Dear Fellow Toastmasters,
The meeting was amplified with 6 speakers, 3 of them racing against the clock to achieve their educational goals before the term end! Only 5 more meetings to Go! Go! Go!
The programme elements were with a difference as we worked to fit in all 6 speakers, 6 evaluations and squeezed in 6 table topics too! We also had 6 staff of SuriaBumiria S/B who are soon to be members and another 6 guests from other companies! I’m not kidding – just look at the guest list attendance and count them;)
So with our lucky number 6 for the evening, we were off to a great start!
Invocator Jamie Chieng as first timer did her 3 Toasts confidently and shared her thought of how we should slow down and smell the roses – we should never be too busy for lifeJ
TME yours truly then led a crisp warm-up of reminding everyone to sit right, stand right and ‘find their centre’ as we checked our posture and learnt how to sit like a ballerina not just to look good but for health reasons:) We then did something radically different and omitted the explanation of roles, word master reading and went straight into the Table Topics Session led by first timer Andy Wong. 6 questions all shot out like a pro as Andy made us ponder on questions such as global warming, food and exercise! TT Evaluator Dora Danny, ACS, ALB was gracious in her evaluation and commended Andy on a job well done. She also gave points for improvement to our respondents which may have been a little intimidating but rest assured, it is mainly for those of us who are seasoned Toastmasters and are thinking about contesting in a TT contest:) For those of us whose goal is just to stand up and say something audible and comprehensible at a TT session – by just standing up and speaking, that is an achievement in itself:) After all these years, Table Topics still gives me butterflies!
6 speakers:
Before break, we slotted in 2 speakers:
1. Veronica Lubinti – CC3 Can Money Buy Happiness? evaluated by Florence Majanil-Liau, CTM
well, can it? our very own Imelda Marcus who has a fetish for beautiful shoes confessed that money does help, but in the end made us realise that money, although can bring happiness. It only does to a certain point. Love, integrity, honesty – all these values can’t be bought by money and is the source of happiness:) Well done Veronica! She is slowly but surely transforming from a shy girl and blossoming into a confident lady… we hope you will be able to buy as many shoes as you want soon!
2. Nora Ridzwan CC9 – Floss the Boss! evaluated by Melissa Betsy Jilimin, CC
Do you floss? If you don’t, do you realise that brushing only cleans 60% of your teeth? (sorry, is that right Nora? you may have to correct some facts:)) . our VPE Nora brought us through the valid facts and truths on flossing (having a sister as a dentist certainly gives her authority to do so!) and made us all check our teeth for unwanted green vege. or bacteria sticking out! But…doctor, do we have to floss every single tooth? No, of course not.. just the ones you want to keep! hehe… So, floss is the boss! Nora is just one away from her graduation speech CC10 so do come next meeting 27.4 and see her inspire us!
After Tea Break:
3. Joanna Liew, CC8 – Dress up or Break up! evaluated by Richard A. Gontusan, DTM
If you have yet to do your CC8 – Visual aids project.. I hope you were taking notes from our Treasurer Joanna! Talk about preparation and going beyond the speech objectives’ requirements!! Not only did Joanna ‘dress up’ for the occasion but brought a whole rack of clothings, displayed different pairs of shoes, earrings, and accessories, accessories, accessories!! Now we know how to turn a slinky, sexy red dress into a presentable office dress with a simple jacket and belt! Thank you Joanna! For showing us just what it means to ‘prepare’ for a speech:) Great job!
4. Christopher Shaw, CC2 ‘If I Knew it Earlier’ evaluated by Freda Wu, CC
Speaking from his many touching real life experiences as an insurance agent, Christopher shared the importance of forward planning. We definitely do not want to be in a situations of his unfortunate clients who did not heed Christopher’s advice and omitted to insure their cars, life, etc. Great job on organising your speech and putting the personal stories to enhance the message Christopher!
5. Jonathan Phun, CC3 ‘Oops I Did it Again!’ evaluated by Karen Kua, CL
Jonathan entertained us with his many embarrassing moments in life (who can ever forget them!) and made us squirm with him, emphatize with and laugh with him as well! He made us all remember our own embarrassing moments but helped us to realise that it doesn’t really matter, it just makes us human. So just accept it and move on in life:) don’t let the embarrassment be an excuse to stay in that embarrassing state!
6. Ronald Tang, ACG7 ‘Make it Happen’ evaluated by TC Lim, DTM
Some people want it t happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen! Ronald certainly is on his way to make his DTM happen this term! Only 3 more speeches before he will be awarded the highest title in Toastmasters International – Distinguished Toastmaster! Entertaining us with a ‘make them laugh’ speech from the Humorously Speaking manual, Ronald roasted the Singaporean ‘kia su’ attitudes. TC Lim as his evaluator was right on the money when he commented that perhaps we should choose topics that doesn’t ‘make fun’ of other cultures if possible:) That’s the challenge of humorous speeches:) Nonetheless, a good effort as Ronald steps closer to the realm only few have gone before …. DTM!:)
Since we omitted the explanation of roles earlier it was interesting to see whether our guests managed to catch onto what Ah Counter Lily Chin and Grammarian Sylvia Maten, ATM-B was doing throughout the evening. and guess what? They did! Through the clear explanations and reports of our role players, guests were able to follow the programme and even commented they wanted to join the club to take note of their pause fillers! Thanks Lily for your keen ear and Sylvia for a job well done as the Grammarian! She even had a dictionary next to her and ‘professional’ grammarian Richard sitting beside her as well as back up;) That’s what you call preparation! GE Abu Bakar Sheriff, DTM was crisp and precise in his evaluation and helped ensure the evaluators kept to their 3 mins time limit:) We almost had a clap down;) Kudos to first timer Timer Wesley Koh for keeping excellent time especially with the slightly different programme elements.
Well, that was it! 6 speakers, 6 Table topics, 12 guests later… we learnt that if you want to be happy, use your money to buy life insurance! If you don’t want to be embarrassed, make sure you floss daily and accessorize, accessorize, accessorize and hope you’re not a Singaporean when Ronald is making a roast on you;)
Take Home Magic of the evening: Notes! Notes! Notes! No! No! No! Out of 6 speakers, only 2 threw away their precious notes… I know it can be daunting to do without notes and the fear of going blank in the middle of a speech is terrifying.. but we’re here to help! It’s in a Toastmasters training meeting setting where you can try to go without notes and not have to be embarrassed by it because we’ll be there to encourage you and help you overcome this. It does affect the flow of speech if you keep looking down and pausing everytime you forget your line. Plus, you lose connection with the audience immediately when your eyes lingers to that piece of paper.
If you do feel it’s too much to go from notes to no notes straight away, then pass your notes to your evaluator or to someone at the front to ‘prompt’ you whenever you get stuck. Start with baby steps. This is a vital part of the TM training and we are not doing our jobs as your executive committee if we continue to let you ‘hide’ behind your notes:) The magic can’t shine through lah….;) So…. notes, notes, notes… No! No! No!;) Sorry, but this is what you can call ‘tough love:))’
See you all at the next meeting where we will be witnessing not one, but 2 graduations speeches as we countdown towards the end of 2009 – 2010 Term!
Yours in Toastmasters,
Jasmine
Kota Kinabalu Toastmasters Club 
Impeccable night!!! 🙂