Friendship Toastmasters Club

Club Meeting 3 January 2012

2012-01-15T17:12:00.001+08:00

It was the week after Christmas, Friendship’s very first meeting for 2012! With VPE Chee Hoe and Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) Lay Theng assiduously (word of the day) preparing for our club meeting, it was bound to successfully Overcome the Barriers of an unprepared meeting.

TME Lay Theng told us that each time she prepares the introduction of Toastmasters International (TI) and checks the TI website on the number of clubs worldwide, she is astonished that it increases all the time.

IPP Zaiton, VPPR Susan and Kwok Hung at our Overcome the Barriers meeting

First off, we had our Table Topics Session lead by VPM Alexandra. She had chosen topics related to barriers that we face every day – stress, anxiety, defeat, doubt and criticism.

Ian admitted that it was a stressful time for him when he did his first Table Topic last year. His recommendation to us is to do more Table Topics. It was an example of words suiting action as he has regularly volunteered for Table Topics in our club meetings.

For Immediate Past President (IPP) Zaiton, she deals with anxiety by staying calm and taking one step at a time. President Angeline had many doubts lately as she worried whether she was able to complete all her work tasks on time. SAA Andy spoke on criticism and recommended positive feedback instead of negative criticism.

Our General Evaluator (GE) Dr. Devi gamely decided to take part in Table Topics as well and spoke on defeat. More often than not, we think of fearful possibilities when asked to do something. She suggested that we conquer our fears, to look on the bright side of things instead. Every morning, she said, look in the mirror and say, “You are the best!”

Eloquent Dr. Devi (right) is the Best Table Topic Speaker

In “Lesson from a Tadpole”, Club Secretary Daphne told us of her immense disappointment when she did not get to be Cinderella in her school play. From the coveted role of Cinderella to being cast as a tadpole, it was a severe let down. However, plucky Daphne decided that where there is a will, there is a way. She learnt that she must not give up or she will never achieve her dreams.

Daphne, in her tadpole role, searching for her momma

In her “What are Friends for?” speech, adventurous VPPR Susan told us of her excited anticipation about her impending 5 hours hike at Cameron Highlands. However, it was not to be as her group of friends had to cancel their plans due to a landslide warning. She concluded that when life gives you lemon, drink lemonade with your friends, who are always there for you, offering a pair of helping hands, and a pair of ears to listen to your woes.

Susan, who drinks lemonade with her band of faithful friends

We certainly has plenty of stories in “Stories from the Workplace”, Kwok Hung’s speech based on the advanced manual “The Entertaining Speaker”. Stories abound about salesman, sales demo and a batman car. This experienced speaker had started his career at an accounting firm and today is the boss of his IT firm.

Kwok Hung (left) receiving the Best Project Speaker award

Our General Evaluator hailing from Sai Masters and Taman Indrahana Toastmasters Club is an accomplished Toastmaster and the current Division W Evaluation Champion. It was a pleasure to welcome Dr. Devi Menon as our General Evaluator, her third visit to our club. She reminded us that we can ask for feedback from other Toastmasters, not just from our assigned evaluators.

It was not often that we have Sivadas taking up the role of Table Topic Evaluator. Encouraged by VPE Chee Hoe to do so, he took up this role to hone his evaluation skills. He was full of praise for the 5 Table Topic speakers.

TTE Sivadas

GE Dr. Devi described Treasurer Ian as a young and upcoming evaluator. She was impressed that in his evaluation of Daphne, he made full use of body language in his delivery. He was assiduous in his evaluation and also spent time after the club meeting to talk to Daphne to provide her with further feedback.

Evaluator Ian speaking to Daphne

The awards given out for our Overcome the Barriers meeting went to
Best Table Topic Speaker – Dr. Devi Menon, DTM (Sai Masters Club)
Best Project Speaker – Leong Kwok Hung, CC
Best Speech Evaluator – Angeline Lee, ACB, ALB

President Angeline receiving the Best Speech Evaluator award from TME Lay Theng

At the end of the club meeting, VPE Chee Hoe made an announcement on behalf of VPM Alexandra who was not feeling well. For our on-going membership campaign, there are unlimited gifts available for members who bring guests to our meetings. It’s never too late to tell your friends and colleagues about the benefits of Toastmasters and invite them to our club meetings!

VPE Chee Hoe announcing the gifts for our on-going membership campaign

Our next meeting will be on 17 January 2012 with the meeting theme Words of Wisdom. Do join us for another round of learning and fellowship, especially if you had made a new year’s resolution to overcome your fears of public speaking!

Meeting Programme 3 January 2012

2012-01-15T17:11:00.000+08:00

Newsletter 3 January 2012

2012-01-15T17:10:00.001+08:00

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 12

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

Meeting Notice

2012-01-15T17:10:00.000+08:00

From: VPE Chee Hoe
To: FTMC members
Date: 28 December 2011 5:51 PM
Subject: Friendship Meeting on 3 January 2012 - Overcome the Barriers

Dear Friends,

We are stepping into a brand new year! Happy New Year 2012! Have you set your new year resolution? Do you have barriers that you wish to overcome?

Kieren John Perkins, a former Australian professional swimmer says, "Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves. It has nothing to do with how many times you win or lose. It has no relation to where you finish in a race or whether you break world records. But it does have everything to do with having the vision to dream, the courage to recover from adversity and the determination never to be shifted from your goals."

Overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves - easier said than done! A lot of effort are required to overcome these barriers. Friendship Toastmasters Club offer us the best environment to overcome our barriers in communication and leadership. We have the opportunity to participate in every club meeting, event or contest to demolish the barriers that we place in front of ourselves.

In our upcoming meeting on 3 January, we will discover ways to overcome our barriers with this great line-up - GE DTM Devikamani Menon, TME Lay Theng; Project Speakers Daphne, Susan and Kwok Hung; Table Topics Evaluator Sivadas & Evaluators Ian, Zaiton and Angeline.

May this new year bring great success to all of us!

Club Meeting 20 December 2011

2012-01-02T23:46:00.000+08:00

It was the week before Christmas. VPE Chee Hoe, Treasurer Ian and Grace spared no effort to create a festive and jubilant (word of the day) atmosphere.

Christmas decoration

With Toastmasters guests from D'Utama Advanced, AFC, Money Mastery KL and MIM KL, it was a memorable finale meeting for 2011.

Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) Ian started the meeting with a bang, with his trademark high energy, high enthusiasm and high spirits. The meeting was conducted on a high note, with our youthful and vibrant TME being unfazed by the fact that he had just sat for his ACCA papers and had conducted a book talk last weekend.

Our young and vibrant TME

Continuing with the Christmas theme, Table Topic Master Ben devised several questions related to the Christmas season.

Past President Ben is Table Topic Master

Our brave Table Topic speakers comprise of Sylvia who revealed that her favourite Christmas present is chocolate. Jocelyn from AFC agreed that Christmas is too commercialized with shopping malls packed with shoppers. Kimmy wished for less greed for mankind. Meng Shen from AFC reminded us that it is not the material things that matter. Fifth speaker Sivadas, was one among thousands who visited the Prime Minister’s open house a few years ago.

Table Topic Evaluator (TTE) Zaiton kept her evaluation short, simple and uncluttered – her signature evaluation style.

IPP Zaiton is the Table Topic Evaluator

It was no surprise to us when Area W3 Governor Kimmy was voted as Best Table Topic Speaker. With her melodious voice and vocal variety, it was a well-deserved win for our industrious Area Governor, who has not failed to visit us every month.

President Angeline presenting Area Governor Kimmy (right) with the Best Table Topic Speaker award

In his “The Making of a Mother”, SAA Andy exercised his vocal variety skills in a conversation between God and his angel about the remarkable qualities of mothers. Among her many qualities, a mother has a kiss that is able to cure anything, from a scrapped knee to a broken heart.

Next, Grace took center stage and presented a Christmas themed speech for her finale “The Entertaining Speaker” speech. With shimmers, sparkles and silver linings abundant in her entertaining speech, it was no wonder that we had several guests from AFC Club and D’Utama Advanced Club who came just to listen to her speech !

Her evaluator, Victor from D'Utama Advanced, declared that it was not an easy task to evaluate an accomplished speaker such as Grace. He was delighted with her speech, imparting hope and cheerful thoughts. She also had a memorable ending, singing a Christmas song.

Victor delivering his outstanding evaluation for an equally outstanding speaker, Grace

Our third speaker for our Christmas meeting lost his voice the day before our meeting. Despite the fact that he has not fully recovered and he was not able to speak in his normal voice, TLI Chair 2010/2011 Dennis Wee, DTM was the very picture of energy, enthusiasm and eloquence as he generously shared with us tips for “Effective Evaluation”. His R.E.D R.O.S.E technique comprises of

R – Respect the speaker
E – Evaluate, not summarise the speech
D – Discuss with the speaker before and after the evaluation

R – Read the speech objectives, read the speaker’s previous evaluations
O – use your Own format to present your evaluation
S – be Specific
E – Eliminate inconsistencies in your evaluation

A big "Thank You" to Dennis

During our short break, we wasted not the opportunity to snap a few photos of our members and guests.

(L-R) Ah Counter Sylvia, TME Ian, guests Ming Shen, Kwan & Ali from AFC, SAA Andy

Siew Peng & Wei Seong from D'Utama Advanced TMC

(L-R) Jocelyn from AFC, Project Speaker Grace, guest Iman & Grammarian Alexandra

The awards given out for our jubilant Christmas meeting went to
Best Table Topic Speaker – Area W3 Governor Kimmy Foo
Half CC Ribbon – Andy Supramaniam
Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) Pin – Grace Tan

Half CC Ribbon for Andy

Grace receiving her ACB pin

Congratulations to Andy and Grace for their remarkable achievements. Thank you, Andy and Grace, for helping Friendship to end our last 2011 meeting on a note of success !

Friendship Toastmasters Club members wishes all Toastmasters members, families and friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012 !

Meeting Programme 20 December 2011

2012-01-02T23:45:00.001+08:00

Newsletter 20 December 2011

2012-01-02T23:45:00.000+08:00

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 11

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

Meeting Notice

2012-01-02T23:44:00.000+08:00

From: VPE Chor Chee Hoe
Date: 7 December 2011 2:12 PM
Subject: Friendship Meeting on 20 December 2011 - Merry Christmas
To: Friendship members and guests

Dear Friends,
HO...HO...HO! Christmas is around the corner !

