Well… Fellow Toastmasters, Ladies and Gentlemen….. This IS it!! The Final Training Meeting of the term 2009 -2010 has come and gone…
So….did we bring out the magic?…… drum roll….. a resounding YES!!!:) We HAVE transformed:)
There was an air of excitement, expectancy and tinge of sadness as yet another term comes to an end. I now have to get used to not going up to the lecturn at the beginning and end of meetings!:)
As I took my final stride up the long walk way to the lecturn as your President 2009 -2010, my mind wandered back to the many, many magical moments of the term. One of my favourite take home magic was from the earlier meetings ‘don’t improve 100% in a day, improve 1% every day.’
When I first took on Presidency of the club, I knew I was going to grow and learn exponentially in my communication and leadership skills. I just didn’t realize how much. I will have to rephrase that line – in Toastmasters, with every speech we present, with every role we play – whether it’s in the organizing committee or a role player – we improve not 1% but at least 30% every time.
Datuk Adeline Leong, DTM started with a very apt thought of the evening – Tolerate, Accept, Celebrate diversity. When you celebrate diversity as we do in KKTMC– that is true success! With the 20yrs anniversary in large letters behind Datuk, we certainly epitomize that phrase as we would not still be standing so strongly after 20yrs had we not celebrated diversity!
TME Nora Ridzwan, CC then appeared and vowed to magically transform us that eveningJ Her warm-up consisted of getting us all to think back to what were our personal magic moments of the year – Melissa Betsy Jilimin, CC chose to highlight TM Veronica Lubinti and TM Mohd. Zaini Nanyan as they truly transformed speech by speech – from nervous first timer speakers to steady, confident oratorsJ Richard A. Gontusan, DTM chose to focus on the Toastmasters Spray musical performed in Miri – we truly put KKTMC on the map and were the talk of the convention and also Joanna Liew’s, CC10 speech where she inspired everyone to not just go for your dreams and do it, but do it well. TM Bernie Chan on the other hand kept Valentine themed meeting closest to her heart and loved Melissa as TME with her many varied one liners throughout that very pink meeting. Ah, the memories! Great warm-up that immediately put us in a nostalgic and sentimental mood. But the evening was not just to reminisce, we still had a final meeting to conduct!
Quirky Table Topics Master Johan Lee a.k.a. Mr. Personality as coined by TME Nora lived up to his name as he suavely shot out questions 8 questions with 10 respondents! Perhaps ‘suavely’ is not quite the right word (images of Johan mouthing ‘what’s that member’s name?’ flashes through my mind). It all added to the fun atmosphere created! One of the more memorable sessions was the debate! Bakar aka. Obama confronted Datuk Hassan aka. British Petroleum (BP) CEO on the oil spill fiasco. Bakar was merciless in demanding for an explanation from our BP CEO. However, one sentence from Datuk Hassan “I apologize and therefore I resign” was enough to put paid to ‘Obama’s’ strong accusations. Quick to the rescue was ‘Vice President of BP’ Kevin Lim, ACB and the repartee between the three men was hilarious! TT Evaluator Christine Yap, DTM managed to mention every single respondent in her evaluation as well as commended Johan on a quirky but entertaining job well done.
Just before the break we commemorated our club’s 20th Anniversary with a cake-cutting ceremony singing ‘Congratulations, and celebration…. Na na na na na na na na na na na naaaaaa…;)’ We had quite a few past Presidents present and invited all to come up to cut the cake. Just as fate would have it, we were also celebrating June birthday babies and guess how old our new member Mohd. Hanif was turning? 20yrs as well! 2 in 1! The candles were put into good use!
Speakers:
CC3 – Christopher Shaw – ‘Smart Saving Tips for Better Living!’ Evaluated by Abu Bakar Sheriff, DTM
Wait a minute, did I read that right? Didn’t Christopher already present this speech? Yes, you’re right! This is Chris’s 2nd attempt at speech no. 3 as he wasn’t satisfied with his first attempt. His reason? ‘There’s no point in moving on in your manual if you’re not satisfied with your last attempt!’ Well done Christopher! Such is the transformation of Toastmasters! Christopher was much more prepared 2nd time round as his evaluator Bakar commented, he has now gotten the point and ready to tackle his next speech project.
