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

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)