Newsletter 20 March 2012

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 16

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, assisted by Club Secretary Daphne Au.

Meeting Notice 20 March 2012

From: Club President Angeline Lee
Date: 13 March 2012 8:30 PM
Subject: Friendship Meeting on 20 March 2012 – Beyond the Possible
To: Friendship Members

Dear Friends,
We had a fruitful Hesitation is a Loss meeting last week, with TME Freddie taking the opportunity to dazzle us with his hosting skills. We had 5 guests and 5 variations of Hesitation is a Loss Table Topics questions. We also had the opportunity to listen to 3 prepared speeches.

If you wish to know more about the happenings at the last meeting, click at this link: http://friendshiptoastmasters.blogspot.com/2012/03/club-meeting-6-march-2012.html

Having taken calculated risk and not hesitating to be a better speaker, we shall now explore to go Beyond the Possible at our 20 March meeting. Each of us have the potential (word of the day) to be better than what we were yesterday and today. Let us go beyond what was possible yesterday, to reach our full potential.

Please note that the meeting venue is at Dewan Perdana (beside the swimming pool).

See you in one week's time, on 20 March !

Club Meeting 6 March 2012

When TME Freddie asked did anyone hesitated to attend this meeting, the answer was no! It was only fitting that our TME who did not hesitated when offered the role of TME for our Hesitation is a Loss meeting had an audience who also took the opportunity (word of the day) to improve their speaking and thinking skills.

TME Freddie

For the Table Topics session lead by Sivadas, we had five speakers who hardly hesitated to improve in their impromptu speaking skills. Past President Ben spoke of stocks and marriage where one is understandably hesitate at times to take the plunge.

Nancy, who is visiting us for the second time with Past Presidents Ben & Lay Theng

Ian recalled an incident where he hesitated during his college days. It was a classic case of “faint heart never won fair ladies”. He ended his tale with a surprise twist that his best friend who did not hesitated, won the heart of the fair maiden!

At first Nancy was stumped (not an uncommon occurrence for many of us who had tried out Table Topics) when she was given her topic to speak on. She decided to tell us about her entrepreneurial endeavour in Melbourne during the Fiesta Malaysia event. Although her kuih did not sell out like hot-cakes due to the inclement weather, she was glad she had a great learning opportunity from that experience.

VPM Alexandra held out for a 70% discount on a red Espirit jacket and was given a RM150 gift voucher to repair her Honda car recently. Even if we hesitate at times, when better opportunities arise, go after it if it is important to you.

For Past President Freddie, he may hesitate at times when he is being careful, especially if it is an area he is not familiar with. He urged us not to hesitate if we have much to lose by hesitating.

Sylvia

Sylvia had several slides and a video clip to accompany her tale of Shark’s Fin Soup. She was aghast when she found out that 30 to 100 million sharks were being slaughtered annually for this delicacy. She made her point clearly and consistently that eating shark’s fin soup is not in our best interest. 

Listening to Lay Theng's interesting speech are Jaynee, Treasurer Ian, General Evaluator Dorcas, Sivadas and guest Ve Yinn

For Past President Lay Theng’s “All in One” speech, it was a highly entertaining speech about her control freak mother. She has us laughing at her schooldays stories about her mother who apart from being a teacher at her school, demanded that she achieves academic excellence. Two years ago, when her mother fell ill, her whole world changed. It was then that she realized that her mother was all in one – her parent, her buddy and her teacher.

The awards given out for our Hesitation is a Loss meeting went to
Best Table Topic Speaker – Ian Tai 
Best Project Speaker – Tan Lay Theng 
Best Speech Evaluator – Tan Lay Theng  

Ian Best Table Topic Speaker

Lay Theng is Best Project Speaker and Best Speech Evaluator!

At the end of the meeting, VPM Alexandra presented a short speech in her role as Vice President of Membership. She shared with us her amazement at the progress that she had witnessed for Daphne and Sylvia and had us agreeing that Toastmasters is where we can learn and grow, if we make use of the opportunities available at our club meetings to do so.

VPM Alexandra

It was a busy night for VPM Alexandra as we had five guests at our Hesitation is a Loss meeting. Sylvia invited Mr. Lau to the meeting to catch the premier of her Shark’s Fin Soup speech. We also had Steven from KPMG KL, assisting us with the role of Grammarian. He has been working diligently on his Competent Leadership (CL) projects and is only a few roles away from completing his CL award. 

Sylvia with guest Mr. Lau, Steven (KPMG KL) and VPM Alexandra

In addition to Nancy and Ve Yinn who were visiting us for the second time, we also had Lydia and Jaynee, who decided to visit us after finding out about Friendship from our fantastic, far-reaching Toastmasters International website. 

Four pretty ladies in a row - VPM Alexandra, guests Lydia & Jaynee and Sylvia

All good things must come to an end and we took the opportunity to take a group photo before bidding good-night to guests and Friendship friends.  

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 20 March 2012 at Dewan Berjaya with the meeting theme Beyond the Possible. After not hesitating to take calculated risks to be better speakers and leaders, it is going to be another milestone as we explore how to go Beyond the Possible at our next meeting !

Meeting Programme 6 March 2012

Newsletter 6 March 2012

FRIEND'S CONNECTION

Volume 10 Issue 15

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, assisted by Club Secretary Daphne Au.

