Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club (Kuala Lumpur)

New Blogsite for Speakers' Dream TMC

2010-09-07T22:46:00.004+08:00

Dear All,

I am pleased to inform that Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club has a new blogsite. All new postings will continue to be posted there.

The new address of the blogsite is as follows:
http://sdtmc.wordpress.com/

Do click here to take you to the new blogsite.

Signing off

KC Leong
SDTMC Webmaster 2010

GOOGLE "KC & the Sunshine Runners" blogsite, or click:
http://penguin-r2.blogspot.com/

Club Meeting on 26 July 2010

2010-08-15T20:14:00.004+08:00

It was indeed a night to relax, have a good belly laugh and more importantly to be with friends that share a common interest - which is to talk to crowds! Public speaking is not so terrifying if you know the how, and with the who to guide you, you are on your journey to removing your butterflies! (literally?)

The meeting kicked off by our ASA ATMS, ALS Lim Hin Chong leading the national anthem and followed by introduction of all members (something like warming up before you start your exercise). Thereafter, our President Lawrence, ACB shared with us some very significant dates that include the following:

(1) 9th August – Our club level’s Humorous Speech and Evaluation Speech contest

(2) 14th August – Area W Humorous Speech and Evaluation Speech contest

(3) 25th September shall be the installation of our club’s officers for the term 2010/2011

(4) 11th October shall be our Tall Tale contest

(5) November and December (the actual dates are to be determined), we shall be having Speech Craft and a workshop by none other than our DTM K Loghandran

We had our humour master / do your thing session after a hiatus for a couple of meetings by our very own DTM K. Loghandran. He tickled us pink with his version of acronyms when introducing the journey of achieving Distinguished Toastmasters journey. Prior to Competent Communication, it was formally known as Competent Toastmaster or “Cannot Talk Much”. It is amazing to know that we cannot talk much after completing all the 10 project speeches, reckon that may be the core reason to changed them from CTM to CC. So what is the meaning of CC? (still scratching my head to think of something funny but cannot be funny seriously!)

We were showered with creative ideas from none other than our meteorologist daughter who is also a very new member, Michelle. After completing her ice breaker speech at the last meeting, she took the bull by the horns when she signed up to become the Table Topics Master. Her ingenious titles on the theme “weather” were so creative that it keeps us thinking hard.

When Mun Yuen spoke on “Snowflakes are kisses from heaven”, she recounted her nearest vision was during her Japan trip which was more of ice than that of snow and it was very dirty too. Reckon being in a HOT HOT HOT country, like me, we get kisses of sun ray and never any of snow flakes here!

Bob was given “Below the starry night” where he tried to rekindle his love with his significant half and seemed very starry eyed himself. I got so imbued into his starry story that I have forgotten his tale, so much for being in the starry, starry mood too! When Darcy Steinhardt was given the title “Raining cats and dogs” he captivated us with his definition of the term and continued to tickle us with his jokes. He is indeed a natural entertainer and our club’s champion table topic speaker. So need I say further that he clinched the award of the best table topic speaker? Duh! Bravo Darcy, and we need you to teach us so that Speakers’ Dream can continue to ‘produce’ champion table topics speakers like you.

Wong shared that his weather was never down considering having retired for 10 years now when he was bombarded with the title “My weather is a bit down”. This lucky man does not need to be in the rat race anymore or to rush to the office to punch card or sign in as he has been calling his shots where finances are concern. Ratnam had a twist on his story about “on a full moon night”. He shared with us on how he managed to force his wife to accept his proposal. Reckon his trick shall not work with 21st century ladies who are now more mobile and shall gladly ask him to hand over his car keys (wink). Hin Chong shared his banking experience as an experienced banker but did not state anything about the “rain check”. I was fascinated with your expertise, yet confused with your delivery at the same time, however, it was a very good technical speech there sir!

When our Toastmasters of the Evening IPP Ismail CTM continued to introduce the core of the meeting which is the project speeches we continued to have ice breaker speeches. This was delivered by yet another student Choong who shared his experience on public speaking before telling us that he is very determined to perfect his skills by joining none other than Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters club. As a first time speaker, he could deliver his jokes with a straight face! Choong, you should sign up to compete in the Humorous Speech contest since there is no requirement to complete 6 speeches prior to the competition.

When Weng Cheong shared his “Sweet Smell of Success” on his CFP journey he was so animated that I was wondering if he could be more suited to becoming an actor rather than that of a financial planner. Well, that was my observation and opinion sir so all the best on your results. We know with your commitment and hard work you can definitely get your certification.

If you are familiar with the term “leaving the best for last”, it always applies in our club. The last speech was delivered by none other than our President ACB Lawrence entitled “How to be humorous, seriously!”. He is an eloquent speaker, actor cum entertainer. His acronym of successful humorous speaking was GAS. As I was so engrossed in laughing that I could only recall GOOGLE and reckon for the rest, your guess shall be as good as mine haha……..He was nominated the best project speaker that evening. Bravo President and we look forward to hearing more of your speeches.

As for best evaluators, Darcy Steinhardt walked away with the award as a very natural evaluator. He walked away with two awards that night, and if this continues we may be noted of having some conspiracy in our club. But I can guarantee you that he is REALLY good. So if you want to know more then drop by at our club, cause we never fail to entertain. We had such great relaxing moments and we have successfully arrested the issue of fear for public speaking. So if you have not been visiting us, you have just missed the recent “flight” but fear no more, cause for YOU we have fortnightly flights on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month. Check us out cause we will continue to wow and tickle you pink. Where else can you find a place that allows you to exercise your lungs!

Our next “flight” shall be on 9th August 2010 (Monday) where we will entertain you with our club’s Humorous Speech and Evaluation Speech Contest. We have lined up great entertaining speakers and do grab your seats to avoid disappointment.
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Back to you

K Loghandran shares about the journey as a Toastmaster member...towards DTM.

Hope people get some valuable pointers from GAS.

Induction of Elwinder Singh.

Induction of Choong Wai Kiat, our newly Ice-breaker. Eldest son, with an admirable drive to succeed at such a young age.

Induction of Asyfar Rahman.

Induction of Ng Lay Choo.

Light session with the Area Governor, CC Kang

This photo is doubled for 2 wins for Darcy. He won both Table Topic Speaker and Evaluation Speaker. He can't lose!!!

President and VPE with the Extol TMC Guests, Ratnam, Kwa (President), Bob and PY Wong. Huge honor to have them attending our club.
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Written by Ng Lay Choo, VPPR.
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Posted by KC, Webmaster.

Club Meeting on 12 July 2010

2010-08-15T20:02:00.003+08:00

Our young and good looking President Lawrence made his inaugural presidential speech by giving due recognitions to the past presidents and founder. His magnanimous gratitude touched my heart, more so when he spoke with such genuineness. He continued to recognise the new team with a very colourful and humorous introduction that was crafted nicely for each and every EXCO member. I trust the club shall continue to have a very interesting and colourful term under his leadership and we shall be glad to serve such an effervescent leader.

The TME of the evening was none other than ATMS, ALS Lim Hin Chong who is such a polished speaker that I was completely captivated even when he sometimes reminiscences about the FIFA world cup you can see the sparkle in his eyes for his love for football. He is a polished diamond with all the Cs (every ladies best friend too!).

Our Immediate Past President, CTM Ismail managed to introduce an interesting table topic by allowing the speakers to reminiscence about their past (something I shall avoid completely as I do forget to comb my hair at times – or should I be honest and declare all the time haha…..).

6 very brave speakers shared their views of the past and although Teck Lee managed to tickle me pink, it was our General Evaluator (the very handsome) Vijayendran Vijayaratnam fondly known as Viji aka ‘Sam’ in the latest play The Condo Cocoon that managed to clinch the best speaker with his pristine Christine. If there was an award for the most frequent usage of the word of the day, he shall be the KING of Pristine! (even the grammarian Vincent lost count, maybe should have loaned you my fingers and toes Vince!). It was then I got to know that he champs the tall tale contest (hmmm interesting and colourful gentleman).

Although our eloquent speaker Hin Chong continued to mesmerise us with his control of the meeting, he fumbled when he had to introduce all four very beautiful, young and eloquent speakers (power of beauty eh! Well guys you get completely intoxicated by beauties don’t you?)

It is amazing to witness all four almost polished diamonds delivering their prepared speeches. Tonight we had a good mix of 3 speeches from the Competent Communication manual and 1 from the Advanced Communication – Specialty Speeches manual.

Michelle our new ‘baby’ member (as she is very young, well compared to this dinosaur sigh!) shared about herself in her Ice Breaker speech. We got to know that Michelle was an ABC (not ais batu campur but American Born Chinese). Though she claims not to be fluent in English you should not be deceived by that, cause well, she did not murder the Englishman (where most Malaysians do when we speak Manglish) but merely bruised them a bit J

Pearly delivered her very well researched speech by throwing us a very hard question “What would you do if your mother was sick?” It awakened us when her analogy was that of Mother Nature. It was indeed captivating and very informative. We learnt that nursing Mother Nature is as easy as ABC too. Wow, yet another ABC? In this case we should consciously reduce our usage of Air conditioning, Bags and emission of Carbon dioxide. Of course, to do that she gave us a rundown of some chemistry lessons which I trust she uses the model called “If you cannot convince us, please confuse us”. We were gladly confused by your bombardment of gases (hmm no flatulence here).

When Jebbie introduced the patterns of sleeping that tells your personality it was interesting to observe the Steinhardts nodding vigorously, smiling widely before Darcy pointed that Chrissy is a soldier. Well Chrissy you can run but you cannot hide cause we are reading you like a book now!

Finally, we leave the best for last as, Loretta aka Angela in the play and our lead actor presented her winning speech on having our hairy audacious dreams. So dream everyday people and if you get fired by your boss just reply that only leaders are dreamers! So remember to quote Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Bill Gates etc.

The Steinhardts are naturally great evaluators, as they are very generous with their commendations which is a great booster and succinct in their recommendations. It is a lesson I feel we Asians are lacking. As an avid ‘clubber’ I hear more recommendations than commendations and there was one time where the evaluator was excited to find a speaker’s weakness - sigh! I was once evaluated that I look very fierce, so any donation for a plastic surgery into Joker?

So if you want to have fun, find Speakers Dream as we continue to produce a myriad of entertainers and not to forget polished diamonds too. Learning from the best always comes from the best club. See you all on 26th July 2010.

Back to you

Table Topic Winner: Vijay. Talked about his most memorable moment in the year "2008". No Marylin Monroe but ladies galore all the same :), Fantasy notwithstanding

Michele "ABC" Chang who just completed her Ice Breaker. Thoroughly enjoyable and we love her more after hearing from her.

Assignment Speaker winner: Loretta. She made me feel young again. Wait... I am young..

Evaluator Winner: Darcy. He made evaluations of Pearly Chong effervescently entertaining while at the same time educational.
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Written by Ng Lay Choo, VPPR
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Posted by KC, Webmaster.

Spot-On Theatre Production

2010-07-11T15:35:00.003+08:00

Funny Money (2006)

The very hilarious first show by Spot-On Theatre Production, produced by Siew Chien and starred the famous Monty and Loggie. Funny Money brings people to the insider stories of banks, whether legal or illegal, with hilarious touch of the re known lines of Monty and Loggie. It also features some famous politicians ...

Please click here to view the short video created by Lawrence Hoo. Turn on the speaker volumn.

I Will Survive (2008)

This is the third production by Spot-On Theatre. Shown in the old The Actors Studio location at Bangsar Shopping Complex.

Please click here to view the video created by Lawrence Hoo. Turn on the speaker volumn.

Posted by KC

Club Meeting 28 June 2010

2010-07-11T15:19:00.004+08:00

Make your Life a Mission – Not an Intermission

‘The Condo Cocoon’ drama at the Spot-On Theatre was marvelous, with our Toastmasters displaying their natural talent for acting on stage! The audience was entertained, laughing, and gave encouraging feedback to our actors. Our dear Toastmasters looked stunning on stage, and all of them applied skills from what they have learned in the club. Of course, we would also like to thank our charming producer, DTM Siew Chien, stage manager CC Ismail Fahmy, graphic designer Jack How, PJ Live Arts for technical assistance, and not forgetting everyone who came to watch our performance!

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Now moving on to report on our latest meeting:

It was another prodigious Monday night on 28 June 2010 as we welcome our wonderful guests into our meeting. We celebrate the return of our enthusiastic guests, Wei Li and Mr. Lee, as well as Helsadiq from Sudan! AMAZING! We thank Helsadiq again for taking his time to see our speakers in action! It is also the day when we had Michele, a student from Tunku Abdul Rahman College who have just registered in as our newest member, as well as Elwinder who did his CC No. 1 Speech!

We are happy that our club is growing bigger and bigger with new, young members!

Our TME, Chow Mun Yuen, still ecstatic from her previous acting performance, gave an introductory speech on how joining Toastmasters would not just improve your public speaking skills, but also transforms you into a better, aspired individual. Toastmasters open up new opportunities for members to not just speaking, but also acting, directing and script-writing too.

Table Topics Master ACB Ng Lay Choo was gleefully delighted to present her ‘Table Topics Goodies’ to our TT Speakers. Our first speaker, Chrissy Steinheardt was pleasantly surprised when she picked out a cereal box from Lay Choo’s bag of goodies. To our amazement, Chrissy threw the cereal box on the ground and made a strong objection that cereals are not good for health. Chrissy shared that when she was young, she was living off a nightmarish cereal diet, and when she did a hair medical check-up, she found out she was deficient in 19 minerals! She lamented that cereal is merely junk food and vowed not to consume cereal ever again. (At the end of the speech, Lay Choo comically shoved the cereal box into Chrissy’s hands when Chrissy tried to run away!)

Our second TT speaker, Wei Li picked out a cute fruit toothpick and was assigned a task to advertise it. Our third speaker, Helsadiq from Sudan got himself a funky Chinese herbal packet, and was asked to introduce the nutrition in the drug. We were amused to hear how a Sudanese would comment on Chinese herbs in his own point of view!

Our fourth speaker, Mr. Lee picked out a chamomile tea packet and was asked to speak on merits of drinking tea. An extraordinary tea connoisseur as he is, he explained on how tea would be a much healthier, tastier option than coffee. We were astounded by his wide vocabulary of words he used to describe tea and coffee itself! For a moment there, I thought he was really marketing tea.

Fifth speaker, Lawrence Hoo got himself an ang-pau packet and was then asked whether if he agrees that it is meritous to give ang-pau to singles. Lawrence gave a really funny statement that an ang-pau means a declaration of loneliness! He further added that it is a conundrum to give away ang-paus to declare that you’re married because it is difficult for married people who have lots of financial commitments.

With the end of Table Topics, we were proud to announce the Best Table Topic Speaker to tea connoisseur extraordinaire, Mr. Lee! (Unfortunately, he left earlier so I didn’t get to take a picture of him. Oops).

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Alright, now it’s time to get the ball rolling with our CC speeches!

TM Vincent Chow presented a CC No. 4 speech on ‘The Art of Falling Down’. He spoke up on proactivity and reactivity (living life positively or negatively) and gave suggestions on how to deal with challenges that hit us hard in the face, and control how we respond.

ACG Simon Soh did his last CC No. 10 speech on ‘Change’ as his farewell speech before ‘retiring’ on 1st July 2010. Simon encouraged us members to move along with changes happening in our life, and get prepared to go into the unknown. Moreover, he appealed that to be a good speaker; he or she doesn’t need to be fluent in speaking a language, it’s how changed a person becomes to make his speech sincere and meaningful. No one would trust a speaker who doesn’t speak out from his own heart. Simon ended his speech by saying that Speakers’ Dream is a wonderful club, and we all have dreams to fulfill. Simon shall remember every one of us as his best friends, and he shall leave the club with a lot of pride.

We thank you, Simon for being our best friend and mentor too. You have done so much to Speakers’ Dream, and we do wish you could come back as a guest for our future meetings.

Up next, it’s our newest member TM Elwinder Singh to present his CC No.1 Speech on ‘The Defining Moments of My Life’. He gave a Swiss-Cheese version of his speech by starting off with his memories as an 11 year old boy learning Bahasa Malaysia from his neighbor. He remembered his neighbor told him that if he wants to succeed, he has to work hard. He took that advice to heart and as a result, he excelled in his Bahasa Malaysia exam, and would soon achieved his SPM years later with flying colors! He also learned to be tough when he joined a rugby team full with muscled boys. In the end, he joined Speakers’ Dream so that he can become a better speaker and also improve his confidence too.

With Simon’s emotional speech, he won himself the Best Speaker Award for the night! Congratulations, Simon! You deserved it.

Next, the Best Evaluator Award goes to ACS, CL Alfred Koh for evaluating Simon Soh!

That is the end of our report on the night’s meeting. We thank our roleplayers, speakers and evaluators for making this meeting wonderful for us, our guests and Simon.

Cheers. Rawr!
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Written by: TM Vincent Chow

Posted by: KC Leong
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Farewell to Simple Simon

2010-07-11T15:07:00.007+08:00

On 1 July 2010, ACG Simple/ Funny/ Amazing Simon Soh left Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club. Simon’s bubbly, yet wise personality has surely made his presence felt in every TM meeting, not just as an amazing speaker but also a dearest friend in our hearts.

For every fortnight, we would be clutching our seats, eyes fixated on the agenda paper, curiously wondering what Simon will say in his next speech. We would be awed and amazed by Simon’s impactful speeches, spiced with heartfelt wisdom, warm sincerity and a pinch of humor.

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Here is just a small list of his major achievements as a Toastmaster:

1) Achieved Toastmasters Educational Distinction (ACG) distinction. However, he still repeated the Communication and Leadership Manuals to help the club achieve DCPs.

2) Won Speakers’ Dream Toastmaster of the Year Award on year 2009.

3) Actively competed in club contests.

4) Represented club in area contests, one of which he became a 1st runner-up, and then champion in Area W6 International Speech and Table Topics contests respectively.

5) Brought in enthusiastic people to become new members of the club.

6) Filled in for absent officers.

7) Took up roles when not dong speeches.

8) Occasionally won Best Speaker and Best Evaluator awards.

9) Served as an encouraging mentor to other speakers.

10) Visited other clubs to do speeches.

11) Volunteered to take on special assignments which enhanced the quality of the club and offered to do CL to help club in achieving DCPs.

12) Whether in officer position or not, he was a keen Toastmaster.

13) Conducted various workshops.

14) When he personally developed himself, the club also benefited from his wealth of thoughts and experiences.

List of Simon’s achievements compiled by Chow Mun Yuen. Many thanks!

He will certainly be missed in every meeting in the future, and we do hope Simon shall come to SDTMC as a guest.

Whenever I see an empty seat in the hall, I’d be reminded of Simon. He had left a legacy, an imprint of himself in the club, and it is up to us, the new blood of SDTMC to continue living his legacy, and make him proud.

We shall strive not to be better speakers, but to be a better self. That we shall promise

Simon Soh proudly showing his coveted Speakers’ Dream Toastmaster of the Year 2009 Award

Simon together with Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters.

Simon just can’t wait to use his camera to capture our Toastmasters’ gleeful faces!

Simon won the Humorous Speech Contest in 2008.

Happy day at SDTMC!

Ps: Photos sourced from Simon Soh’s Facebook.

Written by: Vincent Chow

Posted by: KC Leong
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Triumphant Night

2010-06-27T15:21:00.003+08:00

Despite the chilly air-conditioned room where we had our Toastmasters’ meeting on Monday, 14 June 2010, it certainly felt warm with excitement! For this day, we were honored to have Ng Lay Choo (ACB,CL) grace our meeting as our General Evaluator, as well with Nini from Advanced KL Toastmasters’ Club along with 7 beautiful ladies as our guests. We were also happy when our charming Weng Cheong was back after his long break from Toastmasters’!

The meeting started off with an impact when K. Loghandran got the ball rolling by asking fellow Toastmasters’ and our guests to share among ourselves their victorious moment in their lifetime. In my eyes, I see each and every one of us have once achieved their feats of victory, but only because we were ferociously ambitious and determined to fulfill our ambitions to attain success.

Our humble President, Ismail Fahmy gave a motivational speech on overcoming the fear of speaking, and emphasized that with practice, we become better prepared. Moreover, he added that Toastmasters have helped so many of us not only get through with their nervousness on stage, it also allows us to communicate vividly and confidently with people, thus makes it easier for us to make new friends. Not just that, he said that the confidence to speak in public can transform us holistically and become positive, and these will help us to expand in our careers and open up new paths to opportunities along the way.

Koh Teck Lee, our wonderful TME got us even attached together when he asked us to shake hands with another person beside us and at the same time, we compliment each other. It’s amazing that such a simple gesture can change the way we view ourselves and the people around us, because we feel great by giving sincere compliments.

Of course, we were really excited when K. Loghan comes up on stage and ‘Did His Thing’. He encouraged us that when we, speakers wanted to make a point, it’s best to use stories that come close from our hearts to get the message across. He got us curious when he told us a story on the famous ‘Roti Bom’ in Ampang.

