Johor Bahru Toastmasters

20'th JBTMC Chapter Meeting

2010-04-25T01:59:00.000-07:00

TM Rasinah is the Toastmaster of the Evening

Induction Ceremony being carried out by CC Praba the VPM

The enthusaistic guest Monica Lee participating the debate session

TM Tan Yu Min delivering her speech P8, Getting comfortable with Visual Aids

DTM Teo KS doing his general evaluation session. Thanks for all the positive comments.

CTM Lee Shen Meng The Speech Evaluator in action.

CC Andrew Tan the Grammarian in action - he mad all the members

perplexed with his speech eloquance.

CC Tan Eng Suan, one of the recipient for best Table Topics Speaker

ACS Cindy Wong, the second recipient of the best Table Topics Speeker.

20th Chapter Meeting

2010-04-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

22nd April, 2010

We had a very wonderful meeting...so much fun (although it took a
while to warm up the tense atmosphesre!)

We had TM Rasinah as Toastmaster of the Evening, she is no ordinary
'emcee' but a TME in the Toastmasters meeting! As the GE, Kim-See Teo,
DTM put it, you have to attend a Toastmasters meeting in order to know
what a TME is!

The Table Topicsmaster, Cindy, ACS, made sure everyone speak in the
Table Topics session, yes, you will be very 'perplexed' how she did
with 25 fellow members!

Sole Project Speaker, TM Tan Yu Min, I like your presentation! All of
us love "Happy Food", we love the banana, the salmon fish, someone
took your HL milk away? It was a awesome speech where you also apllied
what you learned in Project 7 on research your topic.

TM Sankaree, I hope you are reading this message, I have reserve the
speaking slot for you in 21st chapter meeting (May 13)! I really want
to see you be the youngest Competent Communicator (CC) in our club ya!

The Theme for next meeting is: "Mother's day - tribute to mother!"

Text by:
Michael Chu, CC, CL
Vice President Education 2009 - 2010

18th Chapter meeting- speech contest

2010-03-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

Speech Contest 2010

Contest results

International Speech contest

Champion: J Kannan

1st Runner up: Prabakaran

Table Topics contest

Champion: Wai Jey Shin

1st runner up: J Kannan

2nd runner up: Sankaree

Heartiest Congratulation!

17th Chapter meeting

2010-03-11T08:39:00.001-08:00

11th March, 2010

I am a new member to this club. When I was first approached by CC Michael Chu to take up the appointment as the TME (Toastmaster of the Evening) of this meeting, I was naturally apprehensive.

I totally had no idea on what to do.

Amidst all the encouragements from senior members and the infighting with all the negative thoughts within me,I told myself 'I can do it'.

I am now glad that I made the decision and took the challenge. I completed my duty with relief and excitement. Relief because I have completed another project under the CL manual. Excited because of the knowledge and experience gained.

As the TME:

1. I discovered from the theme " Ladies Night" -how powerful and influential women are.

2. I am motivated by the support I received from members during and after the meeting.

3. Not forgetting the feedbacks. The feedbacks gave me a better understanding of how Toastmaster meeting works and how to improve myself in future meetings.

Text by :Tm Kek Kim Lan

Photo by E T Lee, DTM

Chinese New Year open house@ John Foo's

2010-03-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

6th March 2010
ATM John Foo invited club members to his house for a bryani party. Many members attended, inluding memebers who have not been attending recent club chapter meetings. Take a look at these photos and you will know which member is more enthusiatic about food than attending meeting.

16th Chapter Meeting @ JICCI

2010-02-27T20:46:00.000-08:00

Johor Bahru Toastmasters Club Meeting 11 Feb 2010

2010-02-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

All photos By Tm Andrew Tan

Happy Chinese New Year

2010-02-13T06:02:00.000-08:00

A Happy and Properous Chinese New Year

to our members and Guests !

Ask not what the club can do for you

in the Year of The Tiger.

Support the Club

and the Club will do wonders to your life!