CC4 – Sophia Hong – ‘One Step At a Time’ evaluated by Jamie Chieng, CC
Sophia relayed her arduous journey through the jungles of undiscovered Maliau Basin – a haven right under our noses in the thick of Borneo! Complete with photo slides as she narrated her ‘one step at a time’ 10hr trek into the centre of Borneo researching the many new species of plants and wildlife. Interesting topic Sophia! As her evaluator Jamie aptly pointed out, for the speech to be better, do away with the photo slides and make us ‘see’ the pain and the images through your body language, as required by the objectives of CC4.
ACS graduation project – Sylvia Maten, ATM-B ‘Better Speaker Series’ (Preparing Your Speech)
*Ring *Ring (Sylvia picks up her handphone) ‘Hello? VPE Nora again?! what? Speech? Ai yah! Not prepared oh! How? Nevermind, hantam saja lah! Chin chai chin chai, who cares anyway?’
With that dramatic scenario our IPP Sylvia introduced her workshop topic on how to prepare your speeches! Entertaining, articulate and valuable tips as she reminded us the importance of speech preparation and why we do it. She said and I quote:”If you want to be a good speaker, practice 30x. If you want to be a District speech champion, practice 100x and if you want to be a World champion, practice 300x!” Nothing worthwhile comes easy but the results speak for itself! Thank you Sylvia for that timely reminder! Everyone take note! Especially for our 23 new members who have joined us this term. With that presentation, Sylvia is now an Advanced Communicator Silver Sylvia Maten! Congratulations!
ACG10 – Spellbound in Dubai (Humorously Speaking Advanced Manual) – Ronald Tang, ACS, evaluated by Yee That Hian, DTM
Now you see him, now you don’t, then you do againJ Ronald was so spellbound by his speech, he was tongue-tied for a moment! But such is the magic of Toastmasters that we the audience gave him a chance to regain his thoughts and when he did, he presented it flawlessly! Our Past President told of his recent holiday in Dubai humorously and wittily! With the lavish lifestyle of Dubai, upon reaching the airport he was asked: ‘Anything to declare?’ to which he sheepishly replied ‘yes, I declare bankruptcy!’ Don’t worry Ronald, you’re anything but bankrupt in Toastmasters! We now declare you our 15th Distinguish Toastmaster of KKTMC! Congratulations!
Humour Master Joanna Liew, CC comically acted out all her jokes and is fast becoming one of our resident humour master! General Evaluator Casey Leong, DTM truly brought out the magic in his evaluation, not only evaluating the meeting but the whole term! His memorable moments of the year were the THIS IS IT! Division K Convention (spotting an MJ move – just in case we didn’t know which convention he was talking about;)) and the camaraderie, fellowship and teamwork of Toastmasters Spray Musical performed at the District 51 Miri Convention. This is what Toastmasters is all about – bringing out the confidence in members to do and be whatever we want to be!
‘Ooo – ee – oo – ah ah’ (think Witch Doctor song) Ah Counter Bernie Chan, – was so meticulous that GE Casey wondered if she heard anything else that evening! Strict ASAA/Timer Karis Chong kept everyone on their toes and on time, even to the point of ‘shooing’ everyone in after the break – some with their anniversary cake still halfway in their mouths! Grammarian Richard A. Gontusan, DTM our Picasso of Grammarians showed us how to get so many words in just 3 mins. And we heartily applauded our educational goal award recipients Sylvia Maten, ACS and Ronald Tang DTM as they came up to receive their TI pins.
My Take Home Magic of the evening: ‘For every minute you stand to speak, you should spend an hour preparing,’ by Winston Churchill.
Tall order? You bet! Worth it? Definitely! Why do we do this? Just as a magician spends hours, sweat and tears to perfect a single magic trick, so a Toastmaster should prepare an hour for every minute we stand to speak. Because, then and only then can we bring out the magic. This term 2009 -2010, with every speech presented, every role played, every table topic attempted, you have taken that magical step to transforming from the person you once were to the person you are meant to be. Thank you for bringing out your magic!
TME Nora shone in her role as TME and if the quality and standard of evening was anything to go by, we are in for an exciting year ahead under a very capable, President 2010 – 2011 Nora Ridzwan, CC. Be sure to come and witness the changeover at the 19th installation banquet 10th July 2010 (Sat) @ Pacific Sutera Ballroom, 7pm.
It’s been an honour to be your President. May you continue to bring out the magic in the term ahead as you move, express and inspire under Nora and her new EXCO.
This is your President 2009 – 2010, signing off for the final time… Thank you for bringing out your magic!
Yours in Toastmasters,
Jasmine J
24th Training meeting 22 June 2010 : The Magic Lives on….
