Area K2, Humorous & Evaluation Speech Contest

Yes, the club did it again! Sandakan Toastmasters Club has successfully organized the Area K2 Humorous Speech & Evaluation Speech contests on 27 Sept 2009, with participation from Sandakan Toastmasters Club, Pidato Toastmasters Club and Tawau Toastmasters Club. The results are as follows:-

Humorous Speech:-

1. Grace Yong - Pretty Woman (Tawau Toastmasters Club)

2. Shane Ho - A Date with a Toastmaster (Sandakan Toastmasters Club)

Evaluation Speech:-

1. Norman Chin (Sandakan Toastmasters Club)

2. Grace Yong (Tawau Toastmasters Club)

The winners with the organizing committee

Yeah! Contest Chair, Area K2 Governor Eleanor Pang presenting the winner's trophy to Norman.

Members waiting for the contest to start

Organising Chairperson Luna in Action

It was a great morning and we even had members of the public who walked in to see how the participants have benefited from the Toastmasters training.

24th Sept 2009 Meeting

It was a great night! Many members turned up last night and our "past-past-past" area governor ACB Luna Chua and her daughter were also there. Apart from having two speakers for the manual speeches, the participants who are representing the club to the Area level this Sunday were given stage time to "polish" their competition speeches.

Wordmaster of the day, Tm Vannessa Lim reporting on how many times her chosen word 'magical' was used.

Good crowd! ain't this meeting fun!

Smile!

Again, Smile please!

President Amy

General Evaluator Luna!

Everyone had an enjoyable night and guess who was taking the picture for us? She's the girl that has been shying away from the camera.... she is Luna's girl... another Vanessa.... Vanessa Pang

Hey guys, don't miss out this Sunday - The Area Level Humorous & Evaluation Speech Contests at The Mark's Lodge @ 10am. Don't worry about the fees,..it's free! So, do come and share the moment by supporting our representatives in this contest & let us learn from the pros from the area level and let's see who will be representing our area to the division level which will be held on the 11 Oct 2009 @ KK. Hope to see you there!

Humorous & Evaluation Speech Contest

The club has successfully held the Humorous Speech & Evaluation Speech contests on the 10th September 2009 with quite a number of contestants. The contest chair for that night was none other than our very own VPE, Alice Kok, CC. The results are as below:-

Humorous Speech Contest:
1. Shane Ho - A date with a Toastmasters
2. Jimmy Leong - How to tell if a guy likes you
3. Winnie Lee - My beloved customers

Evaluation Speech Contest:
1. Norman Chin
2. Shane Ho
3. Ling How Kee

Congratulations to all the winners !! The champion and the 1st runner-up from each category will represent our club to the Area level which will be held on the 27th September 2009, 10am at the Mark's Lodge.

The winners from both categories

The judges of the day~

Good support from members and guests... it was a great turn up!

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The birthday girls of September.... Delicious chocolate moist cake!

See you in our next meeting which will be on 24 September 2009.

Our 2nd Baby

and it's a Girl!
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As we are all aware, St. Cecilia is an all girls school and that's where we have successfully chartered our 2nd gavel club after Sung Siew. *clap hands*




The Gaveliers at St. Cecilia had their maiden meeting on 1 August 2009 and 5 of us attended the meeting - they were President Amy Hiew, VPE Alice, VPPR Shane, IPP Norman and our great mentor Datin Grace who chaired the meeting. Since it's their first ever meeting, it's not surprised that the teachers and the students were a little confused and unorganized. We all understood and bear with them. After all, I think that's why we were there for them, to provide guidance along the way.




I had a lot of thinking when i was in that school because i myself was a cecilian, i left the school about a decade ago and it was my first time stepping my feet into the school since then. Having attended the gavel club's maiden meeting made me realize that teenagers nowadays are so much different from where i was eons ago. They are more technology savvy, they talk about their vision for the future, they are so enthusiastic to try out new things and of course, most important of all, they are not afraid to stand up and speak in front of a crowd. There are about 50+ members in the gavel club and so many of them wanted to present their ice breaker speech but due to time constraint, the teacher in charge only allowed 3 of them to speak. Can you imagine how disappointing for those who didn't have the opportunity to perform their speeches?
I was the evaluator for one of the speaker's speech and i was amazed on how well she presented the speech, obviously she prepared the speech and she already demonstrated some basic skills in public speaking and an icing to the cake - she can take evaluation in an adult's way, i am sure we can see improvement in her next speech already.



