4th Chapter Meeting

Date : 27th August 2009
Venue : The Grand Paragon Hotel

4th Chapter Meeting

Splendid!!! The spirit of “We Can Do It” still burns in our heart when we gathered at 4th Chapter Meeting, which was held on 27th of Aug’2009. The members had a terrific night with our dear DTM ET Lee hosting the event, despite the fact that few of us were there, to commemorate our 1st meeting in Ramadan month.

There were slight changes in appointment holders, but the members welcomed the change positively and rendered themselves to take up the role at our request. TM Abiramy readily accepted the challenge to be the SAA of the evening and maneuvered the night remarkably.

The meeting begins with inspiring opening speech by DTM ET Lee. His speech was narrated with care and undying passion towards our Club member’s growth. He encouraged the members to soar higher by persisting in experiential learning. Learning in a fun and enjoyable way was the heart of the message that encouraged many. Later, ACS Cindy Wong came up with a word “DETERMINE” as the word of the day. It was indeed timely and thought provoking word that questions our determination towards our life and the loved ones.

TM Wai Jey Shin resolved to host a spectacular table topics session. Indeed 8 participants took part with great determination. The candid questions were based on our past club humorous speech contest. Undeniably, the members had a good laugh and take away from their impromptu speeches.

Adding to the excitement, we had a privileged to listen to two prepared speeches by TM Oh Moo Tan and TM Tan Yu Min. Both the speakers were geared up to deliver their best speech. TM Oh Moo Tan explicitly unfold her burning passion towards arts and painting. She exhibited confident and high enthusiasm throughout her speech, though this was her maiden speech. Besides, she made the members gratified with her special surprise gift. It was a set of bookmarks fitted with her fabulous collection of her drawings. Kudos to TM Oh Moo Tan!

While still beholding the wonderful drawings in the bookmarks, TM Tan Yu Min brought us to Gunung Lambak, Kluang via her adventurous speech. She captured the audience’s attention and made us amazed with her story line. She brilliantly instilled “never give up” and “can do attitude” message through her mountain climbing story. She continues to unfold the hidden message to the audience that life ought to be treated as mountain climbing feat. We need to strive towards our goals and vision despite the challenges and gloomy moment that may pull us down. She ended her speech with an astounding quote from one of the successful mountain climber, it’s not that we want to conquer the mountain, but we want to conquer ourselves. My heartiest congratulations to TM Tan Yu Min!


Later, TM Eugene Paw took the control of lectern with his crystal clear voice and his fellow evaluators. TM Sankaree and TM Andrew Tan delivered their evaluation sincerely and coupled with good suggestions to encourage the speakers, to unleash their best in upcoming speeches.

We ended the night with double celebration because we had two winners for most of the session. Best Table Topic Speaker went to TM Andrew Tan and CC Mark Anthony. Best Evaluator went to TM Sankaree, who did it for the first time. The Best Prepared Speech Speakers award went to TM Oh Moo Tan and TM Tan Yu Min. Lastly, TM Oh Moo Tan awarded with First Timer ribbon and TM Tan Yu Min earned ½ CC ribbon.

Altogether, it was indeed a blessed evening with full of unforgettable memories. I’m looking forward for another notable meeting.

We Can Do It!!!



text by TM Saravanan

Evaluation Seminar

26th August 2009
evaluation workshop

There was an evaluation workshop conducted at Sunway College on the 26th August 2009. The facilitator was ACS Mohd Awee Sidek and the host club was JB North Toastmasters Club. There were two evaluators who evaluated two speakes on that day. Evaluations that were given by those evaluators were analysed and discussed. ACS Mohd Awee Sidek did a good job on that day. He did not only analyse the evaluations which were made but also briefed on how a good evaluation was supposed to be made. On the whole, the event was successful and I am sure that like me, those who attended the workshop would have gained a lot of benefit.




Text by TM Abiramy Venkatachalam

Joint Installation 2009 Appreciation Dinner

Date : 20th August , 2009

ATMB John Foo , Michael chu,CC , DTM E T Lee , TM Sankaree and President Kannan attended the Appreciation Dinner given in honour of the Joint Installaiton 2009 Committee. We had the whole Impian Cafe at our disposal. Oh no...no ..we did not book the whole Cafe. This cafe caters only for special occasions and we happened to be the only client that night.
We watched the video recorded by Tm Razak of YPJ Toastmnasters Club. It was a memorable and nostallgic evening. Many spoke heartily about what they have achieved individually by take part in the organization of the Joint Installation Dinner.