15th Chapter Meeting

2010-02-12T01:01:00.001-08:00

Feb 11, 2010
It was a good meeting with 20 members and 1 guest: SAA Carmelita started giving away 'hong pau' to all the singles members and wish everyone a Happy Cinense Lunar New Year. TME Abiramy was good to hold audience participation for solid 120 minutes. For table topicmaster, Jocelyn Cheok Wei Yin preapred topics on both Chinese New Year and Valentine, guest what, Valentine questions are more popular than the Chinese New Year topics. Well done to Jocelyn being the first time T.T.master.

I did my AP1 at the eleven hour, I must thank the DivA, Cindy Wong, ACS for the sincere evaluation. Of course the better speaker went to our President Kannan on his 'The Sales Training' (AP9)..wow, he will be the next ACB by having to complete just one more advance project (hey, can I envy you?) By the way our club does not have many ACB as most of the members were 'graduated' after the CC...

'GONGXI FA CAI" Happy Lunar New Year Selamat Tahun Baru Cina!

Text by Michael Chu, CC

2nd Chapter Meeting 2010

2010-02-08T05:19:00.000-08:00

THE TOASTMASTER MEETING
JANUARY 28, 2010
THE THAIPUSAM FESTIVAL

THE ICE BREAKERS
The three new members Tm Murugappan, Tm Chan Chin Phai and Tm Kek Kim Lan spoke from their hearts and won the hearts of the audiance. Well done! And welcome to the club.

THE MEETING

The night of "the thaipusam festival" challenged my ability on how much I know and understand about the hindu festival. For 18 years staying in Malaysia I believe that Thaipusam is just ( where we see hindu devotees piercing the part of their body ) a part of their rituals. As the toastmaster of the evening I am obliged to find out more about the festival. Since I joined toastmasters I have fostered the habit of finding a solution only then

I learn and grow with the help of the new technology and lots of information around. Now, I can say that I know more about the thaipusam festival.

THE FOOD

During the tea break I noticed that we have enough food for everyone until the VPE announced that he had none. I guess, the members and guests were contented that we have nice food and happy with the mee siam which was not too spicy and the kuih kurang manis.

Photo by E T Lee,DTM
Text by:
TM CARMELITA

1st chapter Meeting of 2010

2010-01-19T20:09:00.001-08:00

Due to a series of natural phenomina ( you read newspapers and you know the world has a lot of earthquakes , tsuname , snow storms and what have you these days, Toastmasters have their fair share as well ), we have lost contact with the Reporter for this meeting. We think there is no chance of recovering him until after the Chinese New Year avalanche. Meantime aspiring reporters with good memory of this meeting is required. Historical accounts are not well received. We need meeting highlights. Interested member please contact E T Lee at jbetlee@gmail.com or simply write on the comment section of this entry.

Christmas Meeting

2009-12-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

"I am dreaming ..of a white Christmas..just like the one that I used to know...

We had a unforgettable Christmas meeting at Carmelita's house; to start the meeting, Carmelita as host welcome everyone to the 12th Chapter meeting in her house. Saravanan first time did the Invocation, a teacher of the 'Secret' book...(must read book for the new year). Mark took the role as Toastmaster of the Evening and he introduced Jey Shin as Table Topicmaster for the evening. We had only allotted 30 minutes for table topics session, members and guests were readily to 'speak on their feet' in the garden of Carmelita's house...

After the table topics session, President Kannan gave a very positive 'evaluation' on 'table topics' session; At the same time, he mentioned a few 'tips' on answering the table topic. Members, get ready for the Table Topic Contest that is coming up in March/April next year.

Later, members and guests enjoyed the session on exchange of gifts and food specially prepared by the host, Carmelita Baluyut.

It was the 'first' time that we had a Toastmasters Meeting in the 'open air'.

President thanked the members and guests especially the host, Carmelita and Mr. Pang for inviting us for this 'annual' Christmas meeting in Taman Perling.

Hohoho......Merry Christmas and happy holiday.

11th Chapter Meeting: Guests Night

2009-12-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

10th Chapter meeting

2009-11-26T17:43:00.000-08:00

10th Chapter Meeting cum Area A2 Governor's visit
26th November 2009

Photo by E T Lee, DTM

We welcome the Area A2 Governor, P. Andy, CC for the official visit our Club Meeting. We really appreciate his dedication to serve as the District Officer. Kudos Area Governor!

