8th Chapter Meeting

8th Chapter meeting at Paragon Hotel , Johor Bahru, Theme: Deepavali. 22nd October 2009

After I took a long vacation from attending the Toastmaster chapter meetings, I went to the meeting on 22/10/2009. Only 16 people including 3guests attended the meeting. Even though the turn out were quite disappointing, I still felt some positive ambiance.




I saw a different atmosphere in the meeting unlike usual and I was pleased with it. I realized that the Deepavali ambiances were created. This was possible due to the committed Toastmasters whom had put so much efforts in order create this atmosphere. I would like to express my gratitude to our president J. Kannan and SK Shegar for developing the Deepavali feeling in the air by decorating the meeting room. In addition, I would also like to thank all to J. Kannan, SK Shegar, Shankaree, and Praba whom brought the Indian delicacies to be enjoyed by all the fellow Toastmasters.



Moreover, Deepavali mood would not be created if there were decorations and delicacies only. TME Abiramy is also one the factor to boost the Deepavali festive mood during the meeting by her being the Toastmaster of the evening and gave brief explanations about what is Deepavali is all about. Moreover, The Language Evaluator CC Lee had also took all of in a Deepavali mood by choosing the best possible word accordingly which is “CELEBRATE”.



The meeting took place with three Toastmasters presenting their speeches. Toastmaster Rusmariani was the first to give the speech. She did her Project 2 and her topic was “Just Do It”. The second speaker was Toastmaster Saravanan with his topic “Body Is Crying For Water”. Whereas our own Toastmaster President, Toastmaster J. Kannan did the Advanced Project named “Me And My Mr.Ego”. It was indeed hilarious as he started his speech with babies and ended with Mr. Carlsberg along with Mrs. Murukku.



All in all, every speech made an impact or at least made the fellow Toastmasters to learn new speech techniques and improve our speech techniques. As we depart our concentration from the speaker to the other events held in the meetings such as table topics, evaluator’s evaluation etc, I also felt that there is a need to give appraisal to those people involved.



For an instance, I found that the Table Topics that were conducted by Toastmaster

Marc Anthony was indeed in conjunction with the Deepavali ambiance. In addition, I would like to acknowledge his efforts of printing several pictures for the Table Topics even though to some extent, they confused some of the fellow Toastmasters and guests. Some of the confusions that had been experienced by them were “Oil Lamp” was mistakenly seen as “Aladdin lamp”, “Open House” was mistakenly seen as “Night Market”, and a woman wearing “saree” was mistakenly interpreted and got into men traditional costumes. In my opinion, despite all the confusions, everyone had learnt something new about the Indian tradition. For that, on behalf of the club, I thank Marc Anthony for his ideas and efforts.



Moreover, all Indians Toastmasters attempted wearing traditional clothes should be appraised. Nevertheless, another mystification took into place when Toastmaster Andrew Tan wore the traditional Chinese shirt on the day. Haha.. Everyone started to take a hiding glimpse on him and wondering whether it wast Chinese New Year or Deepavali, I guess. Some other Toastmasters including guests came with a Western outlook for the meeting. Another secrete glimpse were on them, I presume. Maybe they thought it’s a New Year or Christmas celebration. Haha…Subsequently, someone just said it out loud, after all we are One Malaysia no matter what we wear for the celebration. I believe the person is the extreme supporter of One Malaysia acronym.



Last but not least, the Toastmasters loved to thank J. Kannan, SK Shegar, Saravanan, Shankaree, Prada and Abiramy for bringing Indian cookies for all to enjoy. As the cookies were so delicious, some of the Toastmasters even kidnapped the cookies with permission from the cookies owners. Haha..



I think some of the Toastmasters want more meetings as SK Shegar, Andrew Tan, John Foo, ET Lee and Lee Chee Shen continued their own table topics while having dinner together outside after the official Toastmaster meeting. To summarize, the meeting were well organized but we must still look for more improvements for the coming Toastmasters meetings.

Photo by E T Lee, DTM
Text by TM Shegar

Come to our next meeting on 22nd October, 2009

Happy Diwali,
May this festival of lights bring you much peace, joy and happiness .

Make a date with us
COME to our next Chapter meeting

8th Chapter Meeting of 2009/2010 -

Thursday, 22nd October 2009

Meeting’s Theme: Deepavali – Festival of Light

Venue : THE GRAND PARAGON HOTEL, JOHOR BAHRU

Meeting starts at 7.pm Fellowship starts at 6.30 pm

Dress code: anything you would wear to a Diwali open house.

All are welcome.

Guest fee Rm 20.00.

Just call our vice president of public relations E T Lee, DTM at 012 7115063 to get invited.

Text By E T Lee, DTM

Video by TM Abiramy Thenammai

7th Chapter Meeting 2009-10-09

7 th Chapter Meeting
8 October 2009
venue: Grand Paragon Hotel, Johor Bahru


This is the first chapter meeting that I attended as a member after a lapse of 5 years. I am glad to see some old faces and many fresh and younger faces.

There was one change to the appointment holder. CTM Lee Chee Shen volunteered to replace TM Eugene Paw as the SAA, since the later was unable to attend the meeting. CTM Lee Chee Shen demonstrated the spirit of service to the club inline with the Word of the Day: Serve. The meeting was call to order by the SAA and two guests who were here for the first time introduce themselves. They were Mr. Hiew and his wife Ms. Wei Ling.

The Opening Address was delivered by club President CC J. Kannan, followed by the Induction Ceremony. TM Cheok Wei Yin was inducted as a new member by ACB Adilin Arifin. Our club extends a warm welcome to her although the room was very cold!

TM Abiramy skillfully conducted the Table Topics session with a variety of simple topics which received enthusiastic participation from the members and guests. The surprise winner for the Table Topics is our guest, Mr. Hiew. Our club had uncovered a hidden talent.

Three Prepared Speeches were delivered by the members. TM Sankaree spoke about her schooldays ,especially her teachers. It reminds me of the song “To Sir With Love” by Lulu.
TM Carmalita Baluyut must have spent considerable time and effort to research on H1N1. She spoke with confident and knowledge on this topic. Our muscleman, TM Prabakaran chose to speak on the love of his life: body building. His body is a living example of his conviction and devotion to his love!

The Prepared Speeches were evaluated by ACB Adilin Arifin, ACB Cindy Wong and CC Tan Eng Suan. They continue the club tradition of giving objective feedback for the benefits of the speakers. This was followed by ATMB John Foo who delivered the Language Evaluation report. He never fails to amaze the member and yours truly with his command of the English language. Last but not least, TM Saravanan delivered the General Evaluation report. He was outstanding with his solid voice and stage present.

The meeting ended with the Award presentation by Mr. President C J. Kannan.




Text by CTM S M Lee
Photo by E T Lee, DTM