That aside, my point is, even teenagers are so eager and not afraid to speak out and have so much to share, why couldn't we adults perform better in the training meetings? Of course, we have some who are already doing very well, but what i really want to see is; those who have not started on their manual speech to start preparing and don't be tensed when we assign you with roles, because (trust me) you will only grow and improve through speeches and roles playing. If you think you have difficulties to start on your speech, please call us or email us, anyone of us will be willing to help, especially me =)


Enough said, i hope to see you in our next training meeting on 13 August, same place, same time.


Your VPE,
Alice Kok

Newly weds!

Our heartiest congratulations to the ex-VPE Janet Chin and her husband Mr. Shin.

Another Outdoor Meeting

If you missed the previous outdoor meeting (i'm sorry you missed it~)

But you can join us now for another outdoor meeting of the year!

I'm sure everyone can sense the joyous and merry moments flowing all around by now. Therefore, we have decided to organize an OUTDOOR meeting cum POT LUCK dinner on the next training meeting which falls on 18 Dec 2008 (next Thursday). We'll have this fun filled event at VPM Cheong Sung Yan's residence at 7:00pm.

As the subject mentioned, it's a pot luck dinner, please don't be shy to show off your cooking or baking skills on that night by sharing with us your favourite dish or dessert, we'll be more than happy to have a taste of it. Also, please feel free to dress to the theme, which is "joyous, merry, happy holiday and the like" - just come to have some fun! For those who are "cooking illiterate', don't worry, you can kindly pay RM12 to the club for the food.

Not to forget, we'll still have a training meeting on that night and the TME is our lovely VPE Amy Hiew, please contact her to fill up roles in this special outdoor meeting, let's try doing something different, shall we? Try to imagine you are the table topic master in Cheong's house? That'd be awesome~ Because Toastmasters are ever ready to speak up and present, regardless of where they are, right?

Ah, before i forget, here's the address to where all the fun is on 18 Dec 2008, 7:00pm:

Cheong Sung Yan's Residence
Jalan Istana
House No. 56 (it's next to MPS President's house and near to the English Tea House,i hope this makes it easier for you to locate)

Tel: 089 - 213403 / 0198530260 (Cheong S.Y.)

Alternatively, you can contact Amy (012 8185418) or Norman (013 8633907) for details.

Hope to see you there!

Memorable moment in Bali

Our VPE Amy took this memorable and meaningful photo when she was attending the District 51 Convention in Bali, Indonesia not too long ago. She was very honoured to be on stage to receive the award on behalf of the club and she hopes that we can achieve another round of President Distinguished Club award this year. So, let's work together!

See you in the next meeting!

Training Meeting 27 Nov 2008

A bunch of thanks to all of you who attended the meeting last night, especially Laurence who took the effort to come join us because she wanted to start the gavel club in Sung Siew soon. We will back you up! 

Also, a very warm welcome to Jane, who's our newly inducted member, we will back you up too! Just ask anyone of us and we'll be more than happy to help you to start with your speeches manual. 

Till then, don't eat too much since Christmas is near and i am sure you want to be at your best for the festive season. Bye bye! 

A fairy tale came true

When we first started to brain storm for this event, it seemed like a task so difficult to excel, the organizing committee fell into the quandary that made us once so burned out and exhausted trying to collaborate with interested delegates coming from far and near. Before we realize the pain, it was all happening in front of us, like a fairy tale came true.

In the afternoon, delegates seated themsleves in one of the tri-lingual workshops hosted by DTM Low Yat Seow, DTM Richard Gontusan and DTM Lee Chye Ewe and DTM Jacob Yan and Lui Lep Ming where all of them are marvellous speakers.

At night, the kingdom of Toastmasters was conquered by King Chye Ewe and his Queen, Eleanor. His majesty had brought so much joy and fun to its people and they truly earned the plaudits bestowed on them on a job well done! I believe most of them are still swooning today when mesmerizing what happened that night.

Yes, the long awaited and most talked-about Div K 13th Semi Annual Convention was held in Sandakan on last weekend. To match with our theme, we turned ourselves into "Queens" and "Princess" and not forgetting Kings that night and some gentlemen even think that they should genuflect before the Queens and so they did! People were astonished when the VIPs were marching in with either beautiful princess or handsome prince by their side while they waved their hands gracefully to the people before they were led to be seated in the nicely decorated long table to enjoy their meal and the other programs of the night.

