Mid Valley Toastmasters

Club Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest (HS&E) 8/8/2011

2011-08-15T11:27:00.002+08:00

Recently, we have our club’s HS&E contest and it was a success! The purpose of us to have this contest is to let the members to gain more experience in a contest and also to promote our club to other clubs and guests around Klang Valley. Hopefully, after this more members and guest will know more about us!

It’s a big turnout from our members, who participated in both contest! This year, we have 4 in humorous speech contest and 6 in evaluation speech contest.

Our organising committees and contestants are, (from left to right) –

Loo Cheaw Lee – Speech Evaluation Contest Chair
Moses Wong – Organising Chair
Ang Chee Yong – Humorous Speech Contest Chair & Speech Evaluation Contestant
Gerard A. Peter - Speech Evaluation Contestant
Loh Chia Hur – Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contestant
Keith Ho – Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contestant
Jane Lee - Humorous Speech Contestant
Christine Ong – Speech Evaluation Contestant
Leung Wan Choong – Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contestant

Medals and Certificates.

Our supportive audience and unknown judges.

(on the left) The ‘two timers’, Cyiun Yong and Darren Pang. (on the right) The resilient test speaker for the Speech Evaluation Contest, nickname “Chicken Lee” – but his speech is no chicken at all!

(on the left) Moses Wong, our Organizing Chair, with his light hearted comments. (on the right)The lady in the middle is our Contest chair for Speech Evaluation contest chair, and also our camera lady. We forgot to take her picture while she’s in action. Thousand apologies!

(Left) Our amazing Ang Chee Yong, he’s both our Contest chair for humourous speech contest and also a participant in the Speech Evaluation Contest. (Right) And our forever youthful Mr. NJ Singam the Chief Judge... who can forget that!

And the results …..

Humorous Speech Contest:

1st - Loh Chia Hur

2nd - Leung Wan Choong

3rd - Keith Ho

Speech Evaluation Contest

1st - Loh Chia Hur.

2nd - Christine Ong

3rd - Ang Chee Yong

Well done! Congratulations to all the winners and participants. And we hope everyone have gained valuable experience by participating and witnessing the contests. Our next Area Contest will be in AFC on the 17th September (http://divgcalendar.blogspot.com/). Our top 2 winners for each contest will be there to compete with the sisters club from our Area G3, Money & You, HELP, and Monash University.

Let us all give our club contestants of our most valuable support and hope to see you there!

Mental block no more.

2011-08-10T14:27:00.002+08:00

“Help! I can't write anymore for my speech! I just can’t come out with any ideas!”

Does it ever happened to you when sometimes you just just stare at the empty space of your mind, and you just can’t figure out what to write for your speech?

It does happen to me before, and I think it’s still going to happen to me anytime; sooner, and also, I am not surprise it’s going to happen to me later.

I think this is common to any speakers, writers, creators, innovators, idealist, inventors, philosophers, novelists… basically anyone who would like to come out with original ideas! So, how to overcome this mental block problem?

For this article, I would like to share with everyone some tips on how to overcome the mental block problem:-

Apply Rudyard Kipling’s Secret of Speech Writing. Kipling has a method called the six “serving men”, where just answer the six questions of what, where, when, how, why, and who – and you will find your idea flowing again!
The “Reinforce your idea” method. Stuck with part with a speech? Just do a research on your topic again, in the internet and any writings about the speech. See how other writers or presenters comments about the particular issue. I did this a few times before and it works for me!
Stop doing the crafting and do something else. When sometimes I stuck, I just drop my thinking cap and take a walk, listen to a song, take a shower, go for a jog, or chat with another friend. Do something that relaxes you and the speech idea will come back to you in a while! Most of my speech ideas show themselves when I am taking a shower!

Hope these tips helps you and I wish everyone happy speech crafting!

McD Meeting

2011-06-08T20:35:00.007+08:00

We usually do not have meetings on 5th Mondays, but occasionally we do when we want to have fun. We did exactly just that on 30th May 2011. We met up in Bangsar for a very unusual "McD meeting". We had a private room from McD for the meeting and treated ourselves to McD burgers and fries while we listened to a few good speeches. In line with the venue of the meeting, Travis Lai excitedly delivered a speech on the benefits of eating McD. Many of us were not convinced, but facts would show you that when you eat McD, you are consuming less calories than many of our Malaysian favorite dishes. Want to find out more? Ask Travis Lai!

For more pictures, check out our Facebook Group. Search for "Mid Valley Toastmasters Club"...

A Memorable Trip To Port Dickson

2011-05-26T12:03:00.036+08:00

FUN,FUN,FUN!!! That's what we had at Port Dickson over the weekend from 14th to 15th May 2011.

Fourteen of us from Mid Valley Toastmasters Club decided that KL was too much to bear, and escaped to a beach side private bungalow for a break. Our journey started with a stop at Dunkin Donuts by the Sungai Besi toll for breakfast, before heading to Port Dickson. When we reached Port Dickson, we were clueless on where the private bungalow was, and had to make an emergency call to the owner to find out the exact location. After finally locating the bungalow and checking in, we decided to start our first activity of outdoor games, organized by Leung Wan Choong. We warmed up by the beach, led by Leung WC. But before we could even start our outdoor games, we started experimenting with our cameras, and decided to go with the flow with more photo shooting sessions. We thoroughly enjoyed the photo session, with jump, flying kicks, hugging, and just "stoning".

Next, we headed to a famous spot in Port Dickson about 10 minutes drive away from our private bungalow for the local Nasi Ayam Panggang. Arriving at the Nasi Ayam Panggang tent, we found waiters with friendly smile and cow-boy hats, creating a little cow-boy theme to the tent. The lunch was superb with nice tasting juicy BBQ chicken served with steamed rice.

Done with lunch, we headed to the famous Teluk Kemang beach. It was quite an experience going through shop after shop at the beach side, selling items from bikinis to chicken- branded soda drinks! We finally settled down and relaxed by the beach at a nice little stall with coconut drinks and "keropok lekor". It was fun hanging out with the breeze from the sea while watching the crowd enjoying themselves by the beach under the hot sun. Kids were screaming and laughing, but the breeze was making us sleepy.

Next, we headed back to the private bungalow for a little rest, with indoor Jenga game, organizes by Leung WC,our Game Master. We learnt from the urban planner Kalvin on how to build the tallest Jenga tower, and learnt from Lewis how to knock on the little Jenga pieces to see if they were really removable. It was all fun and relaxing.

Beach was where we headed next. A beach boy by the name of 'Ah Ching' was already waiting for us. We pre-booked him to bring us for banana boat ride and to guide us through our first sea fishing experience. We never knew that the banana boat ride would start a string of accidents. On the second round of banan boat ride, our Vice President of Education, Ang Chee Yong, lost his balance and fell into the water. Within seconds, he was pulled into the water by the banana boat rope on his neck. He struggled for a few second, and luckily managed to free himself. As Chee Yong swam to the shore, he found himself bleeding on the neck. We knew that we had to send him to hospital and our Treasurer Rae, Immediate Past President, Gerard Peter and Vice President Membership, Travis Lai came to the rescue. They quickly got Chee Yong into Rae's car and drove to the nearby hospital. Unfortunately, before they could reach the hospital, Rae's car was hit from the back by a small little car. The small little car was completely stalled, but Rae's car suffered only minor damage. Gerard and Travis stayed put to handle the accident, while Rae continued his journey to send Chee Yong to the hospital. Fortunately, none of them was hurt from the car accident, and Chee Yong suffered only minor external injury to the neck. We learnt our lessons from the accidents, and enjoyed somehow brought all fourteen of us closer. We went back to our bungalow after the accidents, and enjoyed our BBQ session while listening to the full stories from Chee Yong and Rae.

After the BBQ session, our Game Master Leung organized a mind game by splitting us into 2 groups, and assigning us with the near impossible task of saving an egg from breaking with straws! We never thought it was possible, but with creative thinking and team work, both the team managed to save their eggs from breaking, with genius designs to break to break the eggs' fall. We had difficulties in deciding the winning team, but Leung decided that it was the team that took lesser time to complete that should win.

Next, we headed to a chill-out place at Thistle Hotel. We went dancing by the pool before finally jumping into the pool led by Gerard Peter. It was 1 a.m in the morning, but we all excited swimming in the pool ( and pulling the girls into the pool)!

The next morning, all of us woke up late (obviously from the partying the day before). We packed our bags, checked out, and headed for food in Lukut. We had the famous curry bun at Lucky Restaurant and nice seafood. The curry was niely wrapped in a big bun and is certainly something that we do not get in KL. Before we went home, we headed to the Port Dickson food court for ABC and Cendol as dessert.

The trip was great, filled with fun. Special thanks to Travis Lai for being the organizing chair. The trip was a very successful trip.

