What's Happened Today? August 22, 2009 - Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club 14th Installation Dinner & Humorous Speech Contest

Here is a fresh from the oven report.

I arrived just before 7pm. B2 hotel car park was full and so parked at B1 shopping mall. Not too bad, only RM3 per entry. Met member ES Tan and his children. And we nagivated into hotel lobby to avoid a light rain. Below is my ticket, a lucky number but did not win any lucky prize but ES Tan later won first prize. I must have brought ES luck at the car park.



There were 15 tables of Toastmasters and guests attending. There were two other functions going on at the same hotel floor. Fortunately, our neighbors were never too noisy.

VIPs included District 51 Peninsular Lieutenant Governor of Education Training Thannimalai who was representing District 51 Governor Ritchie Chong, District 51 Secretary Wendy and District 51 Public Relations Officer, our own Rosalind Chan as well as Division N Governor our own Koay Kah Hin and N2 Area Governor Partiban who was the installation officer.

Club Sponsors SL Liew and Margaret Chan were present. The Past Presidents attending were Dr. Janet Lim, Rosalind Chan, Margaret Chan, Mah Swee Chin, Koay Kah Hin and Michael Xavier.



Organizing Goh Hock Hai and his organizing committee did a wonderful job. The Emcees Tan Kuang Ee and John Ung coordinated well the entire evening. The opening computer animation of Michael Jackson as well as for the cartoon short feature "Glorious Food" got the audience attention. The special cha cha dance performance brought great entertainment to the audience.

Everyone was dressed up and transformed for the occasion. One of the guests that I ran into was Soo Huey who, if you remember, was the test speaker at our recent Club evaluation contest. Compare the before and after photo below.






Immediate Past President John Yeoh and his 2008-09 were discharged. Then comes the highlight where Club President Jessica Teo was duly installed together with her 2009-2010 Executive Committee. In her maiden speech Jessica Teo recognized her father who was present who was the charter member of IBBM Toastmasters in 1995 6and had introduced her to Toastmasters in a Youth Leadership Program.




There were two guest speakers LGET Thannimalai and former member Past Vice President Education Carmelita Xavier.

Then the Humorous Speech Contest with Ghim Hong as Contest Chair. There were 5 contestants: John Yeoh explained why cut is cut, cut, cut; Michael Xavier demonstrated how someone ran like a scary cat inside an elevalor when someone else sneezed; John Ung acted why no money no talk; Chew Yoon Seng confessed on he got off traffic offenses; Margaret Chan confessed forgetting names after reaching post retirement age. Bravo to all the contestants as it is not easy to make a large audience of strangers laugh. It was a great learning experience for all. One contestant exceeded time.

The Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club Humorous Speech Champion 2009 is Michael Xavier, 1st runner up John Ung and 2nd runner up Margaret Chan.



Overall, it was a very enjoyable and well organized 14th Installation Dinner and Humorous Speech Contest. The hard working organizing team and support of fellow club members to attend and bring their guests reflects the traditions of commitment, camaraderie and excellence of Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club and truly deserves a big round of applause.

"Planning The Next Three Meetings"

Lately, there had been too many last minute emails, desperate sms and phone calls asking for role players.

In response, last Thursday, I delivered an advance project speech sharing my experience on an easier way to plan the next 3 meetings in advance. That way, we can spend less time chasing after role players and more time on preparing and fine tuning our speeches and spicing up our meeting roles.

Anything mammoth effort can be done easier if we break it down into simple steps.

As an analogy, how to put an elephant into a refrigerator. Just 3 steps - open the door, put in the elephant - close the door!

Now how about putting a a giraffe into the refrigerator. 3 steps? No, it is 4 steps - open the door - take out the elephant - put in the giraffe - close the door!

So to plan the next 3 meetings, we can use 4 simple steps with the acronym "AARR"
A - Ask, A - Assign, R - Report, R - Replace

ASK: Ask for CC and AC project speakers first. To decorate a glass container, you would put the important stones first, then pebbles, then sand and lastly the water. So handle the major roles first.