In our Merry Christmas meeting, we have a very special guest speaker bringing along his Christmas gift - valuable evaluation tips ! This guest speaker has served as Club President, Area Governor, Assistant Division Governor and District 51 Toastmasters Leadership Institute (TLI) Chairman. He is the current District 51 Evaluation 1st runner-up and has won Humorous, Table Topics and International speech contests at Division level. He is none other than Dennis Wee, DTM.

In celebration of our tropical Christmas, we will be enlightened by Andy and Grace Tan's entertaining speeches ! Ben will be offering us interesting Christmas Table Topics. I have also prepared a few Christmas gifts for lucky draw.

Have you invited your friends, family members and colleagues to our wonderful, blissful and cheerful Christmas meeting ?

Let's have a massive gathering with all our friends ! The MORE the MERRIER !
See you at Bukit Kiara !

Club Meeting 6 December 2011

2011-12-19T20:45:00.000+08:00

It’s not everyday that we have a Past District Governor visiting our club and heading our Evaluation Session as the General Evaluator. Thank you to Low Yat Seow, DTM for making time to be with us in our Esprit de Corps meeting.

VPE Chee Hoe, PP Lay Theng, Past DG Yat Seow and President Angeline

With Past President Ben Fong in charge of the meeting as our Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), we knew we were in good hands.

TME Ben

For Table Topics session, Grace unveiled a surprise. There will be no questions! Instead each speaker was given a picture and asked to speak on it. As our creative Table Topics Master explained, a picture paints a thousand words. Table Topics speaker TL Wuan, Guan Han, Freddie, Alexandra and Sivadas certainly were not lost for words as they each spoke about grandsons, babies, ducklings, rats and monkeys.

Table Topics Master Grace

Starting off the Prepared Speech session, visiting Toastmaster Guan Han from Money Mastery KL shared with us about Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). It was a synergy (word of the day) of energy, enthusiasm and excitement as he talked about the wonders of NLP.

Tan Guan Han of Money Mastery KL

In her “Change” speech, Club Secretary Daphne has us laughing out loud several times about her stories of aliens (IT programmers) and homo sapiens (non-IT programmers). As a true blue alien, Daphne joined Friendship to overcome her fears of public speaking and to understand homo sapiens better. Her fears of not being able to interact with Friendship’s homo sapiens quickly dissipated as she discovered that homo sapiens were not as so alien after all.

During the open evaluation segment, Past President Freddie congratulated Daphne on her remarkable improvement as a speaker. As Daphne’s mentor, President Angeline was more than happy to present Daphne with her Half CC Ribbon as she has completed 5 Competent Communication speeches.

Daphne (left) receiving her Half CC Ribbon

For Kwok Hung’s speech on “Going Beyond Oneself”, he told us about a courageous group of elite soldiers confronting insurmountable odds behind enemy lines. Lay Theng’s “6 Boxes” was just right for the performance appraisal season. She enlightened us on Thomas Gilbert’s Behaviour Engineering Model, from the perspectives of subordinates and bosses.

Just before the break, TL Wuan, one of Friendship’s founding members, presented a touching speech about his happy, crazy days with the late Past President James. He reminded us not to mourn, but to celebrate the happy times we had spent with him. He looked forward to the day Jayrai, James’ son, grows up and joins Toastmasters.

President Angeline, VPE Chee Hoe, Grace, VPM Alexandra, guests Jag, Jayrai & Regina, Sivadas, PP Ben

General Evaluator Yat Seow testified that he has improved as the result of feedback provided to him during club meetings. For example, his pause fillers had reduced when he became more mindful to not use verbal crutches in his speech. As a seasoned Toastmaster, he adroitly handled the Evaluation Session.

General Evaluator Yat Seow

Yat Seow’s team of evaluators comprising of Table Topics Evaluator Tony and speech evaluators Alexandra, Francis, Grace and Freddie provided timely evaluations to our speakers.

The table topics evaluation was short, sweet and to the point. Alexandra was impressed by Guan Han’s tremendous energy. Francis from Money Mastery KL congratulated Daphne in meeting the speech objectives of the “Your Body Speaks” project assignment. Grace in evaluating Kwok Hung was hilarious as she told him that “this is my personal opinion, so please take it personally!” Freddie praised Lay Theng for delivering a speech suited to the target audience and was also knowledgeable about her subject matter.

The awards given out for our Esprit de Corps meeting went to

Best Table Topic Speaker – TL Wuan
Best Project Speaker – Daphne Au
Best Speech Evaluator – Grace Tan
Half CC Ribbon – Daphne Au
District 51 Perfect 7 out of 7 TLI1 Attendance – Friendship’s 7 Club Officers

Grace receiving her Best Evaluator award from Regina, wife of the late Past President James

Thank you to Grace for sponsoring a gift for the Best Table Topic Speaker, and TL Wuan for bringing gifts for the Best Project Speaker and Best Evaluator of the meeting. Thank you, Grace and Wuan, for your generous gestures.

Past Presidents Tony (Table Topics Evaluator) & Ben (TME) having a cosy chat after the meeting

Friendship’s final club meeting for 2011 will be our Christmas meeting, to be held on 20 December. It’s the festive season of giving and receiving and we hope to receive the joy of your presence at our Christmas meeting !

Meeting Programme 6 December 2011

2011-12-19T20:44:00.000+08:00

Newsletter 6 December 2011

2011-12-19T20:43:00.000+08:00

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 10

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

Meeting Notice

2011-12-19T20:42:00.000+08:00

From: Chor Chee Hoe
Date: Mon 21 November 2011 08:40 AM
Subject: Friendship Meeting on 6 December 2011 - Esprit de Corps
To: Friendship members & guests

Dear Friends,
You may be wondering: why did we choose Esprit de Corps as our meeting theme ?

This term, originating from France, means a sense of inspiration, enthusiasm, devotion and honour among the members of a group.

In my opinion, esprit de corps is the foundation of Friendship Toastmasters Club. Our teamwork is the secret of our success in achieving President Distinguished Club award for 7 consecutive years. The enthusiastic and devoted spirit found in Friendship members is the true definition of esprit de corps.

Past President Ben Fong will be our genial host, as our TME. With the services of Low Yat Seow DTM, District 51 Governor 2005/2006 as our General Evaluator, we will have yet another fruitful meeting.

We have three speakers, Daphne, Kwok Hung and Lay Theng to enlighten and entertain us with their project speeches !

Our hardworking VPM Alexandra has officially launched her Membership Campaign. It’s time for us to do our part and bring as many guests as you can to our meetings. Let’s have a massive gathering of Friendship members and ‘uncountable’ guests!

With your presence, we will have a perfect Esprit de Corps meeting !

Best Regards,
Chor Chee Hoe
VPE 2011/2012

Meeting Programme 15 November 2011

2011-12-19T20:38:00.000+08:00

Newsletter 15 November 2011

2011-12-19T20:37:00.000+08:00

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 9

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

Meeting Notice

2011-12-19T20:36:00.000+08:00

From: Chor Chee Hoe
Date: 9 November 2011 09:07 AM
Subject: Friendship Meeting on 15 November 2011 - Where Leaders Are Made
To: Friendship members & guests

Dear Friends,
To embrace the true meaning of Where Leaders Are Made, we have a great line up of role players, just for you.

Our Immediate Past President Zaiton has taken the initiative to be the TME after her refreshing break in Europe. We are also honoured to have our Division W Governor, Marian Lee as our General Evaluator.

What else can you expect ?

Treasurer Ian Tai will a step forward to be a speech evaluator for the very first time. Leong Kwok Hung, a fantastic speaker, is back to deliver his first advanced speech from The Entertaining Speaker manual.

Our Amazing Grace will be our Grammarian, a rare opportunity for her, since it has been 2 years since her last foray as a Grammarian. And a visiting Toastmaster will be our Table Topics Evaluator.

Do join us at our next meeting on 15 November !

Best Regards,
Chor Chee Hoe
VPE 2011/2012

Club Meeting 1 November 2011

2011-11-09T19:22:00.002+08:00

On an evening of drizzling rain, members and guests of Friendship convened at Bukit Kiara to Initiate the Transformation to revolutionise (word of the day) our communication and leadership skills.

(L-R) TME Sylvia, Chong Soon (President of Seri Petaling TMC), VPE Chee Hoe, President Angeline, Janice (Puchong Mandarin TMC), Secretary Daphne, Joey (Puchong Mandarin TMC) & Treasurer Ian

At the helm was Toastmasters of the Evening, Sylvia Tan. She was as eager as ever to continue with her Initiate the Transformation journey to be a better speaker and leader, undertaking the TME role for the first time.

The Table Topics Session hosted by VPE Chee Hoe had several intriguing transformation questions. IPP Zaiton spoke of the transformation in her life, moving from her corporate job into the nutrition line. She had just spent the past two months abroad, where she took long walks in the sunny, summer days of Germany.

In Treasurer Ian’s opinion, the greatest marketing transformation was the Internet which brought about a revolution of marketing ideas and created millionaires in their 20s.

Treasurer Ian

For Past President Ben, the best communication transformation was the phone. Without a phone, friends can’t find you and your boss can’t locate you. Don’t leave home without it as you can call your friend to help out, if you have left home without your wallet.

We were wondering who was the “Beauty and the Beast” as Ian started to narrate his fascinating tale of two Wendys and Sylvester Stallone. It was a tale of dejection, elation and transformation with elements of vocal variety.

For Sook Ling’s “Food Revolution”, her key message was that for every problem we encounter, we should change our perspective to find the solution. For the food industry, the revolution started with the realization that instead of having just a best product for everyone, there is much to be gained in creating great products for specific groups of people.

Sook Ling

Zakie (President of KL Advanced TMC) reading out the project objectives to Ben

Past President Ben was the radio talk show guest in the “Morning Breakfast Show” while Angeline was the radio host. He explained about the benefits of Toastmasters to his radio listeners.

Ben on the "Morning Breakfast Show"

In her Entertaining Speaker speech, Grace was brimming with energy and moving with exuberance as she told us about her tomboy childhood days. We definitely enjoyed her transformation into the svelte, amusing and entertaining speaker that she is today.

