What an OUTSTANDING meeting???

28th of July 2009

Word of the Evening: Outstanding (to be marked by superiority or distinction, excellent, distinguished)

Stamford College Toastmasters Club is full of outstanding speakers.

Roleplayers of the Evening:

Toastmaster of the Evening – Muthu Kumar, TM
Sergeant At Arms - Eng, TM
Timer - Sam, TM
Ah Counter – Jessice Chok, TM
Grammarian – Lim Sze Yue, ACB
GENERAL EVALUATOR - YC Yap, ACG

Food comes first!!

A warm dinner with chicken and vegetable served with rice. Side dish of local delicacies such as corn "kuih". Really awesome!!


Table Topics Session:

TM Faye from Hilton Toastmasters club started the session by explaining a little about the table topics session. She also made it clear that all her topics for the day have a common theme-dreams. The first volunteer, TM Amy was asked to share her idea about her dream car. This brave speaker was indeed more than a match for this topic. This is evident by the way she tackled the whole topic(got to admit that she made us dream of owning a BMW sports car ourself). Next, was TM Britney who got the pleasure of talking about her dream house. Then, it was a brave man from Putrajaya, TM Zariq who took upon the challenge of impromptu speaking. He gave an outstanding speech about his dream career(which includes replacing car steering with joysticks). TM Matthew was the fourth speaker, graciously appealing to the audience with his smooth flow of impromptu speech. Seems like they all had prepared for their respective topics..hmm.. Great job! Last but not least, TM K was asked the killer question- “who is your dream date?” (he took the easy way out by declaring that he is not interested in anyone..smart one though..)

Table Topics Evaluator, again it was an honour for SCTMC to have ACB Joshua George who made his point that every speaker who took part were outstanding in their speech delivery. In addition, he managed to squeeze some time in his evaluation to tell give some quality advice to the table topic speakers.

Humour Session:

Who is it this time? Who else if its not our beloved humour-queen, TM Foo Li Wa. She made the audience roar with laughter with her witty and funny comparison of UK and Malaysian english(that was a good one).

Assignment Speakers:

Amy, TM - C&L 1^st speech- About Myself
Ophelia, TM - C&L 1^st speech – Introducing Myself
Nurul, TM - C&L 1^st speech – Me during my past, present and future

Assignment Evaluators:

James Gan, TM

Faye,TM

Grace,CC CL



Our Honoured Guests:

Faye, TM - Hilton TMC
Yc Yap, ACG – UK TMC
James Gan, TM - Digi TMC

Zariq, TM from Putrajaya

We extend our most sincere gratitude and welcome all of you to come again for our coming meetings. Why? It's simple. We love to have outstanding meetings with outstanding people, just like you!

*Now for the drum rolls........*

Best Table Topics Speaker:
Matthew!!!

Best Assignment Speaker:
Ophelia!!!

Best Assignment Evaluator:
Faye!!!

CONGRATULATIONS to the three outstanding speakers!!

That's a wrap for the evening from us at SCTMC!

Fellow members, guests, and students of STAMFORD COLLEGE, kindly put a note in your diary or your time organiser. We look forward to have you on the 11th of August 2009 for another outstanding meeting at Stamford College, PJ, Jalan Barat. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to join the fun in our next meeting or if you are in any doubts of our events.


MUTHU KUMAR KANNAN
Vice President of Public Relations
Stamford College Toastmasters Club

stamford.college@gmail.com / kkuamnanra@yahoo.com

Quote of the Evening:

Better to get cheated than to cheat.

Another wonderful meeting

14 July 2009

Word of the Evening: EMPOWERING

Wealth empowered him to live a comfortable life.

Role players of the Evening:

Toastmaster of the Evening – Muthu Kumar, TM
Sergeant At Arms – Gina, TM
Timer – Alan Ma, TM
Ah Counter - Amy, TM
Grammarian – Lucas Ng, TM
GENERAL EVALUATOR – STEPHEN FERNANDO, ATMB

Food comes first!!

