Photo Gallery of Club Timing Devices

A fun posting is to share the photos of different timing devices used by various Toastmasters Clubs.

To join, just email a photo of your club timing device to smspenang@yahoo.com

Include the name of your club and online link if any.

PHOTO GALLERY OF CLUB TIMING DEVICES

#1
Toastmasters International Timer

This model is from online Toastmasters International Shop. Weight: 4 lb Price: USD 125.00

Not sure if any Toastmasters Club in Malaysia, Indonesia or Brunei has bought timer.

Have you seen it at any Club?


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#2
"Big Size and Contest Standard Timer". The property of Intel Penang Toastmasters Club, Malaysia.



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#3
"Future upgrade include incorporating the stop watch into the device itself, so it will be a self contained autonomous timer/indicator..."

from Percy Chen, Altera Toastmasters Penang Island, Malaysia.





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#4
"The Basic Set". Bayan Baru Toastmasters, Penang Island, Malaysia




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#5
"Smart looking" from Weerawan, B&V Toastmasters, Bangkok, Thailand



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#6
"Timing Lighthouse" of Institut Perkim-Goon 1 (IPG1) Toastmasters Club, Jalan Burma, Penang Island from Tze Wei of IPG1 Toastmasters.




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#7
"White Tower Light Timer" of D'Utama Advanced Toastmasters of Petaling Jaya, Selangor.



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#8
"Simple & Elegant" Timer. Sandakan Toastmasters Club, Sabah, Malaysia.



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#9
"Flat Indicator Type" Timer. IFPAS Toastmasters Club, Singapore.




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#10
"The Manual System". Kutaradja Banda Aceh Toastmasters Club, Sumatra, Indonesia.



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#11
"Covered up for contest" - Seberang Jaya Toastmasters, Penang Mainland.



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#12
"Black Box Timer" - Johor Bahru Toastmasters, Johor, Malaysia




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#13
"Light to Travel" Timer - MAS Melor Toastmasters, Selangor, Malaysia



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#14
"Wow.. complete with TI logo" - HELP University College Toastmasters, Selangor, Malaysia




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#15
"Come in a brown box" - MII Toastmasters, Kuala Lumpur



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#16
"Flick the Switch" - TTDI Toastmasters, Kuala Lumpur



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#17
"Fashionably Black" - Klang Bilingual Toastmasters, Kelang, Selangor




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#17
"Not easy to be a timer" - Speaker's Dream Toastmasters, Kuala Lumpur

News from District 51 LGET Richard Chong

This week, I read this email from our dedicated District 51 LGET Richard Chong regarding news that on February 14, 2009, the Toastmasters International Board of Directors had given approval for District 51 to be reformed (split) into two Districts as of July 1, 2010.

In other words, at this Kuching District 51 Annual Convention April 2009, we will be electing the "Last District 51 Governor" covering Clubs in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia and for two Lieutenant Governors of Education & Training and two Lieutenant Governors of Marketing for the term 2009-2010.

For the next term 2010-2011, there will be elections for two District Governors - a District Governor for clubs in Peninsular Malaysia and a District Governor for Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Indonesia and their respective LGET and LGM.

For the record, District 51 started in 1993-94 with clubs from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Later Hong Kong, Macau and Brunei joined. In the term 2004-2005, District 51 went through the first reformation (split) with Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Macau forming a new District 80.

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District 51 2008/2009 - "Toastmasters: The Courage to Conquer"

Dear Division Leaders, Area, Club & District past leaders,

Toastmasters’ Board of Directors met during the week of February 9-14, 2009, and announced the results of its deliberations at an open briefing held at Toastmasters World Headquarters on Saturday, February 14.



Among the highlights of the Board’s announcements are the status on our district reformation plan.

District Administration Committee (DAC)
The District Administration Committee focused on district reformation, district boundaries and the continuing development of the Region Advisor Marketing concept.

The Board approved the reformation of District 51.
- The district split will be effective July 1, 2010.
- The district will elect two lt. governors education and training,
- Two lt. governors marketing and one district governor for the 2009-2010 program year in order to support the transition year.

More on the Board of Directors Report February 14, 2009 can be found here

With Thanks and Gratitude,

Richard Chong @ Ritchie ACG / ALB
Lieutenant Governor Education & Training 08/09

Mobile: (+6)012-2939 272
Toastmasters International District 51 ~ Brunei , Indonesia & Malaysia
http://www.tmdistrict51.org/
http://ritchierc.blogspot.com/
District 51 16th Annual Convention 17th~19th April 2009 ~ www.Kuching2009.com

News from Area N4 - Kulim Area, Kedah

Today, Past Division N Governor Abdul Kadir of Kulim Toastmasters forwarded this email from N4 Area Governor Ang Eng Chai.

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From Abdul Kadir:

Dear friends,
Heartiest congratulations to all. You had courage to stand up to the challenges in Club Level Contest. You made your Club proud by preparing & delivering first class performance. By this you would have realized that all your Club projects had been instrumental to your success. This is not all, send positive thoughts so that you will be an Excellent speaker by the end of this term.

The champions of International Speech Club level, Sherman, Azlan, Ai Lyn & Wendy – you have something special. Develop it with confidence.

The champions of Table-Topics Club level, KG, Veloo, Ai Lyn & Wendy – you can cope with any difficult topics. Read more & develop memory power.

Wish to see you all on the Top! Have the Courage to Conquer!

PS: Be ready for Area Contest on Sat 28 Feb.

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From Ang Eng Chai:

Congratulations to All the Winners (Intel Kulim, MDT, MEF Kulim & Renesas Kedah Toastmasters Club)!

Club Constitutional Crisis on Membership Payment Looming?

