008. Monsiuer got to be the IGP, Thilo as the BNM Governor, Simon Soh as ACA Chief, Loghan as PM, Adam as Bar Council Chairman, Mohamad as Mahathir (IPPM), Masdiana as Chief Justice and Kam Peng as an Opposition Party leader. All did well and the election result for the best TTM for the night goes to SS, Simon Soh. The TTE was our AG Hin Chong and being a kind person he praise everyone and gave some recommendations for improvement.

Before we go for dinner Loghan entertain us with a few jokes and also with two bottles of 'champaigne' the halal version for a real toast. Thanks Loga.

Dinner was as usual at the 4th floor and everybody had a fair share, except for Mohamad complaining not enough to fill his big tummy.

The speakers for the evening was our IPP Jeff who did his CL project by attempting the Successful Club Series "Closing the Sale". He did well but the two guests does not seemed to be interested in signing in.

The next speaker doing his Advanced Manual Project #4 from the Professional Speaking series entitled the "The Seminar Speaker" Mr Simon Soh tells us on how to manage time using his five steps.

After that the General Evaluator Kam Peng (the CIA of Hong Leong Bank)took control and invited Mohamad to evaluate Simon. As usual he is very critical but sincere in his evaluation (Hei that's me huh!)

The grand ma for the day was Mun Yuen from Speaker's Dream, the Ahcountant came from (sorry I did not get her name)and the time keeper is our Joyce. The best Role player goes to Mohamad. The GE then gave her evaluation and commented that our acting President was an inspiration to her, the meeting was good with lots of experienced speakers from both clubs.

Later the President of Speakers Dream took the rostrum and commented about the food and venue and at the same time did a commercial on their upcoming workshop entitled "Execute your Ideas". Sorry I did not get the date - cannot promote your seminar as 'fee' not paid.

Then MII President said a few words before Masdiana close the meeting with a wonderful passage from Internet. Hope to get a copy from her and publish it here.

Oh yes before I sign off, I must tell you too who the attendees vote for the Most Friendly Person for the night and it goes to a banker who comes from an insurance Toastmaster Club. He works for the Orang Cina Bukan Cina Bank our PP Thilothaman.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY - I am sure your 2008 will be much better; you better believe it.

Meeting on 13 Nov 2007

2007-11-13T18:44:00.000-08:00

When I write this report after each meeting, I do really wonder what the readers would really want to see. Do they want to see pictures or words and I believe most of them would like to see pictures but if there is no picture what would people like to read? I guess, each person looks for different thing and honestly, I just do not know how to satisfy most of the readers. With this in mind I would try and vary my style and hopefully, I can cater for a larger group of people and primarily the members of my club.

Our VPE has named the meeting "Let's Advance" perhaps due to the two Advanced Speakers for the night and the word of the day was Regroup, meaning make a fresh start. I guess again, he wants us to reinvent ourselves, relook at ourselves and progress. This is hard to do for most people as we always look at ourselves differently than what we project. How do we reconcile with this issue? Any debaters?

The VPE took on the President role for the early part of the meeting as we expect the President to be slightly late due to her work schedule. Don't worry Madam President, our VPE is sincere in wanting to help you out. We started almost puctually only 240 seconds late. I believe it is acceptable even at MII.

Our TME Joyce who has been away, busy with her travelling commitment, made a grand come back. I must say that she fully prepared herself for the job and as the GE Ramdas Nayar DTM, commended her for her efforts. It is heartening to see someone prepares for her task or role inspite of her heavy work commitment. Well done Joyce

Anna took on the stage to handle the Invocation and she indirectly whack our VPE for slotting the role at the last moment. Well, not to blame our VPE as he has to juggle the roles to get every member coming for the meeting to participate. To Anna I must also commend her for shortening her her stay overseas and pay extra money to return early so that she can attend our meeting.

Our Past Area Governor James from Friendship came to handle the TTE but was reschedule to take on the Evaluator for Mohamad's Speech. Instead Anna was given the task and she did a fine job by doing a general evaluation of the speakers. Our VPE handles the TT Session with a great topic like Durex Survey which state that Malaysian Men had 9 partners and Malaysian Women had 2 partners. Most speakers did not agree with this but the response from the speakers seemed to reflect their wisdom and knowledge on how to avoid touching on sensitive points when handling delicate issues.

Levine tries her hand at delivering a Humour Session and I know she tried but the audience were not supportive and that includes me. Anyway, don't worry Lovingly, (Levine Lee)you tried. Volunteer further and one day you will get it right.