The story goes: “There is a Pakistani gentleman who always makes fresh Roti Bom in his small stall. He would coat it with sugar or with a nice knob of butter, pairing it up with a heart-warming plate of hot curry or tandoori chicken, and a large glass of orange juice the size of a 7-Eleven Big Gulp. However, his stall was torn down four times by the local authorities. He and his Indonesian friends did not give up and brought the matter up to the government. In the end, the government sets up numerous stalls alongside his, however the Pakistani’s stall becomes the biggest! More and more people come to his stall more often, and in one day, he can sell more than 40 chickens in one day!”

Photo Courtesy of ti3n’s blog

How did Loghan know the story? It was the person who sells the 40 chickens a day to the Pakistani who told it, and the legacy of the Pakistani lives on. Loghan made a point that even if the story comes from somewhere else, we can sincerely convince our audience that the story is our own by making it believable. Make a story that is both laughable and that connects!

New Toastmaster, Vincent Chow as our Table Topics Master presented topics on ‘The Best Job in the World’. Our Table Topic Speakers were really marvelous today! Weng Cheong came up first and did his take on ‘CEO’. Our first guest, Audrey aroused us with her take on ‘Sea Diver’ by showing how beautiful it is to dive and see the beautiful underwater sights. Comedian Mun Yuen, as always, made the audience laughed when she got ‘Food Critic’. Our young second guest, Michele tried ‘Travelling Host’ by exclaiming what job could be better than a host of your own travel show, while the next guest, Wei Li did her take on ‘Singer’ by expressing how singing can contribute to society.

Ultimately, Nini was amazing when she did her take on what seems an impossible topic on ‘Gigolo!’ (Courtesy of Vijay for putting in that as a Table Topic). With that, Nini was awarded the Best Table Topics Speaker. Congratulations, Nini!

Here comes the moment we’re all been waiting for: Speeches!

TM Jeremy Phang presented his CC No. 2 speech on his ‘Accidental Career’. He put us on his journey when as a child, his ambition was to become a chauffeur because it looks cool when he wear his black uniform and gets to drive people around. Then he had an inspiration to become a pilot because he could fly people around, and make himself even cooler. However, as time passed by, he found his hidden passion from writing, and with constant ‘encouragement’ from his parents and friends, he became a lawyer. He ended up loving his profession as a lawyer even more than becoming either a pilot or a chauffeur. Jeremy concluded his speech by saying that ‘Everything has a purpose’.

TM Mark Lee delivered his CC No. 5 speech on the ‘Rat Race’ – how to gain financial retreat in times of rushing deadlines. He showed moments when he jogged on stage while speaking at the same time! (Even I could not do it.) He mentioned the concept of ‘Delay Gratification’ – If we want something now, we pay the price now and raised up that the same beliefs that got us into the rat race may even be able to get us out of it. The moral goes: If we plan properly and know our own values, we need not always be rushing like mad in the rat race.

ACG Simon Soh (aka Simple/ Funny/ Sentimental Simon) got us curious on his CC No. 7 speech on ‘Why People Fall In Love?” The reasons why people love, he said, is not because of emotions or fate; it is nature’s way to ensure survival of the human species. He commented that love is the result of concoctions and cocktails of sex hormones! (I think I caught dopamine, adrenaline, serotonin, oxytocin, and vitopresin!) He ended by saying don’t blame ourselves if we love someone – it’s due to chemicals within yourself – that leads to selfless love.

With Simon’s lustful speech on love, he won himself Best Speaker Award! Congratulations, Simple Simon!

Nini also won herself her Best Evaluator Award as well! Congratulations to Nini again for your double awards!

Even Vijay, our Timekeeper couldn’t keep his excitement when he turned on all the lights the moment the winners were announced.

With that ends our Toastmasters’ meeting. A BIG THANK YOU to all our roleplayers, participants and our guests too! Your support, your presence and your contribution made it a WONDERFUL meeting.

To all our fellow guests and members, this Friday and Saturday shall be our very own ‘The Condo Cocoon’ drama starring Mun Yuen, Loretta, Simon Soh, Vijay, K. Loghandran, Larry Hoo and Lay Choo! (Who doesn’t want to see Lawrence in action, eh?)

Ps: Tune in next week for photos on the drama! Not forgetting, catch up with us for our report on next fortnight’s TM meeting at KGPA Golf Course off Bukit Kiara. With then, ciaoz!

Cheers! RAWRR!

Written by: Vincent Chow, TM

Posted by: KC Leong

Spot-On Theatre’s The Condo Cocoon

2010-06-13T19:28:00.002+08:00

Spot-On Theatre’s “The Condo Cocoon”

Click here for an article that appears in New Straits Time on 11 June 2010

Where: PJ Live Arts Sdn Bhd, 2A-3 Block K, Jaya One, Section 1372A Jalan Universiti, Petaling Jaya

When: June 18-19, 8.30pm

Admission: RM50. Tel: 03-7960 0439 (11am to 6 pm )

The Play

It tells of Angela, a straight A student who is set up by her own ex-schoolmates to marry a playboy lawyer. The marriage ends in divorce. Years later, when Angela meets an ex-convict, Sam, and learns the truth, she plans her revenge. Cast includes Lolitha Chin (Angela), Vijay V. (Sam), Chow Mun Yuen (Tora, ex-classmate), Larry Hoo (Golan, condo spirit who knows everything) and Lay Choo (Cheh Cheh, Angela’s stepsister).

Posted by KC

Drama Comedy - The Condo Cocoon

2010-05-31T22:19:00.006+08:00

Spot-On Theatre’s 4th production

The Condo Cocoon

Genre : Dark Comedy

Concept: When a woman takes revenge, there is no stopping

Theme: You have got to be street smart to survive

Date: 18 & 19 June 2010

Time: 8:30 p.m.

Venue: PJ Life Arts in Jaya One ... 2A-3, Block K, Jaya One, Section 13, 72A Jalan University, 46200 Petaling Jaya.

Website:http://www.pjla.com.my/

Box Office:Phone: 603- 7960 0439

Admission Fee:
RM 50 per ticket (call Box Office for early birds & groups discounts; Other terms and conditions apply)

Produced by:
Sew Chen

Directed by:
Loggie

Organized by:
Spot-on Theatre Petaling Jaya

Synopsis

This is a story of how Angela, a straight Ace student, is set up by her own ex-schoolmates to marry a playboy lawyer. The marriage ends in divorce. For three years she remained cocooned in her Condo trying to understand life. She tumbles upon Sam, an ex-convict, and learns about the truth. Angela plans her revenge in the quiet of her condo. While taking revenge, she sets herself up to rise to the higher levels of management. Each scene is supported by Golan the condo spirit. Her whole plan is revealed at the last scene.

The Casts

1. Angela the main character: Lolitha

2. Sam the ex-convict: Vijay J

3. Tora the exclassmate: Mun Yuen

4. Kelly the ex classmate: Kelly

5. Cheh Cheh the step sister of Angela: Lay Choo

6. CEO of Angel’s company: Simon Soar

7. Golan the condo spirit who knows everything: Larry Hoo

8. Security Guard of the condo: Logi

About Spot-On Theatre

Spot–On theatre is a unique theatre production group. The casts are all members of the Speaker’s Dream Toastmasters club. Every year a play is written.

Lolitha

Posted by KC,
Webmaster

Toastmasters Awareness Month

2010-03-01T23:19:00.001+08:00

Word of Appreciation

2010-03-01T22:00:00.001+08:00

From a guest writing to Chrissy Steinhardt, VP Membership of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club after attending one of the Club meetings during the Chinese New Year gathering cum Toastmasters meeting on 22/2/2010.

Dear Chrissy and Darcy,
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It's my pleasure to be in a toastmasters meeting. I travelled almost 40km to be there but it's worth the visit. Your club has so many great speakers and I've definitely picked up a couple of communication skills from them. I've been to lots of meetings where the speakers are dull but it's totally different in your club. All the best to both of you wonderful couple. ROAR!!!!!!!(Darcy's trademark).

Cheers.

Regards,
Dic-Syen

CNY Meeting-cum-celebration

2010-02-24T21:11:00.004+08:00

It was roaring hot on 22/2/2010 where we had 26 members and guests attending the Chinese New Year cum Roaring Toastmasters meeting. We were honored to have 2 special guests from District 51 – LGM Francis Ng, DTM and Are W6 Governor, Ng Lay Choo, ACB, CL. In addition to our normal refreshment, we had the special “Yee Sang” sponsored by Ong Siew Chien, DTM.

When I first stepped into the meeting room, I could not believe my eyes. All the 4 walls were decorated with the word – FOOK pasted upside down and red packets. There were pomelos and nien kao beautifully arranged on a red table in the centre front of the meeting room. All of us felt energized, prosperous and VERRY ONNGG indeed!

The Toastmaster of the Evening, Mok Soo Pon, ATMB, CL was not only dress to the occasion but also kept the energy high throughout the meeting.

One of the highlights of the evening is the Chinese Tea session conducted by Alfred Koh, ACS, CL. He demonstrated the process step by step. He brought his personal tea set, the room’s décor and even the red table all the way from Gua Musang. Special thanks to Alfred. We also celebrated Alfred’s birthday with the HAPPY BIRTHDAY song and cake.

Table Topic Master Chrissy Steinhardt packaged the topics perfectly by incorporating the theme of the meeting - Roaring Toastmasters Meeting and the word of the day - Prosperous. 2 of our guests took up the challenge and one of the guests – Cik Faz became the Best Table Topic Speaker.

We were mesmerized by very interesting project speeches. Darcy was fantabuluous with his body movements sharing his helicopter experience. Lawrence was superb in his adaptation of the movie – Lord of the Rings. Mun Yuen was dead serious with her topic – Going with the Flow. Hats off to the project speakers!

Simon Soh, ACG tickled us with a humorous evaluation of Darcy’s speech using the acronym – V I A G R A. Simon is no more simple Simon but funnyman Simon. The General Evaluator, Grace Tan, CTM, CL was so meticulous in her overall evaluation that even the Table Topic Evaluator, yours truly, was given a written evaluation of my evaluation.

As the Organizing Chairman for this Roaring Toastmasters meeting, I take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the role players, sponsors and participants. Your support, your presence and your contribution made it a WONDERFUL meeting.

Cheers!

Koh Teck Lee
Vice President of Public Relations

Posted by KC Leong

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Toastmaster Awareness Month

2010-02-22T22:23:00.005+08:00

Toastmaster Awareness Month with Speakers' Dream Toastmaster Club

Theme of the evening: Your 8th World Wonder

Come and join us!!

All, including non-toastmaster club members are welcome.

Date: Monday 8 March 2010

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Venue: Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam, KGPA, Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Direction: Opposite Eastin Hotel. If you are coming from Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam or Klang, after Shell and Petronas stations, turn left at the traffic light (below the ramp of the Sprint Highway).

Call Lawrence Hoo: 012-2999425

or email: lawrencehoo76@yahoo.com

for more information.

Posted by KC Leong
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Congratulations!

2010-01-16T10:10:00.003+08:00

What an amazing Monday night (11 January 2010) ! We had 4 contestants for the International Speech Contest and 7 contestants for the Table Topics Contest. All of them did their best in entertaining the audience with their creative and inspiring speeches.

May I present you the results for both the Contests :-

International Speech Contest
Champion : Lawrence Hoo, CC
1st Runner-up : Simon Soh. ACG
2nd Runner-up : Koh Teck Lee, ACB, ALS

Table Topics Contest
Champion : Simon Soh, ACG
1st Runner-up : Chrissy Steinhardt
2nd Runner-up: Darcy Steinhardt

The champion and 1st runner-up for both the Contests will represent Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club to the Area W6 International Speech and Table Topics Contest hosted by SAI Masters Toastmasters Club.

Details as follows :-

When : Sunday, 24/1/2010 from 4.00 pm to 6.30 pm

Where : 24, Jalan Abdullah, Off Jalan Bangsar, 59000 Kuala Lumpur

Cheers!

Koh Teck Lee
Vice President of Public Relations

Joint Meeting with Mid-Valley Toastmasters Club

2010-01-05T20:38:00.004+08:00

On 28 December 2009, a joint meeting was conducted between Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club and Mid-Valley Toastmasters Club.

The meeting was formally opened with the presidential address delivered by Ismail Fahmi, the President of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club.

It was indeed a great evening with entertaining speeches.

World-renowned distinguished speaker, K. Loghandran, Runner-up at the World International Speech Contest 2008, presented a humor session. He has the audience in stitches: they laughed and laughed...

Lawrence Ho won the Prepared Speeches Category with his topic "So What's Next".

Click here to read full texts written by Mid-Valley Toastmasters Club.

President of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club, Ismail Fahmi

Posted by KC Leong,
Webmaster.

Public Communicator

2009-11-17T22:37:00.012+08:00

Win as a
"Public Communicator"
rather than a Public Speaker

The difference can mentally orientate you towards winning.

This workshop will help you in the techniques of engagement.

Pick up on the techniques used consciously and unconsciously.

Our presenter has been interviewed by the Neuro Semantics group toelicit his mental strategies so that others may model him. The primafacie findings of the Neuro Semantics group will be shared with you.

Our presenter

DTM K.Loghandran

World Award Winner in Public Speaking
1993- World Taped Speech Champion
2008 - 1st Runner up World Championships of Public Speaking

Loghan @Loghandran is a performance improvement consultant, Keynote Speaker, Coach in Public Speaking, sales, and customer service. He is also an International stand upcomedian, having performed in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia. He is heavily involved in audience engagement as a Producer, Director, Actor and playwright of 23 English Theatre plays. He is also an author of two books on banking and a book on tips onpublic speaking. He is also an actor in the Malay TV series comedy "Alamak".

Book a date with Loghan, DTM on :-

Date: 15 Dec 2009 (Tuesday)

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Venue: Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA) Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Your Investment - RM25 per pax or RM60 for group of 3

For reservations and queries, please call Sew Chen 012-3113026

Organised by : Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club

From: Koh Teck Lee

Vice President of Public Relations

Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club

Posted by KC Leong

Webmaster

Tall Tale Contest (24 Nov 2009)

2009-11-02T21:58:00.006+08:00

Dear All,

I take this opportunity to announce the much awaited “Tall Tale” Contest to be organized by Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club.

Date : 24 November 2009, Tuesday
Venue : Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam, 1st Floor Bukit Kiara, Off Jalan Damansara,
Kuala Lumpur
Time : 7:00 pm
Ticket : RM10-00

We are targeting for 12 contestants. The contest is open to all Toastmasters in good standing. This will be on a first come first serve basis.

A tall tale is a fictional story with exaggerated details. We all crave for a good “yarn” every once in a while. The best and the funniest liars will be there. They know that you will be able to suspend your disbelief and allow the speakers to entertain you with their creative skills of yarn spinning. The speech duration is 3 to 5 minutes long.

The contest Chairman is none other than our DTM K. Loghandran. He is the 1st runner-up of Toastmasters International Speech Contest 2008-2009.

We need to tell a white lie sometimes and here is the chance for you to pick up some tips in doing so. Share this great news with all those that you know and let us have a fun and enjoyable evening together. I had attached herewith the poster for your circulation purpose.

Please call Teck Lee at 019-315 8082 or

Siew Chien at 012-311 3026 for further details.

Visit us at http://sdtmc.blogspot.com/

Cheers!

Koh Teck Lee
Vice President Public Relations 2009/2010
Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club

Gita Bayu Outdoor Meeting

2009-11-01T21:31:00.000+08:00

Dear Esteemed Members,

The outdoor meeting on Sunday 25 Oct was fantastic! There were 22 of us,which include 3 new members and 8 guests. Everybody loves Gita Bayu withits picturesque green lake and surroundings. The meeting was held on theFloating Pavilion of "The Enchanted Garden". The calm surroundings of thelake with occasional splashes of water by fish jumping out of the lakeprovided just the right ambience for Speakers Dream's outdoor meeting.Residents live amongst nature, where we were told some customised housesthere had won awards.

See attachment.

E - Floating Pavilion

Website: http://bukitgitabayu.com/

It was against this setting that saw the meeting in full swing. Theopening speech by President Ismail was very apt with this message onenvironmental preservation.

Our 1st runner up World Speech Championship, DTM K.Loghandran inspiredmembers and guests with humor and this talk on persuasion, citingSylvester Stallone.

The table topic session was conducted wonderfully by Chrissy Steinhardtwith impromptu speakers speaking from the perspective of objects thatthey are suppose to be. The session was superbly evaluated by ACS ChongSek Lee, our new member. The best table topic speaker went to Daniel whospoke as a 'handbag'.

The assignment speakers were just as captivating. We have 2 ice breakerspeeches from our new members, Paul Chan and Mark Lee who gave ussplendid details about themselves; "The Power of the Spoken Word" byDarcy Steinhardt and "Unforgettable Trip" by Tang Weng Cheong. Darcy, thebest assignment speaker, was vivid and entertaining in his presentation.
Weng Cheong aroused our interest to visit the UK with his non-manualspeech about his rotary trip there.

Finally, our invited GE from Ireland, ACB CL Michelle Coffey with her teamof evaluators sparked members on with their valuable feedback.

At the end of the meeting, surprise.surprise.3 of our non-toastmasterguests join the club without hesitation! The meeting ended with membersand guests proceeding to the Dining Pavilion to enjoy a sumptuous meal.

To members who did not manage to attend the outdoor meeting this time, ournext outdoor meeting will be at Kampar, the hometown of our lovely VPE, CCTan Mee Yee.

Best regard,

Chow Mun Yuen

Immediate Past PresidentOrganising Chair

W6 Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest

2009-11-01T16:40:00.003+08:00

Dear Fellow Members,

There were so many twists and turns days before the Area W6 Humorous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contest. First of all, there was this possibility of Lim Hin Chong not able to contest in the Humorous Speech Contest. He was under quarantine due to his colleagues confirmed down with H1N1. Things seemed to settle down on Friday morning as he completed his 7 days of quarantine.

Something happened again! At the eleventh hour that is on Friday evening, Simon Soh was unable to participate because he lost his voice. Poor Mun Yuen, she was caught in the cross fire since she was the 2nd Runner Up for the Humorous Speech Contest. For your information, Area W6 consists of only 4 clubs this term. Hence, the Champion and 1st Runner Up of each club will contest at the Area level.

I take this opportunity to salute Mun Yuen for taking up the challenge and did fantastically well to entertain the audience with her creative humour. Soo Pon, being the 2nd Runner Up for the Evaluation Contest also came in at the eleventh hour to stand in for myself as I had to stand in for Simon in the Evaluation Contest.

I am proud to announce the winners for the Area Contests as follows:

Humorous Speech Contest
Champion : Suresh Mohan [SAI Masters TMC]
1st runner-up : Suthaharan [SAI Masters TMC]
2nd runner-up : Lim Hin Chong

Evaluation Speech Contest
Champion : Mok Soo Pon
1st runner-up : Dr Devi Menon [SAI Masters TMC]
2nd runner-up : Suresh Mohan {SAI Masters TMC]

Congratulations to Hin Chong and Soo Pon for their success in the respective Contests.

Soo Pon will represent Area W6 to Divison W Speech Evaluation Contest to be held on 12th September 2009 at WIM, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail.

Registration starts at 1.00pm and lunch will be served at 1.30pm. Past District Champion, Stephen Fernando is the Emcee. He will deliver a 30 minute Humorous workshop after the Contest. The tickets are sold at RM15-00 until 24/08/09 for early birds. After 24/08/09, it will be sold at RM20-00.

Please support our Champion and get your tickets tomorrow at the club’s meeting. Should you be unable to attend tomorrow’s club meeting and wish to purchase the tickets at RM15-00, please call me at 019-315 8082 to purchase it on your behalf.

Cheers!

Koh Teck Lee,
Vice President of Public Relations

Club Officer Installation 2009

2009-07-20T22:23:00.006+08:00

Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club -- The new Club Exco 2009/2010
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PRES: Ismail Fahmy, CTM (Right 2)

VPE: Tan Mee Yee, CC (Right 3)

VPM: Jerold Yap

VPPR: Koh Teck Lee, ALS (Left 4)

SEC: Ong Siew Chien, DTM (Left 3)

TRS: Darick Wong (Left 2)

SAA: Lawrence Hoo, CC (Left 1)

IPP: Chow Mun Yuen, CTM CL
The committee members are:

Jebbie Kaur, TM (Right 1)

Darcy Steinhardt, TM
.

Click here to view photos taken by KC Leong.
(when in photo album, click Slideshow and hit F11 key)
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Dear Fellow Members,

It was truly an outstanding night where we witnessed the installation of our Club's Exco for the term 2009/2010 by our Area W6 Governor ACB, CL Ng Lay Choo.

Thereafter President CC, CL Ismail Fahmy gave an inspiring Presidential speech.

Theme for the evening - "Tribute to Michael Jackson" was the brainchild of our CC Lawrence Hoo. Almost all of our members came wearing a white glove on their left or right hand. The MC for the night, DTM K.Loghandran was dressed to the theme of the night and led the session to a great finish. Not forgetting our home grown Game Master CC Lawrence Hoo who spice up the night by requesting the participants to do the moon walk when they go up to guess the Michael Jackson's song.
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Ismail Fahmy, in-coming Club President and Chow Mun Yuen, out-going Club President

The dinner was sumptuous that we cannot help but to take extra helping. To top it up we had so many prizes and lucky draws for the night that was generously donated by our members.