Grace presenting her "Stay Foolish, Stay Funny" speech

Area G3 Governor Victor Ong capably and humorously lead the Evaluation Session. He jokingly told us that he grudgingly and disappointingly admitted that Grace is as good a speaker as he is. With his “addiction” to Friendship, he had visited our clubs 4 times this year! He praised our meeting as being productive, attended by committed, conscientious and candid Toastmasters.

Clockwise starting from top left: Table Topics Evaluator Chong Soon, speech evaluators Alexandra and Zakie, and GE Victor

The awards given out for our Initiate the Transformation meeting went to
Best Table Topics Speaker – Ian Tai
Best Project Speaker – Grace Tan
Best Speech Evaluator – Ahmad Zakie
Half CL Ribbon – Alexandra Lau
District 51 President Distinguished Club award – IPP Zaiton

VPM Alexandra who has been working assiduously on her Competent Leadership projects was the presented with the Half CL ribbon as she has completed 14 out of the required 23 projects.

Former Area Governor Angeline presented Immediate Past President Zaiton with District 51 President Distinguished Club award, for her leadership role in guiding Friendship to a successful term for 2010/2011.

IPP Zaiton receiving Friendship's President Distinguished Club award

After our meeting, we had an impromptu autograph signing session. Ian unveiled his newly minted “Silver” book. VPM Alexandra and Past President Lay Theng promptly grab the opportunity to request for his autograph.

Ian with his "Silver" book

Our next meeting will be on 15 November 2011 with the theme Where Leaders Are Made. We hope you will be there to witness Where Leaders Are Made after we have initiated our transformation to be better speakers and leaders !

Meeting Programme 1 November 2011

2011-11-09T19:22:00.000+08:00

Newsletter 1 November 2011

2011-11-09T19:21:00.000+08:00

VPPR Susan

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 8

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

Meeting Notice

2011-10-28T19:47:00.000+08:00

From: VPE Chee Hoe
To: Friendship Members & Guests
Date: 24 October 2011 7:24 PM
Subject: Friendship Meeting on 1 November 2011 - Initiate the Transformation

After embracing the past and envisioning the future, it's time to Initiate the Transformation! Transformation is never about a simple change. Transformation is as dramatic as the caterpillar that becomes the butterfly.

We are fortunate to have Assistant Division W Governor Vincent Soon as our General Evaluator. He is a member of Shaklee Dynamic Family Toastmasters Club.

After joining Friendship a few months ago, Sylvia decides to take up the TME role for the very first time. May all of us experience a night of transformation with her!

In this meeting of transformation, Past President Tony Lim will be conducting the Table Topics session. Our regular visitor, Victor Ong, who is a Table Topics expert will share with us tips for mastering Table Topics during his evaluation.

We have another visiting Toastmaster, who is a polished speaker and one of District 51 Humourous Speech Contest 2011 finalists! Who is he? Come to our meeting and find out!

What's more? We have four great speakers who will present their project speeches. We will have three advanced speeches and one CC speech! Truly a meeting of variety!

Together, we will witness how the Toastmasters educational programme revolutionise (word of the day) our communication and leadership skills, from caterpillar to butterfly!

See you on next Tuesday, 1 November.

Best Regards,
Chor Chee Hoe
VPE 2011/2012

Club Meeting 18 October 2011

2011-10-28T19:24:00.001+08:00

For our Envision the Future meeting, TME Andy arrived early to prepare for his role, smartly attired for the occasion. It is not a stretch of our imagination to envision that some day soon Andy will be the confident, capable speaker that he aspires to be.

(L-R) Past President Ben, TME Andy, Past President Freddie & Hann,

the handsome gentlemen of Friendship

The pouring rain and the resulting adverse traffic condition did not deter GE SKL Walia and VPE Chee Hoe from attending and enlivening (word of the day) our meeting. They travelled for close to 2 hours to reach Bukit Kiara, and their spirits were not dampened one bit by the weather.

We had two guests, Omer and Jin, volunteering for table topics and first-timer Table Topics Evaluator Ian praised their courage. Omer spoke of Toastmasters as a tool for the future. Past President Tony related the inspiring story of Apollo 13’s captain who envisioned the crew returning safely to Earth despite the spacecraft's engineering problems.

Past President Tony with guest Omer

Jin spoke of the iconic Steve Jobs and how it was fitting that most of the world learnt of his demise thru a device that he invented. Past President Ben believed that the iPhone provides value for money, describing it as “Internet in our pocket”. It turned out that quite a number of Friendship members and guests were fans of Steve Jobs, the visionary leader of Apple.

The late Steve Jobs

Area G3 Governor Victor presented an eloquent table topic speech and convinced us that we can change the future by changing ourselves.

Victor is Best Table Topic Speaker

In her “Cinderella” tale, romantic Daphne described Prince Charming as being attractive, admirable and adorable. Sylvia related to us how she found inspiration from Steve Jobs to overcome various obstacles and finally securing her dream job.

GE SKL Walia (right) with her guest Placia enjoying the fabulous pasta during the break

After the break, GE Walia enlivened the meeting with her expert handling of the Evaluation session. Walia, Friendship’s Area Governor for term 2008/2009, left Malaysia in 1996 to 2007 to join the United Nations, working in various places such as Cambodia, East Timor, Afghanistan and Aceh. However, this passionate Toastmaster continued paying her membership dues for 11 years while she was abroad !

Our guests Omer, Jin, Treasurer Ian, VPE Chee Hoe & guest Placia

Past President and former Area Governor Lay Theng had much food for thought in evaluating Sylvia's speech. She threw in dashes of MSG, salt and pepper in her impressive evaluation speech. In her opinion, Sylvia’s presentation had adequate MSG - Message, Stance and Gestures. With her facial expression and eye contact, it provided just the right amount of salt and pepper to the presentation. We certainly enjoyed listening to this well-seasoned, aromatic and fragrant evaluation speech, delivered with style and substance.

Lay Theng wins the Best Speech Evaluator award

Having missed his allocated speaking slot, VPE Chee Hoe delivered his speech after the break. His persuasive speech was about the change we can bring about as a World Vision child sponsor. Hunger may weaken a child, unsafe drinking water may make him sick but as a child sponsor we can make a difference in the life of a child, his family and his community, by lifting them out of poverty thru training programs and small loans. A better world starts with us making a change !

Chee Hoe is Best Project Speaker

Chee Hoe’s evaluator, Past President Ben provided an impromptu evaluation sprinkled with humour and recommendations. He was impressed with the visual aids used in Chee Hoe’s speech and was moved by his persuasive speech.

The awards given out for our Envision the Future meeting went to
Best Table Topic Speaker – Victor Ong
Best Project Speaker – Chor Chee Hoe
Best Speech Evaluator – Tan Lay Theng
Half CC Ribbon – Sylvia Tan

Sylvia receiving her Half CC Ribbon from President Angeline

Our next meeting will be on 1 November 2011 with the theme Initiate the Transformation. We hope everyone will be there to Initiate the Transformation, after embracing the past and envisioning the future !

Meeting Programme 18 October 2011

2011-10-28T18:45:00.000+08:00

Newsletter 18 October 2011

2011-10-28T18:43:00.000+08:00

VPPR Susan

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 7

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

Photos @ 04 Oct 2011

2011-10-14T23:34:00.000+08:00

Report by VPPR Susan Lim

VPPR Susan Lim

Photos by VPE Chee Chor and TARC Toastmasters Club

VPE Chee Hoe

EMBRACE THE PAST

Sinage outside the meeting venue

WOD

It was definitely a night for us to reminisce (word of the day) about during our “Embrace The Past” meeting.

In the run-up to the meeting, VPE Chee Hoe encouraged all members to dress up as historical figures or simply put on costumes from the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s. It explained why some of our Friendship members looked rather different on this special night. Some even borrowed clothes from their parents.

Hippies from the 70s - Grace Tan and VPE Chee Hoe

Our first-time TME Daphne Au, donning a sexy off-shoulder dress, started the meeting with her smooth introduction of the meeting theme.

For VPE Chee Hoe’s invocation, he spoke of the past, present and future. The past may be good or bad but we should take advantage of the valuable experiences and lessons. The past groomed us to be what we are today. Therefore, we should “Embrace the past, envision the future”.

The Table Topics Session led by Sivadas saw 4 speakers in action. They were Area G3 Governor Victor Ong, Mid Valley VPE Moses Wong, AFC President Lorna Leong and Friendship PP Freddie Yap. They were asked to reminisce and embrace their past.

Best Table Topics Speakers, Victor and Lorna

For the prepared speech session, our newest member Hann Gan delivered his Ice Breaker speech. He shared with us how he moved from different parts of the world but came back home to Malaysia where he finally found happiness. The wisdom of his “Coming Home” speech was strong and stimulating – “If you are not happy at home, you won’t be happy anywhere else.” He concluded, “I must be home because I’m happy”.

Hann presenting his Ice Breaker speech

VPPR Susan Lim delivered her fifth speech project: Your Body Speaks. She chose a topic that left the audience guessing “Who are the Scorpions?” in their lives. She shared her stories about how she got stung by different types of "scorpions" - people who hurt or manipulate other people.

Beware of "scorpions", warned Susan

Our third speaker, the Amazing Grace Tan, a seasoned Toastmaster, delivered an amazing performance with her speech “Stay Single, Fun Double” from the Entertaining Speaker Manual. She revealed to us the benefits of staying single: "A single lady is able to enjoy the attention, adoration and admiration of guys without any obligation".

"Stay Single, Fun Double" says Grace

Our fourth speaker is another seasoned Toastmaster. Past President Ben Fong delivered his Public Relations Speech – “The Goodwill Speech”. He related how Past President Tony introduced him to Toastmasters and how it had benefited him. In his opinion, Toastmasters was more valuable than an MBA degree.

During the short break before the Evaluation session began, we quickly took the opportunity to take some photos.

From left: VPE Chee Hoe, Jon Lim (TARC), TME Daphne, Sylvia,
President Angeline and TARC President Eric Low

AFC President with her members, Grace and Jocelyn

Our Table Topics Evaluator, Area W3 Governor Kimmy Foo, had the challenging task of evaluating speeches made by an Area Governor, a President, a Past President and a VPE. But she performed splendidly and delivered a balanced evaluation.

Past President Tony Lim praised Hann for his splendid performance in his first speech. He said Hann’s voice was his asset and his stage presence made him Hann the Hunk.

Jocelyn Lim from AFC Club and the Area G4 Evaluation Champion evaluated Susan's speech and gave useful recommendations.