Only the fittest survives. As such, food comes first before anything else. Fried mee with chicken rendang! Yum yum....slurp! hehe..

Table Topics Session:

Table Topics Master, SAMUEL FO WEI HAO took the lead role and started the session with his unique style. The first "volunteer" was none other than Mr Ayman who told us more about Stamford College (...perhaps a topic is a piece of cake for someone whos been at stamford for nearly a year). Of course this brave speaker gave the audience a very informative speech about stamford collge and even shared some of his personal experiences there (a simple yet wise move ). Next up was Mr Stephen. This man spoke about China. Bubbling with enthusiasm, this patriotic speaker gave us more than just information about China. He actually emphasised that China is a great country to live in and even asked us to visit China one day. Third on the list was Mr Kumar ,(self-proclaimed most handsome young indian man of the club) who was asked to share his preference of Chocolate or Cheese with the audience. This speaker boldly threw back the question to the audience (can you believe that he actually asked the audience their opinion about his preference-in an apparent bid to buy more time). He finally admitted that he likes chocolate more than cheese. And he defended it by informing us that chocolate can bring down your stress level. Next, Mr Tiger rose to the occasion and told us more about NIKE. He shared with the audience everything he knows about NIKE shoes.
Ms Ophelia stood up as the next volunteer. She had to choose between SAM and KUMAR! As soon as the question was posed, the look of shock on her face was
Table Topics Evaluator, it was none other than TM Lim Sze Yue (most handsome intelligent young man in the club! LSY:OMG..hahah!!). As usual, he managed to point out the areas of improvements for the speakers and at the same time motivate the speakers to do better in the future(spare the criticisms and spoil the speaker...hehe)


Humour Session:

Our vibrant Humour Master, Ms Foo Li Hwa made everyone roar with laughter with her excellent jokes. It takes great effort to make sure that no one gets offended when telling a joke. And our club “humour lady” succeeded!
Assignment Speakers:

Bushra Faisal, TM - C&L Ice Breaker Speech – The Story of Miss Kit Kat
Maya, TM - C&L 7th speech – One We Believe
Samuel Fo, C&L – 7th speech – Offer or Invitation to Treat

Assignment Evaluators:

Muthu Kumar, TM
Grace Chong, CC CL
Lim Sze Yue, ACB

The GUESTS:

STEPHEN FERNANDO, ATMB FROM Hilton Tmc

Best Table Topics Speaker:
OPHELIA !!

Best Assignment Speaker:
BUSHRA FAISAL !!

Best Assignment Evaluator:
LIM SZE YUE !!

CONGRATULATIONS to the three delighted-looking speakers!!

That's a wrap for the evening from us at SCTMC!


Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to join the fun in our next meeting or if you are in any doubts of our events.

MUTHU KUMAR KANNAN
Vice President of Membership
Stamford College Toastmasters Club

stamford.college@gmail.com / kkuamnanra@yahoo.com

Meets on every 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 6.15pm.

Quote of the Evening: GOD EMPOWERED US TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS IN LIFE

Finding the True Value of Toastmasters

Hello! Don't worry..the SCTMC report on 14 July is on its way!

In the meantime, I have an article with me here that I'll like to share with you. This article can be found in the Toastmasters magazine July 2009 issue.

It provides one of the best PROOFS of the TRUE VALUE OF TOASTMASTERS.

Yes, go on and read if you're still skeptical about joining a Toastmasters community.


WHERE'S THE PROOF?

When joining Toastmasters, we were told we would learn communication and leadership skills that would enrich our lives. Now we tell new members the same thing. But what proof do we have? What can we hold up as evidence that Toastmasters is actully of true value? (LSY: the questions are very relevant AND true! Where's the proof, you may ask? hmm.. =)

Recently, I hit a home run in my career, and Toastmasters played a huge role in that success. (LSY: How??) My experience with Table Topics, speech manual,contests and other Toastmasters activities all helped me qualify for a new job.

