1.00:00 lunch
and counting down
Finally,
6.59:58
6.59:59
7:00:00 the sensational 261st Mid Valley
Toastmasters Club meeting officially begun with a bang!
This was the best
possible way to start off what was the last meeting of the 2014/2015 term.
Members and guests were greeted by the Sergeant-at-Arms (SAA) of the night,
Quah. After his “gentle” reminder to make sure our electronic devices were
switched to silent mode, Quah then passed control of the stage to the Prince
Charming of Mid Valley Toastmasters Club, our President Shim Chee Loon. As the
timing for the meeting was tight due to the number of speakers we had for the
night, our dashing President was supposed
to facilitate a short and sweet introductory breaking-the-ice session with
members and guests alike, but the large number of guests at the meeting made
this especially challenging!
Despite the tight schedule, our experienced
Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) Ian Lai managed to give a succinct and
informative introduction of Toastmasters International to our guests. He did it
by introducing the following sequence of numbers: 91-2-313
91 – 2015 marked Toastmaster
International’s 91st anniversary
2 – This number represents the two educational
tracks in Toastmasters: Communication
& Leadership
313 – The total number of Toastmasters Club
around the world numbers 313,000.
Ian also proved that “Malaysia Boleh” by
citing the fact that Malaysia has the fastest growing Toastmasters membership
compared to the rest of the world. That’s certainly something to be proud of!
Next came my personal favorite session of
every Toastmaster meeting – the Prepared Speeches session. Each speaker
prepares their speech in advance, and they then deliver it at the meeting, with
each speech having a specific set of objectives as stated in the Competent
Communication Manual. If you’ve been wondering about how these speeches go,
you’re more than welcome to visit us to get a better understanding of the whole
thing.
Past President Ang Chee Yong started the
ball rolling by delivering the “Selecting Your Topic” module from the Better
Speaker Series. He shared tips and suggestions on how to go about selecting a
proper topic for your speech, no matter the type of speech you are going to be
delivering to the audience. According to Chee Yong, an excellent speech topic
is a combination of personal experience PLUS knowledge and research in regards
to the speech topic PLUS getting to know your audience’s needs beforehand – all
three are equally important. I’m guessing Chee Yong knew that he was going to have
a very large audience, that’s why he chose this topic!
Personal stories always connect with
people. “A Lesson Learned” from Becky Benjamin saw her sharing the ups and
downs of her life since she moved to Kuala Lumpur at the age of 17. Despite the
many challenges and obstacles that have stood, and perhaps will stand, in her
way, this gutsy young lady vowed to fight all the way in order to reach her
dream of one day being a successful entrepreneur. Becky’s simple and short
content, vocal variety, and animated facial expressions earned the audience’s
adulation and respect – and also the Best Speaker Award later at the end of the
meeting. Congratulations to Becky Benjamin! You go, girl!
The adventuress, Christy Chang, completed
her Competent Communication Manual by delivering the final speech in the
manual, Project Speech #10. Her speech title was the enigmatic “Ichi Go, Ichi
E”. Yes, a Japanese speech title! This Japanese saying states that we should
treasure every moment of our lives, and everyone who has walked into our lives,
as those things only come along once a lifetime. In her speech, Christy shared
a harrowing experience of losing a very close friend. She ended with a
reminder: that we cherish and appreciate every moment, as well as the presence
of friends and family in our lives. Before she left the stage, she also
reminded us that Father’s Day was just around the corner.
Another speaker who was completing her
Project Speech #10 that night was Vivien Lim. Her speech title was “Make It
Happen”, which was humorous in an ironic way due to the fact that she had to
postpone her speech for a couple of months now due to her insane working
schedule. Her speech called upon the audience to step out of their comfort
zones, just as she did when she recently resigned from a job that she no longer
liked. Vivien advised us that change is constant, and that we will all need to
change in order to move forward. It was
a splendid showcase on the importance of good communication skills and how
having those skills can enthrall the audience. To find out more about enhancing
your communication skills, join us at Mid Valley Toastmasters Club!
Finally, and sadly, we came to the final
Project Speaker of the night. Past President and experienced speaker Ang Chee
Yong was up on the stage again, this time to deliver an Advanced Speech,
“Delivering Bad News”. As you can probably guess from the title, it was a
speech about how to deliver bad news. Yet somehow, the audience enjoyed Chee
Yong’s speech and chuckled the whole way through! Full of bravado, Chee Yong later
went on to claim that this is the difference between an experienced speaker and
a novice, that only an experienced speaker could deliver bad news that made
everyone laugh! However, the bad news in this case, the departure of two of our
senior members, Timothy Nakayama and Wong Mi Shan, who are heading to the
States, definitely struck a sad note. Chee Yong had certainly picked his bad
news adroitly.
Then came another highlight of the night,
the club’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). Guests were invited to enjoy the
refreshments while members stayed on in the hall. After the current term’s EXCO
presented their individual reports, the EXCO members for the next term
(2015/2016) were elected.
Ever had a craving for cake? Another
benefit of attending our meetings is that we always have a nice delicious
birthday cake on the second meeting of the month, as a gesture of appreciation
to our members celebrating their birthdays on that particular month. This
meeting, we drove those Monday blues away with a delicious vegetarian cheese
cake from Beyond Veggie.
The night continued with the Evaluation
session, led by the General Evaluator, Sharm Siva, a familiar face at our club
who hails from KL Advanced Toastmasters Club. Each speech evaluator presented his/her
feedback to their assigned speaker. The speech evaluators for the night, in
order, were: Mak Kum Shi, Chong Chee Siong, Timothy Nakayama, and lastly, Wong
Woon Pen.
The feedback generally ran along the lines
of all the speakers having good openings and solid points, doing well in verbal
and non-verbal communication skills. Their conclusions, however, could have
been a little stronger. Some of the speakers could have related their story and
conclusion to the audience’s needs, thus allowing for more connection with
their audience. I believe that this immediate feedback from the speech
evaluators is of help to everyone in the room, not just the speakers but to the
audience as well.
After the evaluations for the project
speakers were done and dusted, we came to the technical evaluations. Grammarian
Ken Jee, Timekeeper Christopher Chooi, and Ah-Counter William all gave their
short and sweet reports.
10 pm came around, and so our meeting came to an end. Mid Valley Toastmasters club, a place where fun and education come together every 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month!
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