**  6 JAN 2004 **
SPEECOM TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

The first meeting for the year 2004 kicked off sharply at 7.30 pm, in spite of the rain-delayed arrival of club president, Michael Oon. A number of guests were present: Shereen Teng (Area W4 Governor), Evan, Lee Yee Seng, and three supporters of Ong Kim Cheong (Lim, Lau and Tey).

Speecom's VPE, Kon Yuen Chai requested for a toast to Toastmasters International, followed later by a self-introduction of all attendees. 

Michael conducted a short induction ceremony to welcome Speecom TMC's two newest members: Ong and Kareen Goh.

Michael then came to the lectern in his capacity as the Toastmaster of the evening.

The table topics session was conducted by Fan Chen Keat. He requested for participation from 8 attendees, which included two guests, Evan and Lim. The guests were each given a pak pow (white packet), which did not contain any $$$, but a panel of cartoon strip.

Some examples:
a) the Devil being handed a speeding ticket by a policeman
b) a bald person comparing his plight with a leave-less tree
c) Eve complaining to Adam that she did not have a suitable clothing to wear, even though God's dropping by for a visit to the Garden of Eden

The game master, Sunny Tung, arranged for a charade session. Participants are challenged to guess various words within a 10-second time duration. Some guests raised to the challenge and answered with gusto, and proved to be superior even to the veteran Toastmasters.

There were 2 prepared speeches.

For her-icebreaker speech, Kareen gave us some insight into her background, and experiences while working and studying. While some felt that a woman's life begins at 30, and a man's life begins at 40, Kareen was of the opinion that her life begins every one and then, as there are various twists and turns, in the tapestry of life.

Ong's speech 'save the sharks' provided a grim view of the sharks' lives. Due to our obsession with tasting shark fin soup, sharks have been hunted on a rampant basis, and the shark population is now on the verge of extinction.

Shereen provided the general evaluation, while Richard Ng assisted with the time keeping.

Best table topics speaker: Ronnie Leong

Word of the day: Spectacular
 

 .......................................................................................................

**  17 DEC 2003 **
SPEECOM & ITC BINTANT TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

Speecom TMC - ITC Bintang TMC joint meeting (theme: Colourful Evening) took place at the Sky Room, Federal Hotel. About 50 pax turned up for the meeting.

Kon Yuen Chai welcomed everyone to the meeting, and called the meeting to order.

The President of ITC Bintang TMC provided the opening address. Next, Lily Chee, the Toastmaster of the evening took to the stage. Lily was all dressed up for the occasion, in a colourful court jester suit.

The games session was conducted by Michael Oon, Speecom TMC's President. 24 persons had a fabulous time, participating in the session. 

The table topics session was led by Jeffrey Quah, who requested participants to speak about various colourful materials, like clothes peg, memo pad, colour pencil. Poor latecomer Joel Hew was called upon to speak, when he has barely has time to warm the seat.

Fan Chen Keat gave a short speech to commemorate Speecom's twenty-second birthday (born in December 1981). He also acknowledged the assistance provided to Speecom TMC by the various Division officers (eg Geoff Andrew - Division W governor and Shereen Teng - Area W4 governor), as well as 3 Toastmasters Clubs (ITC Bintang, Speakwell, TMI KL). A few bottles of sparkling juice and a birthday cake complemented the section. 

After a short break, the colourful evening continued with Fong Mun Toh requesting the top 5 resolutions to be read out.

Then, it was a colourful dance contest led by Michael, who is a full-time dance teacher.

After that, it was Show Time with Mun Toh, who provided a rendition of a number of songs, including a composition by Rice- Lloyd Webber.

Anthony Lim (aka Santa Claus) then co-ordinated the gift exchange programme.

The general evaluation was conducted by Ramdas Nayar who was ably assisted by Ivan Cheng (table topics evaluator), Pamela Gan (Grammarian), Kareen Goh (Ah Counter), Kon Chee Min (time keeper).

The awards presentation were done by Lakmichand, Shereen Teng, Ramdas Nayar and Geoff Andrew.

The closing address was delivered by Michael Oon.

Best table topics speaker: Christy
Best dancer (male): Chong Sun Fu
Best dancer (female): Jacklyn
Best colourful award (male): Dr Arthur G Robinson
Best colourful award (female): Cheah Yeung Hua
Best new year resolution: Chong Poh Ling

Word of the day: Humongous

**  2 DEC 2003 **
SPEECOM TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

5 guests were present at the club meeting: Lily Chee(of ITC Bintang TMC), Wong Mei Ling,  Flora, Tan Weng Hwa (ex-member) and his son.