After the dinner, Celine informed me that we had 11 Past Presidents in sequence - DTM Celine Teh, DTM K. Loghandran, DTM Ong Siew Chien, ALS Koh Teck Lee, ALS Lim Hin Chong, ATMS Hor Kam Peng, CL Leong Kwan Chong, ATMB Kanniaseelan, CL Gwendoline Gwee, CL Robert Hue and CL Chow Mun Yuen at the Installation. The only one that is missing is Vijay. This is what we call support with action and the new EXCO is looking up to all our Past Presidents to give their support and guidance during our club meetings.
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Koh Teck Lee and Lawrance Hoo

One of the highlight of the night is the Toastmaster of the Year Award. The person that received this award contributed significantly to the club in terms of attendance, educational awards, conducted workshop and represented our club in various contests. This person is none other than ACG Simon Soh.

We also had a "Tall Tale Contest" for the participants to tell a convincing lie. All together we had six contestants namely Simon Soh, Loretta Chin, Lim Hin Chong, Ng Lay Choo, Kanniaseelan and Mok Soo Pon. All of them did a very good job. They all look like they are professional liars in the making. "Mother of all liars is none other than Mok Soo Pon!
.

I enjoyed every bit of the programme for the night and a round of applause to the Organising Chairman CTM, CL Chow Mun Yuen and her team for a successful event.

Cheers!

Koh Teck Lee

Vice President of Public Relations

Club Officers Installation Nite

2009-07-14T20:27:00.006+08:00

Date: 18 July 2009 (Saturday)
Time: 7.30 pm – 10.00pm
Venue: Restoran Mutiara, Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam, Bukit Kiara, KL
Cost: RM35
Theme: “Tribute to Michael Jackson” - Wear white gloves, military wear, hat, white socks or even bring an orang utan etc!! Or come as you are! Make it fun!!!

Programme also includes games & a tall tale contest!

Dear Esteem Members,

Have you marked 18 July (Saturday) on your calendars? Besides the installation ofthe new EXCO team for 2009/2010, the night promises a lot of fun with games and a mini TALL tale contest!

Yes, a tall tale contest which anyone can join. The liar will be given a 1-2minutes to lie on stage. The best liar will be selected by the audience.

Where else can you lie with the blessings of everyone? So, start thinking on how to lie convincingly! Strategise and have lots of fun that night!
.

The theme for our Installation Night is "Tribute to Michael Jackson". So, please, if you can, wear white gloves, military wear, hat, white socks, or even bring an orang utan!! Or bring anything "Michael Jackson" to 'spirit' in the Night or just come as you are!

Please book your tickets fast with me! Bring a friend that you would like to introduce to the world of Toastmasters.

Best regards,

"A proficient liar in the making"

Chow Mun Yuen

Organising Chair
016- 218 7876

Programme
7.00 pm - Registration and arrival of guests

7.30 pm - Welcome Address by Master of Ceremony

7.45 pm - Installation Ceremony

8.00 pm - Address by New President

8.10 pm - Dinner and Lucky Draws

8.40 pm - Toastmaster of the Year Award presentation

8.50 pm - Tall Tale Contest

9.20 pm - Games

9.40 pm - Lucky Draws

9.50 pm - Sayonara and Goodnite

MICHAEL JACKSON 1958 - 2009

Chinese Set Menu

Seaweed with Seafood Soup
* * * * *
Fried dory Fish with Lemon Sauce
* * * * *
Fried Prawn Thai Style
* * * * *
Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew Nut
* * * * *
Fried Bean Curd with Mango
* * * * *
Chinese Mixed Vegetables
* * * * *
Yong Chow Fried Rice
* * * * *
Mixed Fruits
* * * * *
Chinese Tea

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Club Meeting

2009-03-07T16:24:00.005+08:00

Experience an Evening of Murder, Mystery and Mayhem!

Date: 23rd March 2009 (Monday)

Time: 7.15pm – 10.00pm

Venue: Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA) Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Cost: FOC if a Speakers Dream Toastmaster Member brings you!

Theme/dress: Detective garb- magnifying glass, trench coat, smoking pipe, cap, toy gun, handcuffs.. whatever!! Or come as you are! Make it fun!!!

All that at Speakers Dream Murder Mystery Night!

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International Speech Contest Results

2009-01-13T21:33:00.003+08:00

Event: Speakers' Dream Toastmaster International Speech Contest
Date: Monday 12 January 2009

Results of International Speech Contest:

Winner : Simon Soh
1st Runner-up: Chow Mun Yuen
2nd Runner-Up: Alfred Koh

Results of Table Topic Contest:

Winner: Alfred Koh
1st Runner-Up: Simon Soh
2nd Runner-Up: Koh Teck Lee

Congratulations to all the winners!

The Champions will represent the our club in the Area Contest on Sunday 22 Feb 2009 as follows:

Venue: Sai Master TMS
Address : 24, Jln Abdullah (Bungalow house behind Bangsar LRT)
Time: 4-7 pm
Briefing time : 3.30 pm

Please come and support Simon and Alfred!

Best regards

Lawrence Hoo
Vice President Public Relations

Demise of Ng Cheong Boon's Beloved Wife and Son

2009-01-04T10:44:00.007+08:00

We have just learnt with grief about the demise of Ng Cheong Boon's beloved wife, Chuah Bee Yang, and son, Ng Gau Heng, who passed away on 2 January 2009.
.

As reported in the Star newspaper (Saturday 3 January 2009, page N29), Cheong Boon's family, which hails from Taiping, were returning to Singapore when they encountered a tragic accident along the 143rd kilometre of the North-South Expressway. Cheong Boon and three other children suffered injuries.

Cheong Boon is a former Toastmaster member of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club who then move to work in a financial institution in Singapore. Being a good speaker, his speeches were always inspiring and entertaining.

Let us join together in expressing our deepest sympathies and condolences to Cheong Boon and members of his family on their loss. Our hearts go out to the bereaved family and we unite with them in thought and deed in this moment of profound grief.

The Cub has sent a wreath to Taiping where the funeral was held.

With Heartfelt Condolences
. A dinner hosted on 9 August 2007 by SDTMC Club members to congratulate Cheong Boon's (seated third from left) new job opportunity in Singapore. Front (L-R) Celine Teh, Robert Hue, Cheong Boon, Lim Hin Chong. Standing (L-R): Koh TL, MokSP, OngSC, HorKP, Wai Choon. Photo by KC Leong.

From Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club

Posted by KC Leong

Breakthrough to World Class

2008-12-17T21:33:00.008+08:00

(press Shift key and) Please click here to view 28 photos by courtesy of KC Leong.
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Registration of participants - Mun Yuen, Ong Siew Chien (Ismail is partly hidden)
.Light refreshment before the start of session
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Emcee of the Evening - Loretta Chin
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Good response
.
The presenter - DTM K. Loghandran, 1st runner-up of the 2008 World Speech Championship in Canada
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DTM K. Loghandran captivating the audience with his entertaining, enlightening and enriching presentation and speeches
. .

In full concentration
.

From Speakers' Dream Toastmaster Club
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BREAKTHROUGH TO WORLD CLASS
15 December 2008 (Monday)
7.15 pm
Dewan Seroja, KGPA

It was a fantastic evening with good weather. The majority of the attendees were on time to listen to our World Award Winner K Loghandran, DTM.

Dewan Seroja was fully occupied with 221 participants for this workshop. They comprised of Toastmasters from various clubs in Klang Valley, students, trainers and other professionals who came for the workshop. 50% of the attendees responded to the advertisement in the STAR Metro Diary where our President Mun Yuen faxed to them about two weeks before the event.

During the workshop, we had various queries on our club and about Toastmasters. Encik Ozain immediately submitted his membership application form during the workshop. The others who had interest to become members were in the pipeline.

The speaker in his top form managed to ‘move’ the audience and accomplished his objectives, i.e. to engage the audience with the nine emotions. The audience were certainly entertained as they received valuable input from K Loghandran, DTM.

As our club was a unique one where we have acting club, Spot-on Theatre, we have queries from other Toastmasters Club who are keen to join us as dual members.

I must specially, thank Daniel Teh, CTM who sold 60 tickets; Club President Mun Yuen who took a chance and faxed the advertisement to STAR early. Our club would like to express our thanks to STAR who assisted us by bringing in the members of community on the importance of Public Speaking to our workshop.

It was a great event where I received reservations practically everyday till the day of the event when STAR advertised our workshop. I certainly enjoyed organizing this event.

Thanks to Loretta Chin, Emcee of the Evening, who did a good job in introducing the Club and the speaker. Special thanks to KC Leong who is the photographer of the evening to capture the event for permanent remembrance.

Thank you to ALL who have made this event a success.

From the desk of Organising Committee
Siew Chien

Joint Meeting

2008-12-14T14:42:00.002+08:00

Speakers' Dream Joint Meeting

With : MII Toastmaster Club

Where: Level 2, Malaysian Insurance Institute, Jalan Sri Semantan Satu, Damansara Heights, 50490 KL

When: December 23, 2008 (Tuesday) Starting 6.45pm

There are two spots for Assignment speech and 1 for evaluator.

Other tasks allocated for Speakers' Dream are Table Topic Master, Grammarian, Ah Counter and General Evaluator.

Please contact Lawrence or Ismail for booking. Refer contacts at right sidebar.

More information about MII Toastmaster, please visit http://toastmii.blogspot.com

Posted by KC Leong

Breakthrough to World Class

2008-11-23T21:55:00.001+08:00

Dear Esteemed Members,

A workshop coming your way this 15 Dec 2008! It is conducted by our First-runner-up in the World Speech Championship in Calgary, DTM Loghandran. Don't waste this opportunity to hear from the expert himself in our homeground. You will get to watch 3 videos of Loghandran in the International competitions!

From Chow Mun Yuen

Club President

Speaker's Dream Toastmasters Club

Those with world class mentality talk about ideas. They are always looking for ways to grow, increase, become better, build, influence more,impact more, do more, be more. They associate with positive, excited people and avoid negative, limiting people.

Watch and examine for yourself three winning videos on how you can engage an audience by touching on the nine emotions. Learn about the VIAGRA formula as the speaker used on NTV7 and how a winning speech contestant used it in Bali recently.

Spend an evening with us to take your Profession or vocation to worldclass

Achieve your targets and attain best performance by using *Public speaking*

*Learn the tips from our World Award Winning Speaker

*Learn to trail blaze in areas never attempted before.*

*Analyse world class behaviour and match them.*

*Special techniques to energise your thoughts *

Conducted by DTM K. Loghandran:

**World Taped Speech Champion 1993

**1st Runners up World Championship of Public Speaking (2008)

**International Training consultant, Keynote Speaker, Coach in Public Speaking, sales, project management, teambuilding and customer service

**A Producer, Director, Actor and Playwright in English Comedy Theatre *

Date : 15 Dec 2008 (Monday)

Time : 7.15 pm to 9.30 pm

Venue: Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA)Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

*Your Investment*: RM20 per pax OR RM50 for a group of 3 pax*(inclusive of refreshments and workshop materials)*

*Who must attend this workshop :-*
Contestants for Speech Contests and Debate
Individuals who wants to make an impact in their presentations

Sales teams, Project Leaders & Managers

For reservations and enquiries, please call or sms :-*

Sew Chen: 012-311-3026 / Mun Yuen: 016 – 218-7876 *

Organised by : Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club
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Posted by KC Leong

A Toast to Public Speaking

2008-11-08T17:41:00.005+08:00

ASIA's TOP: Loghandran's achievement is the highest in the international speech contest ever to be achieved by any toastmaster at the Asian level.

WINNERS: Logandran with WCPS champion La Shunda Rundles of Texas (centre) and second runner-up, Katherine Morrison of Florida.

By Marilyn Ten
Sarawak Post (The Sunday Post on 26 Oct 2008)

The number one fear of most people is speaking in public.

But for financial training consultant, Loghandran Krishnasamy, talking in front of an audience is simply a joy and this talent of his has done the country proud when he took the first runner-up spot at the 2OO8 World Championship of Public Speaking (WCPS) in Canada this year.

About 25,000 toastmasters from 92 countries spoke at the championship, organised by Toastmasters International. Overall, more than 230,000 members from 11,000 clubs of the participating countries joined the contest.

Competitors were required to deliver a seven-minute speech and judged on core message, speech development, language and delivery techniques.

The KL-born Loghandran wowed an audience of more than. 1,500 at the contest in Calgary, Alberta, on August 26 with a seven-and-a-half minute captivating speech on "Finding the Rhythm" based on his observations of people who have everything but are not happy.

He even received a letter from the Prime .Minister's Office, congratulating him on the achievement, and attributed his success to his 15 years in Toastmasters … and that through the WCPS, had finally achieved world-class standard in public speaking.

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organisation which teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. Toastmasters Malaysia began in 1976 in Kuaala Lumpur and currently has 321 active Toastmasters Clubs, with 19 in Kuching.

Loghandran's achievement is the highest in the international speech contest ever achieved by any toastmaster at the Asian level.

The 54-year-old, in Kuching recently for the Connections Toast masters Club & Installation Night and Five Years Anniversary, shared his thoughts on public speaking with TheSundayPost.

Q: What is public speaking?
A: People are not born to be public speakers. Some are just private speakers who would rather talk among themselves. So public speaking is a skill you must develop.

Public speaking is a leadership skill. If you're good, in public speaking, people tend to think you are good in other leadership skills and you'll end up getting promoted for the wrong reasons (laughs}. That's why politicians can go up very fast and public speaking is one skill, a leader must have.
Some people may have other leadership skills but if you don't have public speaking, if you can't tell it, you can't sell it. So whatever ideas you have, you want to promote and present them ... if you can't sell the ideas, you lose out. So we must be articulate and able to sell the ideas and present them in such a way that people accept our ideas.

Q: Why did you join Toastmasters?
A: Some people join Toastmasters to face their fear of public speaking. I joined for the joy of public speaking. I was still in the banking industry then and we once had a contest just to encourage people to speak. We were each required to deliver a three-minute speech and I ended up winning and getting RM 300 for it. I remember thinking "wow, one minute for RM 100. That's not bad.”

Then I heard that Toastmasters International is a public speaking body where you deliver speeches in the club. So I joined the Penang Toastmasters Club In 1992 – I was working
there then – and when I first started, I was very raw with no structure.

But as time went by, I worked my way up and have been with Toastmasters ever since.
.

Q: How does Toastmasters work?
A: When you come to a toastmasters club, we have courses where you take assignments, each for around seven minutes. If you have finished 10 speeches, you will be known as a competent communicator. After that, you complete another 1O and you'll be recognized as an advance communicator. The member will be promoted from bronze to gold after completion of every 10 speeches.

Then you have another leadership track where you'll become president, area governor and all. Once you've finished that, you will achieve the highest award – the Distinguished
Toastmaster (DTM) – usually after about 40 speeches.

In my experience when a person is new to Toastmasters he or she is quite raw and a bit nervous. But by the eighth speech, you can see a transformation taking place. The person has changed and is visibly not as nervous any longer.
The basic thing to remember here is communication. There's one restaurant my wife and I frequent and one day I went there alone. The waiter asked me "where's auntie?' So I told him my wife was working. He said to me "tell auntie, I tell, where auntie?"

So I went home and told my wife the waiter asked about her. My wife knew the waiter could not speak good English. So she asked me what did he say? So I conveyed the exact message "Tell auntie, I tell, where auntie?"

Though it was not proper English, the waiter conveyed from his heart what he felt. Now that's communication.

But in Toastmasters of course, we expect you to speak at a higher level, especially if you're a university graduate ... and if want to present yourself, your level of English must be higher.

Communication can be at the lowest or the highest level. But we try to take you one level higher and there is no failing in Toastmasters. For every assignment, there is no failure. It's the people who give you feedback who are the most valuable.

There is a difference between judgement and feedback. Judgement is what you said was wrong while feedback is "this is how. I felt about your speech." This enables people to find out which area they can improve.

At Toastmasters, we use the American style of giving feedback. We tell it to your face like in American Idol. This is, of course, confined to Toastmasters members. So it's up to you to take it, and improve yourself from there.

Q: What can a member gain from Toastmasters?
A: Here's an example – a member reads a book about the Blue Ocean Strategy while the other members have not read it yet. For the next seven minutes, I get the gist of what is in the book. Therefore the knowledge is there and shared very well. Some will share their culture and that's the wonderful learning experience you get from Toastmasters apart from the fellowship. There are, of course, those who join just for the fellowship. They don't do any assignments but see it as an opportunity to meet friends.

At Toastmasters, we work as a team but at the same time, we develop you. So you have a great opportunity to improve your communication and leadership skills. On the other hand, you'll get to hold positions and learn more about responsibilities. All these are leadership skills and if you go for trainings it can be very expensive.

You can have the most timid person who, after joining Toastmasters and climbing up the leadership track, may one day become president of the club ... even the person himself can't believe that he has achieved that position.

What's certain is that those who join Toastmasters come out more confident. You will always be better than when you first joined.

Q: How do you come up with ideas for your speeches?
A: Everybody has his or her own way of doing it. For me, I would spend the whole day thinking about it. But before I retire for the night, I would just drop it. The idea itself will come to you naturally – either from yourself, the radio, the TV or maybe somebody said something interesting in passing. I don't know how it works for other people but it works for me.

For eight months I was focused on this. In 1998, I was still working full-time as a banker. I couldn't really focus on my speech preparations then. But now, I'm doing my own business and don't have to stretch myself as much – so I have more time to spend on public speaking.
I always believe there is a coincidence. The more coincidence you get, the more you are in touch with the source.

My own belief is if you judge people in anything at all, you'll destroy the silence. Silence is the language of the soul. If you always complain, you are forming judgement and you'll disconnect from the source.

The source could be talking to you all the time. It may not be verbally but if you observe or listen hard enough, the idea will come to you.

In fact, for the regional level, I delivered a speech called "Silence of the Awkward Pause" and the message from this speech came from my son who loves walnut carrot cake. I told him to do what his mum always does ... taking one slice to his grandmother resting in her room. I cut one slice, gave it to him and watched him from the corner. Halfway, I saw my son pinching a tiny bit of the cake and putting it hi his mouth.

I said to him "you greedy boy. There are 11 more slices in the box and you chose to eat this particular piece. My son stopped, all the while chewing the cake, and replied "this is what mummy does. Mummy always tastes the food before she gives it to me. If it's spoilt, she would throw it away. Mummy said spoilt food is bad for your stomach. "We can't give spoilt food to grandma."

Here I was shocked in silence ... hence the title. You just don't know what to say. In that silence, I learned what is more important: a full slice of cake for grandma or a bitten off piece, approved with love and care by quality control.

Lessons are being taught in my own house and I didn't know it. So that's a strong message to my audience. There are times we assume we know everything and sometimes when people give you an answer – for instance, the Americans would call it the great comeback – especially children, you just don't know what to say in return. That silence is a reality check.

So you don't have to go far to find a message for your speech.

Q: What is your advice to those who like to face their fears in public speaking?
A: The only answer is to face them. If you have the fear of public speaking, go and deliver, especially when you are young.

Mohammad All once said "if I win, people would only remember for two weeks." So if you come to a Toastmasters club and said something stupid in your speech, people would only remember for two weeks. The next session, which is usually two weeks later, you'll be delivering a new speech … so by then, people would have already forgotten what you said a fortnight ago.
So if you think you're going to make a fool of yourself, go ahead and do it before you are 40. After 40, you are expected to be a leader, so make all the mistakes before 40.

Public speaking is something you have to practise many times and they say Toastmasters is the place to make mistakes. Any speech you deliver, there will be some glitches here and there. I had even done training where the youngest participant was a four-year-old boy ... I told him to come up and deliver a speech ... he came up and said "I want to tell you a story about the papa bear, the mama bear and the baby bear" with his chin resting on his hand. He could speak but all he had to do was take his hand and put it down.

Likewise, everybody can speak but it's the mistakes he or she should avoid. Structure the speech in such a way people can understand.

If a speech is all over the place, people won't know where your story is going and they can't get your message – so structuring is also a way to design your speech into an understandable format.

We all have different levels of anxiety nervousness. It's still there to a certain degree. It just needs to be polished.

Posted by KC Leong, SDTMC Webmaster

I Ching Your Roadmap to Success

2008-10-12T10:33:00.000+08:00

Have you ever come to a crossroad in your life and did not know which way to go? Every incident that we encounter in our lives happens for a reason.

Come and spend an afternoon at this hands-on workshop and discover how I Ching can help you make good decisions to strategize and harmonize your life.

The entire purpose of I Ching is to equip you with powerful self-insight and transformation of the psyche that is simple and fast to fulfill your vision and goals. The sound advice from I Ching have certainly amaze people who are new to I Ching.
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In this EXCLUSIVE (3 hours) workshop, the speaker will share with you :-
1) What is I Ching?
2) How I Ching can enhance your personal life, business, career, relationships plus experience think "out of the box" that could help you move on with your life.
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“The I Ching is an ancient book of wisdom, and the origin is shrouded in mystery. The I Ching has been used for more than 5000 years as an aid to making decisions, predicting the future, etc. It is a long-standing and popular source of wisdom and inspiration, and is also gaining popularity in the Western world.”

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The speaker, ACG Simon Soh has studied I Ching from Master Koh I Tze since 1988 and has been a practitioner for more than 10 years. He is currently pursuing a doctorate by applying the I Ching as a basis of his research. He holds a Master in Business Administration from the prestigious Cranfield School of Management UK, and is a Certified Knowledge Manager by the International Knowledge Management Institute USA.