The Best Advice For Overcoming The Fear Of Public Speaking

2011-05-09T12:13:00.019+08:00

As a former speechwriter, publisher, and frequent presenter, I understand what drives many people to buy books about public speaking: FEAR! I know because I've shared it. I remember times when I walked up on a podium and took my place at the lectern in front of an audience, and suddenly felt dry mouth, sweaty palms, shaking hands, pounding chest, even my voice ringing in my ears. I'd prepared a slick speech, but not my brain for the inevitable shock of taking the stage.

Anxiety about public speaking is most commonly rooted in our past negative memories and experiences, according to Randolph and Kathleen Verderber's classic text, The Challenge of Effective Speaking. The authors- emeritus management professors and communications scholars_ say that typical people will relive those times in their past when they were criticized, admonished or deemed in some way as unworthy of the center stage. My book shelf contains a couple of books on overcoming fear of public speaking, and they all recommend these strategies:

Practice, practice, practice: You need to desensitize yourself to the panic and fear of failure you associate with public speaking. Practice not only to become more comfortable with your material, but to experience the gamut of emotions that come with speaking. Rehearse in front of friends and family members who will give you constructive feedback. Steve Jobs reportedly has become a world- class presenter through over- practicing. "Few speakers rehearse more than Steve Jobs." Carmine Gallo writes in his excellent book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs (McGraw-Hill 2010). "His preparation time is legendary among those closest to him." Gallo's book recounts how Jobs begins preparing weeks in advance, and typically spends two full days rehearsing, asking for feedback, making adjustments, and tightening his flow.

Memorize and make eye contact. Familiarize yourself with the stage or space where you will speak, and commit key points to memory so you can make effective eye contact with your audience. By connecting with your audience when you speak you will benefit from the feedback of their reactions and you will find your voice. Expert also advise: Don't practice to the point that you are bored or exhausted with the material.

Visualize a Positive Outcome: In Small Message, Big Impact, author Terri L.Sjodin recommends visualizing how you will feel when you're done with the speech. " On the other side" in that " Space of completion, invigoration, and accomplishment." By visualizing a job well-done, you replace negative self- talk and put the speech in its perspective- as one event among many.

Connect with the Audience: In Harrison Monarth and Larina Kase's, The Confident Speaker, the authors suggest speakers visualize what they have in common with the audience and collect information about your audience- from their jobs to their likely questions. By doing so, you will replace the anxious self- talk in your own mind with a new externally- focused challenge: What are the people like I will be speaking to? If you are speaking in front of an audience that is unfamiliar to you, get an attendee list, learn about a few of the people on the list, even call a person or two who will be in attendance or ask your host about the group. This process is about easing your preparatory anxiety by presenting your brain with a visual and cognitive challenge- put real people and real faces in those chairs, not executioners.

Rewrite the Negative Script: Write down the negative or fearful thoughts you have about your abilities as a speaker, including critism you've heard in the past. Then note how you felt after previous presentations were over, and how you've addressed or changed certain behaviors so that you are thinking more positively. I remember being told that I spent too much time learning away from the audience during a presentation, and I've consciously visualized the satisfaction of correcting that in my next speech.

Remind Yourself, You're Communicating, Not Performing. If you see your speech as a chance to communicate with a group of people about something important to you, rather than a performance, the experience will feel more familiar. Infact, the audience is far more interested in the substance of what you are presenting, than how theatrical you are in your presentation. Remind yourself of that, jotting down what you consider to be the best aspects of your speeches- in content and style. Monarth and Kase call this creating " positive expectancy " : "develop a few words " that exemplify the way you want to feel as you're talking. "

The experts also agree on these basics, which bear repeating:

Get enough sleep for a few days ahead

Thoroughly check out the technology you'll be using a day ahead

Lightly exercise a few hours before the presentation

Never, ever drink alcohol before your appearance

YOU ARE INVITED!!!

2011-04-27T12:14:00.003+08:00

Sometimes, we want a break. Sometimes, we want to have fun. Sometimes, we want to hang out with our friends. Sometimes, we want to listen to the waves pounding. Sometimes, we want to witness the beautiful sunset. Sometimes, we want to just laze around. And sometimes, we don't know what to do. If you are having the "sometimes" mood now, join us for our trip to Port Dickson!!! Sometimes, we don't just meet at 5th Floor Cititel, we meet by the beach too...

Details as follows:

Date: 14 - 15 May 2011
Venue: Private Bungalow @ Port Dickson
Contribution: RM120

Your contribution covers:
1) Lots of eating (1st day lunch, 1st day BBQ dinner, 2nd day breakfast, 2nd day lunch, and snacks in between)
2) Accommodation
3) Transportation
4) Games
5) PD tour

Feel free to join us (even if you are not a Toastmaster yet). As we have limited rooms available, this invitation is on "first-come, first-served" basis.

If you would like to join us, please contact Travis Lai at 017-666 8203.

CONGRATULATION PAUL TAN & MOSES WONG!!!

2011-03-24T01:14:00.007+08:00

GREAT news to our fellow Toastmasters!!!

I am ecstatic to report that Paul Tan (our Club President) won the CHAMPION and Moses Wong won the 3rd prize in Area G3 International Speech Contest for the term 2010 / 2011.

President Paul Tan will represent Area G3 to grab the trophies at the next level at Division G on 30th March 2011.

We warmly welcome all toastmasters and guests to come to support our President and also witness the birth of winners, and most important, to experience how to improve public speaking skill in a short time.

Below are the details for those who are interested to attend our Division G International Speech & Table Topic Contest.

Date: 30th March 2011

Time: 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm

Venue: Malaysian Insurance Institute, Jalan Sri Semantan Satu, Damansara Height

Club Level International Speech & Table Topic Contest [2010 / 2011]

2011-03-24T00:24:00.013+08:00

It was a truly amazing contest on 24th January 2011 (Monday) with almost 10 courageous contestants were competing against each other for the Mid Valley Toastmasters club level annual International Speech & Table Topic Contest for the term 2010 / 2011.

Every past competitor will agree that contests are a perfect way to grow skills and confidence RAPIDLY. Therefore, speech contests are a unique and exciting part of the Toastmasters program. Everyone who has completed at least 6 speeches in the Competent Communicators Manual is encouraged to have fun and stretch themselves by entering our club's International Speech Contest.

Please join us congratulating the winners of our Club Contest. The 1st and 2nd prize winners of each of the contests will represent our club to fight for the area level award.

The results are as below:

1. International Speech Contest

Champion : Moses Wong

1st Runner Up: Paul Tan Poh Leong

2. Table Topic Contest

Champion : Moses Wong

1st Runner Up : Loh Chia Hur

2nd Runner Up: Travis Lai

SMK Subang Utama Youth Leadership Program 2011

2011-01-30T21:47:00.008+08:00

We have done it again! Mid Valley Toastmasters Club organized a Youth Leadership Program for SMK Subang Utama from 21st to 23rd January 2011 for 24 participants. Throughout the 3 days, the participants were trained to be a better speaker and a better leader. It was a successful program as we saw marked improvement in all participants, especially Dalila, a participant who could not complete her speech during the ice breaker session when she broke down and cried, but completed her final speech successfully with confidence. Dalila truly deserves the award she won, the award for the best improved participant.

To bring out the best in the participants, we organized a contest at the end of the program for the participants to show case their newly acquired skills. The participants delivered a variety of speeches ranging from a simple speech on shampoo to thought provoking speech on happiness in life. While all the participants deserved to be winners for their awesome performance, we had to make the difficult decision to select the best 3 speakers from the contest. The winners were:

Champion: Anne Marie

1st Runner Up: Jen Ning

2nd Runner Up: Sinthu Suresh

Congratulations to all participants. We hope you are now equipped with the shoes (and socks!) to start your journey of a thousand miles… All of you are AWESOME! Well done!

To view more photos, join our Facebook page (Mid Valley Toastmasters Club) at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24868919976

New Year, New Resolutions

2011-01-11T23:24:00.011+08:00

On 10 January 2011, Mid Valley Toastmasters Club held the first meeting of the year 2011. In line with the New Year theme, our President Paul Tan requested all of us to write on a piece of paper our resolutions for the year. All of us happily wrote down our resolutions and handed them to our President, who later announced that our resolutions would be posted on our blog to let the world know of our resolutions! If law of attraction works or if we feel pressured enough to start working towards our resolutions to avoid being deemed publicly as failure, we will see our resolutions being fulfilled by 31st December 2011!

Are we really going to achieve our resolutions? Only time will tell, and we shall review this again come 31st December 2011. So, here you go, resolutions of our members and guests:

As usual, we had laughters, and took home with us several learning points from the meeting, which included a notable quote from one of the table topics speakers, Yaohan, that "Success is simple... but not easy". Yaohan reminded us that the formulae for success is out there and is not a secret. The formulae to succeed is simple as there are tonnes of books and resources to guide you, but achieving success is not easy as we need determination, hard work and focus in following the formulae.