Throughout the night, there were laughter and pictures snapping from every corner of the ballroom because some of them were so happy to meet up with their mates from far and near and some of them were even happier to mingle around and get to know members from other vicinities. One of the highlights of the event was of course - Performance by the 3 clubs. I'm sorry i couldn't limn the performance of the Sandakan Pidato and Mandarin Toastmasters Club because being one of the performers that night, i had to get ready for our Club's performance. So, someone please tell me about it and i can fill in the blanks here.

Then, there were 4 very gung-ho toastmasters sneaking in very mysteriously from the back stage and appeared in front of the crowd and presented a very sensual yet subtle "Arabian Folk Dance" aka belly dance. Talking about the dance, i have to stress that we had only 10 hours of practice so please forgive us if there's any shortcomings and thus, maybe it's a not-so-perfect dance. However, we learned something from it and that's to ENJOY the fun of doing it and we bonded with each other better than before. I hope that the crowd enjoyed the dance as well as we did.

Another highlight of the night was when lucky draw turned into "not-so-lucky" draw. Well, one can always view things from different angles, it was maybe embarrasing but it was also fun since everyone laughed so hard. I suppose everyone was happy then. Soon after that, it was the Best Dressed King & Queen Award time. Queen Eleanor won with a landslide victory while our King Norman was the Best Dressed King. Guess what? Sandakan Toastmasters Club won the Best Performance too, speaking of which, the prize is still in VPE Amy's house??

No matter how all of us didn't want it to end, the clock has to strike 12 and after that, we turned into Toastmasters who have to attend the speech contest on the following day. I have never been to a speech contest held in a convention before and it was really an eye opener for me. The speakers spoke amazingly well with their natural gestures and facial expression and on top of that, they really served as a motivation for the others to improve or to learn more about public speaking skills. The winners for the speech contests were:-

Evaluation Contest:-

1. Shahar Banon Hassan (KK)

2. Elizabeth Sim (Brunei)

Humorous Speech Contest:

1. Stuart Lee (Brunei)

2. Sophia Chia (KK)

When the speech contest ended, it also meant the convention had came to an end. Everyone left with a heavy heart but sweet and joyful memory. As for the winners, albeit happy, they are starting to prepare for the District level contest which will be held in Bali Convention on 14-16 Nov 2008. Anyone going?

p/s: Excuse the small photos above as i "stole" them from Lee Chye Ewe, you can click here or here to view more photos at your leisure.

Are you ready to be a queen or a king?

I know some of us in the club do....=)

Are you curious?

Wanna see us looking like queens and princess?

Then you should come to the Division K 13th Semi Annual Convention on 25 & 26 October 2008, yes, it's this weekend and if you haven't get yourself the convention package or a ticket to the fellowship dinner, you can still do so by contacting me or Amy or Norman or Datin Grace or whoever Toastmasters that you know.

We, being the hosting club, will go the extra miles to make this auspicious event more meaningful for those who have come from near and far. We really appreciate the attendance of the outstation members and we hope that they will have a memorable weekend in Sandakan. At the meantime, this is the high time for us to make perfect our performance, you have to see this for yourself,i'm not revealing anything! The courageous 4 of us will be performing something oh-so-surprise! Let's wait and see.

Do contact us if you are interested, mind you, it's very rarely that convention like this is held in our very own back yard, so let's grab this opportunity to participate in the first convention in your lifetime, if you haven't been to one.

Full of Events

It's today! The Area K2 Humorous and Evaluation Speech Contest is today!

Therefore, 4 of us namely Amy, Datin Grace, Norman and myself are going to Tawau for the contest. Please wish us all the best.

On another note, we are also going for a demo meeting in Lahad Datu because David Chong is chartering a new club - Lahad Datu Speakers Club. This virgin meeting will be held on 28 September 2008, at 2:30pm at The Executive Hotel in Lahad Datu. You are most welcome to join us if you happen to be in Lahad Datu at that time.

Before i leave, i would like to invite all members to come for a BBQ gathering on 4th October 2008, at our VPE Amy's house. Remember :

Date: 4 Oct 2008

Venue: VPE Amy Hiew's House

Time: Dinner time, but you are welcome to come early to help out with the food preparation =)

Don't you think Sandakan Toastmasters Club is just full of FUN? There's even more, i'll see you in the BBQ dinner!