The toastmaster of the evening role was handled by Richard Ng. For the game master session  Michael Oon challenged members of the audience to write down in the shortest possible time  ten 2-letter words, ten 3-letter words and ten 4-letter words. The three winners were Ronnie Leong, Fan Chen Keat and Ong Kim Cheong.

The theme of the table topics master (Ong Kim Cheong)'s session is business. The questions  included the relationships of ethics in business, the risk-rewards equation in business, the  importance of profit in business. He managed to garner response from 8 of the attendees  including the three guests: Mei Ling, Flora and Tan.

Lily Chee provided feedback on the strengths of the table topics speakers, and advised on ways to improve further.

After a 15-minute break, the meeting recommenced with the prepared speech session.

Kon Chee Min's speech 'Just One' stressed on the importance of each member to recruit an additional member for the 2003/04 term. Kon drew upon his past experience as a Vice-President Education of the club in the mid-nineties. He also stated that the club members are ready for the President to lead them to thrust the club to greater heights, which resonated
with the quotation 'the speed of the leader determines the pace of the pack.'

Micheal Oon's speech 'sexercise' touched about the importance of SEX - which is an acronym for Eat well, Sleep well, Xcercise well. He highlighted the many benefits of exercising regularly: for example, better posture, optimum weight size, less prone to illness (and yes, a more invigorating sex life, too!).

Best table topics speaker: Kon Chee Min

Word of the day: Impact 

**  18 NOV 2003 **
SPEECOM TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

The heavy rain on the evening of 18 Nov did not deter the club members of Speecom TMC and Speakwell to go ahead with the joint meeting.

A number of guests were also present: Bernard Chin (the co-Master of Ceremonies during Speecom TMC's installation dinner in 1997), Eva (Bernard's other half), Josephine, Danny Khor (TM Kon Chee Min's nephew), and 2 guests of TM Ong Kim Cheong (Fong Kim Shui and Chan Kok Wee) who were there to lend a moral support for his Ice-breaker speech.

Michael Oon (Speecom TMC's President) provided the opening address. Then, it was the turn of the Toastmaster of the evening, Fan Chen Keat.

The Game Master, Ronnie Leong requested participants to form 3 teams of 5 persons each. The teams are then given the task of stepping simultaneously on various stationery papers, from A3-size paper to the smaller A4-size paper, and then to the even smaller A5-size paper. Only 2 teams managed to step on the A5-size paper - albeit for less than 2 seconds. There was a demonstration of girl power as the winning team comprised of 4 females and Richard Ng (One Lucky Guy!).

For the invocation session, Richard shared with us, from the example of Christopher Reeves. Despite being paralysed in a horse-riding accident, the actor of Superman displayed courage, and steely determination to continue living in a positive manner. Reeves has also written an autobiography - 'Still Me'.

For the table topics session, Jennie Choh came with questions based upon the theme 'Friends helping friends succeed.' All seven speakers gave a good account, inclusive of the two guests (Josephine and Danny).

The table topics evaluation was conducted by Philip Chong, instead of the planned roleplayer, Sam Wei Yeow.

Just before the half time break, Sam walked into the meeting room, and explained that besides being caught in the rain-induced jam, his car was also had a tyre puncture. (Thanks, Sam for turning up. Better late than never).

For the prepared speech session, Ong Kim Cheong gave a speech 'Why am I here?', we had 2 speeches. 

Ong, who is a General Manager in the fertility trade (he explained further that his business is not related to human fertility or test tube babies, rather it is more of dealing with chemicals and fertilizers), managed to keep us entertained with his laid-back manner of speech delivery. Having completed a Master of Business Administration course, he felt that the Toastmasters movement would help him to hone his skills so that he can articulate his ideas better.

For his advanced speech on humorously speaking, Michael gave a speech about 'On the spot - off the cuff'. He started with a humorous story, and continued later to stress on the importance of impromptu speaking.

The general evaluator was Jean Gicquel, President of Speakwell TMC. He was ably assisted by the 2 speech evaluators (Sam and Kon Chee Min), the language evaluator (Kon Yuen Chai - no relation to the other Kon Man) and the time keeper (Kareen Goh).

Best table topics speaker: Ronnie Leong 

Word of the day: Shanghai (verb)

**  4 NOV 2003 **
SPEECOM TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

Ronnie Leong took up the role as the Toastmaster of the Evening. For the games session, Fan Chen Keat came with a question-for-question session (similar to the recent contests held over the radio airwaves). For details of the Game Session (please refer below). From the 8 contestants, all were knocked out within 7 minutes, leaving behind 2 survivors, Ronnie and Kareen Goh - who were rewarded with a motivational poster each for their ingenuity - the posters were aptly theme 'Difficult' and 'Discover'.