Special goodie bags for first 50 participants who sign up…..by 10 Nov 2008

Details of the workshop:

Date : 6th December 2008 (Saturday)
Time : 2.30pm – 5.30pm
Venue : Malaysian Association for The Blind
Kompleks MAB, Jalan TebingOff Jalan Tun Sambanthan 4,50470 Kuala Lumpur.
Website for map : http://mab.org.my/images/mabmap.jpg

Your investment : RM70 per pax (50% discount given to first 50 participants who sign up by 10 Nov 2008) (inclusive of refreshments and workshop materials)

Reservations/Enquiries : Mee Yee 016-5558203 or email fin_myeetan@tanlan.com

Organizing Club : Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club

Posted by KC Leong, SDTMC Webmaster

Forum - District 51 Toastmasters

2008-10-11T10:44:00.003+08:00

This message is sent to all club officers for the term 2008/2009
By Clement Pang, DTMDistrict Public Relations Officer (DPRO) 2008-2009

Dear club officers,

*Do you want to promote your Toastmasters event to all Toastmasters in District 51?*
*Do you have question(s) about Toastmasters that you want to ask?*
*Do you want opinion on topics regarding Toastmasters from Toastmasters members in District 51?*
*Do you have information on Toastmasters or public speaking that you want to share to all Toastmasters in District 51?*

Introducing District 51 Toastmasters Discussion Forum at

http://www.tmdistrict51.org/forum

your one stop portal for Toastmasters discussion.

No more email chain jamming your inbox. All you need to do is just registeras a member of the forum in order to obtain your login. Once you haveregistered, all you need to do is just to login to post your message or toread what other people have posted.

*SPECIAL OFFERS FOR OCTOBER (until Oct 31)

*To commemorate the launch of District 51 Forum, the District Public Relations team have some special offers for our District 51 members.

*Offer 1:*
For the first 50 Toastmasters members (*) who register as a member of theDistrict 51 Forum starting from Oct 6, he/she will receive the exclusiveDistrict 51 pin. When registering, please specify your active emailaddress.I will communicate with you using this email address for arrangement topassthe district pin.

*Offer 2:*
For the top 3 forum members (*) (based on the number of relevant postings(**)), he/she will receive the following prizes:
#1 - A competent leadership manual
#2 - A new member orientation kit for clubs
#3 - A Toastmasters publicity pack

All prizes are purchased from Toastmasters International

(*) - The following people are exempted from these offers: District 51senior district officers and also District 51 public relations committeeteam members
(**) - Relevant posting is defined as message that is not out of topic.

*WHAT DISCUSSION FORUMS WE HAVE FOR YOU?*

*1. Events*A forum to discuss all the latest Toastmasters happenings and events indistrict, division, area and club in District 51
*2. Education/Training*A forum to discuss topics regarding Toastmasters education program, thevarious training programs in District such as TLI/DOT and also speechcontests details.
*3. Club/Membership Building*A forum to discuss on club chartering/club rescuing/club mentoring andalsomembership matters.
*4. General Discussion*A forum where topics of discussion are not listed under any of thepreceeding forums

*****STEPS TO REGISTER AS A MEMBER*

1. Visit http://www.tmdistrict51.org/forum/

2. Click "Register"

3. Agree with the terms and conditions.

4. Fill in your particulars. Remember to enter your active email address.(*IMPORTANT*)

5. Wait for the email notification to confirm your registration issuccessful. Email notification title will be Welcome to District 51Toastmasters Forum"

Warmest regards,

Clement Pang, DTM

District Public Relations Officer (DPRO) 2008-2009

Email: d51pro0809@gmail.com

District Website: http://www.tmdistrict51.org/

District Theme "The Courage To Conquer"
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Posted by KC Leong, SDTMC Webmaster
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No.2 in World Public Speaking Contest

2008-09-22T20:42:00.004+08:00

DTM K. Loghandran is No. 2 in World Public Speaking Contest

Click here to read the news in The Sun newspaper on Friday 19 September 2008.

Congratulations to DTM K. Loghandran.

Bravo to Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club where DTM K. Loghandran is the Club member.
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Click here to read.
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The Olympics of Oratory: World Championship of Public Speaking... click here.
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Posted by KC Leong
SD_TMC Webmaster

Public Speaking World Championship 2008

2008-09-19T23:10:00.004+08:00

Malaysian Emerges 1st Runner Up In Public Speaking World Championship 2008
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Extracted from BERNAMA... click here

By V. Sankara

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (Bernama) -- Like Cuban American singer Gloria Estefan's hot dance number, 'The Rhythm's Gonna Get You', Loghandran Krishnasamy found his very own 'rhythm' to make the country proud when he emerged first runner-up in the 2008 World Championship of Public Speaking (WCPS) in Canada last month.

Backed by 15 years experience as toastmaster, Loghandran presented his captivating speech entitled 'Finding The Rhythm' to win the hearts of a 1,600-strong international audience at the annual event in Calgary, Alberta on Aug 26.

His crisp, clear words and cutting-edge stories stole the thunder from most of the other participants, including those from Ireland, England and Australia at the qualifying rounds, who spoke in their respective accents.

"Generally, Malaysians are articulate and pronounce words which are easily understood. This may be a plus point for them in winning public-speaking contests," the 54-year-old corporate financial training consultant told Bernama in an interview.

WCPS, organised by Toastmasters International, saw the participation of about 25,000 toastmasters from 92 countries in the event.

Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organisation which teaches public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs.

Annually, over 230,000 members from 11,000 clubs across 92 countries participate in WCPS where competitors deliver a seven-minute speech, judged on core message, speech development, language and delivery techniques.

Currently, Malaysia has 321 active toastmasters clubs, with more than 55 situated in Selangor and Klang Valley.

Loghandran, whose home club is Speaker's Dream Toastmaster Club (Malaysia) District 51, described his achievement as the highest honour in the international speech contest ever achieved by any toastmaster at Asian level.

He also received a letter from the Prime Minister's Office, congratulating him on the achievement.

Asked what inspired him to use the theme, 'Finding The Rhythm' in his speech, Loghandran said he chose the theme after observing the lives of people "who have everything but are not happy".

The success in WCPS had given him full conviction that his story-writing skills won the public speaking championship, apart from delivery, he said.

"I will be taking the writing skills to theatre, book writing and movies in future," he said.

Loghandran said he had always pursued a world-class standard, adding that taking part in the WCPS was a conformation that he had achieved the standard.

"I also have this conviction that we can domestically be driven to world class," said the Kuala Lumpur-born.

Among the awards won by Loghandran in public speaking were World Taped Speech Champion and PAN Sea Champion in 1993 and District Speech champion in 1998 and 2008.

-- BERNAMA

Humorous and Evaluation Speech Contests 2008

2008-09-01T10:35:00.001+08:00

The above contests at Club level just concluded the day before, Monday 25 August 2008. The contests were good and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

My congratulations to the winners:

Humor Contest:
Champion: Simon Soh
1st runner-up: Elizabeth Chan
2nd runner-up: Kalyani Sankaranarayanan

Evaluation Contest
Champion: Simon Soh
1st runner-up: Alfred Koh
2nd runner-up: Koh Teck Lee

Congratulations to other contestants for your great spirit andparticipation.

Also, appreciation to our:
(1) Organising Chair, Ismail Fahmy;
(2) Humor Contest Chair, Darick Wong;
(3) Evaluation Contest Chair, Loghan;
(4) Advisors, Ong Siew Chien & Mok Soo Pon; and
(5) Role players, Tan Mee Yee, Seelan & Mok Soo Pon.

Simon Soh will represent the club in the Area W3 contest on 9 Sept 2008 at:

The Malaysian Insurance Institute
c/o MII - Toastmasters Club
Level 2 , Jalan Sri Semantan Satu,
Damansara Heights, 50490 Kuala Lumpur

Time: 6.45pm

Please come and support him there!

Regards,

Chow Mun Yuen
Club President

Posted by KC Leong, Webmaster

Humourous and Evaluation Contest

2008-08-23T10:52:00.003+08:00

Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club Humourous and Evaluation Contest
Date: August 25, 2008 Monday
Time: 7.00am
Venue: Kelab Gold Perkhidmatan Awam, Taman Tun Dr Ismail (Opposite Eastin Hotel)

WATCH SPEAKERS' DREAM TOASTMASTER CONTESTANTS LOCK HORNS CONJURING THE FUNNIEST PUNCH LINES FOR YOUR DIAPHRAGM EXERCISE. LEAVE YOUR TIES BEHIND, THROW YOUR JACKET AT YOUR OFFICE CHAIR. THIS IS THE MOMENT WHERE JEST AND JAPE ARE THE ORDER OF THE NIGHT.

EVERYBODY ARE INVITED!!. EVEN YOU.. YES YOU.. YOU WHO DO NOT KNOW WHAT TOASTMASTER IS ALL ABOUT. COME OVER AND DISCOVER US. :)

For more information take the liberty to SPAM US, just as long as you call us and ask us about this contest.

LAWRENCE HOO 012-2999425

CHOW MUN YUEN 016-2187876

Location map to Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club:
Click here for Map 1

Click here for Map 2

or click at the right sidebar of this website.

Lawerence Hoo
VPPR

Posted by KC Leong, SDTMC Webmaster

Club Officers Installation Nite

2008-08-23T10:50:00.001+08:00

Dear Esteemed Member,

I am pleased to invite each one of you together with your family members/friends to attend this major joint event of Speakers' Dream TMC and Spot-On Theatre.

Details of the event are as follows:-

Date : 24 AUG, 2008 (Sunday)
Time : 7 p.m.
Venue : KPGA Golf Club (Restaurant on the ground floor)

Cost : RM30.00 pax

To make this event more interesting, each one of you are request to wear a HAT for the function.

Highlights of the event are as follows:-

a) Our famous and talented, K Loghandran is expected to provide fantastic entertainment for the nite.

b) Our popular actress, Loretta and the famous "loan shark"/"Charlie", Lim Hin Chong will sing for us. I guarantee that the songs will be so good that oil will come out from your ears.

c) Presentation of Toastmasters of the Year Award for 2007/2008.

d) Installation of the new Exco for Speakers Dream TMC.

e) Appreciation of the Actors/Actress of "I Will Survive" - Another successful comedy production by Spot-on Thretre.

f) Sumptuous Chinese Dinner will be served in the Club House environment in KPGA. Manu will be advised later.

g) LUCKY DRAWS. Contributions from members for the lucky draws are welcomed.
At this moment, we already have 21 confirmed bookings.

Pls call me at H/P 013-3901055 for booking.

Thank you.

Best Regards

Robert Hue

Organizing Chair

Immediate Past President

Posted by KC Leong, SDTMC Webmaster

Runner-up - World Champion of Public Speaking

2008-08-23T10:49:00.001+08:00

Congratulations to our fellow countryman, Mr K Loghandran, DTM. He has made us proud as the first ever Malaysian to achieve a runner-up position in the just–concluded World Champion of Public Speaking in conjunction with Toastmaster International Convention in Calgary, Canada.

Mr K Loghandran, our Distinguished Toasmaster, a motivational speaker, director, stage actor, and stage comedian flown to Calgary with an ambition to make it big in this international arena for the second time. (The first time he competed in this World Champion was exactly 10 years ago, in 1998.) “We think you are fantastic and an inspiration. This will definitely motivate the rest of our members to strive on in their toastmaster journey.” says Speakers’ Dream Toastmaster President, Miss Chow Mun Yuen.

World Champion of Public Speaking is held annually during Toastmaster International Convention, where 30 speakers from their respective areas gathered to give their 5-minute prepared speech. 20 contestants from non-American countries will have to compete in a preliminary round on the pre-conference sessions a few days before the final. 2 of the contestants will be selected to join the remaining 10 contestants from America in the final. The winner will be declared the World Champion of Public Speaking.

Lawrence Hoo

VPPR

A Poet on Club Meeting

2008-08-19T21:43:00.002+08:00

Lo behold itâ?Ts the time of the month again
No ladies I ainâ?Tt talking about the â?~painâ?T
Twice monthly I always make my way there
Speakers Dream Toastmaster meeting every other Monday in KGPA

Seargent-at-arms I led the infantry
Singing Negaraku we sing sans audio CD
I led the symphony without going pitchy
So good I want to share readers this little ditty

Lovely Mun Yuen always the humble speaker
Club president gave her little reminder
â?oremember to exercise your C&L manualâ?
Total â?~implementâ?Ts the language evaluator went to measure

â?~Sohâ?Tring Simpleton Mr Simon
Stories of wise and cries abundant
Always talks with passion always leaves a-ponder
Fearless in speaking your mind this time is what I hear

Table topic master led by yours truly
Olympic season, where I based the topics for bully
Loretta, Elizabeth, Simon, Teck Lee, Jasper, and Darick
Gabbled their lines with 2-minute passionate verbal frolic

Soo Pon as usual the multi-talented tasker
Evaluate speeches and doing ah counter
Melt roles like molten larva in ocean
Counted Loretta ahâ?Ts like cherries during blossom

Assignment speeches, the highlight of the night
Darick with his Teddy, Mee Yee with her homey
Darick made us welled up in tears(almost), Mee Yee brought us to heryounger years (foremost)
Evaluator Robert and Elizabeth all said speeches well composed

Teck Lee, the general evaluator got up and the floor got silent
Guests all came and tells us the meeting was pleasant
Darick won the table topic session, Loretta was absent(minded)
Almost announced the winner before calling the president

Night was fun, people was fluid
We bid goodbye and hope the next meeting come quick
We donâ?Tt have to wait till our next incarnation right?
Cause 24th August, 2008 Sunday is the Installation night.

Written by

Lawrence Hoo
VPPR

Posted by KC Leong, Webmaster

Speakers’ Dream at Calgary

2008-08-02T14:09:00.000+08:00

International Speech Contest is the only worldwide event organized by Toastmasters International, if there is a nirvana in speaking contest, this is it. The contest will be held in conjunction with annual International Conference, which this time is going to be at TELUS Convention Centre, Calgary, Canada, a 4-day conference from August 13 to 16, 2008.

The winner of International Speech Contest will be crowned the “World Champion of Public Speaking”. The representative from District 51(a cluster of three countries: Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia), is our own Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club child, the incomparable, infallible, the have-I-said-enough-good-things-about-him-already Distinguished Toastmaster K. Loghandran!Contestants will come out with a five to seven minutes of original speeches.
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K. Loghandran, DTM - The Contest Chair at the recent Tall Tales Contest
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Before arriving at International Speech Contest, Loghandran went through a series of preliminary contests: First, winning Area W3 (constitutes a handful of Toastmaster Clubs around Petaling Jaya), then victorious at Division W (comprises of 6 area W contestants) and finally triumphing at District 51 (about more than 20 contestants from various Divisions from Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia competing here).

At Calgary, Loghandran will have to go through two rounds of competition; first he has to win the Interdistrict Speech Contest, a sort of a semifinal playoff with contestants outside North America, during pre-conference on Tuesday, August 12, 2008. At this stage, there are two separate sessions that will run concurrently. Loghandran will be at Inter-district Speech Contest B, pitting against contestants from countries like Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia, Middle East and UK.

The other group (Inter-district Speech Contest A) includes countries like Japan, Mexico, Continental Europe and other parts of Australia. Only if Loghandran wins this level then he can compete against 8 finalists from the North America in addition to Speech Contest A winner on Saturday, August 16, 2008.Never had a Malaysian reached the International Speech final and not to mention win this Toastmaster championship. The last time a winner from outside North America won this World Championship was 10 years ago, by a New Zealander. If Loghandran wins he will become the first Asian ever to be crowned World Champion. (Vikas Jhingran, was the first non-white to grab the title last year, but he’s American, so that doesn’t count.)
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With En. Azmi Shahrin, DTM, Immeidate Past Div W Governer
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I think it’s already a huge feat to even be at such a meet of such stature, not to mention free tickets thrown in for a whole week of holidays in beautiful, mountainous Calgary. So Mr K Loghandran, you are very, very blessed indeed!! We hope you remember to enjoy the journey as much as the successes, of which most of them you already achieved, because you deserve them. Even though it is summer there, the temperature at night can be very cold due to Calgary’s geographical high elevation, so bring extra jacket for precaution.

All our prayers are with you. Speakers’ Dream Toastmaster wishes you all the best and Go Kick Some Rear End!!
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Written by Lawrence Hoo
VPPR

Posted by KC Leong

International Speech Contest - Calgary

2008-08-02T12:59:00.003+08:00

Dear Loghandran, DTM,
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The members of Speakers' Dream Toastmaster Club wish you all the BEST inyour quest to be the best speaker at the International Speech Contest in Canada this August 2008.

We may not be there with you physically but be assured that we will all spiritually support you. We trust you will be at your best and whatever the results may be, we are already very proud of you and indeed very grateful of all your support in our club.
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Regards,
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CMY
Club President
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Club President, CMY

Posted by KC Leong

Magic Formula

2008-07-30T21:44:00.001+08:00

Everybody is looking for the magic formula to achieve everything that he/she wants to achieve. How can I snatch that girl from the embrace of her boyfriend? How could I make millions of ringgit in one year? How could I make a huge impression like Loghan did? All the said dreams are actually being marred by the pseudo-effort of wanting to grab that elusive sorcery secret potion, the unevidential panacea, that fictional fairytale.

The only solution is to smack that head down hard, real hard, if not with a hammer, so that it goes through to your corpus callusom, to wake you up to smell the real coffee and get your feet firmly planted on the ground. There is NO magic formula damnit!! If you want to get that pretty girl you got to bite the bullet and trudge through with stiff upper neck and make that first move, if you want to earn your first million you got to hold the issue by the ball and do whatever it takes! If you want to speak like Loghandran you got to train like Loghandran!!!

Luckily for 12 of us, tonight’s (Monday 28 July 2008) Toastmaster demonstrated us just that. How to train and learn like Loghandran. Loghandran is training to become the first ever Malaysian to win the ultimate contest, Toastmaster World Championship Contest in Calgary on August 16, 2008. The 12 of us members and guests had the opportunity to watch Loghandran gave his championship speech, the exact words, the exact facial expression and the exact ‘awkward’ness in the speech that pitch our Malaysian treasure with the best from the whole world. He had finalized his speech for the contest and asked us for an open and frank evaluation of him. How’s that for a regular Toastmaster night?

In addition to that, Dr Devi our current Area W governor and past president of Sai Master TM made SD TM her first ever club visit since becoming the governor. Shows how important and significant our club is to the toastmaster fraternity.

The meeting went by smoothly, made interesting by the important people like Sew Chien, Soo Pon, Simon and Loghandran. The reason SD TM is able to maintain such a high benchmark on speech quality is because of the dedication and love poured by this bunch of people. We could never have survived and flourished had it not been the unenviable energy and determination sowed by them. SD TM rules!!!

Wait, there’s more! Weng Cheong crashed in his ice breaker, and did he wowed us! With such poise and readiness, delivering figurative speech never seen from an icebreaker, covering other skills only much later required, like a pro in an amateur court. So good it brought the best of the evaluator Simon, trumpeting as much praise as predictions of his future illustrious achievements, even proclaimed him as the next Loghandran.

To sum up the night, thanks for the great showing of courage to the 4 table topic speakers; Shah, Teck lee, Dr Devi and Simon. 3 other ambitious assignment speech by Mee Yee, who delivered her strategies to achieve 10 new members to SD TM and steadfastly grilled down the works in our brain, Teck Lee, who recounted his days organizing KLPAC outing, and myself, illustrating influenza in Malaysia.

Loghandran’s evaluation of Teck Lee was as usual, amazingly discerning and constructive. Thanks to Suresh, current President of Sai Master for his evaluation of Mee Yee. Also to Soo Pon who produced a strong and reflective feedback for me.

Indeed a valuable night I cherish. As most evaluator would say, which should not befits a minute writer like me here for its potential impact and at times, banality, but I am going to say it anyway “I am looking forward” for our next meeting.

regards

Lawrence Hoo

VPPR

Tall Tales Contest

2008-07-27T17:20:00.004+08:00

By Lawrence Hoo

For those who have not heard of Speakers' Dream Toastmaster Club, the most dynamic and vibrant Toastmaster is located at Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, diagonally opposite Eastin Hotel, across Sprint Highway.

On Monday 14 July 2008, we have done it again: this time it was organized amidst other installation nights. The Tall Tales contest aimed to find the best 'liars' among Toastmasters in many clubs around Division W. And we did find the most outrageous liars to grace the stage and entertain the 70-strong crowd coming from all over Klang Valley and Gua Musang.
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Lawrance, receiving a token from Contest Chair, K. Loghandran, DTM
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Eight contestants, three from the host, and five from diverse Toastmaster background, left the stage tongue a-wagging among the audience, throwing praises and asking from the contestants during interim, with questions like "Did it really happen?" with wide-eye amazement and ludicrous expression bordering towards sarcasm.