The night ended fabulously with presentation of certificates to the following winners:

Best Speaker of the Evening: Terry Netto
Best Table Topics Speaker: Adrian
Best Evaluator: Christine Ong

Christmas & New Year Party @ RedBox, The Gardens, Mid Valley City

2011-01-04T00:36:00.029+08:00

Christmas is a season for parties. On 27th December 2010 (Monday), Mid Valley Toastmasters Club (MV TMC) was launched its 2010 Merry Christmas & New Year celebration countdown by throwing a party at RedBox, The Gardens. It was an exceptional meeting in the evening. We celebrated the party among our fellow Toastmasters and several special guests.

The party that evening started with the introduction by the Toastmasters of the Evening (TME)--[Phaik Shan] followed by the welcome speech given by the Organising Chair--[Jane Lee]

Thank you for the help to all of the committee members of MV TMC in organizing the event. In Toastmaster, you not only have the chance to learn how to speak confidently, but also to learn how to be a leader in organizing events.

A great classic Christmas song was sung before kick starting the meeting. Everyone who attended the event enjoyed the good foods and speeches during the meeting. Gerard Peter, our Immediate Past President, marvelously played the role of a Table Topic Master with a non-conventional table topic session structured as a story marathon to every table topic speaker.

All the Christmas related speeches were inspiring especially Moses Wong who enlightened everyone of us with his story. He inflamed us to make a wise choice for the coming Judgement Day.

Everyone actively participated in a variety of good old school games. In line with Toastmasters' recognition of the importance of body language, we played games relating to body language where participants attempted to convey their messages through body language, without verbal communication. It was all fun, but we got the message on the importance of body language in enhancing our communication skills.

At the end of the party, everyone had a gift in their hands. Happy smiles of joy were flashing everywhere around. We were created happy memories and surrounded ourselves with laughter and friendship as we celebrated this special occasion. We all cherished and gained something of importance from the time that we spend togather. We grasp it with both hands and make our own wonderful memories to carry with us in the years still to come.

Special thanks to Jane Lee for organizing and securing the meeting venue with assistance from Ang Chee Yong, Travis Lai and Phaik Shan.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Mid Valley Toastmasters Wonderland Event

2010-12-27T01:08:00.004+08:00

"At Christmas play and make good cheer,

for Christmas comes but once a year."

The festival of Christmas is the time to have a lot of fun with the near and dear. This Monday (27th December 2010) is the time for us to spread good cheers with members and guests. We will conduct our last meeting for Year 2010 at RedBox, The Gardens. We will reunions and gatherings with long lost members and friends so that the festive spirit is conveyed to everyone in their acquaintance.

Please join us as we commemorate the start of the holiday season with an informative and joyful session.

Meeting details:

Themes: Christmas & New Year

Dress: Christmas themed attire (Red/ Green/ White)

Others: Gift exchange session & games

It would be our pleasure to invite you and whoever you would like to bring along to our Christmas and New Year meeting. Let your words and speech brighten up someone else and your presence will be their Christmas present this year!

May joy and happiness snow on you, may the bells jingle for you and may Santa be extra good to you!Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Learning to speak confidently!

2010-11-28T19:41:00.002+08:00

Are you interested in learning how to speak confidently in public? Many of us with such intention will get to the nearby book store and purchase a book on "Public Speaking". After a few rounds of reading, you may purchase a few more books on public speaking and continue reading, in hope that your public speaking skills will eventually improve.

While you may learn concepts and tips on public speaking through reading, you will NOT improve, unless you practise! Practice makes perfect!

Public speaking is all about practise, practise, practise. The more you practise, the better you become. You may read hundreds of books on public speaking, but if you do not practise, you will never improve. This is how Toastmasters can help you. We provide you with the necessary platform for you to practise your public speaking skills, while giving you useful feedback on how to improve further.

If you are interested in improving, feel free to drop by at our meeting. We meet at 7pm, every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month at 5th Floor, Cititel Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur. See you there!

Dreaming Big

2010-10-19T22:39:00.004+08:00

Some of us dream big. There is nothing wrong with dreaming, because after all, the world that we are in today is built from dreams that many had in the past. Without the many great men who dreamt and dared to pursue their dreams, we would not have the world that we live in today.

While dreaming big is not wrong, at times we would be laughed at for having big dreams. Some call our dreams silly, some call us too ambitious, and some would even start labeling us crazy. However, if we listen to our inner selves, have faith in ourselves, and work hard towards achieving our dreams, no one can possibly stop us. As the wise one once said, "What your mind can conceive and believe, you can achieve".

At Mid Valley Toastmasters Club, we believe in dreaming, and working towards achieving your dreams. On 11th October 2010, we met with the theme of "Dreaming Big". We shared our dreams when we introduced ourselves and proceeded with a unique table topics session where we built a story together on how dreaming big led to a boy's adventure to space. We ended the meeting with all of us closing our eyes and going deep into ourselves to reinforce our dreams, and to strive towards achieving those dreams.

Congratulations to the winners for the night:
1) Best Speaker: Loh Chia Hur

2) Best Evaluator: Tan Poh Leong

3) Best Table Topics Speaker: Jocelyn

Special thanks to our General Evaluator Alan Tan for attending the meeting.

A Meeting Full of Fire

2010-10-10T22:30:00.007+08:00

(General Evaluator ACB ALB Hadzrin Shah)

The meeting on 27th September 2010 was a meeting full of fire. The fire was started by the fiery General Evaluator ACB ALB Hadzrin Shah who powered all the role players to speak with fire. The unique approach during evaluation session created much excitement and energy. It was a memorable meeting.

Earlier during the meeting, we held an award presentation session for our members who achieved educational awards during the 2009/2010 term. Thanks to these members, we achieved the perfect 10 out of 10 possible points in the Distinguished Club Program (DCP) during the 2009/2010 term:

1. Rafeeqa (CC)
2. Hong Meng Rae (CC)
3. Mellaine (CC)
4. Tan Poh Leong (CC)
5. Lee Su Jane (CL)
6. Loh Chia Hur (ALB)
7. Christine Ong (ACS)
8. Gerard Peter (ACB)

Hari Raya Aidilfitri

2010-09-21T20:14:00.002+08:00

This year's Hari Raya Aidilfitri was not only celebrate by our Muslim friends, but also all of us at Mid Valley Toastmasters Club. On 13 September 2010, we held a special meeting for the celebration with our members dressed for the occasion.

The men came in their Baju Melayu while the ladies came in their Kebaya and Baju Kurung. Besides the fun and laughters, the best dressed members were also rewarded with special gifts, courtesy of our General Evaluator, Robert Ram ACS ALB. The best-dressed titles went to the following members:

Best-dressed Men Category
1) Robert Ram ACS ALB (from IEM Toastmasters Club)
2) Ang Chee Yong TM

Best-dressed Ladies Category
1) Endree Lim TM
2) Jane Lee TM

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri everyone!

Congratulations to Calvin Chai and Loh Chia Hur!

2010-09-06T09:32:00.003+08:00

Are you still single and looking to strike your first perfect date? If you are, you should consult Calvin Chai for tips! Calvin Chai from Mid Valley Toastmasters Club tickled our funny bones at Area G3 Humorous Speech Contest with his speech on how to make your first date a successful one. The hall was filled with laughters as Calvin Chai related to us how to maneuver our first date from the point when you pick up your date to the point when you are finally alone with your date at home. He left the latter part short, as he left the audience to imagine how the date could have ended. The judges were so impressed with the loudest cheers and laughters from the audience that they crowned him the Area Champion for Humorous Speech Contest. Congratulations to Calvin Chai!

Loh Chia Hur from Mid Valley Toastmasters Club did equally well as he emerged as the 1st runner-up for the Humorous Speech Contest. Loh Chia Hur spoke about his “water” experiences during his childhood days (which included an incident when he was having fun playing with water from a toilet bowl). He also related how as a toddler he was pushed into the swimming pool to learn swimming. While trying not to drown, he kicked his feet so hard that his dad thought he was a swimmer with natural talent. Most importantly, Loh Chia Hur imparted an important life lesson to the audience. In life, you may be pushed to the water and left alone to survive. But if you treat the experience as a learning experience and push yourself hard enough to swim faster, you will eventually survive and be a tougher man.

Loh Chia Hur did not only excel in the Humorous Speech Contest, he also excelled in the Evaluation Contest and emerged as the 2nd runner-up. Congratulations to Loh Chia Hur.

