Meeting 15 Feb 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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 !!!

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

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

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

2007/2008 COTs Round #1

The Club Officers Training Round #1 for Division P and W was held on Saturday 28 July 2007 at the Help Institute at Jalan Dungun, KL. More than 200 Toastmasters were there and I was glad that MII and Maisca was highlighted as the clubs with 100% of its Club Officers present. Thank you Sherine, Leong, Joyce, Ho, Levine, Monsiuer and Mohamad. With this perfect attendance our Club was Awarded a Manual from TI. Check it out with President Sherine. In addition to this we have also ou PP Mike Teng there as one of the organiser. FYI he is now the Assistant Division Governor for Division P. Congratulation Mike.

For the benefit of the members, it is a requirement for Club Officers to attend two trainings and in our District the training must be conducted by the Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) from the District. With a minimum of 4 Club Officers attending the COTS the club will earn half a point.

The format of the Session is the same as last year when it first started with some basic common talk by some prominent Toastmasters and some mandatory talk for the Club officers. Actually, members of the club can also attend such session but I understand you may have to pay to attend. The training starts t 2pm and ends about 6.30 pm with a lucky draw where the winners have to pay RM100 to get the benefit.

If I may offer my view of the TLI, I must say that the concept is excellent but having two Divisions have defeated the purpose of the training. Here TI wants every member to be trained not only as participant but also as trainers. I am sure there are many capable trainers in the respective Division that provide the training. There is no necessity to borrow from other Divisions or combine the Divisions for economy of scale. TLI should also train more trainers so that the pool of trainers will multiply and Toastmasters will grow.

The second issue is about the quality of the training. I have observed that the contents are so basic that some trainers decided to put them aside and share their experience. To me we go there to learn how to be effective Club Officers but I felt cheated that we got more confused than learn new things.

Anyway, it is the learning process for the organisers and I hope they will learn and make some progress for the next training. Don't just organise it for club to earn the half point but seriously to impart to the club officers the skills and knowledge to carry out their job more FREE (Fun, Relevant, Efficient and Effective).

I guess, MII Exco need to really sit down and find ways to make our Exco FREE otherwise people get burnt out and disappointed with the organisation.

Members if you are reading this please understand that the Exco is there to serve and they too need to be served. You have to help them in order for them to help you so in the end all of us will have fun in the club and cherish this time we are together in Toastmasters.

If you have comments please share it.

Mohamad Abdullah

Installation NIght Meeting 24 July 2007

The photographs has not come in yet but I guess it will be soon. Thanks in advance goes to Ho for taking the photos.

The Installation night went as planned with Installing Officer coming from the District our Past District Governor Low Yat Seow, DTM and currently the Parliamentarian of the District. He conducted the Installation with perfection and all our Exco members were present, though Monsiuer came in just in time to be installed.

The new Exco installed were: President - Sherine Lime, VPE - Leong Kok Wah, VPM - Joyce Chung, VPPR - Ho, Treasurer - Levine Lee, SAA - Monsiuer Tilaka and yours truly as Secretary. President will find her lap very heavy this time with me on it.

The Meeting starts differently this time with the SAA handing the control to the TME who starts the evening with precision. IPP or Outgoing Presient makes his speech and also gave all the outgoing officers a gift. He even gave the two Founders who did nothing something to remember him by. You know who they are right?

The ASAA for the night was Yip Sau, the TME specially selected by the President is PP Anna Hue, Games Master goes to the ever young PP Mike Teng, TTM to the humourous guy Adam Fung, Grammarian to our Globe Trotter Philip Wong and Closing Ode doen by PP Masdiana. The other roles were assigned to our visitors and they were Mok Soo Pon ATMB, CL as General Evaluator, Meyya ACS as TTE, Tony Lin as Ah Counter. We have also another visiting TM our Past Area Governor Koh Teck Lee giving support to our GE.