I get myself my fair share of compliments (ahem) for I trudged through research and readings to prepare this totally-out-of-my-realm type of storytelling. But what was most exhilarating of the whole experience is the ironical relief and internal celebration knowing that I have conquered my stage fright in front of the judging and discerning crowd – a pat in my own back indeed.
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Hilarious and exaggerated stories
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To sum up the whole event, it was seamlessly executed. We achieved our goal of 70 audiences, although we hoped to have 10 contestants, of which two supposed to come from our club pulled out due to unavoidable circumstances. Kudos to the people who made it happen: Siew Chen, SAA Soo Pon, Teck Lee, the impeccable Loghandran as the Contest Chair, Mee Yee and Ismail Fahmy, Darick, Chau Weng, and photographer KC.

Also congrats to the eventual winners, Ahmad Salehuddin, Simon Soh and Daniel Teh.
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L-R: Ismail Fahmy, Lawrence, Mee Yee, Daniel, Soo Pon, Teck Lee and Siew Chien
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For the whole audience who came and cheered for your compatriots, thank you very much and do look out for more exciting activities organized by Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club. We hope you have thoroughly enjoyed yourselves.

Thanks and best regards

Lawrence Hoo

p.s. For people who want to remember my name, watch the 1985 Oscar-winning epic 'Lawrence of Arabia' and forever etched that face of mine with the word Arabia Lawrence Hoo.

The Tall Tale Contest

2008-07-16T23:15:00.003+08:00

Dear Esteem Members,

Congratulations to all on a well-organized contest! Congratulations to oursecond runner up, Simon Soh; Alfred Koh and Lawrence for taking upthe challenge to bluff in front of an audience ... :-))

Also my appreciation to the Organising Chair, Ong Siew Chien who workdiligently to make the contest a success. Our Contest Chair, Loghandran whodid a great job in carrying through the contest. To Teck Lee and Soo Ponwho work tirelessly to promote the contest. Also to the roleplayers andother members who have contributed to the success of the contest.

Regards,

Chow Mun Yuen,

Club President

Click here to view 54 photos taken by KC Leong.

When you are in the photo album, click Slideshow. Click F11 to expand photos; click F11 again to return.

The Contest Chair - K. Loghandran, DTM

Alfred Koh - the contestant from Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club (SDTMC)
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Lawrence Hoo - another contestant from SDTMC
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Okay, one of the standard expressions when delivering a tall-tale story
x Main Hall of KGPA Club, the venue for this contest

The Sergeant-at-Arm: Mok Soo Pon

Applause for the exaggerated and humorous stories

The Runner-up: Simon Soh of SDTMC

L-R: Ismail Fahmy, Teck Lee, Mee Yee, Lawrance, Mok Soo Pon, Ong Siew Chien

Posted by KC Leong

Tall Tale Contest

2008-06-19T21:43:00.000+08:00

Speakers's Dream Toastmasters Club

Invites all Toastmasters to a

A TALL, TALL TALE CONTEST

The Speakers Dream Toastmasters club will be organising a Tall Tale Contest on 14 July,2008 (Monday) at Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA) 1st Floor Kiara Room ( see map attached)

The contest is open to all toastmasters with participation limited to 10 participants. This will be on a first come first served basis.
This is an opportunity to discover your talents and another platform to display skills acquired in Toastmasters.

The contest chairman
The contest chairman is DTM K.Loghandran
(District 51 International Speech Champion-2008)

What’s a tall tale?
A tall take is a fictional story with exaggerated details. We all crave a good "yarn" every once in a while, The best and the funniest liars will be there .There know that you will be able to suspend your disbelief and allow the speakers to entertain you with their creative skills of yarn spinning.

Prizes
Prizes shall be award for 1ST 2nd and 3rd positions.Certificate of participation will be given to all participants

Rules
The Toastmasters contest 2008 rules for tall tales contest shall apply

What do you need to participate?

- must be a member of good standing
- pay a fee of RM10
- it would be great if you could bring your members/friends/guests to support you with a small fee of RM10 per person for refreshments

Please call Siew Chien 012-311 3026 for further details.

Extract of the rules

The Tall Tale contest is very similar to a normal meeting except that
all speakers that day will be regaling us with a 3 to 5 minute long tall tale of their own making.

* Contestants must prepare their own three- to five minute speech, which must be substantially original and certified as such to the chief judge by the contestants prior to the presentation of the speeches. Any quoted material must be so identified during the speech presentation.

* The speech must be of a highly exaggerated, improbable nature and have a theme or plot. Humour and props may be used to support or illustrate the speech.

Club AGM 2008-2009

2008-06-18T21:57:00.006+08:00

Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club
EXCO 2008-2009

President: Chow Mun Yuen, CTM CL
VP Education: Ismail Fahmy, CTM
VP Membership: Tan Mee Yee, TM
VP P Relations: Lawrence Hoo, TM
Secretary: Loretta Chin, CC
Treasurer: Darick Wong, TM
SAA: Lim Hin Chong, ATMS CL
Committee Mbrs: Mok Soo Pon, ATMB CL and Yap Mei Han, CTM

IPP: Robert Hue, CTM CL

Webmaster: Leong Kwan Chong, CTM CL

The Parliamentarian - K. Loghandran, DTM

In-coming Club EXCO
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Chow Mun Yuen - The in-coming Club President.
L-R: Darick Wong, Tan Mee yee, Chow Mun Yuen, Ismail Fahmy
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L-R: Ismail Fahmy, Lawrance Hoo, Lim Hin Chong, Mok Soo Pon

Ong Siew Chien, DTM is recording the proceedings

Best Table Topic Speaker of the evening - Lawrance Hoo.
He is too excited and hug the out-going Club President, Robert Hue.
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Posted by KC Leong

I Will Survive

2008-05-23T16:15:00.001+08:00

Written by Lawrence, the Stage Manager of the comedy drama

I haven't been to Actors Studio since more than a year ago. Even that was my only second theater show visit. I remember that show was something about an Ah Beng from Singapore, who claimed to have a small role in Miss Saigon, the West End classic musical, going broadway.

So, knowing my topophobia(stage fright), it would be prudent if I get myself accosted by the environment of the 'dark room' in Actors Studio before my show I Will Survive begins the week later. Moreover, the fact that I have just started my new elevated position (ahem) in a company which located in Damansara Heights, a stone throw away from Bangsar Shopping Centre. "Hey" I told myself "I could make this my regular entertainment joint from now on". And so it goes, I went and watched Kam.... In Your Face, a Joanne Kam's production, a comedienne with a huge following since her Boom Boom days more than 10 years ago. Upon making my way into the theater, I overheard audiences were mostly claim to know her like they were Kamching Kamching, talking over the phone or talking to each other by calling Miss Kam by her first name "I'm watching Joanne's show, yalah, she's my girl" etc.

Packed to the full, only occasional empty corner seats Joanne wow me with her flair at stand-up comedy. Had us in stitches. The latter sketches are left wanting though, but we did not complain too much, for after the long work stress, this is a welcome release of adrenaline laugh rush. I left the show with a new sense of attachment with the theater and paradoxical mix of fear of the impending comparison a week later.

Back-track about three months before, the director Log, being a humble guy as he is, said this production is a collective idea, where everybody sat down together one dinner in KGPA for the first time accompanied by nasi goreng and bihun goreng, courtesy of the producer, Sew Chen brainstorming an idea for a production which we hope could add funds into our diminishing association coffers.

Everything went very gradual and full of cheers, occasionally flip flopped with gossips of the banking industry and also of national politics,(we were in the midst of the tsunami-cal general election at that time), the idea keeps trickling in like what would generally happened if you put seasoned corporate employees together.

After two nights of such, the rough idea is germinated. It will have to be about the women-empowering dynamics. One hit wonder from Gloria Gaynor was brought up by one of the crew, and it stuck. The course of the movie is determined, the crux of the matter is carved, the road is paved, and DTM Loghan is on course for the next step; script writing. I Will Survive is born.

The script writing comes in fast and quick. After only the 3rd or 4th meeting(I can't quite recall, but hey it's still quick by my standard:)) DTM Loghan has more than half of the final script on most of our hands. It's gonna be a banking politico-rags-to-riches conundrum, capitalizing on the heat of the banking and national gossips. Only that the banking grapevine is limited to the privileged bankers of few whereas the national reached out to the most excesses of the information technology world.

Then, the rehearsal began, location were either at Sally's (the main actress) office or at DTM Celine's Training Centre. It was with much cheer and laughter DTM Loghan left us ample room to improvise the lines, to make the script funnier than it was to begin with.

I for a non-banker took a couple of sessions to understand much of the story, I was initially lost, but thank goodness I had a small part to play, not to mention to play a simpleton, and in the words of a famous actors I forgot who, "in order to inhabit your character, u have to be or at least try to be that person", I decidedly left most of the work to the rest. The world was easy, the world was insipidly quiet to my dejectedly egoistic mind. I was essentially IN my character to not question too much of the script.

Skip several weeks later to the eve the premier night. We had a trial run and tech run on that night. The ambient of that night was obviously quiet with impending stage-fright and awkward pauses due to the possibility of real-stage-amnesia. But we trudged on, like a forcados taking the bull by the horn in the spanish bullfighting game, we push it through even though it was the worst decision we thought we ever made in our life, well at least what we thought at that very second.

Friday 6.00pm, the next day, day of the premier, I arrived at The Actors' Studio with fibrillation in my heart. I thought I could retch like a pregnant lady, but Sally the main cast was apparently encountering something worse. She had diarrhea. It was only just a few minutes before her part begins, that she did the right decision, to purge out the whatever toxin aka fear that is surrounding her. After that she was in a row, mastering her character like glove on palm!

The show started with Kalyani getting much laughter among the audience. We were impressed, I was peaking like a peacock under the black drape, checking out the audience responses throughout the night. Only later I realize I was noticed by my friends and that it was distracting especially with my white office-boy-looking shirt, people could be wondering why this boy kept distracting their concentration with my amateurish backstage voyeur. The next two shows I left the drape as dark as it could be.

Then, as Kalyani walks out of the stage, the devil enters the show, while the stage light turns blood red, eliciting intrigue among the crowd; it's a twist which is apparent. But never would they realize that the twist will be twisted at the end of the show.

Next Mei Han and Simon, talks like real mama-san and uncle-with-horny-agenda moments, respectively. People laughs at Mee Han lines. Surely one of the best lines of the show. Simon was in his moments as well. Then Sally with his Hot-pants and fish-net socks under it came out with a cigarette by her fingers. Laughter ensured. Her 80's hooker-gone-hot style with her confidence makes her recognizable, and believable. Audience empathize with her, by her ambitions, her determination and her opportunistic-al killer instinct even before the part where she reveals all to the psychiatrist later of the show. It ended predictably funny, audience laughed and gave their approval applause just before the entrance of the devil.

Then Gwen, Ismail and DTM Loghan went in for a conversation about human resources. The path is opened and that the banking-politics-gone-stage-show has begun.

Mun Yuen aka Jay Chow entered with Simon with his recognizable glare of a vice president desperately needed of a promotion had the best moment for the show. The audience was left in stitches as Mun Yuen spilled out her cards of gossip-fire for Simon to feast on. Back stage after watching her so many times before, I still laugh at those lines coming out from Mun Yuen, with her gifted timing.

Then Teck Lee, another victim of office politics, well taken care of by Simon's diabolical scheme, unaware by the Union leader. As Teck Lee walks out of the stage, Simon alone on stage sang the Union anthem " We Shall Not Be Moved", with sufficient dose of sarcastic-caustic tinge.

Loretta who came out before with a small snippet of Reach by Gloria Estefan during Simon-and-Sally-in-her-hotpants part, went into her seat as the treasury Senior Vice President, to be flame-thrown as well by Simon. Simon's work has really gone off to a great start and he was on a row, when Kalyani came later also submit into defensive mode, trying desperately to "save her ass".

Then Sally, having gone through the thick and thin of rank and file to reach the Senior Vice President position, has a brief de javu sparing with her former lover, Lawrence, the office boy. It was at that moment that she decidedly rejected and drew the line from Lawrence for she had not seen him as her ally but her highly risky and losing burden.

The show shift to the psychiatrist chair, Sally obviously disturbed by the onslaught of impending office war, was confining her deepest and darkest secret to the psychiatrist, Mr Kunjiraman(the j is silent) who is Log's second of three character. Predictably, DTM Loghan's line drew so much laughter that being the longest part of the show, audience did not find it boring at all.

The show reached the climatic chorus when, the devil,Elizabeth had her field day insulting the lady Senior Vice Presidents, Sally, Loretta and Kalyani, while they were chilling out at a bar, scheming like the way ladies do to bring down the scrooge, Simon. Like Loretta who said "hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn" it teaches us well to not mess with ladies in the banking world. At the end of the part, a scheme was planted, Simon will receive his karma and Dr Chua's Youtube will be a "pale comparison" of his successor.

Then Simon was sent to Zimbabwe, Sally got the post. Everybody congratulated her, including the about-to-be-sacked office boy Lawrence, looking more rags than "tin kosong" cute-ish.

Alas, every good things must have an end. The final show on Sunday ended at 4.25pm, everybody looked so dejectedly relieved, like a heavy sack of potatoes was taken away from their frail and exhausted body.

Average audience ratio from the three shows were about 55%, a far cry from the jam-packed night I saw during my night with Kam... In Your Face. But, in a show which did not spend too much on marketing and certainly did not get much paper publicity like Kam did, (that Kam show was featured 2-full pages in The Star, Joanne Kam was interviewed by The Edge, plus they printed a plush souvenir book with each stars own a page, not to mention the line-up of seasoned stage acts with pre-existing huge followings) we certainly did very well for a bunch of amateurs.

By the way from my survey, everybody said they just can't wait for the next show. I know I can't. :)

Written by Lawrence

I Will Survive... the journey continues

2008-05-19T15:08:00.000+08:00

Date : 18/05/08

Good morning fellow toastmasters,

It is me again … As a Toastmaster, I am a good listener and scout for feedback from the audience and this is what they say......

Lovelorn Lawrence, your spoken words, your voice as the desperado, begging Sally, the devilish CEO to take you back tear the hearts of many ladies sitting in the centre row. These ladies from UTAR in their early 20's wish they could see more of your "tin kosong" cuuuuute face. Fantastic voice, keep it up, loud and clear!

"I feel I could fly"..........sensational Loretta, you sang beautifully last night to thunderous applause. You were like a chameleon, singing melodiously for a moment. Next, you came on as a damn fierce tigress, wishing that you could claw the Bastard, Simon Soar's eyes! My daughters say that you are as fierce as their discipline teacher in school! Great expression!

Hee.. Hee..one aqua audience thought that you will strip naked, Simon Soar and show him your 6 packs. He was so disappointed. He asked me to send you his regards as he was concerned whether you injured your back lying face down on that cold, hard table! You see, the transvestites do it that way, he told me. I was speechless when he commented and quickly replied, "Excuse me, my bladder is full." and made a quick exit faster than Superman. Hah! Hah!

Oops, got to go now as there is one final show, this afternoon @ 3.00 pm. So members, those of you who have changed your mind and decided to pop over, please call me, Soo Pon @ 013-391-2029 / 03-80704933 (H) / 019-3158082.

Chao!

Soo Pon

I Will Survive

2008-05-18T13:04:00.000+08:00

Date : 17/05/08

Happy afternoon fellow toastmasters,

Wow! Ooh! Yeah! Congratulations to the cast of "I Will Survive", you really made Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club proud last night.

The male audience love you Mei Han, the Mama San in black with your dance moves and flaring skirt swinging. Oh my gosh, that guy was drooling with sliver when he spoke about you. Hah!Hah!

My dear janitor, Jay Chow Mun Yuen. My toastmasters friends could not help laughing whenever they see you on stage. You actually transformed into an auntie, "Ah Soh" last night. From the note pad, they assumed that Jay Chow's role is a singer but end up seeing a janitor. Great job!

Well, Teck Lee and I had planted an army of Toastmasters from various clubs in the Klang Valley last night to laugh and laugh and laugh. Teck Lee and I are bringing in a battalion tonight i.e. our beloved daughters, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, nephews, nieces, their girlfriends, their boyfriends and their friends from the UTAR to support all of you.

I strongly believe that the cast is also bringing in your army too. Members who are not acting and wish to bring in your battalion to support Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club, please dial @ 03-80704933 (H) / 013-3912029 / 019-3158082 for yours truly, Soo Pon for the tickets. Grab it fast for there are only two more shows at Actors Studio, 3rd Floor, Bangsar Shopping Centre on -

Tonight, Saturday 17/05/08 8.30 pm to 10.00 pm
Tomorrow afternoon, Sunday 18/05/08 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm

My dearest cast, guys and gals, you can do it again! Remember, if your role is to be angry, then imagine that you are in an angry situation and express it through your voice, your eyes, your hands, your body movements. The audience wants to see your body speaks and feel as you feel. Then your message will be received by the audience as the words are spoken loud and clear to the far end of the theatre.

WE SHALL AND WILL SURVIVE!

Soo Pon

I Will Survive

2008-04-23T23:45:00.000+08:00

Directed by: Loggie @ Loghandran

Produced by: Sew Chen

Starring:
Loggie, Sly, Mei Han, Ryan, Simon, Lisa, Lawrence, Kelly, Loretta, Jay Chow, Gigi, Tack Lee.

Date:
16 - 18 May, 2008

Time:
16-17 May - 8:30 p.m.
18 May - 3:00 p.m.

Venue:
The Actors Studio Bangsar Shopping Complex, Kuala Lumpur

Box Office:
03-2094 0400 or 03-2094 1400

A Play By:
The Cast of Spot-on Theatre, Petaling Jaya.

Tough Love

2008-04-22T23:40:00.001+08:00

Written by DTM K Loghandran

Winning the District 51 International speech contest 2008 at Penang was sweet. My last victory was winning the District 51 International speech contest 1998 in Kuching.

After winning the 1998 contest, I was asked to give many workshops on how to be a winner. That stumped me. I didn’t know which part of my speech was the one that convinced the judges.

I have to ask for feedback from those that attended to determine why I had won. One common feedback was that I have stage presence throughout and my story was positive in the end. When I did not make it at the Regional level, I knew there was a lot to learn. I got valuable tips from 1993 world champion, Otis William. He has rehearsed 18 times just on the morning of the speech in the empty hall. Otis is an army sergeant who is used to tough discipline.
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DTM K. Loghandran - The Champion of District 51 International Speech Contest and members of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club

I learned the punching of the hand technique from him. In 1998 The World Champion was an Australian who can mimic over 100 persons. He was also an actor. Taking the cue from these champions I involved myself in acting and stand up comedy with my buddy Fong Muntoh. After writing and acting in over 15 plays, I felt that I was ready to give it a shot.

Many had asked why I took part after a 10-year gap. My answer: I have come closer to the answer to winning a speech contest. It was not easy but hard work. I made sure that I covered all the points in the contest criteria form.

The other factors that had helped me are as follows

a) Stage time
I was given in my club despite finishing my DTM. There was always a slot called ‘Do your thing ‘ in our club. I volunteered every time to fill the slot. I tested my story telling skills here.

I also got more stage time by joining the Speakers' Dream sister club (Kelab Spot-On Theatre ) to improve performing arts skills. The public that comes for our plays are more critical than Toastmasters.

b) My approach
My approach to the contest was to treat it as an International Communications contest rather than a Speech Contest. So, the mental orientation that I used was to communicate to the audience. I very strongly belief that an audience can make out whether you are communicating with them or speaking at them. Thus I used many techniques to engage with the audience. Once audience I began to tell my story.

My approach was also to use a positive emotion( I have it in my knowledge that judges are quite fed-up listening to self pity stories.)

c) Writing original works with elements of comedy for 10 years for theatre.This has put in a frame of mind to develop my own stories or stories related to me .

d) I am a voracious reader on every subject. Especially topics that are related to the human element. Nobel prize winners in literature win because of their writings on the human element.

e) I have a good memory of personal stories. I have a knack of remembering trivial matters that even my own friends are amazed. This has immensely improved my story telling skills.

f) My materials also come from my surroundings. So I am in constant alert to pick up great conversations. Even the title of my winning speech ‘Tough Love’ was picked from the WWF wrestling match.

g) I am involved as an actor and director of Comedy plays. The plays I write are designed to engage people.So I mentally see my audience responding to my words before the speech.

I am also a stand up comedian who performs at corporate functions. By the way, the runner-up for the 2008 finals is a stand up comedian.

h) I am very particular with pronunciation of words. I notice that many toastmasters dont want to learn this aspect of speaking and get knockout at the area level.

i) The good feedback and support I get from Speakers Dream Toastmasters club. It was never an individual effort. The Speakers Dream Toastmasters club members took it upon themselves to be evaluators at the other run-off contests and provide feedback to change tactics. They are very professional in this. They act as my personal coach.

j) I enjoy the thrill of competition.

k) I have lost many times before . Therefore I know what mistakes not to make.

l) Tactical changes made in the speech when competing at different levels.When you are at the contestants briefing, you are able to roughly judge the level of contestants. One is able to decide on which part of the speech to deliver for the run off and which to save for the finals.

m) More time to concentrate. Many toastmasters have day jobs that zapp their minds until they postpone preparing till the last moment.I now have the luxury of preparing everyday for three months before a speech.

n) Style of speaking. The grand oratorical style of the past is no longer valid (I refer to the speaking style of Sir Winston Churchill). Presently, audiences are more used to short quick changes like the kind employed by MTV.

o) Designing the speech so that it will empower me rather than make me anxious.It is good to start the speech light hearted and slow and later give it speed.