In the good old days, when Toastmasters Clubs were far and few, "exclusive and elitest" for those born with the gift of the gab, membership was seen to be a privilege and club payment was like a drop in the bucket.

In many clubs, Club constitutions were then drawn to have membership payment fully paid up by end of each December for January-June period and by end of June for the July-December period to match the term of club officers.

Hence there was also plenty of time to go to the bank to buy an international bankdraft in US Dollars and send by snail or registered mail to Toastmasters International WHQ in Mission Viejo, California, USA in time for the April 1 and Oct 1 deadline for semi-annual payments.

In contrast, Toastmasters International semi-annual membership have different periods of April-September and October-March and so there was a 3 months gap.

Fast forward to present.
- TI online payment by credit card have made semi-annual payment easy and real-time.

- Today, there are many clubs all over Penang and Malaysia and Toastmasters membership is truly open to anyone from all walks of life even if improving their command of the English language is the main reason for joining Toastmasters.

- Overall, membership is more diverse and club payment is now an important factor due to different income level including members who are still students, home makers, retirees, etc.

- Membership change is at a faster rate due to job transfers or club transfers as there are many clubs and new clubs now to join.

In such an environment, there is a loophole that can be and has been exploited. In some clubs, members do not immediately pay up their club dues at the end of December or end of June as stated in their club constitutional by-laws but rather wait and delay their payments until the deadline of April 1 and October 1.

Clubs have little choice but to continue allow "errant" members to continue enjoying the club benefits like playing meeting roles, doing speech projects, taking part in speech contest and holding club offier positions.

Reason is technically although their club due payment though may be late by 3 months, technically their semi-annual membersip at TI WHQ is still current and so are members of good standing with TI.

At times, although may not be planned, just before the April or Oct deadline, a few "errant" members may decide to discontinue their Toastmasters membership for good or transfer to another club for different reasons.

Hence the club treasury chest suffers and remaining timely paying members of the club feels cheated.

One way of plugging this loophole is a simple change of the club subscription period to be the same TI semi-annual due period, April-September and October-March each year.

This has been done by some clubs already while other clubs prefer to stay the same and keep this time bomb.

My recommendation is to change now and plug the loophole rather than wait until a crisis occur and the club and members will suffer unnecessary.

The choice is left to each individual club to consider and decide. That is the Toastmasters way and I will not say I told you so.

Judged by the content of their speeches ....

"We should not judge a contestant by just their looks, dress code, voice, body language, command of language or reputation alone but more important by the content and intent and extent of their speeches" says a wise blogger.

Tonight on February 5, 2009 Thursday, I attended our Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club at PSDC, Penang to witness the 2009 Club Level International Speech Contest and Table Topics Contest.

I tried to listen carefully and recorded some of the content of the speeches of the contestants to review and share with all.

You always find gems of wisdom at a speech contest.




Disclaimer: Using initials of contestants for partial anonymity. Club members will know who they are. Comments only on speech content and are my personal views. I was not a contestant nor a judge this time around.

A) INTERNATIONAL SPEECH CONTEST
There were 5 contestants.

#1 KKH - "My First Lecture: Pursuit of Happiness"
Human nature to seek happiness. Dictionary's definition include comfort, content and joy. Short reference to depression and sudden death of a close friend. Air, sun, stars are free and bring happiness. Want to give his first lecture of true pursuit of true happiness to his young children as soon as they have grown up to be able to understand.

#2 OSK - "A Life Story"
Analogy of life to gazelles who are constantly being chased by lions for food as the human experience constantly being chased by loans or debts. His first loan was a car. Another loan was having to settling the hospital bill first before his wife could deliver their baby - "cash before delivery". Story about a Mr. Tan who thought Mrs. Tan's favorite was curry fish head when all along Mrs. Tan actually did not care for curry fish head but had ordered it all these years knowing it was Mr. Tan's favorite dish.

#3 UK - "There Is A Reason"
Shared the moral of two stories. First was about a pious person who insisted on praying for divine intervention during a flood and rejected rescue help from three different persons as the flood got worse to wait for God's help. When he finally drowned, he asked God why God did not intervened to help and God replied that divine help was offered thrice but was refused each time. The second story was about a serious car accident caused by choice of work over family and the lack of sleep and being saved by use of seat belt and the importance of being insured to protect one's loved ones.

#4 MC - "There Is Hope"
How to deal with the prevailing negative news and current economic turmoil with HOPE. Mentioned Barack Obama about change and hope. Acronym for HOPE - H for "Help from others", O for "Optimism", P for "Perseverence" and E for "Enthusiasm"

#5 GHH - "Copycat"
The importance of imitation of values of successful people. Gave several examples of Bayan Baru club members, using modified names, to copy and learn from. "CAT" stands for "competence", "action" and "training/Toastmasters."

B) TABLE TOPICS CONTEST
There were 9 contestants answering to the topic in question:

"If you could stop time for an hour, what would you do with that hour?"

#1 JY - Stop Malaysian bad driving habits and save lives.
#2 OBS - Courageous attempt for first timer. Keep it up.
#3 UK - Be Robin Hood. Rob from the rich to give the poor. But better not to have such power.
#4 RC - Had been so busy over Christmas and Chinese New Year, great to have an extra hour to do more and live life to the fullest.
#5 KKH - Stop wars. Be like Superman and do the right thing.
#6 MC - Use the hour to prepare more for the speech contest.
#7 GHH - Go back to the time of the delivery of his baby girl.
#8 OSK - Spend time in Penang Hill. Find inner peace which is eternal and away from wife and mother-in-law for an hour.
#9 TES - A break from constant work and spend more time with his children.