Meeting Notice 6 March 2012

From: Club President Angeline 
Date: 28 February 2012 12:38 PM
Subject: Friendship Meeting on 6 March 2012 – Hesitation is a Loss
To: Friendship Members

Dear Friends,

We had a fantastic Take Calculated Risks meeting last week, helmed by the virbrant, beautiful and talented TME Grace. With 6 guests in attendance, an interesting Table Topics session with 6 speakers, as well as three prepared speeches from Daphne, Ian and Freddie, it was a memorable evening.

We have posted a meeting write-up as well as a few photos at http://friendshiptoastmasters.blogspot.com/2012/02/club-meeting-21-february-2012.html

This evening is our joint meeting with IBM Toastmasters Club at Level 19, KPMG Tower, Bandar Utama. Everyone is most welcome to join Grace, Hann, Moses, Ian, Lay Theng and I at this meeting.

Do not hesitate to attend our 6 March Hesitation is a Loss meeting! After considering and taking calculated risks at our last meeting, do not hesitate, as you continue to make strides to improve as a speaker.

I am definitely looking forward to meeting with everyone again at our 6 March meeting. We will have the lively and humorous Dorcas Aung, ACB, CL from Ireka Toastmasters Club as our General Evaluator. With 3 project speeches lined up and Past President Freddie as our TME, it will not just be an ordinary meeting !

Club Meeting 21 February 2012

As the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME) for our Take Calculated Risks meeting, Grace took the liberty (word of the day) to entertain, educate and elevate us with her lively conduct of the meeting.

Our vibrant, beautiful and talented TME

It was a pleasant surprise to find out that we had 6 guests for this meeting thanks to the effort of TME Grace and Past President Lay Theng.

President Angeline with guests Su Ling and Nancy

In the words of our TME, it takes commitment, conviction and courage to take calculated risks to overcome our fears of public speaking. Two of our guests took courage to speak in front of us for the first time in the Table Topics session chaired by VPM Alexandra.

Club Secretary Daphne, PP Freddie, Moses, guests Jean & Nancy, Treasurer Ian enjoying the Table Topics session

Past President Ben confessed that he is a risk taker but only takes calculated risks as risks and rewards go hand-in-hand. Treasurer Ian recounted a calculated risk he had taken at age 7 when he started to learn to swim. DTM Siva asked us to be at liberty to take risks as it may lead to freedom from a mundane life.

Past President Freddie had us laughing at his story of dejection when two girls turned him down when he asked them out for a date. He struck gold at his third attempt and his conclusion was that if you don’t give it a try, you will never know whether you will succeed.

Our courageous guests Nancy and Priscilla decided to give Table Topics a try. Nancy shared with us a difficult decision she had to make a year ago, whether to continue to work in Australia or whether to come home to Malaysia. It was a risk as she enjoyed her life in Melbourne yet she felt that the missing piece was the family touch. She decided to follow her heart. We hope that she will soon choose to build new family ties with us - with Friendship Club and Friendship friends.

Nancy telling us about a difficult decision in her life

As for Priscilla, even though she is adventurous, she is not a risk taker. As she previously had a disastrous investment experience, she now chooses to be a low risk, low returns investor. However we are glad she chose to take the risk of speaking at Table Topics. It did not turn out to be a disastrous speech. On the contrary, she spoke fluently considering that it was her first Table Topics speech!

We were certainly in for a treat for the Prepared Speech Session as we had the privilege to listen to two project speeches on visual aids and a contest speech.

Speakers Freddie, Ian and Daphne

For Daphne, she gave us amusing examples of the differences between men and women in her “Stay in Love” speech. Using her tablet and fairy tale books as her visual aids, she told us that her husband did not believe in fairy tales. In fact, he did not even fit the description of a knight in shining armour as he could not ride a horse. Although reality always win, our fair fairy from Ipoh believes that living happily after is not a fairy tale. It can happen in real life with effort, forbearance and tolerance.

For Ian, it was “The Longest 2 Minutes” in his life when he did his first Table Topics on 25 October 2011. It was a terrifying experience for him, one that he will never forget. Being a resilient and resourceful young man, he decided to improve and practice at every opportunity that he had at Table Topics, to be a better impromptu speaker. On 31 January this year, he won a trophy at our club’s Table Topics Contest. His motivating message to us was to find the courage to speak, as it is only thru practice that we can improve as a speaker.

Past President Freddie presented his “Face-hooked” contest speech as preparation for our Area W3 Contest on 25 February. TME Grace was liberal in her evaluation of his speech.

Freddie and Ian are Best Project Speakers with a gift sponsored by Past President Lay Theng - a ticket to Division W Speech Contest on 17 March

In the Evaluation Session headed by TLI Chair G. Sivalingam, DTM, evaluators Moses, Ben and Zaiton provided specific feedback for our speakers. We would like to thank DTM Siva for taking up the GE role despite his busy schedule as TLI Chair.

President Angeline presenting a Thank You card to GE Siva

The awards given out for our Take Calculated Risk meeting went to
Best Table Topic Speaker – Nancy Soo 
Best Project Speakers – Freddie Yap and Ian Tai 
Best Evaluator – Moses Wong 

Nancy is Best Table Topic Speaker

Moses wins the Best Speech Evaluator award

Thank you for being at liberty to attend our Take Calculated Risk meeting. Do join us again at our joint meeting with IBM Toastmasters Club on 28 Feb. Also do not hesitate to attend our 6 March Hesitation is a Loss meeting. Take calculated risks, do not hesitate, as you make strides to improve as a speaker! 

Photos contributed by Moses Wong