911 Meeting!

Fret not fellow readers and toastmasters, nothing violent happened! 911 because it was 11 September 2008 yesterday and it was our first training meeting of the month.

President Norman came in during the second half of the meeting because he had to attend his friend's wedding dinner and therefore, our newly appointed VPE - Amy Hiew had done some reporting on behalf of the President. This was her first time speaking as a VPE after the departure of Janet and i've never had the chance to thank her for taking up this post unconditionally. As Margaret mentioned during the table topics session, Amy looked and sounded so different nowadays because she has had confidence in herself and i think that a person with self aplomb and self esteem will glow from within, thus, the beauty reveals.

We were glad to have Helen and Sue as our guests and we had 3 speakers last night. What made me feel happier was that the comments from the guests were so exciting because they said they loved the meeting and Toastmasters and they would consider joining! How happy is that, VPM?

Of course, it's the first meeting of the month and we had a little Birthday celebration, with the departure of Janet and Melissa and with the absence of Lawrence and Dr. Edmond, the birthday babes for last night were myself and Davina. I ordered myself (tee hee) an Apple cake and i'm glad that everyone liked it, very much.

Amy took a chance to polish her humor speech "The Evil Wind" for the Area level speech contest which will be held on 27 September 2008 in Tawau by being one of the speakers last night and there was improvement, i am sure she can present the speech better in the contest later. As for Datin Grace's speech "Daze in Twilight", i must say it sent goosebumps to me, i am not sure how about the others 0.o And so the meeting ended with laughters and er..... goosebumps.

As most of us are aware, well you should be aware that our beloved Janet had left for Seoul for soul searching (don't you just love the rythm?) But, she never forget us, she has started a blog and if you want to know what exactly she's doing there, please click here *click*

That aside, there's one more thing that you should be aware of - our Division K Semi Annual Convention that will be held in Sandakan (Yes, you heard it right, Sandakan!) on 25 & 26 October 2008 at Sabah Hotel. There'll be great speakers, great contests, great workshops and of course, great companionship! You can still sign up as an early bird for RM130 for everything (workshop, contest, fellowship dinner and getting to know more toastmasters, the last bit is priceless!) if you sign up and pay by 15 September 2008. Did you get it? Please call me, Norman or Amy if you are interested to know more.

Alright, i shall sign off by ending this post with a group photo from last night, have a great weekend ahead and do consider about the convention!

Evaluation and Humourous Speech Contest 27.08.2008

It was our club's evaluation and humorous speech contest yesterday and the result is as follows:-

Evaluation Speech Contest:-

Champion : Norman Chin
1st Runner Up : Alice Kok =)

Humorous Speech Contest:-

Champion : Amy Hiew with her speech title "The Evil Wind"

I am sorry to say you've missed the fun of this speech.

The contestants for the speech contest were:-

1. TM Cheong Sung Yan (Evaluation)

2. ACB, CL President Norman (Evaluation and Humorous)

3. CL Amy Hiew (Evaluation & Humorous)

4. CC Alice Kok (Evaluation)

Congratulations to TM Shane as he was so courageous to be the test speaker for the contest, good for you Shane! Same goes to CL Ling How Kee for being the Organizing Chair for this contest despite a busy schedule at work and at home , you've done a good job and thank you!

Last but not least, a BIG thank you to all who have helped taken up roles as the timer, SAA, counter, judges, chief judge and members who have showed up to show your support! Thanks!!

A message from VPE Janet Chin

I'm indeed honoured yet heavy hearted to post this message on behalf of Janet, her message is as follows:-

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Dear Beloved Toastmasters,

I’m leaving for South Korea tonight, to further my studies. This decision was made with a heavy heart and after plenty of sleepless nights. It is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life.

Although I enjoyed my wonderful job and my time as VPE in Sandakan Toastmasters Club, I decided that it is time to step out of my comfort zone, to grab the opportunity that is right in front of me, to cash in the lottery ticket…something like that. Going to Seoul will indeed be a soul-searching experience.

As a true Toastmaster, I plan to join a club in Seoul. Who knows, if you visit me, we can go to the meeting together. That would make your trip more memorable!

I am going to miss all of you. Keep in touch.