Well… Fellow Toastmasters, Ladies and Gentlemen….. This IS it!! The Final Training Meeting of the term 2009 -2010 has come and gone…
So….did we bring out the magic?…… drum roll….. a resounding YES!!!:) We HAVE transformed:)
There was an air of excitement, expectancy and tinge of sadness as yet another term comes to an end. I now have to get used to not going up to the lecturn at the beginning and end of meetings!:)
As I took my final stride up the long walk way to the lecturn as your President 2009 -2010, my mind wandered back to the many, many magical moments of the term. One of my favourite take home magic was from the earlier meetings ‘don’t improve 100% in a day, improve 1% every day.’
When I first took on Presidency of the club, I knew I was going to grow and learn exponentially in my communication and leadership skills. I just didn’t realize how much. I will have to rephrase that line – in Toastmasters, with every speech we present, with every role we play – whether it’s in the organizing committee or a role player – we improve not 1% but at least 30% every time.
Datuk Adeline Leong, DTM started with a very apt thought of the evening – Tolerate, Accept, Celebrate diversity. When you celebrate diversity as we do in KKTMC– that is true success! With the 20yrs anniversary in large letters behind Datuk, we certainly epitomize that phrase as we would not still be standing so strongly after 20yrs had we not celebrated diversity!
TME Nora Ridzwan, CC then appeared and vowed to magically transform us that eveningJ Her warm-up consisted of getting us all to think back to what were our personal magic moments of the year – Melissa Betsy Jilimin, CC chose to highlight TM Veronica Lubinti and TM Mohd. Zaini Nanyan as they truly transformed speech by speech – from nervous first timer speakers to steady, confident oratorsJ Richard A. Gontusan, DTM chose to focus on the Toastmasters Spray musical performed in Miri – we truly put KKTMC on the map and were the talk of the convention and also Joanna Liew’s, CC10 speech where she inspired everyone to not just go for your dreams and do it, but do it well. TM Bernie Chan on the other hand kept Valentine themed meeting closest to her heart and loved Melissa as TME with her many varied one liners throughout that very pink meeting. Ah, the memories! Great warm-up that immediately put us in a nostalgic and sentimental mood. But the evening was not just to reminisce, we still had a final meeting to conduct!
Quirky Table Topics Master Johan Lee a.k.a. Mr. Personality as coined by TME Nora lived up to his name as he suavely shot out questions 8 questions with 10 respondents! Perhaps ‘suavely’ is not quite the right word (images of Johan mouthing ‘what’s that member’s name?’ flashes through my mind). It all added to the fun atmosphere created! One of the more memorable sessions was the debate! Bakar aka. Obama confronted Datuk Hassan aka. British Petroleum (BP) CEO on the oil spill fiasco. Bakar was merciless in demanding for an explanation from our BP CEO. However, one sentence from Datuk Hassan “I apologize and therefore I resign” was enough to put paid to ‘Obama’s’ strong accusations. Quick to the rescue was ‘Vice President of BP’ Kevin Lim, ACB and the repartee between the three men was hilarious! TT Evaluator Christine Yap, DTM managed to mention every single respondent in her evaluation as well as commended Johan on a quirky but entertaining job well done.
Just before the break we commemorated our club’s 20th Anniversary with a cake-cutting ceremony singing ‘Congratulations, and celebration…. Na na na na na na na na na na na naaaaaa…;)’ We had quite a few past Presidents present and invited all to come up to cut the cake. Just as fate would have it, we were also celebrating June birthday babies and guess how old our new member Mohd. Hanif was turning? 20yrs as well! 2 in 1! The candles were put into good use!
Speakers:
CC3 – Christopher Shaw – ‘Smart Saving Tips for Better Living!’ Evaluated by Abu Bakar Sheriff, DTM
Wait a minute, did I read that right? Didn’t Christopher already present this speech? Yes, you’re right! This is Chris’s 2nd attempt at speech no. 3 as he wasn’t satisfied with his first attempt. His reason? ‘There’s no point in moving on in your manual if you’re not satisfied with your last attempt!’ Well done Christopher! Such is the transformation of Toastmasters! Christopher was much more prepared 2nd time round as his evaluator Bakar commented, he has now gotten the point and ready to tackle his next speech project.
