SMK Subang Utama Youth Leadership Program 2011

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

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

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!!!