MII Installation Dinner Photographs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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