District 51 - Top 6 in the World

Congratulations!

Firstly, District 51 achieved the President Distinguished District. Well done…

Secondly, I am proud to mention that District 51 has just emerges 6th Best in the World!

It’s a proud day for all of us indeed. Keep up the good work guys. Perhaps we’ll be the Best 3 this term, if not better.

suhanasidik @ toastmistrez.blogspot.com

TMIKL Humor & Evaluation Contest (Area P4)

I missed competing in a speech contest, but I guess that’s just one of the only apparent disadvantages of being an Area Governor.

I attended the TMIKL contest tonight, feeling quite nervous with my first assignment as the Chief Judge.

I competed in the Humor Contest last year, and came out 2nd in the Area P4 contest. The one thing I learned from competing is that for a Humor Contest, you need to speak from experiences cause that is the very thing that would tickle the audiences with. I was single last year, so it was obvious that my choice of topic was in the selection of man. The two contestants that we have from TMIKL, Mas Rizal and Ismail Omar did just that as well. They spoke from their experience in life and we could easily relate well to some of their stories.

I was seated at the corner of the room observing these two speakers from afar, feeling overwhelmed. Contesting as a speaker, and judging another speaker are two separate tasks that complement each other very well. I learnt instantaneously that to be a good speaker, you need to learn how to observe others and study the criteria that good speakers are judge upon. It’s about gaining enough knowledge on speaking skills, some what like cracking the mystery of how to become a better speaker! In the end, with the judges notes that I held from the studying I did the night before, I learnt a lot more observing the contestants spoke about their topic.

The second part of the session, the Evaluation Contest saw the participation of 5 eager contestants: Mas Rizal, Elizabeth Xavier, Emily Tan, Richard Toh and Ismail Omar. The very warm Elizabeth Xavier, a very experienced toastmaster and longtime member of TMIKL emerges champion. 1st Runner up goes to Mas Rizal and newbie Emily came out 3rd.

We may only have 2 contestants for the Speech Contest, but it was a tough fight nevertheless. Mas Rizal was crowned Champion of the Humor Contest.

To all the contestants, again as I mentioned in my closing speech, at the end of the day, there is no such thing as losers. Everyone is a winner! They won their very own battle of courage in which they came out bold in front of some 30 other audiences and spoke confidently. Indeed toastmaster gave that confidence and knowledge to better themselves.

But you know what, audiences were winners as well! They chose to come to the event and learn from these good speakers. Isn’t that just great?

As Area Governor, I was definitely happy with the fact that TMIKL took the initiative to organize the contest earlier. Both winners, Mas Rizal and Elizabeth now have longer time to prepare themselves for the 13th August Area Contest. So perhaps, we could very much have a very high expectation for these two. All the best guys!

My only regret was that i had my camera with me, but i didnt snap any pictures of the event (but not when the contestants are competing of course). Argh.. my bad. Maybe i'll do a better job next time.

To the rest of you, don’t forget.

13th August Area Contest is coming up real soon ~~~ See you there!

suhanasidik @ toastmistrez.blogspot.com

Division P TLI #1 @ Stamford College

While the world still mourns the sudden death of Michael Jackson (and emmm... you remember Farah Fawcett?), Division P decided to carry on still with the TLI #1 training. The event was held yesterday, Saturday 4th July 09 at the much-appreciated Stamford College as the sponsor for the venue.

Though both the District Governor and the TLI Chair are not able to join us due to work commitment, they still left us messages passed through the LGET. DG Ritchie in his note, mentioned about the dedication for excellence through individualism.

*But let me get this opportunity to congratulate the DG Governor, Ritchie and LGET, Thanni for recently achieving DTM and ACB respectively! It was indeed a great start to a wonderful year ahead for both of you, and US as well!

I was put in charge of Registration with a new-toastmaster, Gerard who seems very excited about his very first exposure to toastmaster. There were about 130 toastmasters who attended, a good number for us to manage throughout the day.