I consider the District Contest for 2008 of high standard. The contestants had put up a good fight. For those aspiring to take part next year, I encourage you to start now. Try and recall your personal stories that impacted your life. Prepare a fourteen minute speech and move around the points to make the seven minutes.

As regards my next Regional contest in Calgary, I will not offer any excuse. As Yoda said in Star Wars ’There is no such thing as trying’. I have to see the tapes of the past winners and listen to their speeches.The entire style and content of my district winning speech will have to be changed.

The audience and judges have a higher level of expectations. I will treasure any feedback to improve. Remember nobody can do it alone. All of you in District 51 are my coaches.

My email is starcoaching@gmail.com

If you are in Kuala Lumpur, drop by to taste our coffee or do an assignment there (Our VPE is Mun Yuen 016-2187876).

I am with Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club that meets every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month. Venue: Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (Opposite East Inn hotel )

Loghandran DTM (012-2389 897 )

District 51 Champion 2008

2008-04-21T23:23:00.002+08:00

Congratulations to DTM K Loghandran of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club who emerged as the Champion of the District International Speech Contest held on 20 April, 2008 in Penang.

He will be representing District 51 to compete at World International Speech Contest at Calgary, Canada in August, 2008.

Certainly DTM K Loghandran has made our Club proud. He has made Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club to be well known in Toastmasters Circle, even internationally.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish him the best at the next level of competition.

S.O.A.R.

Best Regards

Robert Hue
President
Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club
.

10th Anniversary and 11th Installation Nite

2007-11-29T21:11:00.000+08:00

Please click here to view 66 photos taken by KC Leong.

In-coming Club Officers

Dear Esteemed Members,

I am so happy that 10th Anniversary and 11th Installation Nite of our club on Last Satruday was a GREAT Success. Close fellowship, good food, wonderful venue, exciting events like lucky draws, the creative game by VPE Mun Yuen which made us laughs. Do you realised that the games had allowed many of us to act. The actings were funny and really exhaust the wit of the members. I truly enjoyed that session.
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Club President, Robert Hue

In the Club environment, we normally have some barriers among us due to our background, age difference, level of our economic/social achievement etc. But during the nite, I personally felt that each of the members were so close to me that I felt like in a family with brothers and sisters around me. Our barriers, if there was any, collapsed like "Berlin War".

During the nite, we also had the opportunity to meet our old friends, like Khalyani who brought her whole family, Past President Seelan and David Anthony. Also, Norashikin who rejoined us as Club member.
.

For those members who were not able to join us in the Wonderful event, I wish you can join us in future event to experience the fantastic fellowship as we had last Saturday nite.

This year the Toastmasters of the Year Award goes to the dedicated and committed VPE Chow Mun Yuen.

The event would not be a success, if not because of the effort of the followings persons, whom I wish to say a BIG Thank you:-
.

IPP Gwen, CTM as the Organising Chairman
Success for good turnout, sumptuous dinner, lucky draws and coordinate 2 in one event. I was surprise that the prize of the Luck Draw was of such value. Thanks for your effort to secure sponsors. I really admire your ability to get such a great venue for such good price.

Past President, Loghan, DTM
For arranging the technical aspect to allow us to view the video on team spirit and our drama comedy Flagrante Delicto. Gave us an entertaining evening. GREAT JOB.

Past President, Celine Teh, DTM

Her eloquent citation of the Poem had add colors to the nite.

Past President, Kam Peng, ATMS

You wrote a GREAT Poem to describe the Presidents. Each description fits the president well and also witty. .

At Coco Sports Bar & Lounge, Sunway Lagoon Club, Sunway Kuala Lumpur

Past President, KC Leong, CL
For compiling the photos of this event for the webblog. I also wish to thank him for maintaining a GREAT weblog for the Club. KC, do you know that new members have told me that they are attracted to our Club because of the weblog. What a good work you have done to promote our club.

Area W3 Governor, Lim Hin Chong, ATMS

For conducting the Installation ceremony for our EXCO. Thank you for the good job. You acted like professional as Charlie in the Fragrante Delicto.

Past President Ong Siew Chien, DTM

Last but not least, the goal keeper of the event. You are the one that make the good event better. Always, give us your kind and gentle advice, for any shortcomings in the event. Additionally, also generously contributed to the gifts and lucky draws. Finally, all those who are present, the event would not materialise without you. A BIG Thank you. Hope that you enjoyed the nite as much as I had.
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Exco Member, CK Ong

For the splendid task in creating the flyer for members and weblog. Certainly, you have used your expertise and talent to help our Club. You have done a good job despite of your tight work schedule. I salute you.

Best Regards

Robert Hue

Club President

Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club
.

The Shining Star

2007-11-29T21:04:00.000+08:00

Celebration of 10th Anniversary of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club (formerly called Institute Bank-Bank Malaysia Toastmasters Club)

By DTM Celine Teh

Where’s the Star that was birthed 10 years ago?
Where’s the IBBM KL Toastmasters Club now?
It catapulted into the District 51 galaxy eager to go!
Shining so brilliantly it dazzled many a hearts with a Wow!

Well, things have changed for better of course
Since IBBM KL became known as Speakers Dream
This shining star has proceeded along its own course
Providing exciting meetings to help members achieve their dreams

Our mentor Wu is not around to hear our glowing report
But we know that we have done her proud
Ten years have passed what have we to report
A list of shining achievements to make any mentor proud

In leadership achievements, we have produced 4 Distinguished Toastmasters in succession
At the district level, a District Secretary, Treasurer and 4 Area Governors have served loyally
At the International Speech contest level, K Loghandran emerged as the District Champion
In the Distinguished Club program, we achieved President’s Distinguished Club victoriously

This shining star has embraced change with much delight
From an in-house club it has become a community club
From STAR seminars it has produced comedy shows that delight
From an underground meeting place it has moved to a golf club

As the Star continues shining ever so bright
Distinguished Club status will always be in sight
By meeting educational and membership goals, we will be alright
Together let us join Robert and team as new frontiers we will sight!

10th Anniversary

2007-11-29T20:57:00.000+08:00

Tribute to Presidents of Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club

Written by Hor Kam Peng, ATMS, CL

1. This chartered one has a blue blood line
The King of Mongolia was he
In his tall tale of glory, he had wine and dine
That got everyone going hee-hee-hee Vijayendran V, CTM

2. Curls like actor Minnie Driver
Looks & voice like a famous Oriental singer
This president made it to the Division
Set the club on its way to a lofty vision Celine Teh, DTM

3. His initial is the same as the capital city
Banker, trainer and actor he evolved
Building the club is always his priority
To the delight and benefit of all involved K Loghandran, DTM

4. Speedy Gonzalez she was known
She can neither be copied or cloned
This 21st Century Aeon Flux will stand by
Answering any how and why Ong Siew Chien, DTM

5. Tall and slender is this president
At 11 ½ goals he sets a precedent
Famous for bananas as dessert
No way he will stand by to see the club dessert Koh Teck Lee, ATMB
.

6. Bubbly and ever smiling
This Captain kept the club a-sailing
Truly reliable and dependable
Now an Area Governor is he able Lim Hin Chong, ATMS

7. Camera goes clicking with feet running
He is also good at writing and blogging
Full of energy and persistence
Keeps the club recognized in world presence Leong Kwan Chong, CTM, CL

8. Black or white is all up to you
When he makes his train goes choo-choo
With good humour and a gleaming smile
As president he always goes the extra mile Kanniaseelan Varathan, ATMB

9 She hailed from Taiping
Always wishing all good cheer and tidings
Probably a banker from start till end
President No. 9 she stands Hor Kam Peng, ATMS

10. Pint-sized and unassuming
If you care, she dares
Lots of guts and full of fun
Fiercely loyal with ideas by the tons Gwendoline Gwee, CTM

11. Stern in looks but kind in heart
His tenure unrolls each meeting with themes
Unleash his leadership to cart
Membership to break the club at its seams Robert Hue, CTM

Artwork of flyer is contributed by CK Ong.

10th Anniversary of SDTMC

2007-11-18T17:34:00.000+08:00

Dear Esteemed Fellow Toastmasters,

Yes! A night not to be missed.

You are specially invited to our very own “STARS”nite!!!
.

Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club ("SDTMC") specially invites you to join us in celebrating another successful term in our 2-in-1 event: to witness the Installation of our Club Officers for the term 2007/2008 as well ascelebrating our 10th Anniversary of Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club.

Join us at the happening event, the Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club Officers Installation Nite 2007/2008 & 10th Anniversary Celebration Dinner!
.

Date : 24/11/07 (Sat)

Venue : Coco Lounge Sports Bar & Lounge, Sunway Lagoon Club.

Time : 6.30p.m to 10.00 p.m
.

In any SDTMC event we promise you our 3 Fs: good Food, good Fun and great Fellowship. We have lined up an array of exciting and fun program. Games and of course, there's the lucky draw too.

Highlights of the event:

• Installation Ceremony of EXCO Members

• Down Memory Lane

• Poem Recital

• Games

• Stars Nite-Hall of Fame

• Opportunity to win good value lucky draws.

• Entertainment by a Live Band.
.

Tickets – RM35 per pax. Call Siew Chien 012-311 3026 or Gwen 019-355 1653 for reservations.

To make it an event worth celebrating and comemorating, your presence is of utmost importance to make the event a success.

Together we S. O. A. R. to greater heights!

Yours Truly

Gwen Gwee IPP

b/h of Organising Committee
.

Please click here to view the location map to Sunway Lagoon Club.
.

Execute Your Idea

2007-11-13T23:11:00.000+08:00

Note: Due to clashing of events, this workshop is now postponed to Monday 7 January 2008.

Dear Esteem Members,

Everyone has good ideas but not many can transform good ideas into action.

Come! Come and learn to overcome your mental block and turn your ideas into realty.

Come and support the workshop conducted by our founder club member, DTM, K Loghadran.

Fong Mun Toh and K. Loghandran

The followings are the credentials of DTM, K Loghandran:-

World Taped Speech Champion 1993
District 51 Champion 1998
International Stand-up Comedian
International Training Consultant

He is currently the director of our sister-club, Spot-on-Theater. The sister club has since performed two comedies, acted by Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club ("SDTMC") members.

He and his another well known partner, Fong Mun Toh ("Monti") are well know artists of the local performance arts circle. Both of them has recently performed a comedy in Hong Kong.

Best Regards

Robert Hue

Club President
SDTMC

KGPA

Execute your Idea

Turn your Idea into Reality........Success.......$$$$$$$$$$

You spot an idea!!

You need a structure to realize it You need to translate an idea into production

Come and spend an evening with DTM, K. Loghandran who will help you :-

· Transform your idea into actionable steps

· Execute your idea from concept into execution

Behind every idea are the seeds to their unfoldment

Your investment RM20 per pax / RM50 for 3 pax / RM100 for 10 pax (includes light refreshments and notes)

KGPA

For reservations, please contact:

Sew Chen - 012-3113026 or email - oschien@pd.jaring.my

Robert - 013-3901055

Book in your diary for this special date:

Date - 28 Nov 2007 (Wednesday)

Time - 6.45 pm till 9.15 pm

Venue - Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA)

Restoran Mutiara Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Organised by :

SPEAKER' DREAM TOASTMASTERS CLUB (SDTMC)

Website: http://sdtmc.blogspot.com/

SDTMC members in Restoran Mutiara of KGPA

Photos by KC Leong

Club Meeting on 24th September 2007

2007-10-15T14:36:00.000+08:00

Our club, the Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club had its latest meeting on 24th September 2007 at the usual venue, the Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam. Our Assistant Sargeant at Arms for this meeting, Chew Yew Fai CC called the meeting to order, after which the National Anthem was sung and the members present introduced themselves.

This evening, we had a potential toastmaster, Darick Wong, present, to observe the proceedings. We were also fortunate to have two toastmasters from other clubs. They were Kamalendran Eeswaran TM from Telekoms Toastmasters and Nini TM who is a member of two clubs, Pidato Perdana Toastmasters and Money Mastery Toastmasters. Nini was also an assignment speaker.

The theme for this meeting was “PLAN FOR SUCCESS” and the word of the day was “RECREANT”, introduced by Kamalendran, who was the Language Evaluator for the evening.

Robert Hue, in his presidential address, spoke of the successful Area W3 Humourous Speech and Evaluation contests, which were organized by our club and held on 17th September, in which two of our members, Alfred Koh and Simon Soh, did us proud by becoming winners. He thanked each and every one involved, who helped to make the event a success.

The control was then handed over to the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), our Immediate Past President, Gwen Gwee CTM CL, who introduced the segment on “Do Your Thing”. This segment was shared by Hor Kam Peng ATMS and K. Loghandran DTM. Kam Peng started the session off by informing us of interesting articles from previous Toastmasters magazines which contained many tips on public speaking, for which we were all grateful. Loghandran took over with a story of a prince which was the illustration of how to coach shy members. He called it the “See, Say and Do” model.

The next segment, Table Topics, was conducted by me. The topics were, of course, unknown to the members and were selected by picking cards at random and speaking on the picture shown on the respective card. Those who volunteered for this impromptu speaking slot were Lim Hin Chong ATMS, Loretta Chin TM, Koh Teck Lee ATMB, Hor Kan Peng ATMS and Alfred Koh ACB. Hin Chong who got a picture of a wedding couple, spoke about remembering weddings and other important occasions in one’s life and which he found quite hard to do. Loretta had a picture of a man running. This reminded her of how she met our Prime Minister in Bangsar Shopping Complex. Teck Lee, who got a picture of an ice cream spoke of how much he and his children love ice cream. The last two speeches of the session made us thoughtful when, Kam Peng, who had a picture of some stationery. spoke of how she was involved in the distribution of stationery to children of low income parents, who were so grateful for the stationery. It made her think of us of the other half who take such things for granted and who do not appreciate them. Alfred, who got a picture of fishing, finished off the session by saying that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him the fish, quite in line with the old saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. The session thus ended on a philosophical note. The control was then handed over to Mok Soo Pon ATMB, to evaluate the table topic speakers.

The meeting then proceeded to the prepared assignments. The speakers were Loretta Chin TM, Lee Mun Wai TM and our guest, Nini.

Loretta Chin was the first speaker. However, before she began, the ever innovative Loghan, her evaluator, distributed graphic evaluation sheets to all of us with which we were also to evaluate Loretta. The sheets were prepared in a manner which actually made it easier for an evaluator to evaluate.

Loretta’s speech was No. 6 in the C & L Manual and called “The House That Dreams Are Made Off”. Her speech was about change. Changes to her neighbour’s house after her neighbour moved out and the new owner started to renovate it. She spoke of how the renovations became a thing with her as she became fascinated with its progress and progressively curious about how it was going to turn out. She imagined a classy house when the change was complete, befitting her image of her elusive new neighbour. However, as the renovations progressed, she was disappointed to see that the good taste with which it started off was fast diminishing. Instead, it got quite bad and Loretta was horrified when she saw the Indonesian workers paint the walls a ghastly yellow ochre. The house looked a disaster with the loud colour scheme, making Loretta realise that if you want something done well you have to do it yourself and not leave it to others.

Lee Mun Wai’s speech was assignment no. 5 from the C & L Manual, which he called “The Winds of Change”. He said that the title of his speech was inspired by a song which he had heard and which made him think of his favourite past time, sailing and how, when one is sailing, one is alone against the elements, over which one has no control. No control over whether the sea will be calm and still that one can look at one’s reflection in it on a windless and moonlit night, as if it were a mirror. Because man has no control over the elements, man must respect them. He carried on to say that living our lives is like navigating a sail boat and just as a sail boat adapts to the winds of change, we must also adapt to change as change is inevitable in life. For us to change ourselves to adapt to the winds of change, we have to make decisions at the right time just as sailors make decisions according to the swells of the sea. Like sailors, we too are thrown into all types of “weather” as we journey in life and it is important for us to chart the course of our lives and make necessary changes in accordance with the winds of change.

The last assignment speaker was Nini who made her speech No. 8 from the C & E Manual, “Love Yourself”. She spoke of how she changed her eating habits to lose weight and be healthy. She gave us a crash course on the food pyramid. She also talked of the importance of embarking on a simple meal plan and generously gave us a sample menu for breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch, tea and dinner, thus inspiring us to eat more healthy.

The next item on the Agenda was the delivery of the reports from the evaluators of the prepared speeches and Koh Teck Lee ATMB, the General Evaluator, called for the same. Loretta Chin’s speech was evaluated by Loghan, Mun Wai’s speech was evaluated by Alfred Koh and Nini’s speech by Hor Kam Peng.

After that, Alfred Koh, the winner of the Area W Humourous Speech contest held on 17th September 2007, made his winning speech before us once again.

Next, Kamalendran from Telekoms Toastmasters presented his report on the usage of the English language in the meeting, followed by reports by the AH Counter, our new member Dawson Sim TM, who did a thorough job and the Time Keeper, who was Chow Mun Yuen CTM CL, our VP Education.

The control was then handed over to Gwen Gwee, the TME, for the presentation of the prizes, as follows:

The table topics prize went to Alfred Koh.

The prize for the best assignment speaker went to Loretta Chin.

The prize for the best assignment evaluator went to T. Loghandran.

Gwen Gwee then wrapped up the evening’s activities, followed by the closing address by Robert.

Thank you.

Pushpa Menon TM
VPPR.

Club Meeting on 10 September 2007

2007-10-15T12:28:00.000+08:00

The Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club had its first meeting in September on 10th September 2007 at the Kelab Perkhidmatan Golf Awam. After our Assistant Sargeant at Arms Chow Mun Yuen CTM CL called the meeting to order and the National Anthem was sung, the members present introduced themselves.

We had present, in our midst, members of different clubs, namely, Paul Tan and David Ann. Paul was there as a guest, to observe the proceedings and David was an assignment speaker.

The theme for this meeting was Mid Autumn Joy and the word of the day was “HEARTY”, which the members were to use as often as possible.

After the Presidential address by Robert Hue, the control was handed over to the Toastmaster of the Evening (TME), Loghandran Krishnasamy DTM, who requested the Language Evaluator for the evening, Chow Mun Yuen to introduce the word of the day.

This was, as usual, followed by the “Do Your Thing” segment in which our TME T. Loghandran DTM, taught us a sales pitch where you have a product to sell, but you do not ask a person to buy it. Instead, you recommend to him to try the product, after extolling its virtues. The key word is “RECOMMEND”.

The next segment, Table Topics, is a slot in a toastmasters meeting which gives the members a chance to polish their impromptu speaking skills. This interesting session
was conducted by Lee Mun Wai TM, the Table Topics Master, who devised an ingenious way of conducting it. Instead of asking the volunteers to pick their topics from a pack of illustrated cards, he introduced aromas which each volunteer had to recognise and speak about.

The table topic speakers, volunteering to speak on the various aromatic sensations, were Lim Hin Chong ATMS, Koh Teck Lee ATMB, Paul Tan, Simon Soh ATS and Yu Foong Sin TM.

Lim Hin Chong thought he had smelled plastic and he spoke about the different things which are made of plastic. The next speaker was Koh Teck Lee, to whom the aroma reminded him of the hospital. He told the members how much he disliked going to the hospital and how once, when he went to visit someone at the hospital, he ended up in the next bed. Paul Tan, the next impromptu speaker, did not seem to recognize the smell. He therefore spoke about how important the sense of smell is to a person. Simon Soh, thought that he smelled chloroform, while the last speaker, Yu Foong Sin thought her smell was minyak cap kapak. She said that the minyak kapak is a must in every household and how it is a cure for nearly everything.

The speakers were surprised when they were informed by Mun Wai what their various smells were. Hin Chong’s aroma was an “eau de toilette”, Teck Lee’s was “Listerine” (close enough). Simon Soh’s smell was……wait for it “Belacan” (probably, also close enough as the smell of belacan can knock you unconscious) and Foong Sin’s was “Vicks”. (also a must in every household). After that very entertaining Table Topics session, we settled down to listening to the prepared speeches.
The assignment speakers for this evening’s meeting were Yu Foong Sin TM, Mok Soo Pon ATMS, David Ann ATMG CL and Simon Soh ATS.

Yu Foong Sin’s speech was assignment no. 4 from the Competent Communication Manual and was called “Life At A National Service Camp”. She said that she had signed up as a part time trainer at the NS camp, so as to train the teenage trainees. She spoke about how the camp looked like a refugee camp where the trainees had to share a huge bathroom, She encountered some trainees who were school dropouts and who posed a disciplinary problem and was thus a challenge for the part time trainers. But then things got underway with all the trainees, who were helpful and friendly and took part in all the activities organized by the trainers. She felt a sense of pride as she watched the trainees perform and said that it will be an experience which she will always treasure.

The next speaker was Mok Soo Pon who did the “Speaking to Inform” segment. Her speech was called “Smooth, Silky Hands” and she spoke of how, as a child, she suffered from contact dermatitis, which caused her skin to be very dry, her fingers bent and cracked, causing them to bleed. She spoke of how her skin condition made her very self conscious, shy and withdrawn. When her contact dermatitis was eventually cured, she found that she had ended up with very rough skin. Luckily for her, an Indian friend of hers gave her a remedy for the rough skin. She tried out the remedy faithfully every week and found that the remedy worked and she had silky soft hand and skin all over. Soo Pon generously shared the secret of her smooth silky hands with us. The remedy is very cheap. All you need is white castor sugar, olive cooking oil, a pail of water, a towel and you are all set. Firstly, you have to apply 2 teaspoons of castor sugar on your left palm and add 2 teaspoons of olive cooking oil to it. You are then to gently massage the mixture into the skin for 2 minutes and wash under running water and pat dry and repeat on the right hand. In the event you wish to smoothen you feet, you will have to massage for 4 minutes. This has to be done once a week until you have smooth, silky hands and feet.