Dinner we had vegetraian mutton curry and I saw our GE happily going for a few rounds at it. He seemed truly enjoys our food.

We were supposed to have four Assignment Speakers but two of them make way for Adam and Mohamad to deliver their loooooong speeches. Mohamad delivers his ACL "Speech by Management" Manual #1 entitled the Briefing, talks about setting up a Wish Committee in his company to fulfill his team members wishes. Adam talks about Negotiation skills and tried to convince our President to move the meeting to his Condo where there are plenty of foreign young girls students. Due to time the negotiation was called off and we may form a small group (for guys only) to work on Adam's project.

Two Past Area Governors James and Masdiana handled the Speech Evaluation and both seemed to be politically correct by giving the Speaker a white-wash. Grammarian for the day is our Foo Chow President from France Monsiuer Tilaka, our Ahcountant is Lovingly Levine Lee and our Tag Heuer (Ho yeh) Man is FC Ho.

Our lovely President Sherine Lim gave away the prizes for the Best Role Player and Table topics Speaker to our General Evaluator Ramdas Nayar and Most Friendly person for the night went to our Humour Master cum Treasurer Lovingly Levine Lee. After that she announced that our next COTS will be on 1 Dec at a time and place to be announced and we will be celbrating our 16th Anniversay on 27 Nov 2007 at our meeting venue. Guest Speaker has been invited and members ought to bring their friends and family members to join us.

The Closding Ode was carried out by Mohamad and he said, "Everytime we meet everything has been laid out for you, the roles has been organised, the room well alid out and the food properly arranged - let's thank the people who has done this behind the scene and never got a word of thanks." This message was primarily to our President Sherine, our VPE Leong and our Treasurer Levine. Oh yes, he also gave a quotation for all before parting, "We don't work for each other, we work with each other." "Good attitude amongst members of the club do not guarantee a success but bad attitudes guarantee its failure." Just ponder over this and let me have your feedback, whoever you are.

Before I sign off let us thank Masdiana for bringing her colleague at Yayasan Sin Chew Miss Ho and Joyce her colleague from Schneider elctric Mr Lim Ah Hwai. What about the rest? Identify your guest NOW for the next meeting which is our Anniversary Meeting.

Your Blogmaster

Division W Humourous and Evaluation Speech Contests

2007-11-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon 27 October 2007 when i was supposed to be relaxing at home with my children, I took time off to go to the Women's Institute of Management to lend support to my dear friend and member of MII Toastmasters Club competing at the Evlatuation Speech contest at the Division level. I felt my time was wasted as the quality of the Speakers and Judges were beyond my expectation.

This review I must state is my personal observation and has nothing to do with the club and if there is anything that I have said that cause some parties to be angry I plead forgiveness in advance as I hold on to the concept that Toastmasters is about expressing yourself and what better way then to express your true self; minus the hippocrity and white washing stuff.

In my almost 3 decades involvement in Toastmasters what I see is the standard of our judging a contest has been steam rolled down. I just wonder where the real judges are? To me it is a shame for someone at Division Level to be judged by people who has not even contested at any level or gone through a Judges' Workshop. I know some of the people may say that this is Toastmasters and standards are not required but I wish to defer.

We are all in Toastmasters to improve our standard and when we are good and selected by our club to represent at Area Level we expect a higher degree of judging and organisation but I don't see this happening. Judges are hidden from all of us and we are not transparent about who they are. Why is this so? Can we get strangers to be our judges or someone who just join us for a day to be a judge? I am sure the experienced Chief Judge would not succumb to such a level when we have abundance of qualified and experienced person. Yet, who knows?

I think we should demand more transparency here and publicise who the judges are and what their qualifications to judge at such level. If this does not happen I am afraid that Toastmasters will never improve their standards and we cannot hold ourselves as Toastmasters. The good speakers and Evaluators may shy away from competing and we get mediocres to represent our area and the rest I need not say.

I am sure if there is a panel of Judges at different levels, we will be able to give some dignity to our contest otherwise, all these contests are a mere waste of time. Judges must be prequalified before they are chosen by the Chief Judge. One of the main criteria for a member to be a Judge must be he or she must have a CTM or CC and CL. On top of this he or she must have taken part in Speech contests before at Area level for him or her to judge at Area level. This conditions should also prevail at higher level meaning for Division Level he or she must have contested at Division level and for district he or she must have contested at district level.

After establishing our District for over 10 years now I am sure we do have more than 10 Contestents at District Level to be given the honour to judge at district level. I don't think we don't have the numbers, it is how we give dignity to the judges.

