District 51 Area W2 2010 Contests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting on 24 Nov 2009

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

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

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

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

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

Views of an IPP

Dear Toastmaster Ho Fook Chuan, CC


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


My Dear Fellow members,

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

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

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

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


Happy Birthday MII-TMC .


Saya yang masih bertugas,

ipp

Happy 18th Anniversary MII Toastmasters Club

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

ROZI,

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

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

ANOTHER 100 YEARS LONG LIFE FOR THEM TOO...

CHEERS,

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

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

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

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

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

The Past Presidents of the Club are:

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

Meeting on 27 October 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Rozi and her Grandson in Dublin recently.




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

Cold, cold hugs to all!

Recollection 091013

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

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


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

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

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

Meeting on 13 Oct 2009

Fellow Members,

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

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

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


Warm hugs to those who are in need of hugs,

Message from IPP Leong Kok Wah

My dear fellow members,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ipp.

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

Meeting on 8 September 2009

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

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

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!

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)

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

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.