Victor Ong gave an incredibale evaluation of Grace's performance which was very well-deserved.

Freddie Yap evaluated Ben's speech and commended Ben for delivering a message that served as a good example for new Toastmasters.

Freddie evaluating Ben's speech

We certainly learnt a lot from our Grammarian tonight who was none other than our PP Kim Chow. Kim gave her comments on pronunciation as well as a report on the good phrases used during the meeting.

Kim delivering the grammarian's report

Sylvia, the Ah-counter for the meeting, wore her mother’s dress from the 80s. Kudos to Sylvia for taking the effort to dress up according to the theme!

Our Timer was Lee Tong Fong, from Puchong Mandarin Toastmasters Club. He performed his duties diligently.

Our gracious General Evaluator Zaharah Ibrahim, DTM, who is also known as “The Mother of East Coast Clubs”, gave interesting and enlightening feedback on the proceedings. She commended the members for their respectful and grateful attitude. Thank you, GE Zaharah, for your invaluable contributions.

President Angeline presenting a thank-you card to GE Zaharah

The awards given out during the “Embrace the Past” meeting were

Best Table Topic Speakers - Victor Ong and Lorna Leong

Best Prepared Speech - Grace Tan

Best Speech Evaluator – Victor Ong

Ice Breaker Ribbon – Hann Gan

½ CC Ribbon – VPPR Susan Lim

A big thank-you to the visiting Toastmasters from Kelab Pidato Kuala Lumpur, AFC, Puchong Mandarin, Taman Indrahana, Universiti Malaya, TARC and Mid Valley Toastmasters Clubs for helping us to achieve a very successful meeting.

Group photo

After this “Embrace the Past” meeting, let us “Envision the Future” at our next meeting on 18 Oct !

Meeting Programme_04 Oct 2011

2011-10-14T21:15:00.001+08:00

To see larger view - click and open image in new tab

Newsletter_Volume 10 Issue 6

2011-10-14T20:58:00.003+08:00

VPPR Susan Lim

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 6

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

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Interview with IAN TAI

2011-10-13T00:48:00.002+08:00

CH: Why did you join Toastmasters?

IT: I was inspired by Tony Robbins. When I was 19, my uncle bought me a ticket to attend a 5-day Tony's workshop in Sydney, Australia. Tony was phenomenal and I left Sydney feeling as if I had a personal conversation with him. I was inspired by his amazing ability to share, teach, entertain and wow 5,000++ people in his workshop. Ability to do that is one of the coolest things on earth!

CH: Why did you choose Friendship and what do you like about it?

IT: Firstly, Friendship wows me in terms of the quality of speakers. I choose Friendship because I believe I can get help from the wonderful speakers here.

Secondly, the atmosphere and ambience is perfect. It is grand and has a 'premium' look to it.

Thirdly, Friendship members have a good command of English. More importantly, the members are friendly, helpful, dedicated and committed to become much better than whatever level they are at present.

CH: How have your communication and leadership skills grown since joining Friendship?

IT: At first, I was nervous and fearful especially when it comes to impromptu speaking a.k.a Table Topics. My mind used to race at 100 miles per hour; I had brain jams; I stammered when talking about subjects that I was unfamiliar with. Today, I am able to have a cool head and express myself freely without being uptight in Table Topics. So, I can get my message across directly, calmly, confidently and efficiently.

Before Toastmasters, I was a messy and disorganized person. Becoming the Treasurer of the club helps me to become more organized - more neat and tidy. Yup, sounds like no big deal for some. But for me, small things like this is a big deal.

CH: How have these skills benefited you personally and professionally?

IT: I presented a pre-launch event for my book "Silver" in KLCC's Popular BookFest on 30th August. I was able to focus on sharing my thoughts and educating the public about the potentials of investing in silver without having to fear about forgetting my lines, about stage fright, etc. As a result, the event turned out to be successful with people keen to get a copy of my book.

CH: What are your goals in Toastmasters?

IT: My goals are .... (That's a trick question, Chee Hoe... very smart of you!)

Just kidding, at this moment, I am working on learning the basics of public speaking and my goals and objectives are based on the communication manual from Toastmasters International. For example, in my next speech, I would like to make people laugh. So, if I can make people laugh hysterically, then I have achieved my objective.

CH: What is your favourite session in a Toastmasters meeting?

IT: Table Topics because I want to develop the ability to express myself freely in front of a crowd. I also like the Evaluation Session because every person who wants to improve needs feedback and evaluation.

CH: What is your secret of success as an author at such a young age?

IT: Generally, an enterprising spirit, unshakable believe system, dog-determination; willing to think outside the box, willing to be outstanding; Just-Do-It, not afraid of making mistakes. And specifically, as a finance and investment book author, there are 3 steps: Firstly, research, research and more research. Secondly, to be Direct. Show the readers where the money is. Thirdly, make it easy. Keep it simple but not too simple until it fails to challenge the reader's intelligence.

Meeting Notice

2011-10-01T15:22:00.000+08:00

VPE Chor Chee Hoe

Still thinking of what to wear on 4 Oct? No worries, you will still have a week's time to make your decision.

While you are thinking of your outfits, our graceful Grace Tan has already given me her speech title. She even helps me to invite external role players for our meeting. Thank you very much for her amazing effort!

In this coming meeting, we are lucky to have Zaharah Ibrahim, DTM as our General Evaluator. This lovely lady is the Past Division B Governor and the Immediate Past President of Shah Alam Toastmasters Club. She is also a member of various Toastmasters Clubs like Kelab Pidato and Phoenix. She is also known as the 'Mother of East Coast (Peninsula)', for her efforts in chartering clubs and her immense contributions towards Toastmasters Clubs in East Peninsula Malaysia such as Lekor TMC (Terengganu), Penapisan TMC (Terengganu), Kertih TMC (Terengganu), Kuantan TMC (Kuantan) and FPG TMC (Kuantan).

To have another great meeting, our hardworking Secretary Daphne Au has taken the initiative to challenge herself to be the TME for the very first time. Besides that, our newest member Hann Gan has requested a speaking slot for his very first speech - The Ice Breaker. Sylvia Tan who was the Best Project Speaker and the Best Table Topics Speaker of the last meeting is taking up the Ah Counter role for the first time to improve her listening skills.

All of us are thankful to have so many helpful members who are willing to take up any meeting roles. They are our Past Presidents - Kim Chow, Tony Lim, Freddie Yap and Ben Fong; our VPM Alexandra; and our loyal member Sivadas.

Let's Embrace the Past with great people, in a great and lively atmosphere of FRIENDSHIP!

See you (in fancy outfits) on 4 October!

Best Regards,

Chee Hoe

VPE 2011/12

Photos @ 20 Sep 2011

2011-09-29T13:10:00.000+08:00

Report by President Angeline Lee
Photos by VPE Chor Chee Hoe

Effectiveness and Efficiency

It was most appropriate that VPE Chee Hoe, the soul of effectiveness and efficiency, was our TME for this meeting with the meeting theme “Effectiveness and Efficiency”. With the program agenda sent out 1 week in advance, and GE invited 1 month in advance, it is obvious why he is an effective and efficient VPE.

From left: Our guest Hann with President Angeline, VPE cum TME Chee Hoe
and Table Topics Master Ian Tai

For the Table Topics Session lead by Ian Tai, we had 6 volunteers stepping up to answer patriotic questions about Hari Raya, mayor of KL City, benefits of Malaysia, Maths in Bahasa Malaysia, 1Malaysia and best Malaysia food. Thanks to Past President Lay Theng who sponsored 3 free tickets for Division W Humorous Speech Contest as prizes for Best Table Topics Speaker and Best Project Speaker, we had willing volunteers like President Angeline, VPM Alexandra, Sylvia, Area W3 Governor Kimmy Foo, Hann and Sivadas trying their best to impress the judges – the audience!

Table Topics Evaluator Alexandra was eager to participate in the Table Topics so she requested TME Chee Hoe to evaluate the first two speakers. Thank you TME Chee Hoe for spontaneously taking up the Table Topics Evaluator role.

Front row: Club Secretary Daphne, Sook Ling, President Angeline, Area Governor Kimmy and Sylvia
Back row: Hann, Club Treasurer Ian and VPM Alexandra

Daphne’s “Motivated by Fear” speech about her fears of criticism, failure and death touched her evaluator’s heart. Past President Lay Theng went down memory lane on her first few CC speeches as Daphne told us, “my heart begins to race, my stomach turned and my thoughts get jumbled” as she confront her fears of public speaking. Daphne then bought all our fears into perspective by quoting from Steve Jobs who said:

All external expectation, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure. These things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

As Sylvia was describing the heavenly Lang Tengah beach with white sands, we were transported to her “Holiday in Heaven” on the wings of her vivid, tantalizing choice of words. Her chalet had a sea view, idyllic surroundings and was just at the edge of the white sands and blue ocean. The enchantment continued at night as she gazed at the starry sky and made wishes when 5 shooting stars appeared.

It was a heavenly speech and we were left hoping that Sylvia will continue to enchant and mesmerize us in her future project speeches!

Grace Tan (left) is the evaluator for Sylvia (right)

Our General Evaluator was Area C5 Governor Sarah Abedi Abdullah. In her evaluation of the overall conduct of the meeting, she added 4 Cs to our 2 Cs – Efficiency and Effectiveness. She praised our Enthusiasm, Ever readiness to try out new things, Enjoyment, Enriching and Enlightening meeting. Thank you GE Sarah for taking time out from your busy schedule as an Area Governor to visit us!

GE Sarah Abedi who is Area C5 Governor

The awards given out during our Effectiveness and Efficiency meeting went to

Best Table Topics Speaker – Hann Gan

Joint Best Table Topics Speaker – Sylvia Tan

Best Project Speaker – Sylvia Tan

Hann Gan is Best Table Topics Speaker

Sylvia Tan wins two awards!

At the end of the meeting, we played 2 video clips as a tribute to Past President James Arokiasamy. We bid farewell to a great Past President as we watched the clips. The first one was prepared by VPE Chee Hoe, featuring photos of James. The second video clip prepared by VPM Alexandra featured James singing a Tamil song during the Friendship Melaka outing in November last year. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we have photos and video clips of James doing what he loved, attending Toastmasters meetings and mesmerizing us with his singing talent.