But before I fill you in, let me tell you a bit about my journey with Toastmasters. Eight years ago a co-worker invited me to join her at a Toastmasters meeting. My response? No! (Haha..which reminds me, how many of you out there had the same response, huh? XD) She invited me again. No! And again.. (Determination...) until I realized she recognized the fear in me and would not let me succumb to it. So, reluctantly, I went to a meeting of our local club, Tuesdays with Toastmasters in Austin, Minnesota. The members were so welcoming, I DECIDED TO JOIN. (Point to take note of, club officers!! XD)

For my first six speeches, I struggled mightily. I could not eat the day before a speech. (Gosh, so serious ah??) I could not stay within time limits. (LOL..same problem here) I was red-faced, sweating and trembling. (Totally understand...haha) Yup, I was A PERFECT MESS.

Then the seventh speech came. I trembled less. I was not red-faced. My evaluator was elated at my progress. (Progress..a word so common and powerful, yet we often overlooked it, don't you agree? Excuses on why I cannot do this triumphs over..sorry my friend, the truth is..excuses lead you to nowhere..plase, don't even think of success when you can't even think of progressing yourself..) Maybe there was something to be said for this Toastmasters thing. (Hmmm...)

Soon after, I entered a speech contest and stood in front of my largest audience yet, speaking about hunting and putting on layers of duck-hunting and clothing. I had officially lost my mind...and my terror! (Yup! If you're wondering, you will have the opportunity to contest in a speech, table topics or evaluation and perhaps, a taste of glory? XD)

My story is not unique. Like all of you, I had speeches that were successes and others that flopped. (Well, no one is perfect, isn't it?) But LIKE YOU, I KEPT TRYING. And my confidence grew. As did my leadership and communication skills.

Hunting for a New Job
Then, recently, Toastmasters ran smack dab into the rest of my life. I have worked for Hormel Foods Corporation for more than 10 years. One day, I saw a posting on the company job board for a brand-new position: e-Learning Coordinator. One of the requirements was being able to speak in front of large groups.

After reviewing my job application, Human Resources scheduled me for four interviews, (I repeat, FOUR interviews..gosh..) each with a different person. This was like going into a Table Topics contest circuit - club to area division to district. (Hahah...well put!) I would need to answer questions for a variety of audiences. I prepared for the interviews by devising practice questions and then developing answers based on Toastmasters' basic speech plan of creating an opening, body and conclusion: I would set up a situation, tell the interviewers how I dealt with it, and then explain what the outcome was. (Psst, fellow Toastmasters..useful tip here!!)

Practicing my answers, I incorporated lessons I learned both from Table Topics and the Storytelling manual.

When I interviewed with the job supervisor, she was extremely interested in Toastmasters and noted that I had listed it twice on my resume: once under "skills" and once under "organizations." Her astute questions showed me that people in management know about Toastmasters and look to it as valuable training for the skills and experiences they require in employees.

Persuasive Speaking
My final interview was with the person leaving the position I was applying for. (Interesting...) She was clearly unconvinced about Toastmasters. She noted that I would need to speak to much larger groups than 10 to 20 people. (Just for the record, occasionally in SCTMC, we will have audience numbers exceeding 20. How's that? =P) Happily and confidently, (and expectedly from a Toastmaster's point of view...) I told her my story about a speech evaluation contest that took me as far as the district level, where I spoke to more than 200 people. (to make this clear, imagine speaking to a packed room equivalent to 2 halls of the normal sized cinema room..can you picture it?)

I left this interview with the impression that without my experiences in Toastmasters' speech contests, I may have been eliminated from the job. (I'll say...don't even think about applying for it at the first place! Haha..)

Instead, I waited nervously for a call... and then learned I was awarded the position. My Toastmasters experience had paid off!

I recently received my job review. In it, my boss (and perhaps one day, YOUR boss will..) wrote the following: "Ability to present in front of a large audience - Ann's experience in Toastmasters is invaluable. As we develop this new job role, it is very apparent that the ability to speak in front of a large group is an integral part of the position..."