The full results are as follows:

Humorous Speech Contest:
Champion: Calvin Chai (Mid Valley Toastmasters Club)
1st runner-up: Loh Chia Hur (Mid Valley Toastmasters Club)
2nd runner-up: Jason Moi (Help Toastmasters Club)

Evaluation Contest:
Champion: Jason Moi (Help Toastmasters Club)
1st runner-up: Meyyappa Manickam (YSP Sah Toastmasters Club)
2nd runner-up: Loh Chia Hur (Mid Valley Toastmasters Club)

Congratulations again to Calvin Chai and Loh Chia Hur! Both of them will be representing Area G3 for the Division Level Humorous Speech Contest on 25 September 2010. We wish them the best for the Division Level Contest!

P.S.- If you would like to see them perform, drop by at our next meeting on 13 September 2010, 7pm at 5th Floor, Cititel Hotel, Mid Valley City.

Going the extra mile

2010-09-04T23:41:00.004+08:00

We believe in going the extra mile to achieve improvement. Recently on 30 August 2010, we conducted an additional meeting to provide more opportunities for our members to attempt their project speeches. Special thanks to Ang Chee Yong (Vice President Education) for organising and securing the meeting venue.

Mid Valley Toastmasters Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests

2010-09-04T23:04:00.005+08:00

If you would like to achieve significant improvement, you have to push yourself to the limit. In Toastmasters, we participate in contests to test our limit, and to see how far we can go. By being competitive, you will force yourself to perfect your public speaking skills to perform at your best. Ultimately, you will find yourself to be a much improved speaker after participating in the contests.

We organized our Club level Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests on 23 August 2010. We had record breaking number of participants with 8 contestants for Humorous Speech Contest and 7 contestants for Evaluation Contest.

The Humorous Speech Contest went on smoothly with laughters bursting out as we listened to speeches peppered with jokes. The Evaluation Contest was equally good with our evaluators providing analysis and recommendations for improvement to the test speaker (Priya from Sai Masters) who delivered a speech entitled "Positive Beliefs Produce Positive Results".

Congratulations to our winners!

Winners of Humorous Speech Contest
Champion: Loh Chia Hur
1st runner-up: Calvin Chai
2nd runner-up: Sky Chan

Winners of Evaluation Contest
Champion: Loh Chia Hur
1st runner-up: Keith Ho
2nd runner-up: Moses Wong

SkyTrex Adventure

2010-08-31T14:02:00.003+08:00

Do you feel butterflies in your stomach when you speak in public? It is a normal reaction of your body to have butterflies in your stomach when you are nervous or anxious. However, with practice, you will be able to control the butterflies and let them fly the way you want them to. As Toastmasters, we are trained to do exactly that- to control the butterflies. By controlling the butterflies, we can then focus on our speeches and deliver the speeches with confidence and conviction.

On 21 August 2010, a bunch of us from Mid Valley Toastmasters Club had a different set of butterflies to control. We challenged ourselves to the extreme by embarking on a scary journey at SkyTrex Adventure Park, Shah Alam. We climbed up trees, swung ourselves from one tree to another, walked on ropes high up in the sky, and tried flying fox. This was an experience of a different kind that we have not been trained to do, but we took up the challenge nevertheless, and successfully completed the challenge with smiles. The girls did it well, looking like Lara Croft in training. The guys did it well too, with some looking like Tarzans.

As a reward for all of us, our Club treated us to good food in Klang.

We learnt one important lesson from the SkyTrex Adventure challenge:

“If you are faced with challenges in life, stop concentrating on how daunting the challenges are, and how impossible it is to overcome them. Instead, focus your energy and mind on the immediate challenge facing you, and walk through the challenges one by one. Before long, you will realize that you have reached the finishing line.”

P.S.- Special thanks to Loo Cheaw Lee for organizing the event. For more photos, join our Facebook group (search for "Mid Valley Toastmasters Club").

Welcome to the new members!

2010-08-17T23:17:00.003+08:00

We conducted the induction ceremony for our new members recently on 9 August 2010. The ceremony was conducted by our Vice President Membership, Travis Lai. Welcome to all new members!

Laugh It Out!

2010-07-14T23:51:00.007+08:00

Toastmasters provides a platform for its members to make mistakes and learn from the mistakes for self improvement. It is the safest platform where you can make mistakes while laughing at your own mistakes without having any adverse consequences. In line with this, the meeting held on 12 July 2010 was set with the theme of “Laugh It Out”.

The meeting was led by our very own Vice President Membership, Travis Lai, who was the Toastmaster of the Evening.

Everyone had good laughter during the meeting which started with a jovial table topics session conducted by Wattson Lai with questions revolving around “Laughter”.

The meeting continued with the first prepared speech by Leong Phaik Shan. Phaik Shan did her ice breaker speech and told us more about herself, including her passion for diving. A remarkable moment of the speech was when she shared with us the fact that “Diving is safer than driving”. Is that true? So she claimed.

Next, Loo Cheaw Lee took the stage and spoke about her experience of having to wear teeth braces. She ended the presentation by imparting the importance of a beautiful smile and encouraged everyone to consider visiting their orthodontist!

Our immediate past Area Governor, Loh Chia Hur, continued the session with his advanced speech where he was asked to speak "off the cuff" about his experience as a sales representative. He shared with us his experience as a sales representative and revealed the surprising fact that sales representatives are generally lonely people who have to travel and work on their own most of the time.

The last speech for the day was presented by our immediate past president, Gerard Peter, who spoke about Hofstede’s Dimensions. He shared with us Malaysia’s ranking on each of the 5 Hofstede’s Dimensions, including the fact that Malaysia scored the highest in the Power Distance dimension, which indicates that Malaysians generally accept that power is distributed unequally.

DTM Tang Sum Chee was the General Evaluator for the meeting and joyfully guided us through the evaluation sections.

At the end of the meeting, a special session was held where our immediate past president, Gerard Peter, accepted an award for leading our club in achieving the perfect 10 out of 10 DCP goals for the term 2009/2010. Congratulations to Mid Valley Toastmasters Club, and special thanks to the EXCO members of the last term!!!

Christmas Meeting with Speakers' Dream Toastmasters

2010-01-04T15:05:00.016+08:00

On the 28th of December our Club had a joint meeting with Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club. We chose to have a joint meeting because we calculated that being the holiday season, attendance might be low. And the reason the joint meeting with specifically Speaker's Dream was because their meeting days coincide with the same Mondays as ours. It was done in a small part also in support of the 1 Malaysia vision of our PM, translated in our style as 1 Christmas in Malaysia with 2 Clubs. So there you go, we welcomed the Joint Christmas meeting with Speakers' Dream Toastmasters with open arms.

There are really 2 persons who need to take credit for this and that would be, Mun Yuen, IPP of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club and our very own Poh Leong, VPE of Mid Valley Toastmasters Club. I personally witnessed the preparation and organisation, which was planned to the tee. Thankfully the GE also noticed that the meeting had proceeded without a hitch and made special mention of the diligence of Poh Leong.

The meeting opened formally with the Presidential address by the President of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club, Ismail Fahmi.

Pictured here is a president who takes his addresses seriously.

Rafeeqa, our TME for the evening was well prepared for the task. Although a relative newcomer to the scene, she executed her tasks with finesse and poise. She might have been the only one who colour-coded here attire in line with the theme for the evening.

World-renowned K. Loghandran, runner up at the World International Speech Contest 2008, presented a humor session. He had the audience in stitches. They laughed and laughed...

and laughed.

The macho ones tried to conceal their laughter.

Others couldn't hold it in.

Ang Chee Yong continued where K. Loghandran left off and seems to have mastered the skill of crafting an entertaining speech. I can only assume that Loghandran had a field time picking nuggets of resources from Chee Yong's topic that exposes the peculiarities that distinguish between the boys and the girls.

Choose carefully whom you trust your personal information with. Information can be use in many ways to cause distress to you. Hong Meng Rae, Mid Valley Toastmasters Club's treasurer gives an insight on Identity Theft

Lawrence Ho of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club wins the "prepared speeches" category with his topic "So What's Next". Seen here on the right of photograph receiving his certificate and a Christmas token from the President of Speaker's Dream Toastmasters Club, Ismail Fahmi.

GE for the meeting, NJ Singam is presented a token of appreciation by the President of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club, Ismail Fahmi.

In all it was as usual an enjoyable evening.

Youth Leadership Programme with Rumah Hope

2009-12-11T15:54:00.022+08:00

We recently, successfully concluded the Youth Leadership Programme for Rumah Hope. And I think I speak for all who attended when I say that it was an immensely fulfilling experience.

Three days of learning for all of us. Being taught as we teach.

As chief coordinator, I was prepared or even anticipated hiccups and other forms of challenges. But thankfully it was not to be and the programme went along quite smoothly indeed.

I'd like to put on record my thanks to each and every single person who made this happen. You can see them in action below.

This photo was taken on Day 1.
The participants had no idea what they were in for.

These trophies were for the speech contest on the final day - Day 3.
They were on display on the front desk as a means of motivation for the participants. If you think they're really nice, tell Meng Rae. He chose them.