The SAA, Mark Anthony, CC called the meeting to start on time and he invited the President J. Kannan to deliver his opening address.

In President's opening address, he talked about "Success is a manifestation of thought and thoughts can become things. Therefore, everything that happened to me, I am responsible!" Wow, that was very philosophical and anyone who can spoke like that is definitely on his way to become a great motivational speaker!

The Toastmaster of the Evening, that is your truly, in accordance to the theme of the evening, "Laughter is the Best medicine"; he started the meeting by leading Toastmasters how to enjoy laughter by doing a few simple excercises.

Anyone can laugh without jokes, humor or comedy!

The Table Topicsmaster, Shegar, CC with his high energy personality conducted the Table Topics session with ease, his topics attracted fellow Toastmasters responded very quickly, I pondered why? (The secret: each fellow Toastmaster who spoke at the lactern received the brand new 2010 management diary from Shegar, who is the Group manager from the company with the tagline: 'life is great'!)

P/s. Word of the day was 'PONDER'

Everyone enjoyed the tea-break session because it was here that members and guests can 'mingled' around for better fellowship, this is the place we can expand our circle of friendship within the Toastmasters Club!

At the Prepared Speech session, we had 2 Prepared Speeches;

TM Tan Yu Min, the highly qualified accountant in the Club,whom presented her Project 7, entitled Corporate Fraud! Bosses, Beware! She cited the story of Balin Bank IN Singapore, 1995, in fact, how could the branch that were performing superbly well went bankrupt?Reason:Corporate Fraud!

The Second speaker who is another corporate high flyer presented the Motivational Speech in the Advance Communicator manual. Even his speech title chosen was a highly motivated one! His speech entitled: Breakingthrough the Glass Ceiling! He talked about goal setting and that "If your dream is not an impossible one, then it is not a dream..." Shouldn't we set the Impossible goals now for achieving a DTM?

Both speakers received the 'wows' from the floor! We love it!

Finally, as Toastmaster of the Evening, I felt very satisfied to receive feedback that the meeting was conducted interestingly and packed with positive energy!!

Text by Michael Chu, CC

9th Chapter meeting

2009-11-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

9th Chapter meeting
Venue: Grand paragon Hotel, Johor Bahru

TM Wei Yin receiving her Maiden Speech ribbon

It was a splendid 9th Chapter Meeting of Johor Bahru Toastmasters Club. Toastmaster Carmelita was the Sergeant at Arms and I had the honour of being the host of the evening.

The meeting kicked off with a very a inspiring speech delivered by our very own club president 2009/10, CC J. Kannan. This was followed by the award presentation of the Toastmaster of the year and President’s distinguish club by our division A governor Advanced Communicator, Silver Cindy Wong.

Competent Communicator Tan Eng Suan was selected as the Toastmaster of the year for division A.

There is only one Prepared Speech. It was delivered by our new member Toastmaster Wei Yin. TM Wei Yin was doing her Ice Breaker and after her speech we get to know about her better.

For the table topics session, Michael Chu.CC decided to do something different. The theme for the night was 'Inspiring & Motivating Life Experience'. The table topic questions for the entire evening were all related to this theme. Competent Communicator Shegar and Toastmaster Andrew Tan were voted for the best table topic speakers for the evening.

The meeting continued with the evaluation sessions. Competent Communicator Mark Antony evaluated Toastmaster Wei Yin. He commented on areas Wei Yin should work on to improve further and gave encouraging words to our speaker who was doing her first assignment speech “ the Ice Breaker”.

Language evaluator, Competent Communicator Tan Eng Suan gave his evaluation for the good and not so good usage of the English Language throughout the meeting. This was then followed by the report from the Ah Counter, Toastmaster Nadirah. General evaluator Toastmaster Andrew Tan then gave his evaluation for the day. The meeting continued with the awards presentation and closing speech by club president Competent Communicator Jay Kannan.