Our guest Hann decided to sign up as a Toastmaster, after visiting us twice. The latest addition to Friendship Toastmasters Club wishes to improve on his public speaking skills. Welcome to the Friendship family, Hann!

After the meeting, GE Sarah wrote a charming Thank You note to members of Friendship. She wrote:

Dear Enchanting Friendship Members,

It has been a pleasure for me to have met all of you.

Great Meeting, Great Company, Great Teamwork, Great Speakers, Great Evaluators, Great Supportive environment, Great Food and a Great Tribute to a Great Toastmaster – James !

Meeting Programme_20 Sep 2011

2011-09-29T12:40:00.000+08:00

Click on image to see larger view

Newsletter_Volume 10 Issue 5

2011-09-29T12:35:00.002+08:00

VPPR Susan Lim

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 5

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

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Photos @ 06 Sep 2011

2011-09-16T21:01:00.001+08:00

Report by President Angeline Lee
Photos by VPE Chor Chee Hoe

PLAN, ORGANISE, LEAD

Immaculately dressed and meticulously prepared, TME Ian Tai started the “Plan, Organise, Lead” meeting on 6 September with vigour. It was obvious that he was an avid Manchester United fan when he cited Sir Alex Ferguson as having performed well in planning, organizing and leading the best football team in the world. Visiting Toastmaster Hadzrin Shah agreed with him whole-heartedly.

Ian Tai, the immaculately dressed TME

In the Invocation session, VPE Chee Hoe led us in reciting the Toastmasters’ Oath, a reminder to everyone what we had promised to fulfilled as Toastmasters members.

Table Topics Master Daphne Au introduced a new twist to Table Topics by asking for two volunteers for each topic. The first volunteer asked a question based on a word selected by the second volunteer. The second volunteer then answers the impromptu question. Four pairs of volunteers took part i.e. Grace & Victor, Ben & Hadzrin, Alexandra & Sook Ping and Chee Hoe & Sivadas. Visiting Toastmaster Victor Ong emerged the winner when he was unfazed by the Grace’s question about him being the worst mentor (the selected word) in the world !

Victor Ong is the Best Table Topics Speaker

In the speech project session, Sylvia admitted that she is a Facebook addict and spends hours reading postings, playing games and reconnecting with childhood friends. With Facebook, one has freedom to do as one wish, for example, inciting a riot. However she recommended that we exercise our Internet freedom with responsibility.

Sylvia, the Facebook addict

Susan started her speech by introducing Mark Zuckerberg as the youngest millionaire at age 23. Deploring that her life is the opposite of Mark, she has the making of a humorous speaker!

Susan, the beautiful, confident and high-market-value speaker

Our third speaker enthralled us with her tale of working with 3 swimming coaches to achieve her childhood dream. She finally succeeded in achieving her goal of learning how to swim after 17 years. Leveraging on her personal experience, she was the right person to share with us that we learn best when we understand what is our learning style. Then go against the grain to become a versatile learner. To her, life without learning is a waste of time. In my opinion, listening to our award-winning speaker is never a waste of time!

PP Lay Theng is Best Project Speaker

During our short 10 minutes break, VPE Chee Hoe who had just bought a new camera lens was busy taking photographs of everyone and everything in sight. Right after the break, Hadzrin Shah as Humour Master has us laughing out loud at his jokes.

Versatile and talented Hadzrin Shah is the Humour Master and speech evaluator for PP Lay Theng

General Evaluator Ahmad Salahuddin, from MIM KL Toastmasters Club, delivered his lines and presented his report with remarkable eloquence.

The young, eloquent and handsome GE - Ahmad Salahuddin.

The beauties of Friendship - Grace and Kim

The awards given out during our "Plan, Organise, Lead" meeting are as follows:

Best Table Topics Speaker – Victor Ong

Best Project Speaker – Tan Lay Theng

Best Speech Evaluator – Grace Tan

CL Pin – Chor Chee Hoe

VPPR Pin – Susan Lim

Best Speech Evaluator is Grace Tan

VPE Chee Hoe receiving his CL pin

All good things must come to an end, even if it is a fun, enjoyable evening of learning at Friendship Toastmasters Club. Our guests - Victor, Hadzrin, Ahmad, Sook Ling and Hann, added enormously to our fun factor and it was our pleasure to have them with us. Thank you everyone, for being part of our fantastic “Plan, Organise, Lead” meeting!

Group photo

Newsletter_Volume 10 Issue 4

2011-09-16T19:59:00.000+08:00

VPPR Susan Lim

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 4

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

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Meeting Programme_06 Sep 2011

2011-09-16T19:44:00.000+08:00

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Photos @ 22 Aug 2011

2011-08-29T14:46:00.001+08:00

Report by Angeline Lee, President 2011/2012

President Angeline Lee

SERVE WITH PASSION

After attending TLI (Toastmasters Leadership Institute) training in July 2011, VPE Chee Hoe was inspired to set our meeting theme as “Serve with Passion” which is District 51’s theme for term 2011/2012 under the leadership of District Governor Sue Chan, DTM.

Just before the Table Topics Session, VPE Chee Hoe performed the Induction ceremony for our new members Sean Lee and Sylvia Tan. Our General Evaluator Jon Tan from TTDI Toastmasters Club, found it to be well conducted and praised VPE Chee Hoe for a job well done.

Sean Lee & Sylvia Tan at the New Member Induction Ceremony.
VPE Chee Hoe conducted the ceremony.

Table Topics Master Sylvia provided us with a hilarious Table Topics Session with her “Continue the Story” approach about a passionate boy named Daniel who wanted to learn violin at the age of 15. She had 5 capable speakers who spun magic (and much laughter) with their story-telling skills.

Sylvia Tan conducting the Table Topics session

Past President Freddie Yap started the story by regaling us with Daniel’s quest to look for a piano teacher at an orphanage. His request for piano lessons was denied as he was not an orphan. Next, Past President Ben Fong had us laughing at Daniel’s persistence to learn piano using an iPad. Unfortunately, after getting the iPad, Daniel proceeded to jailbreak it and downloaded games instead. VPPR Susan Lim came up with the brilliant idea of helping out Daniel by asking her idol, Wang Lee Hom, to give Daniel piano lessons. She was touched that her idol, a well-known Taiwanese singer and talented composer, flew in to

Malaysia

, just for her.

Treasurer Ian Lai then broke out into a Mandarin song as a demonstration of what Daniel has learnt after having lessons with Wang Lee Hom. Daniel decided to audition for Malaysian Idol but was not successful. In despair, Daniel wrote profusely for 3 days and sent a song to the music producer of Malaysian Idol. Kwok Hung continued the story with Daniel waiting patiently for a reply from the music producer. One day, while watching Malaysian Idol, Daniel heard a familiar tune. To his surprise, it was his song! Although disappointed he was not the singer singing that song on Malaysian Idol, it was a consolation that it was a good song after all.

Daphne was the first speaker in the speech project session and gave a speech entitled “Stay in Love”. She immediately engaged the audience with her opening question, “Do you want a romantic partner?” It appears that we do have a number of romantic Friendship members, judging from the response to her question! She had us laughing out loud at her story about her husband’s purchase of a RM2000 camera and his response to her membership fees for Friendship with this question, “Why do you pay RM300 just to talk?”

Andy spoke about “Hachi – A Dog’s Tale” which was a touching story of a patient, faithful, devoted dog that waited at a train station for 9 years for his master to return. Eventually Hachi was reunited with his beloved master when it passed away peacefully at the train station.

Ian persuaded the audience with his speech “Gold vs Silver”. He said that silver has outperformed gold in the past 10 years. If we had invested in silver, we would have made more money!

From left: SAA Andy, GE Jon Tan, Timer Sean Lee, Ah Counter Chee Hoe,
Grammarian Kwok Hung & Evaluator Kim Chow

VPE Chee Hoe set the scene for Grace Tan’s “Accepting An Award” speech project. After he had presented Grace with the “Best Volunteer for 30-Hour Famine” award, Grace started on her “Hunger for Help and Health” speech. She told us that last year she was approached by Chee Hoe to starve for 30 hours with him! She was skeptical but since he was cute-looking, she decided to find out more. In the end, in June 2010, she agreed to be the English emcee for 150 people for the “30-Hour Famine” event. In June this year, she agreed to be the Mandarin emcee, this time for 300 people, a bigger and more challenging event for our 30-Hour Famine Best Volunteer.

Past President Kim Chow was simply amazing in her evaluation of Grace’s speech. She was blown away by Grace’s performance and praised her as an eloquent and elegant speaker. We answered with a resounding “YES” when Kim asked, "Are you mesmerized and captivated by her speech?" She commended Grace on her awesome speaking skills and asked her to inspire the members with her advanced speeches.

From left: Kim Chow, GE Jon Tan, TME Sivadass, project speaker Daphne and our guest Abe

General Evaluator Jon Tan captured our attention when he said “Friendship has a special place in my heart because back in 2000, Friendship was the club where I gave my first speech outside my own club." He was most impressed that the President's speech was published in the newsletter and made available during the meeting. It was the first he has seen in any clubs that he has visited over the years. He also praised TME Sivadas whom in his opinion has improved 1000%!

Thank you, GE Jon Tan!

The awards given out during our Serve with Passion meeting:

Best Table Topics Speaker – Leong Kwok Hung

Best Project Speaker – Grace Tan

Best Speech Evaluator – Kim Chow

CC Pin – Leong Kwok Hung

ALB Pin – Angeline Lee

Grace Tan is Best Project Speaker

Kim Chow is Best Speech Evaluator

Kwok Hung receiving CC pin from IPP Zation
Kwok Hung is the Best Table Topics Speaker

Report by Angeline Lee, President 2011/2012

Newsletter_Volume 10 Issue 3

2011-08-29T01:39:00.001+08:00

VPPR Susan Lim

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 3

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

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Meeting Programme_22 Aug 2011

2011-08-29T01:36:00.000+08:00

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Meeting Notice

2011-08-21T18:17:00.000+08:00

VPE Chor Chee Hoe

Hey friends,

After the successful Humorous Speech Contest & Evaluation Contest, I believe all of you are still in high spirits. Our coming meeting carries the theme Serve with Passion. We will have an author and also a global personal branding strategist as our General Evaluator. He is none other than Jon Tan, ACG, ALB, from TTDI Toastmasters Club.