Johor Bahru Toastmasters Club moted the idea of Joint Installation sometime in June 2009, one month before the new term began. Vice president of Education Michael Chu, CC was elected as the Organizing Chairman.

At first we only have in mind a Joint Installation of 2 or 3 clubs, possibly with Johor Jaya and/or JB North Toastmaters . The response was so overhelming that we eventually managed to convince 8 clubs to partticipate.

The Joint Installation prove to be a great success, among other things we

• created opportunities for dozens of Toastmasters to speak to a crowd of 250 even in face of the current economic downturn



• prove that Toastmasters club meetings can start on time and end on time, irrespective of the size of the congregation



• Toastmasters will always perform their best if given a clear mission and complete control of their assignment



• WE CAN DO IT! we are the pioneer club in Johr Bahru, and we are on the way to be the premier club in town again.

Johor Bahru Toastmasters, WE CAN DO IT!

Text and photo by E T Lee, DTM

Humorous Speech Contest 2009

Cub level Humorous and Evaluation Speech Contest

13th August 2009, Paragon Hotel, Johor Bharu.

The Johor Bahru Toastmasters Club Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests, Term 2009/2010 was held on 13th August at the Grand Paragon Hotel. It was a memorable event not only for the contestants but for the 30-odd audience as well. They were many visiting toastmasters from neighbouring clubs in Johor Bahru, Melaka and Kuala Lumpur who attended the contest.
The Organizing Chairperson was CC Mark Anthony and the Co-Organizing Chairperson was TM Saravanan. This term the club was privileged to have 5 contestants for the Humorous Speech Contest and 4 contestants for the Evaluation Contest. They are;
Humorous Speech Contest Speech Title
E T Lee Deer And Tortoise
J. Kannan Perfect Mismatch
Michael Chu If size that matters
Wai Jey Shin How to get rid of cockroaches
Jay Shopping for Hope

Evaluation Contest
Adilin Arifin
J Kannan
Jay
E T Lee

At 7.15pm the Humorous Speech contest started with the Contest Chair CC Mark Anthony welcoming everyone and explaining the rules. Contestant No 1, E T Lee, started the ball rolling with his speech followed by the next contestant right up to Contestant No 5, Jay. The contestants definitely knew how to entertain the audience with their facial expressions, body language and words. Some of the speech titles were cleverly chosen with a twist while some were meant to instill fear on the audience. Great job contestants!
After the break, the Evaluation Contest started with Contest Chair, TM Saravanan giving the introduction and briefing on contest rules.
The Test Speaker was TM Abiramy who delivered a 7 minutes speech on her holiday trip to London with her family. It was definitely an interesting and entertaining speech. Don’t we all wish to go to London after hearing her speech??
After 5 minutes, the Contestants took their turns to present their evaluation on the speech. The points raised were encouraging and helpful for the speaker.
While the results were being finalized, TM Andrew Tan took over the control of the lectern and conducted the interview session.
All contestants were asked questions in relation to the speech they just presented. The contestants were forced to reveal their personal opinion in some of the questions.
Finally the results;
Humorous Speech Contest
Champion: Wai Jey Shin
1strunner up: J. Kannan
2ndrunner up: Jay

Evaluation Contest
Champion: J. Kannan
1strunner up: Jay

Congratulations to all winners and also a word of thanks to the appointment holders below for making the contests a successful one.

Chief Judge: CC Tan Eng Suan (together with his team of judges)
SAA: TM Carmelita
Timer: TM Prabakaran
TM Sankaree
Ballot counter: TM Eugene Paw
TM Tan Yu Min

A word of encouragement to the younger Toastmasters in the club, Wai Jey Shin’s win has proven that every member has an equal chance of winning. It is whether we have the courage to take up the challenge.
Looking forward for more contestants in the next Club contests.

Photo & Text by Mark Anthony

Judges Training

Judges Training

Sunday 25th July, 2009 Cheshire Home , Johor Bahru

Johor Bahru Toastmasters Club had 8 participants at the Training Workshop, including the Division Governor, ACS, Cindy Wong, of course!

The workshop was conducted by the veteran in Toastmasters, ACS Mohd Awee. I benefitted from his generous sharing on the subject.

Our Club members, Praba delivered his “Attitude, Attitude, and Attitude!”…Andrew Tan, spoke on very comfortably with his Visual (the Golf gears); good messages were delivered: have good attitude and lifelong learning whether on golf or Toastmasters!

Kudos to Jey Shin who did his first Evaluation report with smooth delivery and confidence; I welcome him to our Club evaluation team ya!!!