Simon Soh was next with his speech “Invest in People”. His speech was a keynote address to chief executive officers, where he said that for a company to be profitable it has to invest in people. Human capital is all important. Companies must invest in the right people in order to in increase profit.

The last assignment speaker for the evening was our guest, David Ann with his speech named “Ready, get set, GO”. He spoke about taking the first step in any venture, which is the most difficult step to take, because when one takes this first step, one moves from a comfort zone. He said that he took this first step because the IT company he was working for closed down and he had to look for a new job. He found a sales job in which his first assignment was to look for customers. He did not give up in spite of rejections and managed to close his sales. He said that the best way to close sales was to ask for the order. When you ask for the order, you move from the “get set” position to the “go” position. He said that we must never be afraid to ask if we want something. If we do not ask, we will always remain in the “get set” position.

The next item on the Agenda was the delivery of the reports from the evaluators of the prepared speeches and Loghandran, the General Evaluator, called for the same. Foong Sin’s speech was evaluated by Chew Yew Fai CC, Soo Pon’s speech by Gwen Gwee CTM CL, Simon Soh’s by Lim Hin Chong and David Ann’s by K. Loghandran.

Next, Chow Mun Yuen, the Language Evaluator, presented her report on the usage of the English language in the meeting, followed by reports by me, the AH Counter and Chow Mun Yuen, who was also the time keeper.

The control was then handed over to Loghandran, our TME, for the presentation of the prizes, as follows:

The table topics prize went to Simon Soh ATS.

The prize for the best assignment speaker went to Mok Soo Pon ATMB.

The prize for the best assignment evaluator went to T. Loghandran DTM.

Loghan then wrapped up the evening’s activities, followed by the closing address by Robert, after which the members took their leave, thus bringing to an end another enjoyable Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Meeting, held every fortnight on the 2nd and 4th Mondays in the month.

Pushpa Menon TM
VPPR.

Area W3 Speech Contest

2007-09-13T21:15:00.000+08:00

Toastmasters International

District 51, Division W, Area W3

presents

Area W3 Humorous Speech and Evaluation Contests

Laughter is the best medicine

Come and listen to the wit and humour of our contestants

Learn a tip or two on how to think creatively at the spur of themoment

Let us entertain and put more laughter into your life

Keep this date with us…….at 6.45 pm

on 17 September 2007 (Monday)

Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA)

1st Flr Kiara RoomBukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Tickets @ RM10 (inclusive of light refreshments)

For reservations and queries, please contact:

Mun Yuen: 016-218 7876

Siew Chien: 012-311 3026

Organised by:

SPEAKERS' DREAM TOASTMASTERS CLUB (220-51)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Club Meeting - Monday 23 July 2007

2007-08-11T11:50:00.000+08:00

Dear fellow Toastmasters,

I am Pushpa Menon TM, your VPPR for the term 2007-2008. Our club had its latest meeting on 23rd July 2007 at our usual venue and was well attended by members. After our Assistant Sargeant at Arms Leo Koo TM called the meeting to order and the National Anthem was sung, the members present introduced themselves.

This meeting was particularly interesting because we had a member of a different club, a young lady called Lilia Edlina Azmi from the Price WaterHouse Coopers Toastmasters Club, who had requested our President Robert Hue permission to make her 10th speech from the C & L Manual before our club members, which our President graciously obliged.

The theme for this meeting was the word TRANSFORMERS, inspired by the movie of the same name.

After the Presidential address by Robert Hue, where he urged us to complete our assignments and transform ourselves into better public speakers, the Toastmaster of the Evening Hor Kam Peng ATMS CL briefed the members on the background of the Toastmasters International Club and invited me, the Language Evaluator for the evening, to introduce the word of the day, “EVOLVE”. The idea was for everyone to make liberal use of the word of the day.

This was followed by the “Do Your Thing” segment where our Immediate Past President, Gwendolyn Gwee CTM CL tested our brain power by asking us to make words of not less than 4 letters each from the word “TRANSFORMERS”, within a space of about 2 minutes. This had some of us like me, literally, stumped for words. Mok Soo Pon ATMB came up tops with an amazing 18 words, closely followed by Kam Peng and Simon (definitely not Simple) Soh ACS. This segment was shared by T. Loghandran DTM who, with his characteristic ease, did his thing, with three anecdotes that took us from the Magna Carta, to Shakespeare, Hitler and the Bible and then back home, homourously linking all of it to our Club banner.

The next segment, Table Topics, was innovatively conducted by the vibrant Loretta Chin TM, the Table Topic master for the evening. She chose topics which centered on the theme and ruled that if there were no volunteers within 3 seconds, the last speaker would “volunteer” the next speaker. The first table topic speaker was Alfred Koh ACB who got a difficult topic about transforming oneself without conforming to the opinion of others. Alfred however did magnificently well. He said that to transform means that we do not blindly follow what others think or say but we must conduct our own enquiry to test the veracity of the same and only in doing so will we effectively transform ourselves. The other table topic speakers were Leo Koo TM, Koh Teck Lee ATMB CL, Lee Mun Wai TM, Simon Soh and Ong Siew Chien DTM.

Leo Koo’s topic was “More Than Meets The Eye”. He said that most of the time, in our inter personal dealings, we do not reveal our true self to the other person, but hide behind a mask. He suggested that perhaps we should not hide behind a façade but instead be true to what we are and let the world see us as who we really are. His speech was food for thought. Perhaps we should.

Simon Soh’s topic was “What If I Have A Car Which Is A Robot?” He gave us such a fantastic picture of what he would make his robot car transform into that I think James Bond would have given up his Aston Martin and his women for a blueprint of this fabulous piece of machinery.

Lee Mun Wai’s topic was “If There Is One Thing I Would Like To Transform About Myself What Would It Be?” He very honestly said that there is no one thing which he would like to transform about himself as he was contented with the way he had done things so far. However he conceded that there are some small things that he may like to change about himself. He also said that we must not view whatever experiences we have had as good or bad experiences but view each experience as an instruction from which we learn something. That came from the heart and was well received by the members. His speech also earned him the table topics prize for the evening.

Ong Siew Chien’s table topic was “What Would You Like to Transform” and she said that in the light of the current fact that one needs at least about RM2 million in savings to retire comfortably, she would like to be transformed to be able to save at least RM2 million to enable her to retire comfortably. Same with us, I am sure.

The meeting then proceeded to the prepared assignments. The speakers were Lee Mun Wai, Lilia Edlina Azmi, Alfred Koh and Mok Soo Pon.

Lee Mun Wai’s speech was assignment no. 3 from the C & L Manual, which he called “Why Bother to Retire”? His point was as we need about RM2 Million to retire comfortably (taking the cue from Siew Chien) and as our current living expenses defy the law of gravity, we might as well keep on working. That kept us thinking for a while.

Lilia’s speech was her assignment no. 10 from the C & L Manual which was called “Everything is Within Your Reach”. She spoke about how the most difficult person to show love to is the one you love best and personalised her speech by recalling her experience with her dying grandmother and how she struggled with not being able to show the affection she so deeply felt for her and the lesson she learnt from it which is that the capacity to show love is within the reach of all of us. We just need to summon it.

The next speaker was Alfred Koh, our member who travels from Gua Musang for our meetings. His assignment was Story Telling and his story was titled “Folktale”. His tale told of the reason why the cat and the mouse are now bitter enemies. It was all over some butter.

The last speaker was Mok Soo Pon, who delivered her Humorously Speaking assignment from the Advanced Level, “Motion, Motion, Motion”. She started by asking us what the modern device is which we can use for only 20 sen. It transpired to be the ultra modern self cleaning public toilet in Bukit Bintang. She humorously described her experience in that public toilet, which apparently locks and unlocks its doors automatically after a fixed time and shuts down completely at 11 pm. So, woe to anyone who takes more than fifteen minutes to use that toilet and anyone who goes into it at 10.46 pm.

The next item on the Agenda was the delivery of the reports from the evaluators of the prepared speeches and Simon Soh, the General Evaluator called for the same. Mun Wai’s speech was evaluated by Alfred Koh, Lilia’s by Lim Hin Chong ATMS, Alfred Koh’s by Koh Teck Lee and Soo Pon’s by Loghandran. The evaluators congratulated the speakers on areas where they did well and gently pointed out the areas where they could improve. Loghandran gave us all a very important tip. He informed us that when doing a humourous speech, one must exaggerate the characters or things which are being spoken about.

Next, I presented my report on the usage of the English language in the meeting, followed by reports by the AH Counter, Ismail Fahmy CTM and the Time Keeper, Yu Foong Sin, TM.

The control was then handed over to Kam Peng, our lady Toastmaster of the Evening, for the presentation of the prizes, as follows:

The table topics prize went to Lee Mun Wai.

The prize for the best assignment speaker went to Alfred Koh, for his vivid, lively and entertaining story telling.

The prize for the best assignment evaluator went to T. Loghandran.

Kam Peng then wrapped up the evening’s activities, followed by the closing address by Robert.

The meeting was yet another entertaining and informative Speakers Dream evening.

Thank you.

Pushpa Menon TM
VPPR.

Club Meeting - 25 June 2007

2007-06-25T12:10:00.000+08:00

Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club presents the final meeting of the term 2006/2007 with the theme “The Best” on 25 June 2007.

Despite the wet and gloomy weather lingering around Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, we managed to start the meeting with 10 members at 7.30 pm. With last minute changes in the meeting agenda, VPE Robert Hue was able to get the co-operation of new and senior members to take the roles at the twelveth hour. Elizabeth, our guest for the evening commended she enjoyed the whole meeting and did not notice the changes as it was carried out smoothly. The meeting progressed well and ended by 9.25 pm as indicated in the meeting agenda. After taking into account the feedback by past General Evaluators on keeping tab on the time management, our club has made it by ensuring the meeting ended on time.

The meeting started off with our Club President Gwendoline with her final Presidential Speech on being ‘The Best.’ Table Topics took the next slot with new and old members participating with enthusiasm.

The meeting progressed with 3 new members presenting their speech assignments. Lee Mun Wai presented his icebreaker’s speech where he spoke from the heart. No notes was seen, he was delighted to share with us his wonderful journey on planet. His title of his speech was “Nomad” where he had the opportunity to travel and live in various parts of the Malaysia and United Kingdom.

The second speaker was Leo Koo, where he reminded us on the keeping fit. He gave his version on owning a ‘prosperous body’ at one time of his life due entertaining his clients with constant nasi lemak. He reviewed his expenses and found out he needed to cater for new clothes to meet his new development of his body growing sideways. He took charge of the situation and made his decision to keep fit and maintain his expenses. Finally he succeeded and cautioned the audience to try to stay fit for the sake of better health.

Our third speaker Loretta spoke on the principles of shopping where our timekeeper Puspa almost missed her timing in switching on and off the timer lights as she got engrossed in Loretta’s interesting speech. One of the principles of shopping is you need to shop twice ie pre window shopping and on the day shopping to grab your goodies on the sale day. This idea was certainly a familiar tactic I use to shop in Isetan Member sale where I could shop during lunch time ie half an hour to grab the goodies.

The meeting ended with winners for :-

Best Table Topic Speaker – Caryl Hean

Best Assignment Speaker – Lee Mun Wai

Best Assignment Evaluator – Gwendoline Gwee, CL

The meeting ended on time as planned.

Kudos to Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club as we strive to improve our meetings for the benefit of our members.

In-coming Club EXCO 2007-2008

2007-06-24T11:31:00.000+08:00

Dear Esteem Members,

11 June 2007 is not just another ordinary club meeting. It was also the 10th Annual General Meeting for Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club. We had a smooth sailing AGM with the election of the new Executive Committee Members 2007/2008. Let us welcome our Incoming EXCO 2007/2008:-

President : Robert Hue Voon, CTM, CL (Middle, reference to photo above)
VP Education : Chow Mun Yuen, CTM, CL (Right-4)
VP Membership : Ismail Md Yusof Fahmy, CTM (Right-3)
VP Public Relation : Pushpa Menon, TM
Secretary : Mei Han Yap TM
Treasurer : Choo Yew Fai TM (Left-4)
SAA : Keat Fu Alfred Koh, ACB (Left-3)

Comm Members : Ong Siew Chien, DTM (Right-1)
Mok Soo Pon , ACB (Right-2)
Choo Kheng Ong, TM
Yu Foong Sin, TM
.

To the In-coming Team of Executive Committee 2007/2008, my heartiest congratulation to you. I am confident that you will serve the club with P.R.I.D.E. - Personal Responsiblity In Developing Excellence.

I wish you a fantastic year ahead.

Toastmasters - Simply Amazing

By Gwen Gwee
Club President
SDTMC 2006/2007

Presidential Address - 11 June 2007

2007-06-24T10:49:00.000+08:00

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen,

A very warm welcome to all members and especially our guests to our Special meeting tonight with the Theme – PRIDE.

What is this PRIDE to me and to all of you. If you take pride in what you do, you would want to excel, to do well and to put in a lot of effort. If you take pride in being a Toastmasters, you will attend meetings, participate in the meetings, prepare your assignment, practice it and to give a good delivery.

Just like our Division Champion DTM Shanker from Penang, for him to win in the District Contest and come out Champion he practices his speech 60 times.

If you take pride in being an EXCO member of the club, you will attend meetings, contribute your ideas, be creative in execution of your duties.

So friends are you taking PRIDE in what you do?

Let me share with you a poem.

"All roads lead to Rome.
Choose a method that works best for you.
Identify what you can control and let go what you can't.
The world is changing so very fast and so MUST you.
If there is any one who comes to your rescue, it will be YOU.
Keep yourself motivated.
Set your goals.
Approach your life with PRIDE.

Personal Responsibility In Developing Excellence."

Yesterday we have a fantastic workshop – The Art of Chinese Painting conducted by two Masters and two of his assistants. The event was attended by 4 children, 5 youths and 18 adults.

Even our ex-member Sabapathy came to support us, he stayed for half day. We have an enjoyable and fruitful day. The proof of the pudding as you can see from what we did from all the paintings on the wall.

I would like to extend my special thanks to the Club Executive Committee for organizing this event and CTM Alfred Koh for being the co-coordinator of the event.

By Gwen Gwee
Club President
SDTMC 2006/2007

The Art of Chinese Painting - 10 June 2007

2007-06-10T11:59:00.000+08:00

Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club fulfills the wishes of our members with The Chinese Art of Painting. It started off with our member CC Alfred who displays his passion for Chinese painting in his speech presentation. Members were mesmerized by the stroke of the paint brush where it can bring a meaningful picture to the audience.

CC Alfred with his enthusiasm brought two masters of the Chinese Painting to share with us the techniques. Master Hoo shared with us the secrets of holding the paint brush to produce the different strokes for a meaningful and beautiful piece of work. Master Chan was in her seventies, who does 4 hours of painting everyday. This lady has demonstrated to us that in our twilight years, there is a skill you can pick up to past your time. It certainly enhances the mind and exercises the hands.

With much emphasis on the movements of the hands, if you have ‘stiff’ hands, this is one art you can pick to improve your hand gestures.

We had 27 participants comprising of children and adults who were eager to learn and of course discover their ‘hidden’ talents. The session proceeded on with demonstration and hands-on training. Everyone were either impressed or surprised with their masterpieces where they learn within 5 hours. Our members were proud to display their masterpieces in the club meeting on 11 June 2007.

CC Alfred surprised us by inviting another young and talented artist who specializes in painting mirrors. Master Kiek gave his modern version of Chinese painting. We could see the difference in the skillful strokes of the Chinese paint brush from the modern and conventional Chinese art.

Everyone had the opportunity to learn pictures of the flying sparrows, resting prawn, bamboo fence, bouquet of flowers and etc. The age group of this workshop ranges from 8 years to 58 years. Surprisingly, despite the difference in age gap, Master Hoo could conduct the class with no confusion and fuss.

I was impressed by method of tearing paper into various sizes. You need to fold the paper into half and use the wet paint brush and ‘paint over’ the folded edge. The paper was torn effortlessly into half equally.

The session concluded with demonstration of the masters displaying their skills in the Chinese Art of Painting.

All members and non members enjoyed the session and some have made arrangements with the masters to continue their interest in the art.

The Art of Chinese Painting – Basic Level

2007-05-17T22:35:00.000+08:00

Learn the basic Chinese Art of Painting

Conducted by 2 experienced and talented masters
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Participants will be taught about eight types of paintings:

Chrysanthemum, Bamboo, Sparrow, Fruits and Vegetables, Prawns, Crabs, morning glory, lotus, sunflower, buffalo, etc.

De-stress yourself and have fun in enriching yourself with this Art

Date : Sunday 10 June 2007

Time : 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Venue :

Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA)

1st Floor Kiara Room

Bukit Kiara

Kuala Lumpur

Your investment :

RM150 per pax

RM130 per pax (for a group of 3)

RM100 per pax (member)

RM250 (member’s family ie 4 pax max)

(inclusive of materials for Chinese Painting, workshop materials plus breakfast/lunch/tea)

For reservations and queries, please call :

Siew Chien : 012-311-3026

Gigi : 019-355-1653

Organised by : Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club
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Up & Coming Dream Stars

2007-04-05T23:51:00.000+08:00

9 April 2007 – Monday at 7 pm

Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club invite anyone who is keen to transform oneself onto the positive track.

The Theme for this meeting - Up & Coming Dream Stars, jive closely with the meeting agenda. We have 3 new members doing their "Ice Breaker" speech and another 4 members who are racing to complete their Competent Communicator assignments.

These Ladies and Gentlemen have dreams to become Stars in Public Public speaking. I wish to congratualate them as they are in the Perfect Place that can help them to achieve their dreams, …..The Toastmasters Club whereby they can SMILE (i.e. Speak More In a Learning Environment).

To lead the Up & Coming Dream Stars in this meeting, we have 2 seasoned speakers, Simon Soh & Alfred Koh who are brilliant Stars in Public Speaking. I believe the new members will benefit greatly from their speech presentations.
For the benefits of new members, it is noteworthy to highlight some outstanding features of our club – Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club

1. We have 3 Distinguished Toastmasters ("DTM") in our Club,namely K Loghandran, Celine Teh and Ong Siew Chien. DTM is the highest educational award that a member can achieve.

2. We have the strong support of Past Presidents and most of them are still very active in the Club. They have contributed tremendrously in uplifting the standard and quality of our Club meetings.

Those active past presidents are K Loghandran, Celine Teh, Ong Siew Chien, Koh Teck Lee, Lim Hin Chong, and Hor Kam Peng.

Due to work and family commitments, Past Presidents, KC Leong and Seelan are not able to be with us as often as they wish. However, we hope that they can join us whenever possible.

3. You will have the chance to be a real actor, acting in public in Actors Studio. Please find our more from our club's website or check with the senior members for more details.

There will not be table topic session for this meeting but speech presentations which means more ‘storybooks’ to bring home.

We look forward to seeing you at the club meeting at KGPA, 1st Floor Kiara Room at 7 pm

Best Regards

Robert Hue
Vice President Education

Jive with The STARS

2007-04-01T12:17:00.000+08:00

Jive with The STARS was the theme for the evening of 26 March 2007. It was the second meeting of the Toastmasters Awareness Month where we share with members of the community about how Toastmasters can transform a ‘shy mouse’ to a ‘roaring lion’.

Our two themes for the month of March 2007 have earned the club 5 new members. With this achievement, our club is once again remained in the ‘shining light of the District 51’ by responding to their membership drive campaign.

Filepix on 26 Feb 2007
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This success was attributed to the great teamwork from members of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Kudos!! to our President, Mentors, Past Presidents, EXCO and Members who roped in their friends, we certainly created a new record in recruiting 5 new members within one month.

President Gwendoline and the EXCO welcome our new members to Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club :-

Caryl Hean

YU Foong Sin

Ong Choo Kheng

Gui Huey Sywu

Leo Koo Seng Yik

The year 2007, have been very auspicious for Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club where we have May Lim who emerged to support the club in January and Loretta joined shortly in February 2007.

Our Club now has 7 new members which equates to 1.75% of DCP Goals for the membership goal. Let’s all try to get 1 more new member to garner the 2 goals for membership to reach the President Distinguished Club status.

This evening started off with our VPE Robert who was always early to ensure the meeting setup was in order, was held up as one of his car tyre punctured. We had no meeting agenda. As usual, the reliable VPE Robert was determined to reach the venue as soon as possible. He did made his appearance at the club meeting on time.
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We had a vibrant opening with the ASA role undertaken by TM Loretta who was cheerful and followed by our vivacious President Gwendoline with her motivating presidential speech. The General Evaluator ACS Hor Kam Peng compared the original meeting agenda via email and the current one, it has made a 180 degrees change but with TME DTM Siew Chien and the roleplayers who filled in the vacant roles quickly, ensure the smooth flow of a wonderful meeting.