Richard Ng's table topics session focused upon the theme 'Playgrounds of the mind' - which encouraged us to look at things in a creative manner, from different vantage points. Liane Lim (President of TMI KL TMC) spoke with vigor and passion about red flowers. Ong Kim Cheong shared about his two hobbies: of eating crabs while watching cartoons. Ivan Ho spoke about the commoditization of crimes and gun-for-hire.

There were 2 prepared speakers:

(a) An old man, a young man and life's lesson - that would accurately describe Chee Peng Kee's speech about a conversation between a grandpa and his grandson. It reminds one of Mitch Ambon's bestselling book 'Tuesdays with Morrie'.

(b) Kon Yuen Chai's speech stressed upon the importance of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) as a strategic weapon for corporations to gain an edge over their competitors. Best of all, he volunteered to assist us after the meeting (Free-Of-Charge) to set up a real-life study on CRM. For details, please call him, 012-3520681.

The general evaluator, the newly crowned Competent Toastmaster, Cheah Yeung Hua (VPE of TMI KL TMC) provided some useful advice on how to improvise further: the proper way to place the lectern so as not to impede the speaker, the importance of maintaining applause during club meetings (noise does matter, and silence is not golden).

Best table topics speaker: Liane Lim 

Word of the day: Amiable

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Details: Game Master Session: 4 Nov 2003
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Purpose:
(1) to sharpen one's responses / alertness to unexpected circumstances 
(2) to improve one's communication skills 
How the game works:

(1) A few individuals would be selected.

(2) The game master would start with a question. The first individual would respond with another question, within 5 seconds. Then, the next individual would also
respond with another question, within 5 seconds. This would continue until:

(2a) An individual could not respond within 5 seconds,
or
(2b) An individual's response would be disqualified by the Game Master due to no-linkage with the earlier question(s), or if the response is given in an incoherent manner (too soft or too fast, to be heard by the next person)

(2c) An individual does not follow the 3 different words rules. The 3 successive responses must start with different words. For example:
Question 1 (by the Game Master): What is your name?
Question 2 (by the first participant): Why do you want to know?
Question 3 (by the second participant): Can I let you know the reasons later?
Question 4 (by the third participant): Have we met before?
Question 5 (by the fourth participant): How about discussing this further at the cafe? 

Note: 
- The first participant cannot start with the word: What
- The second participant cannot start with the word: What, why
- The third participant cannot start with the word: What, why, can
- The fourth participant cannot start with the word: Why, can, have
- The fourth participant may start with the word: What
Additional note:
(2d) There should be no identical responses at any point, throughout the whole game session. Therefore, anyone found using any of the Questions 1 to 5 would be disqualified.
The Game Master would use his discretion, in those 50-50 cases.

Golden rule:
All decisions by the Game Master (or his assistant) are final. No further correspondences would be entertained.

**  21 OCT 2003 **
JOINT SPEECOM AND ITC BINTANG 
TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

Speecom TMC held a joint meeting with ITC Bintang TMC at Hotel Furama., A number of guests were present for the occasions: Haslina, Maggie and Kareen.

The Toastmaster of the evening role was undertaken with panache and style by Kon Yuen Chai.

Club president, Michael Oon took up the role as the Game Master, and invited everyone to participate. It was an exciting event. The savvy and quick-witted Cherie Teng (ITC's Acting President) ended up as the champion. She must have been an aficionado of the Survivor series!

Chong Poh.Ling, the table topics master, managed to garner enthusiastic participation from the members of the audience. Among the Magnificent Seven that took up the challenge of speaking were 2 guests (Maggie and Kareen), and Speecom TMC's newest member, Ong Kim Cheong.

For the prepared speech session, there were 3 prepared speeches. 

(1) Philip Chong (Speakwell TMC's newly crowned Competent Toastmaster - CTM), started on his second round of the Communication & Leadership manual, by doing his
Ice-breaker. Philip shared with his audience, a frightening experience, of being asked to speak in front of his Standard Five classmates. He equated the experience with that of a prisoner walking on the Death Row, about to be hung. He also mentioned that his fear of public speaking resulted in him choosing safe, conventional courses for his future studies, and shunning marketing and public relations courses. Ironically, Philip is now the current Vice-President Public Relations of Speakwell TMC.

(2) Kana's speech came with a useful parable. His story: In a kingdom of the bare-footed people, one day, a king walked bare-footed on the street and came across some stones which hurt him. King decreed that the whole street should be covered up with leather, so
that so one would be hurt. A wise man advised the king to make a pair of leather shoes for walking, instead: which is a more practical solution. The message of the story: instead of keep trying to change everyone else and the world - and ended up being disappointed again and again - it is better for us to have a new paradigm: change our way of thinking instead. 