Going back to the Division Contest, it is my personal opinion that the Humourous Speakers were only stand-up comedians. In fact the test speaker was more humourous. On the Evaluation contest, I may be bias in this as my club member is participating but by any standard I thought she should be placed first runner up if not the Champion considering her confidence and also the quality of her evaluation and delivery. Anyway, I may branded as bias but I know those who knows enough and were present at the contest would understand.

In conclusion, I appeal to the leaders in the District to do something about this state of affairs before the whole system goes down the drain. In business we are now competing with the best in the world,trying to reinvent ourselves in the process of corporate governance and market liberalisation but here it looks totally opposite. We are in Toastmasters to improve ourselves and let us do it properly.

Mohamad Abdullah

Meeting on 23 October 2007

2007-11-12T21:22:00.000-08:00

The theme for the meeting is REJOICE and the word of the day is also Rejoice. As the Grammarian had stated in the example of the word, "We should all rejoice in our country's 50 years of independence".

The TME was Mohamad Abdullah and he promised that the meeting starts on time and will end on time. He kept his word and the best Speaker was Mike Teng who got 20 Minutes to deliver his Speech but takes only 8 minutes to finish.

Since the meeting was more than three weeks ago, I hate to apolgogise to our President that I could not keep my promise of reporting this promptly, hence the information I had has been erased from my memory bank.

I like to make this blog interesting but somehow, I find my creativity skill seemed to disappear. Hope there are friends out there who could help me out and whatever you are recommending would not take too much time as year end is just around the corner and for me a poor insurance broker, this is our busiest time of the year.

One Club, One Voice, Merdeka Meeting !!!

2007-08-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

Two big Birthday Boys ! Our Adam and Mike ...........

Happy Birthday to Malaysia !!! 50th Years Old .............

Take a look at the special " Merdeka " room decoration................... Like it ?

Time to eat and talk ................ as MII TMC is famous for our good food !

See, we have already upgraded our dinner venue .............. grand one ?!

Can you recognised whose head is this ???

Our " Kiasu " VPE during his Table Topics Session...................

Masdiana is giving her sincere feedback & evaluation to our Contest Representative ....... a tough one ...............

Mike is concentrating in blowing the candles.....................

The Madam President ...................

Our ' long missing ' Past President - Thiloh was with us this Merdeka Meeting !

Mike with his ring ............. he is 32 ?????? Ah ha .............

Our new members - Carling and Julian .................. hahhaaaa, you guys have no way to escape from MII TMC Big Family since we have this photo as evidence of your promise ......................

Adam's Guests - Helen on the left and Eko from Korea .........................

Jeff, are you trying to teach us how to pronounce " Negara KU " or " Malaysia KU " ???

Our forever humourist and Air Asia loyal fans................ Adam Fung at his Table Topics Session .....................

Lastly, the person who told us he doesn't know much about Humourous Speech but left us with " Kiasu, Kiasi, Kia Boh " laughters....................... our Founder, Mohamad !!!

Humourous Speech and Evaluation Contests

2007-08-15T03:02:00.000-07:00

It is a Toastmasters Club activity that each year we organise the above Contests to select one or two to represent our club at Area Level. This year, I am proud to say that we have a total of 7 members contesting for the two Contests. They are:

Humour Speech
1. Ho Fook Chuan
2. Leong Kok Wah
3. Dr Gan Eng Meng
4. Adam Fung

Evaluation
1. Leong Kok Wah
2. Anna Hue
3. Monsiuer Tilaka
4. Adam Fung
5. Jeffrey Lee
6. Phillip wong
7. Dr Gan Eng Meng

We had three Guests brought in by Betty, one each from Adam, Ho, Jeffrey. It was a little internatioal with two Australians and one from Korea. Visiting Toastmasters who came and supported us were:

1. Lim Heng Chong our Area Governor cum Chief Judge
2. Dr Sharon Tong
3. Mr & Mrs Koh Teck Lee
4. Chow Mun Yean (our Timer)
5. A gentleman from UK Toastmaster. (will get his name soon)
6. James Arokiasamy
7. Ahmad Zakie - Test Speaker

Members who attended besides those Contestants were:

1. Mike Teng - Contest Chair for Humour Speech
2. Masdiana Ooi - Contest Chair for Evaluation
3. Betty Toh - SAA, Ballot Counter and bringing the most Guests
4. Levine Lee - SAA (she came though just for while to fly to China)
5. Mohamad Abdullah - the OC

Hope I have not missed out any names, if not please give me a call.