Club members planning to achieve their CC, AC or new enthusiastic members are waiting to be asked. Ask during club meeting. Allocate 5-10 minutes before the close of meeting, before everyone rush off. Ask when everyone is all charged up and more likely to just do it. Positive peer pressure helps too.


ASSIGN: If not enough volunteers, do not wait, just assign immediately.

If a member objects violently, then ask what role the member would prefer instead. Everyone has to play a role or two to help out and rotate roles so that everyone can learn and grow.

In a club meeting with five project speeches, there can be up to 20 roles requried. So just fill in the blanks with names of available club members who are actively attending meetings.

For Bayan Baru, it is great to have over 40 members. And with the usual 20 to 30 members attend, there are enough players to play magical chairs. But important is to assing the roles early, 3 meetings in advance. This will allow sufficient preparation for better learning and self-development. For new members, if assigned role in the third meeting, they have plenty of opportunity to observe how the roles are performed by others in the next two meetings before their turn in their maiden roles.


REPORT: Immediately email out the roles assigned to all club members.

By putting it in black and white, it will avoid forgetting who had signed up for a certain role and making it a first come first serve basis.

When in print, it is like a MOU and an IOU. It is a ROU - "Role Officially Undertaken". OK, ROU is a new term that I have coined up.

Once reported, please do not later request a member to postpone their project to the next meeting or make way for another member, This can be disheartening, devasting and demoralizing. Respect a ROU.

REPLACEMENT: Many members do not want to commit three meeetings or even one meeting in advance for fear that they cannot make it.

Reassure them to go for it as we can always have replacement if they cannot do it last minute. Every member can do any role, even double roles or triple roles. So using replacement is a great back-up plan for success.

In summary, We do not plan to fail but often fail to plan. Using 5-10 minutes of the meeting program time to plan the next three meetings when everyone is present can go a long way to plan for succes.

Use the 4 steps "AARR" to help you to plan the next three meetings. It is an investment that will bear great fruits to the club educational program and help club members to achieve their educational goals step by step. May the force of planning be with you always.

Bayan Baru Evaluation Contest 2009

I had been away for club meetings. Finally, this Thursday night of August 20, 2009, I made a point to atttend. The first half of the meeting was the Club Evaluation Contest 2009.

In 2007, I was the Bayan Baru Club Evaluation Champion. Then I proceeded to be N2 Area Evaluation Champion, then Division N Evaluation Champion and then clinching 3rd place at District 51 Evaluation Contest in Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia. Just a gentle reminder.

Tonight, I could relax. I was just a supportive member in the audience. The crowd was about 25 persons.



The test speaker was from Achievers Club. She had great vocals and effective use of hand gestures and talked about not judging another person by their external looks and circumstances. Hence she was dressed in jeans with a cap just to make the point.




The two timers - one with a wearing mask. How scary. Fortunately no one was disqualified on time.



There were six brave contestants.



Congratulations to the winners. The Evaluation Champion 2009: TK Mah (center), 2nd place John Yeoh, 3rd place Margaret Chan. The first two winners will proceed to N2 Area Evaluation contest as N2 Area has only 4 Clubs. Left: Club Presidente Jessica Teo, Contest Chair SC Ng and N2 Area Governor Parthiban (right).

Breaking News: 2009 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking is ...

Mark Hunter of District 69 from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia is the new 2009 Toastmasters World Champion of Public Speaking.

Heartiest congratulations!



The results:
1st Mark Hunter - “A Sink Full of Green Tomatoes”, DNARB - District 69 - Queenlands, Australia
2nd Mary Cheyne - “Nelly”, Region #7 - District 31 - New England, USA
3rd Eric Rainey - “Feed the Right Dog”, Region #1- District 7 - Oregon, USA


Note: Ong Swee Keat, earlier, has the distinction of competing against Mark Hunter in DNARB Contest.

