Photos @ 20 Sep 2011

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

Click on image to see larger view

Newsletter_Volume 10 Issue 5

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. 

Page 1 (click on image to see larger view)

Page 2 (click on image to see larger view)

Photos @ 06 Sep 2011

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

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. 

Page 1 (click image to see larger view)

Page 2 (click image to see larger view)

Meeting Programme_06 Sep 2011

Click image to see larger view

Photos @ 22 Aug 2011

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