Monday, April 27, 2015

Astonishing Mid Valley Toastmasters Club Meeting #256 (Written By Elizabeth Sandra, Edited by Timothy Nakayama)

The theme for our meeting on 13th April 2015 was “Surprise!” and it was definitely a meeting full of surprises! There were some familiar faces among the guests: those who were visiting and attending our regular Toastmaster meeting for the second or third time as guests. Quite a number of guests came from the same company (RHB).

It was my first time as the Sergeant-at-Arms and I soon found out that this role requires you to be the first person at the meeting to speak – and I did that by announcing the start of the meeting, after which I made way for the opening address by our charming President, Shim Chee Loon. This was followed by our usual round of introductions by members and guests alike.

After we had well and truly broken the ice, Toastmaster of the Evening Siew Lai Yee greeted the audience with her friendly smile and proceeded to surprise the audience when she introduced Toastmasters to the guests via an unusual manner – by asking the members a series of questions about Toastmasters, the answers which revealed the history of Toastmasters. What a surprise!

In keeping with the meeting theme of “Surprise”, Table Topic Master Chong Chee Siong took a page from Siew Lai Yee’s book by springing another surprise on us: our Table Topics came in the form of various things nestled inside a deep box, whereupon the Table Topic speaker would dip their hands into the box, pull out an item from inside, and proceeded to launch into a Table Topic about the aforementioned item. Creatively different from the normal Table Topics, Chee Siong’s “surprise” was entertaining and provoked a lot of thought and laughter from the audience.

Guess who volunteered to the best Table Topic speaker of the evening? None other than our guest, Damien! Those who came to our 255th meeting most likely still remember him and his Table Topic from that meeting. This time around, he grabbed a pair of sunglasses from Chee Siong’s box. Without a moment’s hesitation, Damien slipped on the sunglasses, posed coolly, and started talking about how people used sunglasses for different purposes, such as for hiding their faces or seducing the opposite sex.

Our Past President and seasoned speaker Ang Chee Yong retrieved a Youth Leadership Program (YLP) booklet from the box. He deftly made his Table Topic one about how students benefit from the YLP, how it boosts their confidence levels up and helps prepare them for future leadership roles.

Yeap Wei Leeng was up next, and out from the box came a broken mobile phone. Yeap spoke of the importance of the mobile phone in today’s time, and that without one, it would be difficult to keep in touch with our loved ones.

The last Table Topic speaker, Suman, our guest all the way from India, pulled out a mobile phone car charger. She spoke about how she had never even seen one, but that it was a good idea for most people to have one, in order to keep themselves connected with their loved ones on the go.


Next were the prepared speakers, each delivering a specific Project Speech.

The first speaker was Daniel Lim, whose speech was a call-to-action for us to remain focused on our goals and to work hard to achieve those goals in order to be successful.

Yeap Wei Leeng, despite being one of the role players for the YLP program that had taken place at SMK Subang Utama only 2 days prior, was incredibly energetic and he used that energy to share a story about how he managed to “get” his loved one after a whole year of admiring her from afar. If you’re curious as to whom his loved one is, well, you’ll have to ask him! That’s the benefit of attending a meeting – you get to hear it directly from the speakers themselves!

Those working in the financial sector would have found Christopher Chooi’s speech incredibly informative given that he explained in detail about winning in Forex.

Last, but never least, Ang Chee Yong, came up onto stage once again, to deliver a speech on how to be a better speaker, sharing three important tips on how we can hone our public speaking skills.


Then we sat through an illuminating evaluation session, where speech evaluators and technical evaluators gave their feedback on how everyone did during the whole meeting.

Once that was done, we moved on to the Award ceremony:
            Best Table Topics Speaker              : Damien
            Best Project Speech Speaker           : Ang Chee Yong
            Best Speech Evaluator                     : Timothy Nakayama

Congratulations to the Best Speakers and Best Evaluator! I would also like to thank our General Evaluator, Moses Wong, all the role players involved in this meeting, and all members & guests who attended the meeting. This meeting would not have run so smoothly without their support and participation.

I look forward to the next meeting, and hope to see you guys again!
  
Cheers,

Elizabeth Sandra



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