So, now, in my hand, in my life and even in my job review, is the proof that the skills learned in Toastmasters truly do enrich life.

___________________________________________________________________________
Ann Maxfield, ATMB is president of Tuesdays with Toasmasters in Austin, Minnesota. Reach hear at annmaxfield@hormel.com
___________________________________________________________________________

Yup! There you go.. Thanks to this wonderful experience shared by Ann Maxfield, we are able to grasp the true value of Toastmasters. Fellow SCTMC and Toastmasters across the globe, let us continue progressing and enriching our lives. What are you waiting for? Join in the fun & exciting learning path with the Toastmasters community!!

By the way, hehe.. SCTMC meets on every 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 6.15 p.m. Students of all courses in Stamford College are welcomed. Take action now!
Contact us. Drop by to meet Samuel Fo, our friendly VPE or Muthu Kumar, the muscular VPPR or Allan Ma, the handsome VPM or Maya, the lovely SAA or Gina, the superb Secretary.

Note: Phrases in brackets are my own personal comments or remarks. Otherwise, the texts are originally extracted from the article in Toasmasters magazine, July 2009 issue, with slight amendments to further "intensify" your reading experience. Hope this light reading helps to enlighten you all!! Have an Ebullient day ahead!! XD XD


Cheers!!


LIM SZE YUE

The Time To Change

23 June 2009

Word of the Evening: CHANGE

It's the moment of transition. A new change to the club. New faces. New blood. New Executive Committee. The highlight of the evening was none other than the Installation of SCTMC's EXCO Team of 2009/2010!!

Before I begin, a word of thanks to the 25 students from Xinjiang, China who attended our meeting for the first time. You have taken the very first step towards building professional speaking & leadership skills. The rest of the journey is in your hands now. Do speak to the EXCO team if you are keen to join in the fun with us!

Yap, it's the final meeting for the term 08/09. The day that the new vibrant team takes helm of SCTMC. Here we go...

SAA was Gina. Tan Boon Chuan takes spot as Timer. Amy Li as Ah Counter. Vithiya once again was responsible of the language usage as the Grammarian. General Evaluator was Barry Ong, the incoming Division C Governer from DHL Cyberjaya TMC.

Stand-in President, Grace Chong warmed the audience and wow, it was the longest introduction session we ever had! The evening was remarkable with an attendance of almost 40 people in the room!! Awesome.. Control was then handed over to the Toastmaster of the Evening, Lim Sze Yue.

This time around, no table topics session. Instead, it was the EXCO team on the spotlight. Area C2 Governer, Michael Chan was invited to uninstall SCTMC Executive Committee of 2008/2009. They (or rather we..hehe..) are now officially released from their duties. Barry Ong then proceeded to install the SCTMC Executive Committee of 2009/2010. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Grace Chong as the President!! Samuel Fo - VPE!! Allan Ma - VPM!! Muthu Kumar - VPPR!! Gina - Secretary!! Carmen Khoo - Treasurer!! and Vithiya as the SAA!!!

Humour session was led by Ms Foo Li Hwa with her quirky jokes once more! Haha..Great job there! We then had a break & fellowship session at around 730pm.

Meeting resumed. And suddenly, the lights went off!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MR JOSHUA!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! Yap, another special event..we sang a birthday song for our outgoing President (FYI, his birthday was on the 25th of June). Sam led the team and presented a "mini cake" ;P and Kumar gave the birthday card to the surprised birthday BOY! XD XD

Time for assignment speeches!

Ong Siew Ming was first with her 2nd speech from the C&L Manual entitled, How to Get A Better Sleep? I asked her why this topic and she has this to say. "It's pretty simple. I want to share the steps to sleep for more than 10 hours AND I'm very good at sleeping." :D Well said.

Lucas Ng has finally got the train moving again! After a very loooonnnnnngggggg break from assignment speeches, there he was with his 2nd speech as well from the C&L manual. He shared with the audience on the topic Controlling Emotions and honestly, he was pretty good at it! Superb delivery from another superb speaker!! =)

And.. Fatoumata Dibba is back again! After missing her presence for some time, the champion speaker is back with her 6th speech entitled In The Changing Environment. Being a successful networker herself, she delivered an impactful speech with one thing in her mind. To share and guide the audience to financial freedom. An amazing speaker...