We are going to celebrate the 54th year of independence very soon. Since 31 August 1957, our country's leaders have served the nation with passion! In Toastmasters, we develop our leadership skills by taking up various roles and responsibilities at the club level, area level, division level, district level and even at the international level.

We have four speakers who are eager to improve their public speaking skills. They are Daphne, Andy, Ian and Grace. I believe all of you have waited a long time to hear Grace's speech. So have I.

We also have a lot of passionate members who are willing to taking up meeting roles. Thanks to Sivadas, Sylvia, Ben, Zaiton, Freddie, Lay Theng, Kim, Alex, Wai Yee and Sean for saying "Yes" to serving with passion.

Our President and Humorous Speech Contest Champion, Angeline Lee, will enlighten us on the rebranding of Toastmasters and an exciting campaign called Passion Drive.

See you all on 22 August and may each of you bring a guest to our meeting!

Best Regards,

Chee Hoe

Vice President Education 2011/2012

REPORT ON SPEECH CONTESTS

2011-08-16T11:35:00.003+08:00

HUMOROUS SPEECH CONTEST & EVALUATION CONTEST

2 August 2011

Report by Susan Lim, Daphne Au, Tan Lay Theng & Angeline Lee

With almost 40 guests and members in attendance, Organising Chair VPM Alexandra started our annual Humorous Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest by thanking all contestants, role players, Chief Judge Francis Ng and his team of judges.

The audience

Past President Lay Theng who was our Contest Chair, conducted both contests in her usual cool, calm and collected manner.

Humorous Speech Contest

The first contestant, James stressed on the importance of knowledge. He conveyed it by using a humorous story of how he helped a damsel in distress and gained instant admiration. His body language and message was clear - “If you know something other people do not know, your voice will be louder and you can raise yourself higher”.

Second contestant, Angeline shared how she has conquered her fear and achieved tremendous results. In her early days in Toastmasters, because she did not want to disappoint her club VPE, she joined the table topics contest and accidentally won it. Moving on, she became the Area Governor and then the President of Friendship Toastmasters club. But her most whimsy story was how she conquered her fear of heights and eventually earned kisses from two handsome guys.

Sylvia, who was the third contestant, shared a story on how she reluctantly got herself a disastrous housemate. In a dire situation, she discussed with her friends and came out with 4 simple yet ingenuous steps to get rid of her housemate. It involved the deceitful yet amusing acts of talking to her mum and also her plant. In her finale, she revealed that her former disastrous housemate is now her fiancé.

The final contestant, Sivadas shared his Toastmasters journey and how he completed his 10 speeches. His “never say die” attitude and his stories with the messages of “do not stop learning” and “everything is possible” are not only inspiring, but were entertaining as well.

Contest Results

First place - Angeline Lee

Second place – James Arokiasamy

Angeline receiving her trophy and certificate from Contest Chair PP Lay Theng

PP James, first runner-up in the Humorous Speech Contest

Evaluation Contest

The evaluation contest started with our test speaker Zoe Lo presenting her speech on “The day when everything went wrong”.

First evaluator, Tony Lim, liked Zoe’s energy in delivering her speech. Both Tony and second evaluator Chee Hoe pointed out that Zoe’s speech was well-structured and organized. They both liked the way Zoe started her speech by asking a question which successfully grabbed the attention of the audience. Tony, Chee Hoe, third evaluator Freddie and fifth evaluator Angeline thought that Zoe’s speech was humorous by recapping on “even though she had a bad haircut but at least she still had hair, and also the difference between Starbucks and Setapak that contributed to things that went wrong”.

All the evaluators liked Zoe’s speech with a meaningful take-home message – even if things don’t work out as planned, we should be thankful for the things that went right. Tony, Freddie and Chee Hor commented that Zoe is pretty and has a sweet smile which helped her to connect to the audience effortlessly.

Angeline ended her speech by saying she could not give Zoe a brilliant evaluation, but at least Zoe had a free evaluation. This made the audience laugh out loud. She is quite a talented humorous evaluator!

First place – Freddie Yap

Second place – Angeline Lee

Third place – Tony Lim

Congratulations to PP Freddie Yap, Evaluation Champion!

PP Tony Lim is second runner-up

Note of Appreciation

Friendship would like to record our appreciation to

Organising Chair – VPM Alexandra Lau

Contest Chair – Past President Tan Lay Theng

Chief Judge – Francis Ng, DTM & his team of judges

Timers – Bryan Cheong (HELP) & Lee Han Sen (TTDI)

Ballot counters – Ian Tai, Tan Tze Yi (HELP) & Derek Soo (Mantissa)

SAA – Andy Supramaniam, Daphne Au & Kelly Teng (Mantissa)

Test Speaker – Zoe Lo (HELP)

Contestants – Angeline, Ben, Chee Hoe, Freddie, James, Sivadas, Sylvia & Tony

Contestants Angeline, Ben, Freddie, Chee Hoe, Tony & Sivadass

IPP Jessica (One World), Secretary Han Sen (TTDI), PP Derek (Mantissa),
President Angeline, President Kelly (Mantissa) & President CK (One World)

HELP President Zoe with her members Bryan, VPE Tze Yi & IPP Vincent Liew,
OC Alexandra & President Angeline

Members & guests of Friendship TMC

Thank you to all contestants, role players and members of the audience for helping Friendship TMC to have a successful Humorous Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest !

Report by Susan Lim, Daphne Au, Tan Lay Theng & Angeline Lee

Speech Contest Results @ 02 Aug 2011

2011-08-07T07:54:00.008+08:00

Report by Alexandra Lau, Vice President Membership 2011/2012

VPM Alexandra Lau

Dear Friendship members and friends,

Our Club Humorous Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest were held on 02 August 2011.

May I congratulate the winners:

Humorous Speech Contest Winners
1. Angeline Lee
2. James Arokiasamy

Evaluation Contest Winners
1. Freddy Yap
2. Angeline Lee
3. Tony Lim

CONGRATULATIONS!!! All the best at the coming Area contests!

Congratulations to all contestants who had the courage to compete, especially new member Sylvia Tan. Sylvia joined our club only a few months ago and has just started on her CC manual. I really salute her for taking such a giant step in Toastmasters.

Many thanks to President Angeline and PP Lay Theng for guiding me to be an effective Organizing Chair. Angeline has tirelessly reminded me of what and how things need to be done, on top of her role as the Club President and overlook the management of the contest preparation….PLUS, taking part in both of the Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests.Her drive and commitment is… AWESOME!

Also many thanks to the roleplayers too – Daphne, Andy and Ian, as well as helpers from HELP Toastmasters and Mantissa Toastmasters. Without them the contest would not be smoothly run.

Overall, it was a great experience for me and I strongly encourage the rest of our club members who miss the contest this time to take part in our future club contests.

Regards,
Alexandra

Notice_Speech Contests on 02 August 2011

2011-08-07T07:46:00.006+08:00

VPM Alexandra Lau

From: Alexandra Lau [mailto:alexandra.lau@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: Friendship Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests on 2 August 7PM

Dear Members,

In the midst of your stressful and busy schedule, treat yourself to a break. Join us at our Humorous Speech & Evaluation Contests!

Come not only to laugh but also to learn. Do you know that many outstanding public speakers are humorous? Not only can they tickle your funny bones but also speak with substance.

There is more for you if you participate. Why is it important to participate in the contest and experienced it yourself? It is a great opportunity to go beyond your comfort zone and you never know; you might be the next world champion!

If you have thought about it, then just do it. How to do it? Just sign up as a contestant with yours truly, the Organising Chair. Next, prepare and practice your humorous speech. Finally, just do your best in the contest.

Here are our members who have taken the courage to compete in this contest. We are welcoming you to join them .

Humorous Speech Contestants:

Angeline
James
Sivadas
Sylvia

Evaluation Contestants:

Angeline
Freddie
Tony
Zaiton

Your participation, as a contestant, a role player or as a member of the audience, will definitely contribute to the success of the Contests. We look forward to seeing you on 2 August.

All the best to our potential club champions!

Regards,

Alexandra
Organising Chair

Photos @ 19 July 2011

2011-07-28T00:24:00.001+08:00

Report by Angeline Lee, President 2011/2012

Angeline Lee
President 2011/2012

EVALUATE TO MOTIVATE

For our second meeting for 2011/2012 with the meeting theme Evaluate to Motivate, it was most appropriate that our General Evaluator was DTM Sue Ding, visiting from Shaklee Dynamic Toastmasters Club. She is a much sought after General Evaluator and fortunately for us, VPE Chee Hoe managed to book her for 19 July.

President Angeline with guest Wilson, PP Lay Theng, GE Sue Ding & VPM Alexandra

We are also happy to welcome Wilson who travelled all the way from Cyberjaya to support his friend and Toastmaster of the Evening, VPM Alexandra. It was a coincidence that he is also acquainted with Sue Ding who has helped out at Wilson’s former club, Deloitte KassimChan Toastmasters Club.

Table Topics Master Wai Yee introduced a twist to our Table Topics Session. Asking 5 volunteers to leave the room, she then asked 5 members of the audience to write down their secrets on a piece of paper. Our Table Topics speakers Grace, Ben, Daphne, Wilson and Sean then had to do some quick thinking and hand-writing analysis to guess who wrote the mysterious notes. It was a hilarious session especially when Ben revealed that he did not have to crack his head to guess the writer as the name was written down!

Ben is joint Best Table Topics Speaker

Amazing Grace Tan is joint Best Table Topics Speaker and
Best Speech Evaluator

For the first prepared speech of the evening, we had the opportunity to learn more about our new Korean member named Sean Lee. Not only was he a natural speaker, he was also able to joke with us that it was not necessary for him to break the ice as Malaysia’s weather is too hot and the ice has melted. His evaluator, the ever dynamic and charming Past President Kim Chow, was delighted when she found out that he is Korean as she is a fan of Korean TV dramas. We enjoyed his humorous Ice Breaker speech and are looking forward to his future speeches, delivered with his “cute” English accent.

Sean Lee from Korea is Best Project Speaker

Treasurer Ian Tai is not only studying ACCA, he is also an author with his book launch to be held on 30 August at KLCC. We were graciously invited to his book launch where he will be presenting a talk. To prepare for it, he had used his speech slot for this meeting, to provide us a sneak preview of his book. His evaluator Ben provided constructive feedback to help Ian to do a more captivating presentation on 30 August.