Here you see Lorna Fisher and Chia Hur at a break-away session.
Chia Hur is the chief mentor for this particular group.

Another mentor, Meng Rae at work. Presenting a topic on how a speech is to be organised.

Here you have Jacob Mathew representing Rumah Hope having a chat with Ramdas Nayar and Geoff Andrew. Geoff and Ramdas, both exceptional presenters had earlier presented a session each with the children.

Here you have Bill Sim in action. Bill presented two sessions. One on Gestures and another on Listening. If he looks animated here, imagine him live.

My pillars of strength. Mellaine, Su Jane and Chee Yong.
These are half of them. the other half being Poh Leong and Meng Rae. These bunch of the Mid Valley Toastmasters Club EXCO fully supported this initiative and were a totally dedicated team.

Two of our five contest Judges in open chambers, Huang Qinmei and Shaik Dawood.
Presumably having a pointed discussion on the merits of the participants.
(If you want better photos of the last day's happenings, Shaik would be the man to see)

Getting down to the root of the problem , Lorna dedicatedly explains a point to a participant, Aiswariya.

The ultimate expression of gratitude.
Kogilavani demonstrating the general sentiment of that memorable final evening. Mellaine on the receiving end.

Group photograph
Day 2

Senior Group GM of Internal Audit, Christine Ong peruses the work of a paticipant and gives him pointers. Glad it wasn't my work she was perusing.

Area Governor W3, Loh Chia Hur taking time of from his governing responsiblities to coach kids.

Bill again animatedly conducts an exercise on Listening

Our kind hearted sponsor Mr Antony P. Barragry, CEO Mid Valley City, Gardens having a lunch-time chat with Chia Hur, Christine Ong and Lorna Fisher. In the background, standing is Shahrin Chin Abdullah, Senior Group GM, Group Human Resource Division, IGB Corporation Berhad. who played an instrumental role in having the programme venued at the Gardens Hotel.

2009-11-18T17:46:00.002+08:00

MID VALLEY TOASTMASTERS CLUB
YOUTH LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME
4 – 6 December 2009
RUMAH HOPE
45 JALAN 20/2, Paramount Garden

any volunteers???

26 October meeting-Haloween

2009-10-28T14:33:00.016+08:00

Happy Birthday!

October 22 was the 85th Anniversary of Toastmasters International. In 85 years the club grew from one club in 1924 (as seen on the picture at the top right) to 12,000 clubs around the world. That's indeed a lot of expansion in a relatively short space of time.

That fact alone speaks volumes the organisation. Nothing else needs said. The virtues that the organisation promotes are values universal to any society. And those of us who are already in the organisation can be proud of belonging to probably the biggest organisation in the world which advances our competitive edge without leading us into a competition. Well at least that was the spirit by which Toastmasters was conceived.

Let's always be appreciative of this spirit!

Closer to home though, we had another birthday to celebrate. And it was that of Christine Ong.

Mid Valley Club has come a long way from where it started. And if there was one person who should take credit for moulding the club into becoming what it is today, it should be Christine Ong. I, not unlike many of the others who have known Christine, have nothing but great respect and admiration for her. Her dedication and commitment for anything that she sets her focus on is most admirable and sadly often borders on a fair degree of self-sacrifice. Christine celebrated her birthday on the 25th of October. We wish her all the best

Congratulations to the well deserving team responsible for the Mid Valley club's achievement of the Distinguished Club status.

The club was presented the award at the Semi-Annual Convention held recently at Genting Highlands. It was received there by Chia Hur representing the club. Chia Hur acting in his capacity as Area Governor, in turn re-presented it to the VPE of the Mid Valley Toastmasters Club of the 2008/2009 term, Lee Su Jane. (Anand, the President of the 2008/2009 term couldn't be present to receive this award)

What Luck!

Not only had we Lucky for an evaluator but we were also treated with his mesmerizing speech at table topics. Lachmichand seen here charming the crowd and especially the ladies with his much honed speaking skills, leaving the table topics evaluator awed and lost for words in his evaluation of him.

Our most charming VPPR and lead vampires, Lee Su Jane, see here reaching out to the vampires.

Su Jane seemed to relish this particular topic, describing in minute details her conquests as a vampire. In particular, she was determined to share her delight at acquiring the taste for the blood of a certain gender. You can choose to assume which. And from the response of the audience, one would think that some here actually looked forward to the prospect of being bitten by this vampires.

Su Jane had just returned from the Semi-Annual Convention at Genting Highlands and seemed super charged-up to share her freshly minted knowledge and experiences with the group.

28 September Meeting- Confronting your Fear

2009-09-29T11:51:00.025+08:00

"Confronting your fear" was the theme of yesterday's meeting. Our TME, VPE and extremely suave Tan Poh Leong reminded toastmasters that they were there to confront and conquer their fear of public speaking. Poh Leong who claims to have once feared public speaking, admitted under his breath that he no longer faced such fears. He had confronted and conquered them(at the club level at least). Congratulations Poh Leong! It is hard to imagine that this chap in the picture above actually feared public speaking.

Jonathan(left) a first-timer at toastmasters and guest of Meng Rae(right) from the IGB group paying rapt attention to the speech at hand.

A planned speech of a "no-plan plan" by Nur Hidayah. The titles of the speech in themselves stir one's curiosity.

The distinguished looking General Evaluator playing close attention to the antics of the club.

Our club's treasurer Meng Rae advising the club as to how to not to be millionaire.

The confused computer geniuses Seng Yaw and Leung wondering whether or not to want be a millionaire after-all. Hmmm

Our GE demonstrating the proper way to confront one's fear : with open arms

14 September Meeting - Hari Raya Aidilfitri

2009-09-15T11:08:00.016+08:00

The theme of our meeting yesterday evening was Hari Raya Aidilfitri. And who better to explain the significance of this theme than the one who selected it, our TME, Noorhashima. It was Ema's (her shortened and preferred name) maiden role as a TME and I thought she was just great. She took her role seriously and gathered all essential facts before the meeting. Her due diligence and resolute command of the meeting resulted in a meeting almost as smooth as the silk of the baju kurung she wore. Ema seen above making final adjustments on her TME script.

We also had a guest yesterday, Edwin Wong. It was his first time at a TM meeting. And our VPM Rafeeqa, left no question in Edwin's mind as to the benefits of "toastmastering". (Rafeeqa seen in photograph pointing out the finer points to Edwin).

Edwin later took the bull by its horns by trying out at table topics.

We were fortunate to have also yesterday a committed GE, Kuok Sum who shared with us interesting insights as to how we can better our meetings. What I particularly found enlightening was his insight on the different stances for women and men and how to make shorter yet substantive reports on timekeeping.

Thank you Kuok Sum. (seen above receiving a token of appreciation from the president of the club and yours truly.)

We had our welcomed regular evaluator and friend, Hadzrin at his usual wit delivering his wining table topic.

And our poise VPE, Poh Leong delivering his wining evaluation, choosing his voice unplugged over the microphone.

Rafeeqa having had personal training sessions from the master himself and W3 Area Governor Chia Hur, won for the prepared speeches.

Humor and Evaluation Contest

2009-09-15T10:37:00.004+08:00

What a Contest. Ask those who attended and find out why "Walla-Walla" needs to be the word to add in one's vocabulary. Almost every other speech borrowed this word. The word or rather phrase was the thrust of the humor winning speech.

Christine Ong, represented our club and the Area W3 for the evaluation contest. She was the first to evaluate followed by 7 others. Just being there and having the courage to face some fifty odd clubs is a humble lesson in conquering fear in itself. In my book that alone makes each area representative a winner in his or her own right. (insert photograph from left, Christine, Leung's guest, Leung, Poh Leong and myself)

Dont Forget!

2009-09-08T19:40:00.003+08:00

Division W Humourous Speech and Evaluation Contest

1pm, Saturday, 12 September

At WIM, TTDI.

Support our own Christine Ong, representing our club and area W3.

Get your tickets from Chia Hur or me.

Our Mc Dees Venue

2009-08-25T15:17:00.006+08:00

We had a rather interesting meeting at Mc Donalds, Bangsar yesterday. I think our GE, Hadzrin was the earliest to arrive. Anyway our meeting began later than expected because of a few reasons. One of which being that we hadn't looked into the fact that it would be jammed on that day. The second was that neither Poh Leong nor I who had gone on an earlier recce of the premises was there beforehand to direct and to organise the seating arrangement as we had planned. For this I apologise. But thanks to Hadzrin, Rae, his lovely wife and other helpful early bird toastmasters, this was promptly taken care of. (unfortunetely Mrs Hong Meng Rae didn't stay long enough to be thanked for her efforts. Rae, please don't keep her a secret and do convey our gratitude.)