Gajendran was next. Our regular guest who is the VPE of Help TMC enlightened the audience with his speech, When Green is Good. It was clear and evident that the speaker had carried out heaps of research aligned with the objectives of his speech. Main point.. Green tea is a wonderful drink that brings a lot of goodness to our body, mind and soul. Take note, you all out there. Start including green tea in your diet!

Not enough?? Well, we have speaker number FIVE! Dorcas Aung from Ireka TMC is also back!! Wow.. it's just like a reunion night! Haha.. Yap, Dorcas delivered her 5th speech from the Story Telling Advanced Speech manual. Quoting "Rome was not built in a day, neither was a king made in a day", the title of her story was David the Chosen King. Another great delivery with her animated hand gestures and on the spot intonations. A fantastic speaker to watch and a splendid speech to listen to!!

*Two thumbs up to all speakers!!*

General Evaluator, Mr Barry Ong took over the stage for the General Evaluation session. Assignment speech evaluators were Samuel Fo for Ong Siew Ming, Muthu Kumar for Lucas Ng, YC Yap for Fatoumata Dibba, Michael Chan for Gajendran and Joshua George for Dorcas Aung. The roleplayers then delivered their reports followed by the General Evaluation from Mr Barry.

One more thing, I don't know if anyone of you realised, I was doing a speech as well! As the TME, I was fulfilling the objective of Project 5 - Introduce the Speaker from the Specialty Speeches manual. Thank you, Mr YC Yap for your written evaluation of my perfomance. I really appreciate it. Guys, how did I do?? One more speech to go for my ACB!! Haha..

President, Joshua George then gave his FINAL closing remarks as the President. He welcomed the change of leaders in the club and urged the new Executive Committee to bring the club to greater heights and produce more champion speakers in the coming term. I personally see the quality in many of our current members already and I hope to see Sam, Muthu Kumar, Allan Ma, Siew Ming, Maya, Gina, Bushra, Amy, and Boon Chuan among others, to be a regular in Toastmasters contest and shine along right up to the Division level!!

As for airtime, Mr Barry gave a short speech on leadership skills and it really got the audience motivated to raise the bar and do better in their life. Thanks, Mr Barry!!

Note: We had an extraordinary meeting that evening. We usually end at 9pm the latest, right? That night, we were wayy later than that! Haha..well, that's foreseeable with the special events and 6 SPEAKERS lined up, but the most important thing is all of us brought back with us another worthy learning experience, right? =) Make the best out of it!

Next meeting: 14 July 2009. 6.15pm. Venue: Stamford College, Jalan Barat.

Cheers to all!!


Signing off for the final time as VPPR,
LIM SZE YUE

(The pleasure's all yours now, Kumar! Hehe..=)

No Sparks?

9 June 2009

Word of the Evening: SPARKLING (ebullient, effervescent, scintillating, smart, witty, bright, brilliant, gleaming, glowing, radiant, shimmering, shining)

Did you just say no sparks? Absolutely wrong. Read the word of the evening again. Sparkling. A simple word isn't it? (don't know if you noticed, but sparkling is synonymous to ebullient! oops..there we go again!) And what better way to have a sparkling meeting than to have Lucas Ng as the TME! (haha..yes, some of you may know...we had a really good, sparkling time..Lucas can be heard "sparkling away" every time he speaks!!!) XD

The evening's SAA was Ong Siew Ming, calling the meeting to order at 6.45 pm. Bushra takes seat as Timer, Allan Ma handling the Ah Counter, Samuel Fo responsible for Table Topics, Muthu Kumar as Table Topics Evaluator, Vithiya taking Grammarian notes, and Grace Chong as the General Evaluator.