Text and Photo by Michael Chu, CC

2nd Chapter Meeting

2nd Chapter meeting click to view album

It was a spectacular 2nd Chapter Meeting. The theme for the night was 'Speakathon Night'. As the theme implies, the event was focused on prepared speeches whereby for the first time, we had a total of 5 speakers! In order for this to happen, the table topics session was temporarily plucked out to make room for all the prepared speakers.

The meeting kicked off with an induction ceremony conducted by ACB Adilin Ariffin. We were extremely overjoyed to welcome our newest member, TM Oo Moo Tan. Everyone was initiated to stand up to recite the Toastmaster's promise right after the recital of the pledge by the new member. Following that was a very inspiring speech delivered by our very own club president 2009/10, CC J. Kannan.

Toastmaster of the Evening, Eugene Paw did a splendid job of grabbing the audience’s attention with his great sense of humour. The flow of the meeting went perfectly well with the help of dedicated appointment holders.

As mentioned before, there were 5 prepared speakers whom of which are TM Rus Maryani, TM Derek Goh, TM Prabakaran, TM Carmelita and ACB Jay. Although there were no table topics, it was worth it because the prepared speakers spoke magnificently well and managed to amuse the audience with their interesting speeches.

The word of the day was 'Splendid' and it was used for a staggering 12 times throughout the event and was considered a major achievement as mentioned by ET Lee during his General Evaluation of the meeting.

It was a special chapter meeting this time around because we had not one, but two best prepared speakers: TM Rus Maryani and ACB Jay. The best evaluator went to TM Andrew Tan for a thorough and meaningful evaluation. Congratulations to all of them.

Overall, I really enjoyed our chapter meeting and am anticipating for the next session.

Text by Nadirah Ghazali

Photo by E T Lee

Joint Installation 2009

An amazing evening it was, the Joint Installation 2009 of 8 clubs held in Austin Hills, Johor Bahru on the 11 July 2009. CC Evelyn Nabila and CC Nash Bhullar the lively and good looking hosts of the evening graciously welcomed the crowd of toastmasters and guests and got the ball rolling. The theme of the evening was ‘Unleashing the Speaker in You’
.
Then it was time for the highlight of the evening! FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD! While enjoying the wide range of food, we were entertained by three cultural performances. The first performance, swift, smooth and fluid motions of Taichi. Then the delicate and beautiful Malay dance, Zapin, and ended with a fierce explosion of colours and energy with the Indian dance Barathanatyam.

Michael Chu, CC the Organising Chairman of the Joint Installation delivered his short yet solid opening speech which was followed by ATMB John Foo’s earnest toast presentation.

Then came the purpose of the whole evening, the installation ceremony. First the Sergeant at Arms of all eight clubs were installed, they came up on stage in a row, perfectly coordinated, gavel in hand, after passing on the gavel left the stage, next came the Treasurers for the term, already waiting in a neat line behind the SAA’s, as they stepped forward, the row of Secretaries took their place, this was followed by the Vice president of public Relations, Vice President of Membership, Vice President of Education and last but not least, the Presidents for the term 2009-2010. The Presidents of each club, gavel in hand took their oaths full of spirit and sincerity.

As expected Champion Speaker K Loghadran, DTM , world award winner in Public Speaking was the guest speaker for the evening. He took the stage by storm. In the literal sense, he was welcomed with a thunderous applause. His speech was not only motivational and inspirational but full of humour, he thought us a new Malay proverb “kalau cuba, cacing pun boleh jadi naga” ( meaning a worm can become a dragon, if one tries hard enough). Sharing with us his experiences and the power of believing in ones self, injecting humour in saying that “to be standing where he is, he had made more mistakes than any of us”. I have to tell u, hearing that made me feel a whole lot better, lifting a whole load of me. (………mind wondering to all the embarrassing moments in my life)

Mariana Pascal, CC , District table topics champion 2008, who carried out the table topics session for the evening had us hooked with her hilarious sketch and acting skills, she charmed us all. A member from each club took part in the table topics session, walking towards the stage bravely, full of poise and confidence, not giving a hint of edginess, and into the lions den! Our very own ATMB John Foo, like every other time, made our club proud. He WON the best table topics award, talking about his lucky charm, his wife. (awwwwww…. isn’t that sweet !)


After the presenting the guest speaker with a token of appreciation and acknowledging all the appointment holders for the evening, weeks of planning and preparation was over before we could fully digest its awesomeness.

Text by Sankaree Venugopal
Photo and Video by E T Lee ( edited from original video from TM Abdul Rajak)