(3) "Your daughter is dumb". This was a common remark given to Lily Chee's father as she (Lily) could only speak a few words, at the age of four. Lily shared with us, her experiences, her hardship at school and the limited medical help available. As she dared to
dream, and believed that the future is not equal to the past, she has managed to transcend her problems, and is currently a trainer with a public-listed company. The assignment is also her final speech from the Communication & Leadership program. Congratulations, Lily, for achieving the CTM award. 

The speech evaluators were Ivan Cheng, Sam Wei Yeow and Fan Chen Keat, while Chee Peng Kee took up the role as timekeeper.

Cherie as the General evaluator, provided good and timely feedback: eg. proper way to place the lectern, how to address Toastmasters by using the right salutation. 

Best table topics speaker: Sam Wei Yeow
Best evaluator: Ivan Cheng
Best speaker: Lily Chee

Word of the day: Amiable

**  7 OCT 2003 **
SPEECOM TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

The club's first meeting at its new venue in Hotel Furama, saw the presence of a number of members, ex-members (Wong Wei Fong and Adrick Wong), guests (Ong Kim Cheong, Chong Poh Ling, Lay Pheng, Maggie) and some members from other Toastmasters clubs 
(Shereen Teng - Area W4 governor, Cheah Yeung Hua, Lily Chee and Chong Poh Ling).

Club president, Michael Oon took to the rostrum and played the role of the Toastmaster of the Evening for the first time. The game master (a newly created role) was handled with aplomb by the vivacious Lily Chee. 

For the invocation session, Fan Chen Keat shared with us, a story from the recent Hong Kong movie 'Turn left, turn right', and encouraged us to follow the advice of the poet, Robert Frost, to 'take the road less traveled'.

Sunny Tung as the table topics master chose festivals as his theme, which is more appropriate in view of the incoming festive season. Even first-time guests took up the challenge to speak. The table topics evaluation session was conducted by Chee Peng Kee.
 

For the prepared speech session, there were 3 prepared speeches. 

(1) Kon Yuen Chai shared with us, a speech about ghosts (his source: Internet, and not from any personal experience ala The Sixth Sense). 

(2) Lily Chee's speech stressed about the importance of happiness, over material wealth or success. 

(3) Shereen Teng's speech has us laughing, as she highlighted the differences between the women and their Martial halves (the men, that is), in term of their approaches towards shopping, talking and physical appearances. 

The speech evaluators were Sunny Tung, Kon Chee Min and Fan Chen Keat, while the evaluation session were led by the General Evaluator, Cheah Yeung Hua. The language evaluator was Chong Poh Ling.

Best table topics speaker: Kon Chee Min
Best evaluator: Kon Chee Min (double winner!)
Best speaker: Shereen Teng

Word of the day: Paradigm

**  23 SEPT 2003 **
JOINT SPEECOM AND SPEAKWELL TOASTMASTERS CLUB MEETING

The meeting started at 7.10pm, with Ahmad Ramli as the Toastmaster of the evening. For the invocation session, Cheok Phaik Lian spoke on the importance of having a holistic life, encompassing the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects. Michael Oon, in the newly created role of Game Master, invited members to participate in an interactive game session.

Each participant would come out with a word (which forms part of a continuous sentence), and the purpose is to ensure that the word does not end the sentence. 

There were 3 prepared speakers:

(1) Mindy Ooi's ice breaker speech gave us an insight about herself: her old town at Batang Kali, her family of eight (herself, five siblings and parents), and her educational background.

(2) Lily Chee's speech # 9 (the penultimate CTM speech) touched about the paramount importance of happiness. To illustrate, she started with a story about 3 guests: WEALTH, SUCCESS, HAPPINESS. The moral of the story: when there is happiness, wealth and success would follow.

(3) Sam Wei Yeow's advanced speech touched about the importance of moving from 2-D design to 3-D design. After the speech, Sam held a brief question-and-answer session to respond to queries from the floor.

After the break, it was time for the table topics session. The Table Topics Master, Fan Chen Keat, made use of the existing PC to come out with a few slides in Power Point format. Each slide consists of 3 objects, and the table topics participants are requested to speak on the 3 objects, for a duration not exceeding 2.5 minutes. Alex Voon, Sunny Tung and a guest (Mr Leong) gamely took up the challenge - after some 'persuasion' by the table topics master.

For the speech evaluation, the evaluators were Philip Chong, Sunny Tung and Alex Voon. The other roleplayers were table topics evaluator (Kon Yuen Chai), grammarian (Chee Peng Kee), ah counter (Jennie Choh), timekeeper (Jennie Ee).

The meeting ended after the awards presentation by Jean Gicquel.

Best table topics speaker: Alex Voon
Best evaluator: Alex Voon
Best speaker: Sam Wei Yeow

Word of the day: Explore