The jams, a usual occurrence during the berbuka puasa period witnessed almost everyone rushing somewhere to berbuka puasa with their loved ones. Mid Valley toastmasters too knew who their loved ones were, and accordingly spent the berbuka puasa moment with them. The love we shared amongst ourselves spread quickly and the rest of the meeting went on rather smoothly.
I don't know if everbody felt this way but pictures they say speak a thousand words. These are posted, so you be the judge.

Hadzrin, if you are reading this, thank you for the great GE-ing and for your patience.
And to Misal our TME again I say, a job well done.

cheers,
gerard

Area W3 Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest 2009

2009-08-24T17:14:00.004+08:00

Area W3 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contest was successfully organised at 5th Floor, Cititel Hotel, Mid Valley on Tuesday, 18 August 2009.

The contest began at 7.30pm with Mohd Hazrin Shah, ACB, CL as the Contest Chair for Humorous Speech. We had our good laughs with 5 contestants:
1. Chan Chee Hong
2. Moi Kok Lum, Jason
3. Tah Poh Leong
4. Poh Ban Chung
5. Lee Su Jane

Gerald Wee is our Evaluation Contest Chair. The test speaker for the evening was Sam Thong with his Speech title; "How to Operate a SLR Camera". The contestants who evaluated Sam are:
1. Tah Poh Leong
2. Ernest Wong
3. Christine Ong
4. Jacylyn Wee
5. Moi Kok Lum, Jason

The results for the Speech Evaluation Contest are as followed:
1. Champion: Christine Ong
2. 1st-Runner Up: Jason Moi
3. 2nd-Runner Up: Ernest Wong

The results for the Humorous Speech Contest are as followed:
1. Champion: Poh Ban Chung
2. 1st-Runner Up: Jason Moi
3. 2nd-Runner Up: Chan Chee Hong

Congratulations to our winners as they made us proud tonight and the champion will be contesting in Division W Contest. Details are as followed;

Date/Day: 12th September 2009/Saturday
Venue: WISMA WIM, TTDI
Time: 1.30pm till further notice
Fee: RM15 (before 24th August) and RM20 (after 24th August) ; Lunch is included

Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contest 2009 / 2010

2009-08-24T17:10:00.000+08:00

Have you ever listened to a speech which was so dull that you were trying your best to stay awake? If you were falling asleep while listening to the speech, obviously the speaker had failed to capture your attention. Surely, you do not want to let your audience fall asleep if you were the speaker. Adding humor to your speech is one of the ways to captivate your audience (and keep them awake through out your speech).

Toastmasters Club provides you with the platform to learn how you can add humor to your speech. By participating in Toastmasters-organized humorous speech contest, you have the chance to practise incorporating humor into your speech. As the old saying goes, “Practise makes perfect”.

On 27th July 2009, Mid Valley Toastmasters Club held its Humorous Speech Contest 2009 / 2010. The contest started off well with the first participant, Leung Wan Choong, talking about how he grew up as a blur boy (and still blur until today). The laughter-filled speech was continued with the next participant, Su Jane, who spoke about marriage (and how marriage could potentially be a mousetrap). She spoke about how strange it is that the singles want to get married, and yet the married ones want to be single again. As the audience slowly contemplated that she might not be happily married, she clarified that she is actually happily married and happy with her life now. The next contestant, Poh Leong, spoke about his 2 younger brothers. He told stories about how one of them was so young that he was at times mistaken as Poh Leong’s son, and how the other one was so blur, which gave rise to a few embarrassing moments to his dad.

The Humorous Speech Contest was won by Poh Leong, with Su Jane as the 1st runner-up.

The humor-filled night was then proceeded with Evaluation Contest 2009 / 2010. As has been repeatedly mentioned in Toastmasters meetings, “Feedback is the breakfast of Champions”. For one to improve to be a champion, one has to constantly seek feedback to one’s performance, and improve from thereon. Through the Evaluation Contest, you can learn how you can provide encouraging and value adding feedback for a speaker to improve to become a champion.

The test speaker, Fariq from Help Toastmasters Club, presented his speech on the importance of history. He began his speech by introducing the term history as “his-story”, and went on to talk about the history of how the Portuguese conquered Malacca, before ending with explaining why learning history was so important.

He was evaluated by 5 participants of the Evaluation Contest. The participants were Leung Wan Choong, Poh Leong, Su Jane, Christine Ong and Gerard Peter. The evaluator who gave the most encouraging and detailed evaluation was Christine Ong, who was subsequently crowned as the champion of the Evaluation Contest. Poh Leong was the 1st runner-up and Gerard Peter was the 2nd runner-up.

The night was great, with good food and well organized programme line-up. Thanks to Chia Hur (who played both the roles of Organizing Chair and Contest Chair) and Su Jane (who helped Chia Hur in the background and arranged for the elegant trophies). Special thanks as well to the judges, test speaker, role players and guests.

by Tan Poh Leong, VPE Mid Valley Toastmasters Club

5 Reasons to Join Mid Valley Toastmasters Club

2008-10-30T13:35:00.007+08:00

1) We can help you gain the confidence to speak in public and become a leader
In Toastmasters, we have a system to guide our members through their journey to become proficient speakers. By going through a series of manuals, members will get to improve on their eye contact, body language, vocal variety and lots more. We also assign mentors for new members to ease their learning process.

2) We provide a platform for networking
We see the importance of networking which could lead us to new possibilities. In Toastmasters, you are not restricted to only one club. You can visit as many clubs as you want, building your connections along the way.

3) We provide the perfect venue for you to practice
In Mid Valley Toastmasters Club, we believe our surroundings do affect the way we perform. That's why we have selected the best for our members, a comfortable conference room in Cititel Hotel, Mid Valley.

4) We provide good food
We understand the gastronomic needs of our members, that's why our freshly cooked food came directly from the hotel's kitchen. Serving on a "All-You-Can-Eat" basis!

5) We provide a fun and friendly environment
In Mid Valley Toastmasters Club, we believe in learning with a fun experience. We could be dressing up seriously, but we are emphasizing on the fun! Mid Valley Toastmasters Club will help you loosen up yourself after a long day of work. On top of that, if your birthday is on our meeting day, let us know. We will help you celebrate your birthday!

If you want to know more about the club or join us for a meeting, kindly write to hur@earthling.net

World Class Speakers

2008-09-14T09:40:00.018+08:00

For those of you who have wished to learn to some of the greatest Toastmasters in the world, this will be your greatest opportunity, as on 7th September, I attended the special presentation by 2 world class Toastmasters: 1990 World Champion of Public Speaking David Brooks, DTM, and 2008 World Championship Public Speaking 1st Runner-up Loghandran Krishnasamy, DTM . It was a great learning experience, as we managed to pick up tips from these world-class speakers.

First off, Loghandran spoke on his experience of preparing for his winning speech, which he then performed for the audience. I managed to record his speech, and although it is a bit dark, if you increase the brightness on your screen, you should be able to see his performance.

Now, that was a world class speech, and performed by a Malaysian! As Loghan put it, we now have every reason to believe that we Malaysians too, can be world class speakers.

Next up was DTM David Brooks from Texas in his 'formal' blue jeans, the same blue jeans he wore when he won in 1990, and has become something of his trademark symbol in Toastmasters International circles.
His presentation was on everything that every Toastmaster should know, but rarely are able to discover without the proper guidance. He laid out the Eight Essentials of Effective Speaking.

The audience is not the enemy. The first fear of a new speaker is usually the fear of the audience, but they shoudl realize that the audience does not go to a speech or presentation hoping "Gosh, I hope this speech is lousy." or "Please let me hear this speaker mess up his or her speech." The audience is either neutral or supportive of the speaker, not hostile, so speakers should seek and return to friendly faces in the crowd.
Determine what you want the audience to think, feel or do. Whether you wish to inspire, entertain, inform or persuade the audience, you, the speaker, must be sure of which of these you wish the audience to feel through your speech. As a test, the steps you want to put into achieving these feelings must be able to fit within the back of a business card. It shouldn't take too much to define the purpose of your speech.
Write your speech word for word. A good speech is the result of good editing, and you cannot edit what you do not write. Writing out your speech gives you a good idea of what points to include or remove from your speech in order to streamline the points and to meet the time limit. Humans speak at an average of 120 words per minute, and can reach 170 words per minute at higher speeds. So by having a 1500-word speech should give you a rough idea that your speech will run for about 10 minutes, and you can tailor your speech accordingly.
Bring life to your words with colourful images and examples. "A beautiful beach." does not impress the audience the way "A beach with golden sands, clear blue waters, and roiling waves." does. A good speech must be able to incorporate adjectives and adverbs in order to truly bring the lements of a story to life.
The 6 words that can change the way you speak: "Make a Point, Tell a Story". Facts tell, stories sell. Don't write a speech only for the purpose of telling facts. The audience will be drawn in when you make it personal and sincere. Inject speeches with personal experiences and examples, and the audience will respond to you.
6 emotions that will connect to any audience: Happiness; Sadness; Anger; Surprise; Disgust; Fear. These are the 6 main emotions that every human being will experience everyday of their lives, often more than one at a time. A good speech will allow the audience to imagine these emotions, and thus give the speech a strong emotional touch.
Do not underestimate the power of laughter. When we laugh, we relax. When we relax, we learn. People do not learn well when they are stressed, tense or bored. And what better way to clear those negative emotions than through laughter? But instead of using jokes, tell funny personal stories, as the audience can better connect to you by laughing with you.
Don't tell us, take us. Let the audience live the speech, and that can be achieved through your voice and gestures. When your movement and voice matches your message, your speech then becomes memorable.