Breaking News: Third Vice President from District 51

Congratulations to our Past District 51 Governor Dr. John Lau of Sarawak, Malaysia to be the first Toastmaster from District 51 to be elected as the Third Vice President of Toastmasters International 2009-2010 at the 78th International Convention in Connecticut USA.

The Third Vice President will usually move up the ladder to be eventually the International President of Toastmasters International.

Heartiest congratulations to John from all of us in District 51.

Breaking News from Toastmasters International Convention in Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA

Photo: MGM Grand Foxwoords, Convention Venue of Toastmasters 78th Annual International Convention, August 12-15, 2009, "Find Fun by the Bucket…in Mashantucket!", Connecticut, USA.

Received breaking news from our Club member Ong Swee Keat who competed in the Group B of the DNAR (Districts Not Assigned to Regions) International Speech Contest held in the evening of Aug 11, 2009

Although Ong Swee Keat is not placed in the top 3 in the DNARB contest, bravo to Ong for representing Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club and for representing Distric 51 and for having prepared so hard the past 3 months to participate in this high calibre world standard speech contest. The experience gained will bring Ong to greater heights in public speaking.

Heartiest congratulations to the 1st place winners of both DNARA and DNARB who will proceed to the finale - "Toastmasters International - World Championship of Public Speaking 2009", this August 15, 2009 Saturday morning 9am at Toastmasters 78th Annual International Convention, Mashantucket, Connecticut, USA.

DNARA:
1st - Herminigildo V. Garrobo - Philippine - District 75
2nd - Douglas Kruger - South Africa - District 74
3rd - Donald Yee - Hong Kong - District 80

DNARB
1st - Mark Hunter - Queensland, Australia - District 69
2nd - Anika Stapleton - St. Vincent, The Caribbean - District 81
3rd - George O'Keeffe - Victoria, Australia - District 73


For the Toastmasters International official news and finalist list of contestants including North American Regions, click here

I googled and found this descriptive eye witness report:

From District 27 LGET Paul White,
"Here is the “haps” from the Interdistrict Speech contests.

There were two separate contests. I attended Contest “B” - which had speakers mostly from Asia with Mexico and the island Carribean also competing. The contest speakers were excellent. A wheel-chair bound guy named Mark Hunter from Cairns who has a booming voice and a good storyline about letting go of emotional baggage won first place. Mark has been on the big stage before and has competed at International at least six times.

A young lady who was a ‘first-timer’ from the Caribbean won second place and George O’Keefe from Western Australia placed third.

In Speech Contest “A,” a Filipino named Herminigildo V. Garrobo won fist place, followed by many times over contestant Douglas Kruger from South Africa and Donald Yee.

I have seen Viki and Heath working the floor and many District 27 members here, there and everywhere. The excitement of seeing so many Toastmasters from around the world never grows old."

Note: Last year, our District 51 representative, K Loghandran of Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia achieved District 51 history for winning 2nd place in the finale of World Championship of Public Speaking, click here

It was Loghandran's second time representing District 51. So Ong Sweet Keat, take a deserving break, enjoy the rest of your first Toastmasters International Convention and go again a second time.

Good Luck & All the Best at the InterDistrict International Speech Contest

Let us all wish good luck and all the best to our club member Ong Swee Keat as he leaves for Connecticut, USA to represent District 51 in the Inter-District International Speech Contest this August.

Ong Swee Keat is the second member of Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club of Penang, Malaysia. after Michael Xavier in 2000, to achieve this great honor.

Ong Swee Keat, our hearts and spirits are with you. You are already a winner. We await even greater news.

Bayan Baru Club President Jessica Teo (left), Ong Swee Keat (right)

Bayan Baru - First CL - First DCP Goal Achieved!

Congratulations to Vice President of Education Goh Hock Hai for achieving his Competent Leadership (CL) Award and helping Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club achieved our first Distinguished Club Program (DCP) goal for the term 2009-2010. That's leadership by example. Bravo.

Per TI Online Educational Achievement Report @July 30, 2009
7764 N 2 CL 07/16/2009 Hock Hai, Goh Bayan Baru Toastmasters Club