Fast forward.. Table Topics! Sam lived up to expectation and had another interesting twist to the session. Instead of drawing out papers, volunteers were to draw out items from a box! Hmm.. First to rise to the challenge was Wang De Xin who spoke on Online Games. Then it was Stephen Fernando whose lucky hands picked a packet of campbell soup. Of course, he has to talk about Campbell Soup! And it gets better from here... Amy Li then found herself a packet of Colgate plax staring at her.. Haha..yap, she had two minutes to share her story ... "Colgate plax is one item that you ought to have..it freshens your breath...etc etc" XD. The fourth participant, a first-timer Tan Boon Chuan from the Law School picked an item in green. A popular and one of the essential nutritious drink, 3-in-1 Milo!! We found out that the guy here doesn't really like Milo though.. :D Great job, Boon Chuan! Lastly, we had another first-timer, Gan Siaw Ching from the Secretarial Studies braving herself to the front, confidently until ... she saw the item in her hand. Her jaws dropped. Daia washing powder!! Ouch..even for me, this is gonna be tough but she did well, at moments flipping the tiny packet up and down seeking for more to speak on! Smart!!

Looking eager on the other end from my table was Muthu Kumar waiting impatiently for Lucas to finish his "sparkling" introduction of the Table Topics Evaluator. Then he rose and stepped up to the lectern. With a fierce look, he suddenly ... smiled, a big one.. =D and began sharing his opinion on the participants' performance earlier. Well done! A quality evaluation from the incoming VPPR of SCTMC.

Humour time! Open to the floor, Sam was "cheered" his way to the floor with a simple joke. Sze Yue (hehe..that's me..XD) then went out and shared another one. Stephen Fernando decided not to miss out on the fun and hurriedly churned out his famous KFC joke. Haha...heard that for like the tenth time already.. but the point is..ITS STILL FUNNY WHEN HE SAYS IT!! Gosh.. :P

And off we went for a short break...to savour 'the curry that was spilled' Hee... Delicious AND Sparkling!!

We continued to sparkle the night with an assignment speech by LIM SZE YUE with his 4th project from the Specialty Speeches manual. Objective - Read Out Loud. He delivered his speech extracted from a book entitled Drinking Coffee, Telling Stories and Making Money by Sim Quan Seng and Stephanie Sta Maria.

GRACE CHONG then took the stage with a short talk on The Education Program, briefing the audience on the basics of Toastmasters journey. It was timely as we had a few newcomers who I'm sure benefited and understood better on the achievements that they can look forward to. Grace conducted the session in a two-way communication style, throwing questions to the audience and receiving answers. This is when we had so much fun...almost everyone trying their best to "sparkle" in every sentence we used. First, it was Grace, then of course.. (kiasu XDXD) Lucas, then Sze Yue, Allan, Sam, Kumar, Vithiya... DANGER, Laughters everywhere!! Hahahha.. SAMUEL FO was then invited to give a demo Icebreaker speech and did a brilliant 4-minute speech, full of wit, vocal variety and appropriate body gestures. Whenever he stands in front of the audience, he seems to have the sparkle in his eyes. Cool, huh? :D

General Evaluator, Ms GRACE CHONG continued the ebullient mood with the General Evaluation session. ACB Joshua George was called upon to deliver his evaluation on Sze Yue's speech. To sum his evaluation, it wasn't one of the speaker's best performance. :( All roleplayers then delivered their report for the night, followed by the general evaluation of the meeting by Grace Chong. And oh by the way, Lucas' eyes were sparkling when Vithiya delivered her report. She lost count of the number of "sparkling" the energetic TME used. Sooo expected.

President wraps up the meeting, with a quick airtime slot by Sze Yue, as usual, reminding the audience of the meeting's report and the blog. "Those who are still not on my mailing list, please stay back for a moment. I need your sparkling email address" :D

That's it for 9 June 2009 meeting! What a spark it has been!! :D

Next meeting: 23 June 2009. Same time, save venue.

See you there!

Have a Cheerful and Lucky week ahead! Cheers!!


Prepared by,
LIM SZE YUE
VPPR