A Day To Remember!

2008-09-11T22:33:00.003+08:00

by Chia Hur

Ladies & Gentlemen, please mark the 11th of September on your calender as there will never be a day like this again. This day shall be the day we remember Toastmaster Teh. The day we remember his contributions and sacrifices to the club. Toastmaster Teh, your deeds shall never be forgotten by us, your image shall forever remain in our hearts, your existence shall be eternal as Mid Valley Toastmasters. You shall be our HERO for life!

Don't worry, Teh is still very much in existence. Just that he's been talking about end of days and stuff(as the general evaluator of the IREKA meeting!). Telling everyone to live life like there's no tomorrow because of the Large Hedron Collider.

Okay now, that's not really the big deal here. The big deal is our toastmaster Teh finally got his hands on a new power. The power of the General Evaluator(I think he's been drooling for this)! The power to comment on EVERYTHING! The power to flip a Toastmasters meeting upside down! The power to turn a Toastmasters meeting into perfection! Let us give a round of applause to Toastmaster Teh the General Evaluator!

It's Been Too Long

2008-09-09T00:24:00.002+08:00

By Chia Hur

I felt bad after not visiting this website for a month, this place is like a Shangri La turned into wasteland! What happen to the updates? Sigh,I guess I'll have to start doing things myself. =P

Well, recently I participated in the Humorous Speech contest. Although I only made it to the Area, I would like to share my speech(script) with you guys who couldn't make it. Here it is!

I have a guy friend, during our college days we were like the most macho men in our campus. We were like the Chinese version of Shahrukh Khan except we can’t dance. One day we decided to hit the cinema together, just the two of us for some unromantic reasons.

One thing great about being macho man is that we have no plans, we don’t do reservation. We rather queue up for the leg exercise. For that day, it was a good exercise because the queue was freakin’ long. The tickets were selling out like hotcakes. By the time it’s our turn, it’s only the leftovers, the only seats left were the “neck-stiffing” seats in front. Looking at our depressed facial expression, the ticket seller offered us something that macho men like us would runaway from. She offered us pair of “lovey-dovey couple seats” behind.

I tried rejecting her politely by doing the traditional headshake, but it seems like it’s too difficult for her to understand. So I decided to get verbal and I told her “Today, it’s not my shoulder’s turn be his pillow.” As a result, we ended up with the “neck-stiffing” seats.

Personally, I have a very bad impression on couple seats. People are seriously abusing them for “kiss & hug” sessions. Now, I have a suggestion for the cinemas on how to solve this problem. All they need to do is to attach a glow in the dark sticker in front of the couple seats that says “if mating season is close, get a room!”

Back to the movie when my neck got stiffer and stiffer by the minute, suddenly I felt a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. Just before I was about to get up from my seat and run for my life, I looked around and I realized I was the only one experiencing it. And then I felt the earthquake again when I turned to my left, I found the source of the earthquake, it was man made. Apparently, that guy on my left side was having a great time shaking his legs off. It was like his legs; just his legs got possessed by some evil spirit. From what I heard, when you get possessed, you will feel an energy flow as if you were being electrocuted.

At that time, I wanted to confront that man, I wanted to ask him “Hey friend, do you need an exorcist?”, but before I could do that my mum’s image appeared in my mind. She was folding her arms like genie and she said “Son, silence is golden and all good things come to those who wait”. Believing in her words, I waited out. At the end of the day, I suspected that he was on Energizer because he did not stop shaking at all!

On that day, after coming out from the cinema with a stiff neck and dizzy head, I’ve finally learnt 2 things:

#1, “Opportunity only knocks once”, I should have let go of my ego and taken the couple seats instead, I could be saving 3 days of neck pain.

#2, I realized if you want something to be done, you have to start opening your mouth because “silence isn’t made of solid gold, it’s only gold plated.”

How was it? Did you guys, enjoyed it? =) This speech actually took me a month to complete, if I didn't lose, it will still be under construction. In the competition this time, I've learnt a few thing. Would like to share it with you guys too.

1) You need courage to speak, but you will need even more courage to pause. Ironic, but kind of true. I've been telling myself I needed to pause at some parts of my speech(punchlines), but I felt uncomfortable when I have eyes looking at me waiting for words to come out of my mouth. I really need more determination in pausing, if I want to stirr laughter into the crowd.

2) More drama! I've been to several contest and I don't think those guys are that funny. I don't think I have that much difference too. The trick to ignite laughter is to understand you audience. Understand what they want. From my point of view, audience wants more drama. They want to see more vivid body laguages, more vocal variety and more emotions! Yeah, need to brush up on my acting. =P

3) If you don't think you are funny, cheat! If you can't beat cheaters, join them! I got a confirmation from a few senior toastmasters telling me that as long as 2/3 of my speech is original, I can cheat my way thru using other people's materials. Doesn't sound heroic, I know. Even I wouldn't do it, but I hope this information would help you guys join the next speech contest. It's fun getting more ornaments to decorate your house!

That's it for today, stay tune for my updates! =P

Outnumbered on the 28th!

2008-08-01T11:04:00.009+08:00

Our meeting on the 28th of July was another long one, ending at almost 10pm. But it was a fruitful and enjoyable meeting, probably because in this meeting, Guests outnumbered Members! We had 3 Guest speakers for our Table Topics Session, and 1 Project Guest speaker.

We had 5 Table Topic speakers: Gerard, Anand, and Guests Niki, Larry and Poh Leong. All three Guests were not Toastmasters, and Larry and Poh Leong were first time speakers and our 3 Guests spoke with flair, clarity and confidence. Poh Leong actually won the Best Table Topics Speaker award for the night!

Poh Leong, our Best Table Topics Speaker for the night.

For our project speakers, we had Guest speaker Dorcas Aung from Ireka with her 2nd speech 'Paving Your Way To Success'. As usual, she used her powerful voice to great effect, and was voted the Best Project Speaker of the night. Our Vice President of Education Lee Su Jane gave her 5th speech entitled 'Bang!!!', in which she detailed her personal experience of witnessing a bank robbery up close.

Dorcas Aung Ching Ching from Ireka, our Best Project Speaker for the night

President Anand did his 6th speech, titled 'Katrina and I', where he talked about his experiences while studying in America, where he saw and lived through Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Our last speech for the night was from Vice President of Marketing Loh Chia Hur, as he essentially became a marketing person with his 1st Advanced Communicator Manual Speech, 'The Effective Salesperson'. Loh's speech involved him attempting to sell a magazine to fellow Toastmaster Seng Yaw, followed by an open-floored Q&A session.

Our General Evaluator was Kay Wong, and Vincent Hor was voted the best Evaluator for the night. Overall, it was a long but very fruitful evening. Special thanks to our Guest speakers and Evaluators!

Vincent Hor, voted our Best Evaluator for the night

Mid Valley Toastmasters Club Meeting 14/7/08

2008-07-18T22:27:00.006+08:00

By Chia Hur,

I apologize for the late updates due to some personal issues. Last Monday, we had our very own club meeting in our home base Cititel, Mid Valley. It was the first meeting involving the new EXCO members that were elected a month ago. Here's some insights on what was happening on that day.

The attendance for the meeting was unusually low for that day. Three guests attended the meeting with us on that day.

The President, Anand gave his presidential speech for the very first time "relaxingly". He did his project speech later too.

Past Area Governor, Christine did her advance project speech as well on that night.

Our Sergeant, Seng Yaw was whispering the theme "Just Do It" repeatedly before pushing himslef forward for tabletopics and project speech.

Our General Evaluator on that day was DTM, Tang Sum Chee who made his way to our meeting even though he had an invitation elsewhere. Thanks if you are reading this!

Leung was our tabletopics evaluator on that day.
Gerald was one of the project speeches evaluator who earned the Best Evaluator of the day with ACG, Leong Oi Wah (since there was a tie in votes)

IREKA Toastmasters Meeting 10/7/08

2008-07-17T01:39:00.004+08:00

By Chia Hur

Last Thurday, Anand, Su Jane, Teh, Rae, Christine and I (did I missed anyone =P) attended IREKA's 1st Toastmasters Meeting. In case some of you still don't know anything about IREKA, she's our sister club! This means we were the sponsor of their club.