Yours truly,

Janet Chin

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Janet is leaving tonight (26/8/2008) for her soul-searching journey, those who wish to say good bye to her still can do so, please contact her on her mobile phone (012-8139978). Otherwise, you'll have to pay her a visit in Seoul or Skype her. Anyway, i believe all of us will have our warmest wishes and countless prayers to wish her all the best!

We will certainly miss you, Janet! Please drop by for updates, will ya?

What? The AGM is over?

Sorry......for.....the.....delay......

It just seems like there's only 10 hours per day now but so much to do, so little time, so much to do! However, i will still update our lovely blog and therefore, welcome to our new term of excitement and joy.

Let me introduce to all of you our new term of EXCO members:-

Back Row (Standing, from left to right)

Wong Kah Yun, TM, Bulletin Editor
Mandy Hiew, TM, Auditor
Amy Hiew, CL, Bulletin Co-Editor
Lily Chang, TM, Committee Member
Ha Cheun Ho, TM, Auditor

Lee Shui Hiung, TM, Committee Member

Front Row (Sitting, from left to right)
Margaret Liew, CTM, Treasurer
Alice Kok, CC ,Vice President – Public Relations
Janet Chin, CL, Vice President – Education
Norman Chin, CL, President (2008/2009)
Datin Grace Chiu, CL, Immediate Past President
Cheong Sung Yan, TM, Vice President – Membership
Ling How Kee, CL,Secretary
Kenny Low, TM, Sergeant At Arms

* Not in the photo: TM Jr Chia and TM Joe Pan are also our EXCO members.

~~ Round of Applause for them ~~

Although the above members have titles or ranking in the club, that doesn't mean they are more superior than the others, in actual fact, the EXCO members are here to serve all of you better while all of us help each other, in one way or another, driving the club ever forward. As most of you are aware, our club had achieved the "President Distinguished Club" for the 6th time and this was due to the effort and dedication of every member because the goals that are set, it is achieved by the passion and contribution of every member who is willing to participate in the Toastmasters Program in order to get the goals met.

Hence, i hope each and everyone of you will keep up the good work, not only to bring our club to a higher level, but also to shape a better and brighter you.

Last but not least, there was a small yet warm birthday celebration for 3 birthday boys - TM Ha, CTM Henry and our new member, TM Shane and this is what you get when you put 3 boys together.

P/s: The Installation is around the corner, like next week? Have you get your tickets yet?

Annual General Meeting - 26.06.2008

Hello Everyone,

If you are not aware that our term 2007/2008 is coming to an end, you better be now. Having said that, the AGM will be held on this coming Thursday (26 June 2008) at Mark's Lodge (Function Room), 7pm.

Do come and support the outgoing and incoming EXCO.

See you on Thursday!

p/s: Anyone hasn't buy a ticket for the installation yet? Please contact me or Norman. Thanks.

Appreciation Night.

We celebrated Father's Day a little bit different this year, we attended the appreciation night dinner organized by Mdm. President at Higashi Tei. We, in turn, being thanked for our efforts contributed, in one way or another, to our beloved club during this term that is going to end soon. *kudos for the generosity of Datin Grace*

It was pouring cats and dogs last night but the dinner was cozy and fun, with about 20 members turned up, we enjoyed the delicious Japanese delicacies and a lot of toasting that came with warm wishes.

Last night, Datuk Hassan grabbed this golden opportunity to present a brief speech and that's the spirit of toastmasters. Like he always emphasize to us, his hobby is talking and there you go, he did what he's best at doing and he's such a motivation to most of us.

I believed everyone enjoyed themselves very much during the dinner because there were blatant laughter, non-stop chit chatting and of course, endless supply of red wine, that's why do not be surprised that everyone was blushing and tipsy, except me *hehehe*

The ever bubbly Amy was very popular last night, thus we have so many shots of her and with her, see....

On a another note, Mdm. President was already handling over her "throne" to her successor, Norman while she prepares to conquer another role as the Area Governor, not forgetting to urge us to give our full support to him and continue to support her as the Area Governor. Of course we will, don't worry, you are not alone.

Like i always say, happy moments passed by so quickly that they seemed like a glimpse when you recall them. New term is around the corner and please be reminded that the Annual General Meeting will be held on 26 June 2008 at Mark's Lodge, Function Room. Your attendance will Make A Difference to the club and you are always welcome to show your support to the outgoing and incoming EXCO members and officers.

I will end with a fav photo from last night, reminds me of New York Girls, although only 3 of us in the photo.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow" - Albert Einstein