Overall, I really enjoyed our chapter meeting and am looking forward to the next session

Photo By E T Lee, DTM

Text By TM Prabakaran

2nd Joint Meeting with Sacred Heart Toastmasters Club

2009-11-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

10th November 2009
Joint meeting with Scacred Heart Toastmasters Club
Venue: Sacred Heart Church at Taman Sri Tebrau, Johor Bahru

Photo by E T Lee, DTM

Following Text by J.Kannan CC, CL ( transcribed from Johor Bahru Toastmasters Googles Group)

Last night all the cowboys and cowgirls went wild at "Sacret Heart- JB Club joint meeting". The meeting was full of energy. I admired the tenacity of those present. They kept the energy high till end of the meeting. Thanks to VPE Michael for the effort put in. Creative Theme meetings always create lots of fun. Maybe we should think of some creative theme too.

Congrats to TM Eugene Paw for doing his P5. You have earned 1/2 CC title. You are just 5 projects away for your CC title. Keep the momentum going. Congrats to Praba for your P9. Inspire the audience.Your message, 90/10 principle was very relevant to the audience. I agree with you ,we normally got no control over 10% of what happens to us. 90% of the time we react to the 10%. How we react makes us success or failure.

Table Topics session was creatively conducted by TM Saravanan. Thought provoking questions. The questions made the members go back to the past and tell us what hapend at that time. First day in school, frist day at work and many more first day questions. Everyone participated actively.

I was fortunate to evaluate advance project 5 by Adriene Ong. It was good informative speech. I felt like I was in a Nurses Convention. The message was think before you give consent to recieve any medical service. Read before you sign above the dotted line.

TM Andrew Tan evaluated TM Eugene Paw's P5. He gave positive comments about the speech and encouraged him to move further and complete his CC title. Job well done, TM Andrew Tan.

Paparazzi ET Lee gave a detailed general evaluation in his own style.

The photos uploaded in the Blog will explain the meeting held last night.

All in all it was fruitful and fun filled evening.

See you all on Thursday. Lets make our meeting a fun filled and educational evening too.

Following Text by Michael Chu CC, ( transcribed from Johor Bahru Toastmasters Googles Group)

It was a funfilled evening...the unusual thing in a Toastmasters Meeting, we don't applause anything happened but we 'eeeeeee......hi'.

We were in the west west country...To look at pictures please click to http://jbtoastmasters.blogspot.com/

Thank you DTM ET Lee for all the professionale shots.

Congratulation to our fellow Toastmaster Eugene Paw for delivering his 'long over due' Project 5. I love his confident in delivery. Next is TM Praba who enthusiatically presented his P9, excellent...(we want him to pull the 'horse' a little before the P10 as we have to order the CC Badge from TI, U.S.A! So depending on the shipment, please hold your 'horse' TM Praba

Mr. President J Kannan gave an inspiring closing speech....overall, I enjoyed this Joint Meeting.

Look out for December 17, one week before Christmas, as your VPE, I would like to arrage another Joint meeting in our Club meeting; The Theme will be 'SHARING THE WHITE CHRISTMAS!' hohohohoho....

8th Chapter Meeting

2009-10-25T00:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-17T02:18:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

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

6th Chapter Meeting

2009-09-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

6th Chapter meeting
Joint Meeting with Sacred Heart Toastmasters Club
17th September, 2009

Word of the day: RISE

The opening speech by Mr. President has given me inspiration to grab every opportunity and challenge the commitment to move on.It applies both in our life and working environment too.

I am delighted when the TME Michael Chu, CC started the meeting with his brilliant idea to spread the JOY OF HARI RAYA and asked everyone to stand up and get to know each other in the room that made us feel comfortable and relaxed.

The impromptu session has spread a joyous comments/experience from the speakers. The topics were prepared in greeen packets and the session was conducted by Adrian Teh, TM.

Bryan Soh, CTM made his audience convinced that 'Malaysian are compasionate towards the handicap'. The motivational speaker J. Kannan,DTM focused the right direction to grab his audience emotionally from all over the world with his Barrack Obama style.

It was a night of joyous HARI RAYA fellowship during the tea break with the Sacred Heart members and guests.