During the night there was prize galore with almost everyone taking home something. Sorry for the few who misses out. The Exco got a T shirt and they must put them on at the COTs on Saturday, the Roles players were recognised and given a gift too and so is our IO.

Food was extra special and so difficult to get people to come back to their seat as they all trying to do justice to the food and caterer.

The theme for the evening was Changing of guards and our Table Topic Master did conduct the TT Session around the theme - whilst the word of the day appropriately worded REVITALIZE.

The winners for the night were: Best Role Play goes to Anna without the King, Most Friendly goes to our young man who never grow up Mike Teng and the Best Table Topic Speaker goes to Azmi Sharin our Division Governor. Hope I got it all correct. Oops Toastmaster cannot apologise mah.

Got to go back for dinner and hope to catch up with the rest of the Exco at the Club Officers traing at the Help Institute - Division double U Cots at Help!

District 51 became Top 6 in the World

Dear Club and District Officers,

"Our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to purse them." - Walt Disney

YES. Last night I received a call from our International President, DTM Johnny Uy, informing us that our District achieved President's Distinguished District status (accorded to the top 6 Districts in the world).

This morning, it is official. This achievement is not only for the District but for each and everyone of you!
Every drop of sweat has created an ocean of success.
It's Simply Amazing! ... so are YOU!

Much of the effort to necessary to turn our dreams into reality lies within us as individuals. Our dreams won't come true without our personal commitment and dedication to excellence. However turning our dreams into reality requires the assistance of others.

The District's success begins at the club level, followed by the Areas and Divisions.
And this is possible b'cos all of you have given your best in serving as either our Club President or being part of the club Executive Committee, Area Governor, Division and respective councils, appointed and elected District Officers. And of course our Past District Governors for lighting the path ahead.

For the record, we achieved :

CLUBS : 46- Distinguished Status, 38- Select Distinguished Status and 71- President's Distinguished Status.
AREAS : 17- Distinguished Status, 10 - Select Distinguished Status and 24 - President's Distinguished Status.
DIVISIONS : 12 - President's Distinguished Status.

... what an Amazing feat ... we cannot ask for more!

CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU for your remarkable performance.

As we SOAR to a new beginning, let's continue to give our best in Shaping Our Aspirations and Results to ensure that every club is Distinguished or better ... IT'S POSSIBLE because we are TOASTMASTERS:SIMPLY AMAZING!

With gratitude from all of us,

Message from our Immediate Past District Governor Siva

Message from PP Philip from Kuching

President Sherine, DTM Bro. Mohd and all,
Greetings!
Thank you for the update. I am deeply impressed and inspired by the toastmii.blogspot.com. Bro. you really did wonder for the club and I salute you for it. I came back last night from my trip to Tawau and KK and also Kuching. If any of you have not been to KK(Kota Kinabalu), plse do so. It is a fantastic city and it is not that expensive esp. if you fly airasia and do not stay in 4 or 5 stars hotel. Looking forward to see all at the next meeting. All the best Philip Wong p/s:For Kaki who have not visited our blog(toastmii.blogspot.com), plse do so. You will be in for a BIG BIG surprise.
p.p/s: Mdm President, plse advice how if I want to reply or comment on the blog.thks

Philip Wong



For the information of our members PP Philip Wong is a regular writer to Newspapers and magazines for his articles on Travels. He travels the world over and publish good reports. Recently, I also notice that this PP also writes in the Star giving his comments on social issues. Well done Bro, please share some of your thoughts with us in this Blog. Mohamad

1,000 Aplogies to Adam

It has been pointed out by Sherine and Leong that the Best Assignment Speaker for the meeting on 10 July is Adam and not Leong. 1k apologies to Adam.

If there is anyone out there who likes to make the report of future meetings or any event or to post anything in our Blog, please do not be shy. Just send them to me and I will post it provided it meets with the Rules set out by the blogger, that is me. I promise you that the rule is very simple, 'don't hurt anyone'.

Please, oh please help me and lighten my burden and get your name and even your pictue published for the world to see.