Mid Valley Toastmasters Club: Meeting #263: Forgiveness (Written by Victor Cheng, Edited by Mak Kum Shi)

Forgiveness: Letting go of the need for revenge and releasing negative thoughts of bitterness and resentment

The start of a new Mid Valley Toastmasters Club meeting saw the ringing of a small bell being shaken by assistant sergeant-at-arms William Cheong at the lounge of Cititel Hotel’s function rooms, while most of the guests and members were still conversing outside the club’s meeting room.

In her opening address, President Carmen Chong applied the word ‘magnanimous’ as the word of the day for the meeting. Members and guests followed suit by introducing themselves with the word.

Toastmaster of the evening (TME) Quah Shee Jiun engaged with the audience by posing questions with the audience, such as when was the first Toastmasters Club, and how many members were in the Mid Valley Toastmasters Club. This was the start of an engaging conversation between speakers and the audiences.

Table topics master William Cheong presented questions, based on the word ‘forgiveness’ that was the theme of the day, to the audience. James, a guest to the meeting, and members Kow Chee Khon and Ang Chee Yong came forward to present their impromptu speeches.

The table topics session was followed by the project speeches session. Project speeches were presented by speakers in the following order: Hamza Isaac, Ivan Guan, Garrick Lim, Christopher Chooi, and Kow Chee Khon.

Starting his competent communicator track with his first project speech with the title ‘The beauty of uncertainty’, Hamza Issac left the impression that we can break through obstacles when we have the courage to fight and strive for the best in us. Being optimistic will lead us to a better life.

Also starting his public speaking journey in the same meeting, Ivan Guan’s speech with the title ‘Journey into space’ imparted lessons that negative results are still good results, as we can improve by learning from the mistakes that we make. Besides this, sometimes we can gain exposure to things that others say are not worth trying, as the outcome might be surprisingly different.

At the start of Garrick Lim’s first competent communicator speech with the title ‘The spices of my life’, he asked the audience to address him as ‘garlic’, giving them a good laugh. We learnt that the problems that occur to us are stepping stones to success. Without problems, we will not have opportunities to grow. We must also be wise to turn problems to opportunities.

In Christopher Chooi’s second competent communicator speech with the title ‘Search for happiness’, he presented the ‘Hamburger model’, which was divided into 4 quadrants and indicated that we can change our mindset from one quadrant to another to be a better person.

In Kow Chee Khon’s third competent communicator speech with the title ‘Tiffany’, we perceived that when we try to do things that are not interesting, as we learn more about them over time, we may view them from different perspectives and become interested with them.

At the conclusion of the prepared speeches, the audience applauded and congratulated the first three speakers for having presented their maiden speeches respectively.

After a very short break, Deloitte Malaysia (Deloitte MY) distinguished toastmaster (DTM) Meyyappa gave his evaluation of the meeting.

Meyyappa emphasised on the importance of vocal variety. If we are giving a great speech, but no one can hear us, does it really matter? How can our messages transform the minds of our audience, if we do not have good vocal variety? A good local variety doesn’t come easily, as it requires practicing in terms of pitch, tone, volume, and rate.

This was followed by our fellow evaluators sharing their views on various presenters. The evaluators were Chee Siong (table topic evaluator), Ian Lai (Hamza Isaac), Ang Chee Yong (Ivan Guan), Carmen (Garrick Lim), Diane Law (Christopher Chooi), and Wong Woon Pen (Kow Chee Khon).

This was followed by Quah who asked the technical reports team, consisting of the grammarian, time keeper, general evaluator, and ah-counter, to present their reports of the meeting.

Finally, the climax of the meeting, which was the award-giving session, had arrived. President Carmen Chong presented a certificate of appreciation to Meyyappa, who gave comments that stood out and could help us improve to become better speakers.