Text By TM Camelita Baluyut
Photo by E T Lee, DTM

5th Chapter Meeting

2009-09-10T15:32:00.000-07:00

10th September 2009
Grand Paragon Hotel

The 5th meeting of Johor Bahru Toastmasters Club started off with Toastmaster Saravanan as the Sergeant at Arms and Toastmaster Sankeree as Toastmaster of the Evening. Timer of the day was Toastmaster Abiramy. For table topics, Toastmaster Nadirah decided to do something different. She prepared for us a list of categories whereby speakers will have to describe something to the audience and let the audience guess the answer. Competent Communicator Tan Eng Suan was voted the best table topic speaker. He was given the topic “Singapore” and gave a humorously vivid description of the country, which many members found amusing and entertaining.
As for the prepared speeches, two speakers did their speeches. They were Toastmaster Prabakaran and Toastmaster Andrew Tan. TM Prabakaran did his 7th project, research your topic by presenting an interesting topic titled “Eat Less Rice”. He gave a detailed explanation of how rice is actually harmful to our health and what we should eat more in order to have a healthier diet. After his speech members were enlightened and became more aware of taking a more balanced meal. Toastmaster Andrew Tan on the other hand did his 9th project, persuade with power and gave a speech entitled “Grab Every Opportunity”. He shared with us his own experiences of how he came to be who he is by seizing every opportunity given to him. Through his willingness to take up extra responsibilities, he managed to progress further than his peers. He ended his speech by challenging the members to be bold and daring and rise up to the occasion when given the chance. The winner of the prepared speeches was Toastmaster Andrew Tan.
The meeting continued with the evaluation session. Advanced Communicator Silver Cindy Wong evaluated Toastmaster Prabakaran whereas Competent Communicator Jay Kannan evaluated Toastmaster Andrew Tan. Both evaluators gave uplifting comments for both speakers and pointed out areas for improvements for the speakers. Winner for the best evaluator award went to Competent Communicator Jay Kannan.
Language evaluator, Advanced Communicator Bronze John Foo gave his evaluation for the good and not so good language usage throughout the meeting. This was then followed by evaluation from the Ah counter, Competent Communicator Mark Anthony. General evaluator Toastmaster Michael Chu then gave his evaluation for the day. The meeting continued with the awards presentation and closing speech by club president Competent Communicator Jay Kannan. This was then followed by the annual general meeting for the term 2008/2009. Overall the meeting went well and members enjoyed it.

Text by TM Wai Jey Shin

Photo by TM Andrew Tan.

4th Chapter Meeting

2009-08-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-25T06:12:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

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)

1st Chapter Meeting 2009/10

2009-07-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

First Chapter Meeting
Click to view album

9th July 2009

1st Chapter Meeting

The new term started with a big turn out at the 1st chapter meeting.

It was an extraordinary evening; the meeting room was packed. Guests were practically ‘flowing’ in! Tm Andrew, Shegar CC and Michael Chu CC were kept busy arranging for more chairs. These are auspicious signs that we have grown from " Let's Grow" to the more action packed year of " We can do it!".

TM Andrew started the meeting with the Humor session. May be members had somehow got use to his jokes,there was a bit of struggle to make the audience laugh.

The brand new President presented his inaugural speech. He introduced the new EXCO members to the audience. He said he will lead the Club into another excellent year by having ‘changes’ and reaffirmed the Theme of the new term “We Can Do It”! He said there is no need to always subscribe to the saying " IT WAS ALWAYS DONE THIS WAY". He clearly demonstrated his style of Leadership!

TM Nadirah, despite being a new member to the Club, was able to discharge her duties as the Toastmaster of the Evening. Kudos to the Toastmaster Spirits in you.

This evening, we had 4 Prepared Speeches;

TM Abiramy did her Ice Breaker,
TM Jey Shin did his Project 3,
TM Andrew was doing his project 7 "Research Your Topic". The title of his speech was “Why children told lies” .
TM Ahmad of Malacca Toastmasters Club presented project 8 with the speech entitled “The Man with the Dream”.

TM Jey Shin was selected as the best Speaker for the evening. Don't "play play" with these young Toastmasters!

As usual. our Evaluators were supportive and gave positive feedbacks to the speakers! ATMB John Foo was selected as the best evaluater. DTM E T Lee said : " it is a challenge to speak at the same meeting with John Foo".

TM Saravanan, first timer as Language Evaluator, with his imposing physique convinced us to respect the English language.

A few Guests showed interest to join the Club. Vice president of membership.....you have work to do!

Text by E T Lee & Michael Chu

Photo by E T Lee