We started off with the Welcoming Speech by our Beloved Division P Governor, Dr Caren Lee who successfully launched our Division P blogspot and facebook, followed by a brief Ice Breaking handled by TLI.

LGET Thannimalai

Next was the Distinguished Club Programs presented by LGET, ACB Thannimalai who flew all the way from Penang and were given a 'not-so-friendly-tour' by the taxi driver before arriving on time to the venue. When he asked the members about the vision of toastmaster, one very active members who happens to be the President of Semarak TMC volunteered to recite the vision which he has memorised. I was simply stunned, cause this indeed describe the level of commitment he has on toastmaster. Well, do you know what the mision of a toastmaster club?

Ok, i cheated. I had to googled this up: "The mission of a Toastmasters Club is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and personal growth".

Then, the excos were asked to break into groups based on their club respective positions. As the Past-VPPR, i was asked to coach the VPPR of the respective clubs and share with them my experiences as the VPPR of DDYPC. I've also managed to slot in some best practices that i've seen in other clubs i've attended and keep reminding the participants that as VPPR, we are the brand of the clubs! But it's true isn't it? VPPR does all the Public Relations work and we are the one heavily tasked to visit other clubs and promote our very own clubs, so however we portrayed ourselves, that is how people would see the club that we represent. Maybe i'll do a more detail write up about this soon.

The 1 hour session seemed just nice for the sharing session with some very good questions from the participants, but who can deter themselves from the sumptous mihun goreng & pisang tea-break that awaits us.

When we started again at about 430 pm, there were 3 electives to choose from. NK Valli is the facilitator for the Motivating Achievement session, DTM Sum Chee for the Competent Leadership session and DTM Dr Arul for the High Performance Leadership session. I decided to join the Motivating Achievement session as 3 of my club members are already attending the CL session, and HPL is something i'm already doing. So perhaps, we could just swap notes later and perhaps, i could just get the personal tutoring from Sum Chee about CL.

When we came back to the auditorium, DTM Francis was waiting to talk about Membership. His excitement and dedication is indeed a great asset to Toastmaster, as throughout the year, Francis is able to sponsor more clubs and attract more toastmaster members than any other Toastmasters i've known. At the end of the session, we had very interesting questions for the District Council Members (whom have pledged 24/7 availability for toastmasters).

Two announcements were made at the end -

• ACB Hadzrin (AG W2) - Come for the Papa Gerald and Siva's workshop. A session not to be missed by all!
• DTM Azmi - Toastmaster Convention coming up pretty soon, and KUALA LUMPUR is the host! It will be our very last semi-annual convention, so why dont we fill up the seats in Genting and use this opportunity to meet up more exciting toastmasters (or the way he puts it, if you are single, hey, why not meet other singles as well :p)?

Thank you Division P for a wonderful session. To those who have missed this session, dont forget to sign up for Div B training next week 11 July in Segi College. Earn the 1/2 points for your clubs (or none if you missed this last training).

Till some other time....

Myself with the Div P Governor

Attendees: Stef (DDYPC), Kuok Sum (TTDI), Hadzrin (Kelab Pidato), Syidi (AMbank), Ivan (DDYPC), Sum Chee (Telekom)

Myself with the lovely Munirah (MCOBA)

DDYPC/IEM/ITC Bintang/MID/TMIKL/TTDI Joint Installation

Happy Faces of the Organising Committee of the Joint Installation Event

Date: 28 Jun 2009

Venue: Restoran Nelayan, Tasik Titiwangsa

It was an excellent installation event last Sunday, in the company of 6 reputable Toastmaster Clubs: DDYPC, IEM, ITC Bintang, MID, TMIKL and TTDI.

The event was graced by the presence of the outgoing Div P Governor, Professor Dato’ Dr Wan Zin as well as the Incoming Div P Governor Dr Caren Lee. DTM Azmi Shahrin, DTM Sum Chee and a few other notable Area Governors are also among the 74 attendees present on the day.