From left: Ian Tai, Ah Counter Josephine Goh, guest Wilson, PP James,
Grace & Table Topics Master Wai Yee

General Evaluator Sue Ding, true to the theme Evaluate to Motivate, provided us with motivating and encouraging feedback. She praised the warm reception she received when she first arrived and our well organized meeting. She also shared with us that everyone has butterflies in their stomachs, even DTMs! We also learned from Kim that the secret is to harness the nervous energy to be a better speaker.

Sue Ding DTM is the GE

In her address, Area W3 Governor Kimmy Foo spoke of Speaking To Enrich People (STEP), the theme for Division W 2011/2012. She is an eloquent speaker and it is obvious to me that she is able to speak to enrich people. Thank you Area Governor Kimmy, for visiting us!

Area W3 Governor Kimmy Foo

The awards for our Evaluate to Motivate meeting were presented to

Best Table Topics Speakers – Grace Tan & Ben Fong

Best Project Speaker – Sean Lee

Best Speech Evaluator – Grace Tan

Ice Breaker Ribbon – Sean Lee

Congratulations to Sean, Grace and Ben for being our 19 July winners!

Friendship members, our Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests will be on 2 August 2011. There is absolutely no joining fee required and you may just be taking home one or two of the 6 trophies. All you have to do is sign up with Organising Chair Alexandra and start preparing your winning speech!

Report by Angeline Lee, President 2011/2012

Newsletter_Volume 10 Issue 2

2011-07-27T23:26:00.002+08:00

VPPR Susan Lim

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 2

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

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Meeting Programme_19 July 2011

2011-07-27T23:23:00.001+08:00

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Meeting Notice

2011-07-17T20:11:00.000+08:00

Angeline Lee
President 2011/2012

Dear Friendship Members

Our next meeting on 19 July is all about Evaluate to Motivate !

DTM Sue Ding, a much sought after General Evaluator, will be joining us for this meeting. She is a member of two clubs, Shaklee Dynamic and Phoenix Toastmasters Club and is also known as "Mother of Division B". Last term she was also District 51 Club Coach Chair. Please do grab the opportunity to talk to Sue Ding, if you want to know more about her two leadership roles as Division B Governor and Club Coach Chair. If you are wondering, yes, there are more leadership opportunities available for all of you other than aspiring to be the future Club President of Friendship.

Our newest member, Sean, will be presenting his Ice Breaker speech. Susan, Andy and Ian will also be presenting their project speeches from the Competent Communication manual. I think we will have a tough job deciding who will be the Best Project Speaker while our speech evalutors Freddie, Kim, Grace and Ben, will be doing their best to Evaluate to Motivate.

Joining our illustrious cast of roleplayers for 19 July are

Table Topics Master Wai Yee

Table Topics Evaluator James

Grammarian Sivadas

Ah Counter Daphne

Timer Sylvia

helmed by TME Alexandra

Ladies & gentlemen, the stage is ready for Friendship's next performance. Join us and learn from our evaluators on how toEvaluate to Motivate, to go beyond the challenge of presenting project speeches.

We look forward to meeting up with everyone on 19 July !

Best regards,

Angeline

Photos @ 05 July 2011

2011-07-17T19:58:00.002+08:00

Angeline Lee
President 2011/2012

STRIVE FOR SUCCESS
1st meeting of the term 2011/2012

Report by President Angeline Lee

For our inaugural meeting for 2011/2012, with the meeting theme of “Strive for Success”, our team of Club Officers was officially installed by our dynamic and charming Past President Kim Chow. She started the Installation ceremony by discharging our team of 2010/2011 Club Officers from their duties.

Club Officers for 2010/2011 being discharged from their duties

Division W Governor 2010/2011 DTM Vincent Hor, in his role as General Evaluator, commended Past President Kim for conducting the Installation ceremony with dignity, poise and class. The new team of Club Officers pledged to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities and will work towards “striving for success” for Friendship.

Club Officers for 2011/2012

Friendship club members promised to support the new exco.

Right after the Installation ceremony, we started with the speech project session. With TME PP Freddie Yap at the helm, we had an interesting and enjoyable session. We enjoyed three speeches.

PP Freddie Yap is the TME

Daphne in her “Fair Lady from Ipoh” Ice Breaker speech was charming, earnest and sincere. Explaining that despite her small size, due to her generosity in giving her food away to her siblings, she is nevertheless more than capable of defending her siblings when the need arise. This fair lady from Ipoh also showed us her humorous side when she made us laugh out loud with her tales about “lembu”.

Standing ovation for Daphne

From Ipoh, we travelled to a world of credit card debts as we listened to Sylvia’s speech. She had fascinating facts such as a $30 billion credit card debt by young people aged 30 and below. We agreed with her that prevention is better than cure as she outlined 4 simple steps to avoid falling into credit card debt.

After two speeches from the basic Competent Communication manual, we then had the opportunity to listen to an advanced speech from Past President James Arokiasamy. In his Entertaining Speaker speech, James entertained and impressed us with his knowledge of biology as he spoke of inflammation, white blood cells and sinus. His concluding message to us was to eat healthy, stay healthy and live longer.

PP James is Best Project Speaker

After the break, we had a hilarious Humour Session conducted by Stephen Fernando, multiple winners of District 51 Speech Contests. Thank you, Stephen for being our Humour Master and speech evaluator for James !

Stephen Fernando is Best Speech Evaluator

For this meeting, our usual Table Topics Session was replaced by Games Session which involves acting skills and impromptu speaking skills. Thanks to our group of talented participants, we had a good laugh as Tony & James, Grace & Nee Wern, Ian Tai & Ian Lai, Sylvia & Sean paired up to act and speak on topics selected by VPE Chee Hoe. Ian Tai enjoyed this session and recommended to have more of this at our future meetings.

DTM Vincent Hor is the GE

The awards given out for our “Strive for Success” meeting goes to

Best Project Speaker – James Arokiasamy

Best Speech Evaluator – Stephen Fernando

Ice Breaker Ribbon – Daphne Au

Half CC Ribbon – Ian Tai

Ian Tai with his Half CC Ribbon

Daphne with her Ice Breaker Ribbon

Thank you, Friendship members and guests for helping us to have a memorable and fun-filled meeting. Thank you to our guests, Belinda and Ian Lai, for joining us and exploring how the Toastmasters educational program can help everyone to “Strive for Success”.

Members & guests at Friendship's Installation meeting

See you at our next meeting on 19 July as we continue in our effort to “Strive for Success” by practicing how to “Evaluate to Motivate”. Join us at Bukit Kiara for another learning adventure !

Newsletter_Volume 10 Issue 1

2011-07-17T19:13:00.003+08:00

VPPR Susan Lim

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 1

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

President Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

VPPM Alexandra Lau was the editor from July 2010 to June 2011.

VPPR Susan Lim is the current editor.

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Meeting Programme_05 July 2011

2011-07-17T18:45:00.000+08:00

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Meeting Notice

2011-07-05T14:50:00.000+08:00

President Angeline Lee

Dear Friendship members

Looking forward to meeting everyone again tonight! It has been one month since my last outing to Friendship, due to my outstation work assignment for the month of June.

Tonight at Bukit Kiara, you will be having first class seats to a few exciting world premiers

Daphne - presenting her Ice Breaker speech

Sylvia - presenting her second project speech

James - presenting an Advanced manual speech

Kim - Installation Officer for our new Exco team

Stephen - our Humour Master and evaluator, specially invited by James

Vincent - Immediate Past Division W Governor who will be our General Evaluator

Your guess is as good as mine as to what our Games Session will be about, led by Chee Hoe. And who is our excellent TME for our very first meeting for 2011/2012 ? None other than our respected Past President Freddie!

It's going to be a great meeting. The only thing that will make it even more fantastic is your attendance and participation at our inaugural meeting for 2011/2012 !

See you tonight.

Regards,

Angeline

President 2011/2012

Meeting Report @ 21 June 2011

2011-07-05T14:46:00.005+08:00

Susan Lim

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING AHEAD

Report by Susan Lim, Toastmaster of the Meeting

The theme for our 21 June meeting was “Looking Back, Looking Ahead”. The theme was definitely fitting as it was the last meeting with Zaiton as our President, and the rest of the outgoing Exco team.

Zaiton started the meeting with her final President's speech. Looking back, President Zaiton was full of heartwarming memories of what this term has meant to her in terms of her personal growth in the areas of leadership and communication. Looking ahead, we look forward to Angeline's leadership as President. We also look forward to our club achieving new heights of success. Zaiton's performance is a tough act to follow as she had guided our club to reach the President’s Distinguished Club status.

I (Susan Lim) played the TME role for the first time. I was determined to uplift the energy of the meeting so I had everyone in the audience doing hi-fives and saying “You are awesome!”, not only at the beginning but throughout the meeting. I also shared a memorable quote with the audience: “It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret”. This quote complements the theme very well.

The word of the day is “Spirit”, chosen by Grammarian PP Lay Theng. Our high spirits had everyone looking back, looking ahead and looking around, especially at the pretty and handsome faces of Friendship Toastmasters members and guests.

We had two special guests from Exact ADC Toastmasters Club, Boby Auliaputra playing the Timer role and Andrew Ng as the General Evaluator.

Sivadas gave us an invocation speech to inspire us. Daphne, the Table Topics Master, repeated her successful performance in getting the table topics speakers to imagine or reminisce several poignant moments in their lives. The speakers were Jason Wee (guest), Ian Lai (guest), Ben, Vincent and Ian Tai.

We had two humorous and vibrant project speakers who talked about "Meditating Dog" - I mean "Meditation" and "Dog". Andy the superman talked about the Benefits of Meditation for his speech project #3 Get to the Point. He started by performing a meditation pose on a chair. Not only did he manage to balance himself well, but he also grabbed our attention.

Ian Tai shared with us a few tricks on how to train the dog in his speech project #5: Your Body Speaks. Not only did his body speak to us, he also engaged Andy to be his disobedient dog which he trained to be obedient. We roared with laughter!

Our first-time guest, Jason Wee, was surprised when he was announced as the Best Table Topics Speaker.

Our GE, Andrew Ng, delivered a favourable report about the meeting proceedings and offered a few recommendations for improvement. Thanks, Andrew, for your kind and honest evaluation!

We received good feedback from all our guests. We certainly hope to see them more in our future meetings.

I hope everyone can look back and remember something special about this meeting!