For you guys who missed it, here's how the venue looked like. It's a cozy place located in the heart Mont Kiara (within the concrete jungle of condominiums).

Our "Fantastic" president, Anand got his chance to become the table topics evaluator for his very first time!
Before we packed our luggages, the President of IREKA Toastmasters Club was generous enough to give us a souvenir as a token of appreciation. All of us that stayed behind till the very last moment took a photo to remember the night!

For anyone who's interested in joining IREKA's next meeting, you can notify any of our EXCO members. If you need the directions, you can email me at hur@earthling.net

Area Council Meeting 8/7/08

2008-07-17T01:25:00.002+08:00

By Chia Hur

On the 8th of July, there was an area meeting in MAISCA to discuss about the various issues of Toastmasters. We got to meet with other clubs within the area which were DHL KL, Security's Commission, MAISCA, Universiti Malaya and our sister club, IREKA.

Just to give you guys an idea of the location of MAISCA, it's just right across Boulevard hotel (as you can see the picture below was taken from MAISCA building.

Before the meeting started I scouted and found a few interesting posters on Toastmasters. Typically the whole board (below) was filled with Toastmaster's posters and information.

Here's another picture I took during the meeting, the meeting room of MAISCA was quite huge in terms of length. For the meeting, only Anand (President), Su Jane (VPE) and I (VPM) attended as it was compulsory for us.

Guesting at Friendship TMC

2008-07-02T18:28:00.007+08:00

2 Presidents and some crazy guy

(Lay Theng, Adnan and Ernest)

by The Teh

On July 1st , Adnan and myself went to Friendship Toastmasters Club's first ever brand new meeting for the new term. The meetings are held at KL Golf and Country Club, which is around Sri Hartamas (big signboards conveniently point the way). It was the first time either one of us had been there, and we were there as evaluators (Adnan as the evaluator for Table Topics, I evaluated a project speech).

The first thing that struck us was how organized the meeting was. Friendship had a very nice and professional newsletter printed out, detailing, among other things, the President's Message, Club Goals, an event calendar, and even a comic of Dilbert!
Anand and I were warmly greeted by the members, and Anand and I were impressed by how well prepared the role players were. Ernest from HELP TMC was the General Evaluator, and there were 3 project speakers for that night: Alexandra Lau for her 1st speech; Zaiton Zainal Abidin for Speech #4 (whom I evaluated); and ACS James Ariokasamy for Advanced Communicator Speech #1.

All in all, we were very impressed and the meeting went very well, although we did not manage to sample FTMC's regular chicken wings (the new SAA pledged that he would provide wings in future meetings). Thanks to Ben and the EXCO for inviting us there.

Advanced Communicators Meeting #24

2008-06-30T23:02:00.003+08:00

By Chia Hur

In District 51, there's only one group of people gathering for Advanced Communicators Meeting (ACM) once a month. Like it's name, ACM, it means that the only people who are involved are Competent Communicators (CC) and above.

The ACM is very different from regular meetings. There are usually 3 speakers each time. However, the evaluation is split into two parts. First part is by the panel evaluators made up of three people. Second part is by the main evaluator, just one person. After that, the audiences are allow to comment on the speakers as well as the evaluators. The main objective of ACM is to give a better insight to speakers on how to improve on communication skills based on ideas given by all sides.

The ACM is currently held in Menara Mutiara Bangsar's Optometry, a shop owned by a toastmaster, Wei Seong (immediate past president of D'Utama Advanced Toastmasters Club). The only sad thing is that refreshments are not provided because they have no funds for it. That's why remember to eat before you go!

Without any further ado, I'll show you guys some shots I have taken just now.

Patricia, DTM of Extol Toastmasters Club as Facilitator

Soh Fong Wai, DTM of D'Utama Toastmasters Club as Speaker

Since he was doing a project on facilitating a discussion, all the ideas from the audiences were written on the board

The three panel evaluators sitting in front (which includes me)

The Main Evaluator

Toastmasters Leadership Institute - Officers' Training 28/6/08

2008-06-30T11:30:00.006+08:00

By Chia Hur

A training for incoming club officers was held in Women's Institute of Management (WIM) on last Saturday afternoon. It was a training to equip club officers with knowledge and skills to cope up with their responsibilities as club officers. Since all the officers from clubs within Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur have to attend, the venue chosen was a hall that can fill up at least 200 people.

The hall getting filled up before starting off

The event started off with Suresh, the Toastmaster of the Afternoon taking up the rostrum. (Our Teh was a little shocked after knowing that he is only 19 years old after as well as the incoming secretary of division W.

Suresh Mohan, Toastmasters of the Afternoon showing his dimples

Before firing off with a series of speeches, the guests read out the visions and objectives of Toastmasters while standing.

Guests standing up while reading from the screen in front

After the guests were seated once again, our District Governor, Joseph Gomez took the stage sharing his years of past experience as a Toastmaster. He emphasized on "courage to conquer" during his speech. Joseph Gomez, District 51 Governor

It wasn't long before our Toasmaster's Celebrity, Azmi Shahrin's turn. As always, his speech was smooth, slow and confident. His speech was about how to achieve the 10 club goals to reach President Distinguished Club status. Azmi taking off the microphone for more stage freedom

At 3 pm, the club officers were separated into 3 different rooms according to their position in the club. I was "banished" into room 2 with Teh where we met up with Satchit (member of KPMG & Tamil Toastmasters Club) and Ernest (member of HELP University College). They were both talking about how to become an effective Vice President of Membership (for me) and Vice President of Public Relations (for Teh), respectively.

Satchit trying to pull off some jokes to reduce audience's tension

1 hour later, we gathered in the hall again where we had our past district governor, Low Yat Seong (from Damansara Utama Toastmasters Club, KDU) delivering his speech. It was about knowing toastmasters, the communication track, the leadership track, the awards and the benefits. Basically to know what you can offer to members and potential members.

Low Yat Seong on stage

The training ended with a finale speech by our very own Division Governor, Dr. Sharon (who talked me into helping her as a coordinator). She gave some gifts of appreciation to the speakers as well as outstanding clubs, like Mid Valley Toastmasters Club (our club) for having the Magnificent 7 there on that day.

Dr. Sharon and her finale

There you go! The Magnificent 7 in Mid Valley Uniform (Anand, you sure that's not janitor's Uniform? =P)

HELP University College Toastmasters Club Meeting 21/6/08

2008-06-26T22:49:00.004+08:00

By Chia Hur

It was a sleepy Saturday morning (8.30 am), I almost didn't want to crawl up my bed to go for a Toastmasters meeting. Although I wanted to roll in my bed for another 2 hours before getting up, I couldn't because I have a role to play in that meeting.

I embarked on a journey to HELP University College located in Pusat Bandar Damansara. Honestly, I didn't know where to park my car at all as I wanted to park at a place that doesn't need me to do any morning walk. Unfortunately, I parked at the other end which has the longest walking distant. =(

On the way to the Department of Student Affairs, I was quite surprised that the whole HELP University College was located underground (reminded me of Ninja Turtles where they actually lived in underground). When I arrived, several local toastmasters were already there waiting for the security guard to say "Open Sesame", yes, the door was locked.

The meeting started a little late, but everything went back on track.

Outgoing President, Ernest doing his opening speech (he was also the General Evaluator)

Our Club's VPE, Su Jane playing the role of Tabletopics Master

Jook Yew (yes, the guy that came by on Monday in our meeting) doing his project speeches

Fong Wen, last project speaker of the day doing her last speech on the CC manual (she was the first person to be evaluated by me though)

Ahmad from MIMPJ doing his evalutation which won him the Best Evaluator (he won the Best Tabletopic Speaker too). Did you manage to get his number, Jane? =X

Overall attendance of that day (have you ever wondered why in every Toastmasters meeting the tables must be arranged in a "U" shape?)

Okay, I was a little surprised about this too. They were actually giving trophy for new members and people who got promoted to CC (hmm...we were only giving certificates and handshake =P)

That's it for today. Keep visiting for updates!

Our First Post!

2008-06-18T22:25:00.000+08:00

Hello, Toastmasters one and all, young and old, new and... not so new :). Welcome to the new Mid Valley Toastmasters blog.

The Executive Committe created this blog because we realized we had no real place to post and show all that we learned during our meetings. In here, we will post the records of our meetings and any lessons we learn there so that other members can read and learn from them to improve their future presentations.

We will also note down any participation of our members in other club meetings, as well as any upcoming events or programmes related to Toastmasters. We will also try to update this blog with any books, training sessions or training opportunities that can help our Toastmasters polish their skills.

From the 2008-2009 Executive Committee, here's to a great year ahead!