Prof Wan in his Welcoming Remarks proudly acknowledge the fact that Division P was the first Division to gain the Distinguished Division status, and then carried on to become the third to accomplish the President Distinguished Division in District 51. This achievement was much credited to his dedication to serve and the strong team that supported him.

As the Organising Chair and the Area Governor for P4, I took the opportunity to become the Installing Officer for the event. I started off feeling nervous as it was my very first experience installing a club, but hey, what better way than to do 6 at a time!

We wrapped up the installation with a 2 minutes speech given by the President from the 6 respective clubs. TM Stefanie Khaw from DDYPC (Distinguished Club) mentioned in her speech that her sole intention of joining toastmaster club to meet new friends has indeed blossom to more than just fellow Petronas collegue, but well extended to outside the circle. TM Ismail Omar from IEM (President Distinguished Club) may be a junior toastmaster, but his vast experience has well been a major leadership boost for him to take up office as Area Governor and to continue on as the President for the coming term.

TM Victor from ITC Bintang (Select Distinguished Club) then shared his club’s vision with the audience, which is to start strong this year very much alike to the club’s name of Bintang: “Where everyone sparkles”. TM Izaitul Farah from MID was up next sharing the club’s toastmaster experience and how it has helped her and her club members.

TMIKL President-elect, TM Mas Rizal was up next seeking the support from fellow toastmasters to support the club and invited them to celebrate the 31 years TMIKL has been in existence. 9 years President Distinguished Club, TTDI has a big role to play with it’s 10th President, TM Kuok Sum. He was presented with a challenge to not just achieve President Distinguished Club, but with the shortest possible time this year targeted to achieve the goal.

The speeches were great, and food served next was just as marvelous.

TM Chau Fong and TM Xi Wen then took the stage as the games coordinator and invited all the clubs to a Toastmaster Idol contest. With the 3 appointed judges being myself, Prof Wan and Dr Caren as the very version of Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson, the audiences were entertained with the quick table-topic-pantomime from all the 6 clubs. TTDI with its creative pasar-borong act out was crowned the winner. It was a tough fight to determine the winners between DDYPC with their creative interpretation of the brawl between the MIB TMC and Lady in Pink TMC to attract potential members for their club (and the hybrid alien toastmasters) against IEM with the 2-guys-trying to win a girl’s heart-act with the latter eventually announced the First Runner Up.

Later on, 6 of the best dressed participants on the day were challenged to an-act out to be crowned the King & Queen of our Joint Installation event. The eventual winner, TM Azlan Mohaideen from DDYPC wowed the crowd into his very own rendition of Michael Jackson Beat It! His energy was simply irresistible and a crowd pleaser indeed.

In her closing remark, Dr Caren thanked the organizing committee for the wonderful effort hosting the event, and shared with the attendees a challenge posed by the current Division Governor (who also happens to be her Chemical Engineering lecturer) to achieve President Distinguished Division within 8 months!

But hey, the fun was not yet over. The crowds were entertained with another round of makarena specially brought by TMIKL.

Wait…

We have more! Those who still felt the heat of more fun went straight to Raintree Club next, for a karaoke session sponsored by Ismail Omar from IEM. Many talented singers tag along proving that toastmasters don’t just excel in public speaking but in ‘voice variation’ as well.

Overall, a job well done indeed. Thank you all who came, and for those who didn’t hmmm… there’s always next time :D. See you at our P4 Area Contest in August!


All the 6 clubs Presidents taking their oath


Attendees trying out makarena..


The hardworking committees who have made it happen, seen here taking a photo with Div P Governor Dr Caren Lee

TMIKL TMC

TTDI TMC (with me slotted at far most left)

Our crowned King, Azlan with his Michael Jackson's impersonation

Me trying out singing

From left: Kuok Sum, yours truely, Hj Anuar, Dr Caren, Prof Wan

Ismail showing off his singing skill. Lim seemed pleased with his skill.