When it hurts to look back
and you’re scared to look ahead.

At Friendship Toastmasters meetings

You can look beside you

And your best friend will be there.

Newsletter_Volume 9 Issue 19

2011-07-04T21:36:00.000+08:00

Alexandra Lau, VPPR

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 9 Issue 19

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

Alexandra Lau is the current editor.

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Meeting Programme_21 June 2011

2011-07-04T21:13:00.000+08:00

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Meeting Notice

2011-06-16T21:39:00.000+08:00

Angeline Lee, VPE cum President Elect

Dear Frienship Members,

Our next meeting is just around the corner and it is the final meeting for us with Zaiton as our President.

Looking back, President Zaiton would be full of memories of what this term has meant to her in terms of her personal growth in the areas of leadership and communication. Looking ahead, I hope you are looking forward to what she has to share with us in her final Presidential speech on 21 June.

I will not be attending this meeting due to a working assignment in Singapore for two weeks. In my absence, Past President Lay Theng has kindly offer to help with the finalising of the program agenda. Please inform Lay Theng if there is any changes to your availability for 21 June, for those of you who have confirmed for your respective roles and speaking slots.

Let's have a memorable meeting on 21 June with

Susan - as our first-timer TME

Daphne - as Table Topics Master

Phileo - introducing himself in his Ice Breaker speech.

Andy and Ian - moving on to speeches 3 and 4. It is going to be an all male speakers performance !

Grace, Kim, Alexandra and Daniel - as our esteemed evaluators

Andrew Ng - as our General Evaluator. He will be completing his final project for his Competent Leader manual.

Everyone, have fun at the next meeting !

Your VPE,

Angeline

Photos @ 07 June 2011

2011-06-09T08:28:00.002+08:00

Report by VPM Chor Chee Hoe

Photos by Treasurer Chor Wai Yee

* LEADERS AREN'T BORN, THEY ARE MADE

The happy atmosphere in the meeting room.
Wow! Many guests and visiting Toastmasters attended the meeting.

Kui Lim, 2nd from left, decided to join the club on her 3rd visit.
Thanks for choosing Friendship!

As the TME, I definitely enjoyed the meeting with the theme Leaders aren't born, they are made. Beside the interesting meeting agenda, another reason for my jubilant mood is that we had 8 guests visiting our club and three of them decided to join as members! They are Sean, Hui Woon and Kui Lim.

President Zaiton sharing her views on the qualities of a great leader
in her president's speech.

Invocation presenter, Wai Yee, set the mood of the meeting by inspiring us with the story of her idol, Tony Fernandez.

In the Table Topics session, PP Ben Fong the Table Topics Master received warm response and participation from 5 guests and 1 member.

Khor SC, a visiting Toastmaster from Klang Bilingual Club told us that
Integrity (Word of the Day) is an important quality of a great leader

Sean, our first-time guest, decided to join our club
after performing in the Table Topics session.

Our guest Lih Choon gallantly participated in the Table Topics.

In her Ice Breaker speech, Sylvia delivered an interesting speech
entitled "Story About Me".
She spoke with confidence and it is obvious that she enjoys public speaking.

PP Lay Theng giving an inspiring speech that highlights the benefits of Toastmasters.
She successfully converted three guests into member with her powerful speech.

Hilson Yeap from AFC Toastmasters Club giving helpful evaluations
on the Table Topic speeches.
He also shared some tips with us that he learned from Darren LaCroix's workshop

The Best Table Topics Speaker award goes to .... our guest Joshua!

Thank you, General Evaluator Soh Fong Wai, DTM

PP Lay Theng completed her CC for the second time and received the CC pin.

Sylvia Tan receiving the Ice Breaker ribbon from President Zaiton

Came as a guest, left as a member! Hui Woon joined Friendship on her second visit.

The youngest guest, Sakura, who is only 12 years old, sharing her views on Toastmasters.

Newsletter_Volume 9 Issue 18

2011-06-09T07:19:00.002+08:00

Alexandra Lau, VPPR

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 9 Issue 18

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

Alexandra Lau is the current editor.

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Meeting Programme_07 June 2011

2011-06-09T07:14:00.004+08:00

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Meeting Notice

2011-06-05T14:42:00.003+08:00

Angeline Lee, President Elect

Dear Friendship Members,

One week has quickly passed since our awesome Birthday Celebration meeting last week! Thank you to our members and guests who made it an awesome night.

Moving on to our 7 June meeting with the theme "Leaders aren't born, they are made" helmed by TME Chee Hoe.
*

I regret to say that I will not be able to attend the meeting due to my CEO's request that I travel to Taipei to give a presentation. His exact words to me are, "With your Toastmasters training, you are the best person to give the presentation". Then he reminded me to have effective eye contact and body movement, and to put everything that I have learnt in Toastmasters into this presentation to the management group of a bank. Although feeling slightly stressed, I can honestly say that Toastmasters is taking me places as I have not been to Taipei before.
*

Please let TME Chee Hoe know if you wish to make changes to your meeting roles or your commitment to the meeting programme. A successful meeting is only possible if all of us do our part to make it successful.
*

May everyone look forward and work towards another successful meeting on 7 June where more Friendship leaders will be made.
*

Your VPE,

Angeline

Photos @ 24 May 2011

2011-06-05T14:17:00.001+08:00

Report by Angeline Lee, President Elect cum Area W3 Governor

Angeline Lee, President Elect

Friendship Birthday Celebration

In May 1999, Friendship Toastmasters Club under the leadership of Kim Chow started the first meeting. Twelve years later, Vice President Membership Chee Hoe, took the initiative to organize a birthday celebration meeting because YOU, Friendship members, deserve it!

Happy Birthday to Friendship Toastmasters Club!

With Facebook invitations sent out and members inviting guests to attend, Organising Chair Chee Hoe was slightly worried that we might not have enough food for our numerous guests. Thanks to his foresight, this disaster was averted. We were exultant (word of the day) to welcome 18 guests to help us celebrate!

Our special guests are

DTM Rolf Chew, North Chair of Education and Training Committee of District 85 (Toastmasters clubs in China, Hong Kong and Macau)
DTM Rolf Chew’s cousin, Hui Woon
TF Lee from AFC Toastmasters Club
David Lai from Ambank Toastmasters Club
Lee Han Sen from TTDI Toastmasters Club
Pham Viet Ha, Kelly Teng and Derek Soo from Mantissa Toastmasters Club
Michelle Yip, Toh Joo Lee, Gary Lee and Jowy Chong from KPMG KL Toastmasters Club
Anthony, Firdaus and June from IBM
Wong Wei Kai invited by Chee Hoe
Tan Wai Yee & Kui Lim invited by Wai Yee

Special thanks to Grace Tan for inviting TF Lee. TF Lee then invited David and Rolf, and Rolf asked his cousin to attend. It was a pleasant chain reaction of events. With just one invitation from Grace, we had 4 guests attending the meeting.

President Zaiton with our guests

With Ian “Rocky” Tai running into the room and showing us his boxing moves complete with boxing gloves, we were off to a rocking start. It was an inspirational story of Sylvester Stallone, who experienced the saddest moment of his life when he had to sell his dog for $50 to survive. Despite being rejected many times for the lead actor role in the ‘Rocky’ movie, he did not give up. It was a sweet victory for him when he won the Best Actor award for “Rocky”. Ian “Rocky” Tai’s message for us was “Don’t give up, don’t underestimate yourself”.

Ian Tai with his Rocky look

Next Past President Lay Theng presented her “Vegetarian or Flexitarian – The Choice is Yours” speech. She did her best to persuade us to make our choice with her well-researched speech on the benefits of being a vegetarian. Not only would we be less prone to diseases and be more cool, calm and composed, the vegetarian choice is also more environmentally friendly.

From left: Grace Tan, Andy, guitarist Wei Kai, VPM Chee Hoe,
Treasurer Wai Yee and our guest Tan Wai Yee
Future vegetarians?

After the project speeches, VPPR Alexandra conducted the New Member Induction ceremony for Daphne. Bravo to Daphne who took up the Grammarian role for this evening even though she did not think English was her forte.

Daphne (left) with her mentor Angeline Lee.
On the right is VPPR Alexandra.

The birthday celebration started with a musical performance by guest guitarist Wei Kai, VPM Chee Hoe and Treasurer Wai Yee. This was followed by a sensational performance by Grace Tan who sang “Hey Jude”. With her star power, she had all of us singing along with her. We then had a hilarious Games session conducted by Past President James Arokiasamy. Quick thinking skill was required for this impromptu Q&A session which our guests sportingly participated and were grilled by the Past Presidents of Friendship. Well done James, it was a very enjoyable session!

Enjoying the games session.
From left: Daphne, PP Freddie Yap, DTM Rolf Chew,
Hui Woon, Han Sen, Kelly & Viet Ha

After blowing out the birthday candles, we were treated to an impromptu performance by David “Ronan Keating” Lai who sang “When you say nothing at all”. Next, we invited our special guest, DTM Rolf Chew to say a few words. Rolf is a District Officer from District 85 (Toastmasters clubs in China, Hong Kong and Macau). He is a Malaysian working in China and he said he enjoyed the meeting and was grateful to TF Lee for extending the invitation to him.

As all good things must come to an end, the following awards were presented before we ended the meeting.

Best Project Speaker – the eloquent Tan Lay Theng

Best Speech Evaluator – the vivacious Kim Chow

Friendship Idol – the amazing Grace Tan

PP Tan Lay Theng is the Best Project Speaker

Kim Chow wins the Best Speech Evaluator award

Congratulations to Grace Tan, our Friendship Idol!

Thank you to all our Past Presidents and current President of Friendship. Without your excellent and dedicated leadership over the years, we would not be able to celebrate our birthday with 18 guests. May we have many more successful years and celebrate many more achievements!

Friendship Presidents
From left: KC Lim, Tan Lay Theng, Kim Chow, TL Wuan (PP and founding member),
Freddie Yap, Zaiton, James Arokiasamy and Tony Lim.

Newsletter_Volume 9 Issue 17

2011-05-30T14:03:00.000+08:00

Alexandra Lau, VPPR

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 9 Issue 17

Newsletter was initiated by Mohamad Abdullah DTM in 2000.

PP Ben Fong took over as editor from 04 July 2006 to 20 October 2009.

Angeline Lee was the editor from November 2009 to June 2010.

Alexandra Lau is the current editor.

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