CC4 – Sophia Hong – ‘One Step At a Time’ evaluated by Jamie Chieng, CC
Sophia relayed her arduous journey through the jungles of undiscovered Maliau Basin – a haven right under our noses in the thick of Borneo! Complete with photo slides as she narrated her ‘one step at a time’ 10hr trek into the centre of Borneo researching the many new species of plants and wildlife. Interesting topic Sophia! As her evaluator Jamie aptly pointed out, for the speech to be better, do away with the photo slides and make us ‘see’ the pain and the images through your body language, as required by the objectives of CC4.
ACS graduation project – Sylvia Maten, ATM-B ‘Better Speaker Series’ (Preparing Your Speech)
*Ring *Ring (Sylvia picks up her handphone) ‘Hello? VPE Nora again?! what? Speech? Ai yah! Not prepared oh! How? Nevermind, hantam saja lah! Chin chai chin chai, who cares anyway?’
With that dramatic scenario our IPP Sylvia introduced her workshop topic on how to prepare your speeches! Entertaining, articulate and valuable tips as she reminded us the importance of speech preparation and why we do it. She said and I quote:”If you want to be a good speaker, practice 30x. If you want to be a District speech champion, practice 100x and if you want to be a World champion, practice 300x!” Nothing worthwhile comes easy but the results speak for itself! Thank you Sylvia for that timely reminder! Everyone take note! Especially for our 23 new members who have joined us this term. With that presentation, Sylvia is now an Advanced Communicator Silver Sylvia Maten! Congratulations!
ACG10 – Spellbound in Dubai (Humorously Speaking Advanced Manual) – Ronald Tang, ACS, evaluated by Yee That Hian, DTM
Now you see him, now you don’t, then you do againJ Ronald was so spellbound by his speech, he was tongue-tied for a moment! But such is the magic of Toastmasters that we the audience gave him a chance to regain his thoughts and when he did, he presented it flawlessly! Our Past President told of his recent holiday in Dubai humorously and wittily! With the lavish lifestyle of Dubai, upon reaching the airport he was asked: ‘Anything to declare?’ to which he sheepishly replied ‘yes, I declare bankruptcy!’ Don’t worry Ronald, you’re anything but bankrupt in Toastmasters! We now declare you our 15th Distinguish Toastmaster of KKTMC! Congratulations!
Humour Master Joanna Liew, CC comically acted out all her jokes and is fast becoming one of our resident humour master! General Evaluator Casey Leong, DTM truly brought out the magic in his evaluation, not only evaluating the meeting but the whole term! His memorable moments of the year were the THIS IS IT! Division K Convention (spotting an MJ move – just in case we didn’t know which convention he was talking about;)) and the camaraderie, fellowship and teamwork of Toastmasters Spray Musical performed at the District 51 Miri Convention. This is what Toastmasters is all about – bringing out the confidence in members to do and be whatever we want to be!
‘Ooo – ee – oo – ah ah’ (think Witch Doctor song) Ah Counter Bernie Chan, – was so meticulous that GE Casey wondered if she heard anything else that evening! Strict ASAA/Timer Karis Chong kept everyone on their toes and on time, even to the point of ‘shooing’ everyone in after the break – some with their anniversary cake still halfway in their mouths! Grammarian Richard A. Gontusan, DTM our Picasso of Grammarians showed us how to get so many words in just 3 mins. And we heartily applauded our educational goal award recipients Sylvia Maten, ACS and Ronald Tang DTM as they came up to receive their TI pins.
My Take Home Magic of the evening: ‘For every minute you stand to speak, you should spend an hour preparing,’ by Winston Churchill.
Tall order? You bet! Worth it? Definitely! Why do we do this? Just as a magician spends hours, sweat and tears to perfect a single magic trick, so a Toastmaster should prepare an hour for every minute we stand to speak. Because, then and only then can we bring out the magic. This term 2009 -2010, with every speech presented, every role played, every table topic attempted, you have taken that magical step to transforming from the person you once were to the person you are meant to be. Thank you for bringing out your magic!
TME Nora shone in her role as TME and if the quality and standard of evening was anything to go by, we are in for an exciting year ahead under a very capable, President 2010 – 2011 Nora Ridzwan, CC. Be sure to come and witness the changeover at the 19th installation banquet 10th July 2010 (Sat) @ Pacific Sutera Ballroom, 7pm.
It’s been an honour to be your President. May you continue to bring out the magic in the term ahead as you move, express and inspire under Nora and her new EXCO.
This is your President 2009 – 2010, signing off for the final time… Thank you for bringing out your magic!
Yours in Toastmasters,
Jasmine J
Kota Kinabalu Toastmasters Club 