Who wins? I guess everybody. The spirit of participation was there and I was surprised at some of the speakers with their brand of humour - something we do not see at regular meetings. Jeffrey was the target of most speakers with his impending wedding.

For the evaluation, we had a record number of contestants. Magnificent Seven took part and they all find it difficult to evaluate an experienced and romantic speaker like Ahmad Zakie. Luckily I was not there as I too would be stumped by his delivery and carried away with his vocubalary. Certainly he brought in sweet memories for all of us; yes our memories of our 1st Love.

To all our Guests, I like to say Welcome, do come back. Remind your host to bring you back on 28 August 2007. To our visiting Toastmasters who came to help us, 1M Thank you. You too are always welcome to our club. To all of you on behalf of the club I must apologise for the shortage of food - we did not anticipate the number. Good problems but I am sure the guests had enough as our members sacrificed their share.

Oh, yes I forgot to announce the winners - guess who? Patient lah I am trying to figure it out and even had to call the Contest Chair Masdiana to confirm it and they are.....drum roll please;;;;;;;;

Humour Speech - Champion is Leong Kok Wah (you do not want to know his speech title)
- The runner up is his Introducer, Driver and Matchmaker Adam Fung

Evaluation - Champion goes to veteran Anna Hue with her Mama style
- 1st Runner up is Adam Fung
- 2nd Runner up is Jeffrey Lee

Hope I have listed it correctly but if not please don't sue me.

COTS Report from DVG

2007-08-03T03:47:00.000-07:00

For the benefit of members I am pleased to attachd the report from the DVG Azmi Shahrin which was despatched to our President almost instantly after the Session.

This message is sent to all Club Presidents in Division W

Dear Club President,

Toastmasters Leadership Institute Club Officers Training Round 1 Attendance

I am pleased to report that the Toastmasters Leadership Institute Club Officers Training Round 1 held on 28/07/07 was a great success with 23/29 clubs meeting the minimum 4 club officers target. I would like to congratulate these clubs for achieving the ½ DCP goal for Club Officer Training – SYABAS! I would be very grateful if you could please verify the accuracy of the attendance report.

Club Name Pres VPE VPM VPPR Sec Treas SAA Total
W1 Kuala Lumpur Advanced Toastmasters Club x x x x 4
W1 MIA Toastmasters Club x x x x x x 6
W1 Money Mastery-KL Toastmasters Club x x x x x 5
W1 Bangsar Club x x x x 4
W1 KPMG -KL x x x x x 5
W2 Ernst & Young's Toastmasters Club x x x x x x 6
W2 UEM Academy Club x x x x 4
W2 HELP University College Club x x x x x 5
W2 Hasil Toastmasters Club x x x 3
W2 EXACT ADC 1 Toastmasters Club x x x x 4
W3 K L Sentral Club x x x 3
W3 Speakers' Dream Toastmasters x x x x x 5
W3 UEM Group Club x x 2
W3 Malaysian Insurance Institute Club x x x x x x x 7
W3 Sai Masters Toastmasters Club x x x x 4
W4 Speecom Toastmasters Club x x x 3
W4 Money & You-Kuala Lumpur TMC x x x x x 5
W4 TTDI Toastmasters Club x x x x 4
W4 WIM Toastmasters Club x x x x 4
W5 Maicsa Toastmasters Club x x x x x x x 7
W5 Mid Valley Club x x x x 4
W5 Securities Commission Toastmasters Club x x x x 4
W5 DHL KL Toastmasters Club 0
W5 Tm Int Club of University Malaya x x x x 4
W6 Kelab Pidato Perdana Toastmasters Club x x x x x 5
W6 Friendship Club x x x x x x 6
W6 Great Eastern Toastmasters Club x x x x 4
W6 HP Malaysia Toastmasters Club x x x x x 5
W6 HSBC KL Toastmasters Club x 1

I would also like to record that MAICSA and MII had all 7 Club Officers trained. This is an exemplary conduct of leadership demonstrated by their Presidents Alice Liu (MAICSA) and Sherine Lim (MII) – Well Done!

The Division may conduct another TLI Club Officers Training in August for the benefit of club officers who were unable to attend the earlier training. We will announce the details once confirmed.

Thank you for your attendance and I hope that you are now ready to lead your club to minimum Distinguished Club status by 1 April 2008.

Warm Regards,
Azmi Shahrin, DTM
Division W Governor 2007/2008
Member of Kelab Pidato Perdana (654898) and Extol (4934)
azmishahrin@gmail.com / 012-9198557