Meeting #258: "Till the End of the Line" (Written By Ang Chee Yong; Edited by Timothy Nakayama)

This was an evening that was packed with ENERGY, thanks to the theme selected by our Vice-President of Education (VPE) Timothy Nakayama. I truly believe that our VPE wanted to remind us that Mid Valley TMC members are here to support all DCP Point Chasers, Till the End of the Line, before the end of the term, 30 June 2015. I have a strong sense of belief that, with the strong leadership displayed by the current EXCO team, we will surely end this term on a high note by receiving yet another Distinguished Toastmasters Club award for the club.

To begin the meeting, our club president Shim Chee Loon delivered his presidential speech with energy and excitement. He razzled and dazzled us with his boyish good looks, beaming smile, and wise words. We had a total of 14 guests at our meeting, therefore, such passion and excitement is a good way to inspire guests to join as members! The introduction session led by Chee Loon gave us all an opportunity to get to know each other, members and guests alike.
  
As the charming Toastmaster of the Evening, Chong Chee Siong kept us entertained and focused throughout the meeting. His sonorous voice, quips, one-liners and the ability to laugh at himself put everyone at ease. Well done!

  
Kow Chee Khon was our Grammarian for the evening and he introduced us to the Word of the Day – Zealous. A seemingly difficult word to use throughout the evening, but we managed to use it a couple of times due to Kow giving us great examples on how to use the word.

In keeping with our theme, our Table Topics Master, Christopher Chooi, prepared a few topics that were all about “Till the End of the Line”. The Table Topics session turned out to be a memorable one as all our Table Topic Speakers were also our guests, and it was even more memorable when you consider that, for many of them, this was the first time they had attended a Toastmasters meeting! There was one thing that they all had in common: they all wanted to improve their public communication skills!

We had 2 guests who received very similar Table Topic questions: “Your experience with someone/something till the end of the line.” Ms. Shima regaled us with a personal story, about her mother, and took the opportunity to wish her mother a Happy Mother’s Day. Mr. Lai, on the other hand, shared with us the fact that he had 2 different characters inside of him: the Good Lai, and the Bad Lai. Throughout his life, he has always been trying to improve himself by fighting the Bad Lai so that the Good Lai can oversee his quest to be a better man.  It was a pretty motivational Table Topic from Lai!

Our last Table Topic Speaker was Ms. Jankie, who received the Table Topic: “Name one person you can commit to until the end of the line.” Even though she was just a guest, she delivered her Table Topics with the flair and skill of an experienced Toastmaster. She told us about the bad experiences in her previous relationship, how she overcame them and eventually transformed into the person she is now – one who is patient and waiting for a future husband to whom she can fully commit the rest of her life to.  It was an inspiring Table Topic speech which saw Jankie bagging the Best Table Topic Speaker Award at the end of the meeting.

Tonight we had to truly keep track of our timing as we had a total of 5 Project Speakers. Well done to our Timekeeper Phang Chen De for ensuring everything ran smoothly, time-wise.

We had 2 speakers attempting their CC#9. The first was Sky Siew, who delivered an informative speech, titled “Financial Advisor”, based on his work experience. He gave us great reasons for going to a Financial Advisor, in order to plan our financial matters better, in the hopes that one day, we can avail ourselves of financial freedom.


The second CC#9 speaker was our President Shim Chee Loon himself! Entitled “Safety”, Chee Loon’s speech revolved around the many accidents that can happen in extreme activities like paintball and cliff-diving, and the things we can do to ensure our utmost safety when engaging in said activities. He even gave us a couple of road safety suggestions. What a class act, is our Shim Chee Loon!

We then came to the Advanced Speeches. First of the Advanced Speakers was Wong Mi Shan, who was delivering a speech from the Special Occasions Advanced Manual, titled “The Academy Awards.” It was short, sweet and memorable as she announced and presented the Best Actress “award” to another member of ours, Chong Carmen (who is known as The Drama Queen in Mid Valley Toastmasters Club!) This speech was the very last Advanced Speech Mi Shan needed to complete in order to earn her Advanced Communicator Bronze award. Kudos to Mi Shan!

Our second Advanced Speaker was Past President Ang Chee Yong. His speech was from the Speeches by Management Advanced Manual, titled “Mid Valley Toastmasters Club’s Monthly Meeting”. His speech was effusive praise for the role Toastmasters can play in our journeys to be a better communicator, speaker, and leader. After his main speech, he also conducted a short Q & A session, which was especially well-received by new members and guests alike.

Lastly, but never least, we had the one and only “some very sick and boring old guy”, Timothy Nakayama, who took up the challenge of the Public Relations Advanced Manual, delivering his speech titled “How to Flush Your Toilet”. Although his speech was about a rather mundane everyday invention (the toilet), Timothy presented it in a very humorous way that thoroughly entertained the audience. It also served the very real purpose of teaching the audience how to flush their toilets using the correct method. His speech really got us laughing but yet thinking about changing our lives – by flushing the correct way!


Once all five speeches were delivered, we had a short refreshment break then came back again for the insightful Evaluation session, where seasoned Toastmasters Shim Chee Loon evaluated Table Topics and Vivien Lim, Timothy Nakayama, Chong Carmen, Wong Mi Shan and Ang Chee Yong evaluated one speech each. All evaluators demonstrated excellent usage of the “Sandwich method”, setting a great example to all those who have yet to step up to the plate to evaluate others.
 

Then came the Technical Evaluations, where we had Kow Chee Khon giving us his Grammarian report, Ah-Counter William Cheong telling us how we did with our speech crutches, Phang giving us his Timekeeper’s report and Ivan Guan making sure things ran smoothly in his role as the Sergeant-at-Arms. They all played their roles well – so well that we actually ended early! A big thank you to them!

As mentioned previously, Ms. Jankie won the Best Table Topic Speaker Award while “Some very sick and boring old guy” Timothy Nakayama won both the Best Project Speaker Award and the Best Evaluator Award.

Our General Evaluator, Kenny L Eds from MEF TMC, Penang, gave our club invaluable feedback on how we could make small little changes to make our meetings better. His encouragement earned him a hearty round of applause and the meeting ended on a positive and uplifting note.

We had 14 guests at this meeting: Wong, Tommy, Lai, Alena, Alicia, Elvin Chin, Rena, Aaron, Noorain Shima, Jenkie, etc. When it came to the very last item on the agenda, the Guests’ Feedback session, all the guests gave us positive feedback on the meeting and mentioned that they will surely return again, as second time guests… maybe even as members!