There were 2 Do Your Thing sessions where ACS Hor Kam Peng reminded us to SMILE and it can mean a great change in our daily lives. CC Chow Mun Yuen took the second session and shared with us, her transformation from the naïve and shy Ms Chow into the confidence Chow Mun Yuen. She was grateful and appreciative as she made the right decision in joining Toastmasters. Recently, she was assigned within 24 hours to attend a conference in Abu Dhabi. She was delighted at herself for being able to mingle around with the overseas crowd with confidence.

Filepix on 26 Feb 2007
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The Table Topics Session was undertaken by CC Lee King Thim who chose topics on ‘nature’ where 5 members from the audience took part.

TM Carlyn Hean emerged as the Best Topic Speaker for the evening.

There were two speakers who participated in the Speech Presentation session where CC Chow Mun Yuen attempted the Entertaining Speaker manual with her title, “Wait & See – Life is a Wonder.” She was instructed by her boss to leave for Abu Dhabi within 24 hours and was not given the liberty of time to pack or take time off but to come to work with her baggage and leave for the airport from the office. Can you imagine a single Chinese lady going to a Middle East country alone for the first time of her life. She was narrating her interesting and unexpected experiences in Abu Dhabi.

ACS Simon took the assignment from the Speeches by Management manual with speech entitled, “The Alignment,” He spoke of the 4 important elements of life and they are living, love, learning and legacy.

The programme progressed with Humor Session undertaken by CL Ng Cheong Boon who gave his version of Tai chi and how to pass the buck on when you encountered an issue, the work smart way.

CL Cheong Boon narrated a story where a marketing manager of a company visited an island in the Pacific Ocean and noticed the women do not know how to wear bras. He made a marketing report and suggested promoting the benefits of wearing of bras in that island and to find a market for his company.

Filepix on 26 Feb 2007
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We took a ‘Teh Tarik break’ and continue with Networking session for 10 minutes. KGPA serves very smooth ‘Teh Tarik.’

The meeting resume with the General Evaluation session conducted by ACS Hor Kam Peng and her talented team who gave valuable feedback.

It was certainly another wonderful evening with interesting flow of events and participation of the members and guests.

To find out what is happening on 9 April 2007, come see for yourself, the surprises and experiences you may gain that evening.

Goodnite.

By Ong Siew Chien, DTM.

CNY Toastmasters Club Meeting

2007-03-04T20:03:00.000+08:00

Dear Esteemed Members

“Yes, a meeting that is unlike any other meeting, an event that you should not miss. Do keep a date with us!!!

Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club warmly welcomes all members and their guests to join us in the forthcoming celebration,

Abundance and Prosperity Gong Xi Fai Chai.”

26 February 2007, happens to be the auspicious 9th day of the Chinese New Year and 23 members and guests participated in this eventful meeting. We had long lost member Christine and ‘busy’ members like Celine, DTM, Loghan, DTM and KC Leong, CL who made their appearances in this ‘momentous’ meeting.

The meeting room was certainly filled with festive feeling and the creative decorations of the Chinese New Year, sets the momentum. Lovely handmade mini baskets of oranges for everyone were placed around the tables. The theme “Abundance and Prosperity Gong Xi Fai Chai” for the evening offered what it promises earlier to the members and guests who made the right choice to spend the evening with Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club.

President Gwendoline presented the Prosperity Pyramid Angpow to all members. It is an ancient belief of the Indians and if you continue to say the phrase “Everyday in every way, I am getting richer and richer” for 15 times every morning with the Prosperity Pyramid in your hand for 30 days. Try it out, a surprise could come your way.

Meeting started off with the building of Abundance and Prosperity project. Members gather round the table with the basket of oranges and as a team built the tallest Abundance and Prosperity Tower within 1 minute. It was certainly an indication of good team spirit among the members and guests to come up with a great idea in a short space of time.

Loghan, DTM as usual, will share his ideas or articles and this time, he spoke on ‘Hope” where the audience listened attentively to his tips.

Table Topics was lead by our Immediate Past President Kam Peng, ATMB who made a conscientious effort by crafting the lovely handmade baskets (from used CNY cards) as gifts for our members and guests. She has specially designed her topics to suit the festive occasion and all participants were rewarded with Angpow and basket of oranges.

We had another interesting session where 3 speakers presented invaluable tips for our audience. Choo Yew Fai presented his 5th speech from the Communication and Leadership Manual, entitled “I got time to hurry.” He reminded us to spend carefully and to save for the rainy days.

Alfred Koh, CTM presented his title “English as the second language” from the advanced manual, “Speaking to Inform.” He gave a good account on how to educate and capture the interest of children in learning the English Language. It was certainly very useful for members who can use the valuable tips to guide their children.

Simon Soh, ATMB who attempted the advanced manual, Public Relations with his title “Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions.” He portrayed as the Public Relations Manager of High 5 Bread Company where the issue of cleanliness appeared in the Press recently. He appeared so cool and composed when responding to the questions of the audience. A great transformation of Simon, normally he is a ‘stressed’ speaker. Well done Simon!!

General Evaluation was undertaken by Loghan, DTM who had a good team and gave excellent reports on evaluation of assignment speakers and others.

As in the spirit of giving, we had door gifts worth RM50 and lucky draw worth RM180 sponsored by Embun Day Spa. The lucky draw was won by Leo, our prospective member.

A well attended event with good teamwork to ensure this meeting was a success!!

Kudos!! to President Gwen and her EXCO

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March 2007 happens to be

the Toastmasters Awareness Month……………

What is happening in the forthcoming meeting …….12 March 2007???

Move Ahead with The Dream Stars

With

An evening of interesting & entertaining speeches

And

Spice up with Humor session and Do Your Thing Session

Where

Members take the opportunity to unlock their talents and bring them on stage in their speech presentation

12 March 2007 (Monday) at 7.00 pm at KGPA.

Keep a date with us .

Your presence will certainly make a big difference.

Bring a guest and share with them about Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club. Further queries, contact :-

Robert Hue – 013-3901055
Mun Yuen – 016-6781431
Siew Chien – 012-3113026

Spot the 2007 Stars

2007-02-04T22:26:00.000+08:00

SPEAKERS’ DREAM TOASTMASTERS CLUB 220-51
presents

SPOT THE 2007 STARS

Congratulations!!!
The winners of the 2007 International Speech Contest and Table Topics Contest

Where DTM Celine Teh emerged as the champion in the 2007 International Speech Contest while ATMB Simon Soh as the champion in the Table Topics Contest!

The overall official results are as follows:

International Speech Contest:
Champion = DTM Celine Teh
1st runner up = ATMS Lim Hin Chong

Table Topics Contest:
Champion = ATMB Simon Soh
1st runner up = DTM Celine Teh
2nd runner up = ATMB Koh Teck Lee

It was certainly a commendable effort made by other contestants who spend their time and efforts to make the Club’s contests a success. Indeed, each of them is a winner for rising up to the challenge.

DTM Celine Teh’s winning speech entitled “Half Time” where she displayed wit and humour to ‘spice up’ her speech presentation which caught the hearts of the audience. DTM Celine was superb in her showmanship and vivid expression.

ATMS Lim Hin Chong gave an illustrative speech on forgiveness where he managed to touch the hearts of the audience. He crafted a ‘heartfelt speech’ which struck a cord in many of us that evening.

ATMB Simon Soh’s speech entitled “Triple A” where he shared with us, his experience in raising his son, Victor. Choking with emotions, Simon succeeded in presenting his inner fears and pride on the trials and tribulations of being a father.

CTM Alfred Koh as a new entrant into the International Speech Contest, jolted the audience with his speech, “Ego Talk’ when he dished out stories of ego and with a touch of his animated self to entertain the audience.

In the Table Topics Contest, contestants were given the topic, “Fear is the greatest motivator”. The audience had the opportunity to witness the skill and wit of the contestants who had ‘to think on their feet’.

Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club’s International Speech and Table Topics Contests on 22 January 2007 were indeed unique. No only was the audience entertained by the creatively crafted speeches and the showmanship of our contestants but were given a chance to participate as ‘judges’ in the Spot the 2007 Stars Contest. Each winning entry must match the official results of the judges. Matching the official results was no easy task.

Kudos! to the sole winner of the Spot the 2007 Stars Contest, Sue Ding and was awarded a gift voucher worth RM120 sponsored by Embun Day Spa.

Everyone who attended this event was appreciated with a door gift worth RM50 sponsored by Embun Day Spa.
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Speakers’ Dream Toastmaster Club would like to thank all the judges, role players, contestants and audience for making our first club event in 2007 a success.

Appreciation of thanks also goes to ACER and Embun Day Spa for their generosity in sponsoring the event with prizes, souvenirs and door gifts.

Look out for the next exciting event in February 2007……..the Chinese New Year…..more highlights and surprises to be revealed on 12 February 2007 club meeting.

Goodnite.

From the desk of the Organising Chairman
Mun Yuen, CTM

Spot The 2007 Stars

2007-01-09T23:10:00.000+08:00

Come spot the 2007 stars and win a prize.

It’s a simple task!

Just match the official results of the International Speech Contest (Club Level)

• Come and listen to the wit and humour of our contestants
• Learn a tip or two on how to think creatively at the spur of the moment
• Let us entertain and while you unwind

Keep this date with us…
22 January 2007 (Monday), 7:00 p.m.
Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam (KGPA)
First Floor, Kiara Room
Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Get your tickets @ RM10 (inclusive of light refreshments) Now!!

Limited seats only. First come first served basis.

For reservations and queries, please contact :
Siew Chien: 012-311 3026 / Email – siewchien2001@yahoo.com
Robert Hue: 013-390 1055 / Email -- roberteuh@yahoo.com
Chow Mun Yuen 016-678 1431 / Email -- mychow@pd.jaring.my

Club Installation Night

2006-09-18T21:30:00.000+08:00

September 11, is one date everyone will always remember and what was happening in our club on this very day.

Our annual event, the Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club Installation Nite was held. Our club is now moving into our 10th year of existence and with every year achieving the President Distinguished Club status.

The club has produced 10 Club Presidents, all first timers as Presidents in this club. Gwendoline Gwee, CTM CL is the fourth lady president in this club. She gave an impressive speech where one will certainly remember ‘3 G from Celcom’ to her meaning of 3 Gs for our club. She ‘took the cat out of the bag’ and elaborated on her version of 3 Gs..…

Gain Give Grow

The crucial ingredients to achieve excellence and success in an individual

Our Past District51 Secretary DTM Celine took the role of the Installation Officer for the Installation Ceremony of the Club Officers for the term 2006/2007. DTM Celine, being a charter member of the club, will certainly want to ensure that the club will have another term of continuity for Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club.

We are certainly fortunate to have our dedicated Webmaster KC Leong, who had just made headlines in the recent Rat Race 2006 and became the winning team for RHB Bank . Kudos KC!!!

KC came with his camera and he certainly does not want to miss anything that was happening, right beneath his nose. Another dedicated member who did his best by promoting both clubs ie Speakers’ Dream and Spot-on Theatre via his photos and most of all…..creating Memories of Achievement for our club.

Next was the Event of Dedication……The Toastmaster of the Year Award. As usual, we took another way in nominating award winner than the norm of selection by the EXCO. Instead, the members were given an opportunity to cast their votes for the TME Award. 75% of the votes goes to DTM Siew Chien for the The Toastmaster of the Year Award. Congratulations Siew Chien!! Keep it up and be the guiding example for our new members for dedication and commitment.

For the rest of the evening, we had the opportunity to witness Simon and Cheong Boon presenting their contest humorous speeches where the audience was the evaluators.

A reminder from Toastmasters International on building quality members and club came in timely where Assistant Division Governor Education and Training DTM Tang Sum Chee shared with us on the new Competent Leadership module.

The evening was filled with dedication and commitment from members who came and support the event. New members like CTM Alfred from Gua Musang and Yew Fai who had a crucial business meeting but attended the event immediately after his meeting.

CTM Alfred brought along with him two guests with the hope of getting new members for the club. Senior and distinguished member like DTM Celine, despite her busy business schedule, ensured the club officers are officially installed. Not forgetting the support from other Past Presidents of our club who came and supported the event.

The Installation Nite was a fellowship nite with new and senior members got together to commemorate the event and most of all, Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club is now officially registered
with Registrar of Societies.

Good nite.

From the desk of VPPR

Flagrante Delicto - The Celebration

2006-08-02T22:45:00.000+08:00

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Photos by KC

Showtime

2006-08-02T22:33:00.000+08:00

Please click here to view 124 photos on rehearsal.

Please click here to view 89 photos during showtime at the Actors Studio.

It was most satisfying to hear the burst of continuous laughter of varying intensity from audience. On Wednesday 26 July, 8.30pm, it was the first of the five consecutive performances at the Actors Studio, Bangsar Shopping Complex. It was a reflection of months of hard work by the 19 cast members, the Director and the Producer.

To ensure the sequence of acts/scenes were smoothly executed, the cast did the final rehearsal again in compressed or fast-forward mode with the Sound and Lighting technicians (from the Actors Studio), and Stage Manager at 6.30pm – two hours before show time. The results: almost flawless performance with transition from one act/scene to another.

From audience’s feedback after the show last night, they were satisfied with the performance. Here are the extracts of their feedback:

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From an American couple:"We enjoyed the show. We can see the cast enjoyed doing their roles."
From others:"Certainly an entertaining show, we enjoyed ourselves. We will tell our friends to come."

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From KH:

My pleasure to be there to laugh out loud!! Laughter is the Best medicine.All the best to all of you. Wishing you success in your performance.
All of you are so talented… not just oral communication but acting as well.

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From Steven:

B4 the play, the lady announcer announced that the play will last for 90 minutes...my 1st reaction was "WAH! 90-long minutes! How to survive?"

The stage's lights on and off...the casts all lined-up to be introduced. "WAH! 90 minutes has passed"... this proved that the play is really entertaining - makes us laugh and happy. That's why time flies.

Well done.

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From Lilian:

Thanks for getting the tickets and just wanna say that we enjoyed the show. A very talented and enthusiastic cast, they really look like bank people. Especially 'the lady with the big eyes' who is just quite outstanding although everyone had their moments!

Not easy when there are so many in the cast, but good fun nonetheless! Well done to you and all your friends who put this together. Looking forward to the next one!

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From Jason Chin:

It's was good show with great cast! My favourite is the Big Hair Lady (I forgot her name)… She looks so natural!

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From May Ching:

It was a pleasure to attend the show and thanks for getting the tickets.

The most enjoyable aspect of the show for me was not the jokes or the committed performance of the cast. It was the simple fact that the cast had friends in members of the audience - this was obvious by the easiness of the audience in some more slight nuances or responses to some specific acts or jokes during the show. It was a show of warmth and camaraderie of the audience, and a genuine sense that they were supportive of a really good job done by the cast.

Knowing the cast were all real life normal people, and that they were all members of SD Toastmasters, I had great admiration for the guts of the various fine individuals, old and young, who put out their part time and weekends to prepare for the show. And to perform for a live audience, to act on stage, this is perhaps the greatest validation of a toastmaster's skill - that words, is in form of spoken, written, and expressed through body language. Also, it always feel good to perform for an audience you can relate to - your friends and family. Congratulations on a job well done! I'm sure the high feeling will hold for a while :-)

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Cheers to great team work of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club.

Compiled By KC

Appearing in The EDGE Malaysia

2006-07-24T10:47:00.000+08:00

Another appearance of the Flagrante Delicto comedy drama in the The EDGE Malaysia (Business & Investment Weekly) today for the week of July 24 - July 30, 2006.

Show time: From Wednesday 26 July to Sunday 30 July.

Please scroll down the postings for more details.

Appearing in New Straits Times

2006-07-21T11:48:00.000+08:00

Yes, the cast of Flagrante Delicto appears in the New Straits Time today, Friday 21 July 2006. Please turn to Page 74, Life & Times.

Please scroll down the pages to see the original photo which contains only part of the 19 cast members.

Flagrante Delicto Comedy Drama

2006-07-17T22:33:00.000+08:00

The Show

Our first major performance is “Flagrante Delicto” which means ‘the act of committing a crime’ in Latin. This is a dark comedy. The story revolves around a group of senior bank employees who planned and managed to pull off an act of crime. They made a total of RM9 million but the bank incurred no loss. It was to be a perfect crime.

The bank auditor’s investigative vibes were alerted. The auditor’s relentless search leads him through a trail of lies, seduction and intrigue. The director and script writer, Distinguished Toastmaster, K. Loghandran has added twists towards the end. Come and find out whether the saying “Crime does not pay” stills work today!

The Cast

The cast comprises of 19 actors and actresses from Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club. This is their second performance as a group after the successful "Funny Money" comedy drama.

The entire script is an original piece of work by the talented writer cum director, Distinguished Toastmaster, K. Loghandran. He is an experienced and sought after talk-show artiste who is fondly known as Loggie from the popular comedy duo Loggie & Monti.

Spot-on Theatre

Spot-on Theatre is a performing theatre community club founded in 2005. The members are mainly experienced toastmasters who have performed in theatre shows before. They will be performing a comedy drama to entertain an audience with a one-and-a-half-hour of duration. The show will be performed over 5 days and it is expected to attract a crowd of 1,300 persons. We seek your support to purchase tickets to our show.

The details are as follows:

Dates: 26 - 30 July 2006 (Wednesday to Sunday)
Time: 8.30 pm
Venue: Actors Studio, Level 3, Bangsar Shopping Complex, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2094 0400 or 03-2094 1400
Tickets: RM 33 and RM 45

Note: Only Sunday show is at 3 p.m.

The date of the comedy drama coincides with the KL Arts Festival in July 2006.

The proceeds will go to the Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club.

If you have further queries, please contact :
1) Siew Chien at 012-3113026 / Email : ongsiewchien@yahoo.com
2) Norashikin at 012-3903525 / Email : shikin.kassim@gmail.com
We would like to enlist your support in our endeavour to develop acting and speaking skills.

We look forward to your positive response in supporting local theatre.

Yours faithfully,

Ong Siew Chien

Producer Spot-on Theatre, Petaling Jaya
Tel : 012-311 3026 / 03-7960 6368
Fax : 03-7960 6369
Email : ongsiewchien@yahoo.com

The Art of Possibility

2006-06-25T11:28:00.000+08:00

Dear Esteemed Members,

In the measurement of the world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold. Let not the opportunity pass, for it may not return.

Our customary mind-set about who we are may even undermine our ability to have a say in the way things go from here.

Therefore, over the next six days don't let our customary mind-sets get in our way. We have the obligation to be creative and a commitment to become Distinguished or better. We have the Power To Change.

For three-quarter of the Term 2005/2006, SDTMC had only achieved Select Distinguish status. We take pride that the members are able to rise up to the occasion during the last Lap and give the club the long awaited goals. We are going for 10/10-President Distinguished Club and this will be the 9th time SDTMC had consecutively maintained the President Distinguished Club status. We would like to congratulate the following members for delivering us the goals during the last 2 weeks:-

CTM Mok Soo Pon - achieved her ATMB

TM Sabapathy - achieved his CTM

TM Fong Wai Choon - achieved her CTM

The above 3 members have help to deliver us the 3 goals. We are proud of you. The final two goals will be delivered during the last meeting on the 26 June 2006. for the Term 2005/2006 and is none other than our President ATMB Hor Kam Peng who will be completing her final speech to achieve her ATMS and once again our ATMB Mok Soo Pon who will be doing her 2nd CL. So, ladies and gentlemen we would urge you to be present for the final LAP and rallies the friends on. Do bring a friend.

Attach is the Meeting Agenda on Monday, 26 June.

Date: 26 June
Venue: Kelab KPGA, Mutiara Room
Time: 7.00 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.

Find Your Voice and Serve the World

Yours Truly,

Gwen Gwee
Vice President – Education

Flagrante Delicto Rehearsal

2006-06-14T23:43:00.000+08:00

Please click here to view 66 photos taken by KC during today's rehearsal, Sunday 11 June 2006.

Dear Esteemed Members of
Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club,

Can you see the excitement and enthusiasm in members’ faces when they rehearsed in this drama comedy on Sunday, 11 June? The Club is embarking on another project – acting in drama comedy.

For members of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club who are not yet members of Spot-on Theatre and who are keen to be a part of this comedy, we do have roles for you.You can take up roles as stage manager, music man and so forth. Every role is a learning experience where you do not have to pay for a workshop but only small membership fees and be committed with a few hours of your time to learn and experience.

Spot-on Theatre is registered with the Registrar of Societies and is a non-profit organization where it was setup by members of our club. We want to hone our acting skills in Spot-on Theatre and have a platform to excel in our public speaking skills in Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club. We are the only club in Klang Valley or even in Malaysia who have this opportunity offered to our members of Speakers' Dream Toastmasters Club.

Our drama comedy entitled 'Flagrante Delicto' is our first big gig in Spot-on Theatre with 5 shows from 26-30 July 2006 at the Actors Studio Bangsar Shopping Complex, Kuala Lumpur. The time of the shows will be 8.30 pm on 26-29 July 2006 and 3pm on 30 July 2006. Tickets at RM33 and RM45.

I can assure you, it is fun working in this team. Seeing is believing from the photos taken by KC Leong.

Keep a date with Flagrante Delicto from 26-30 July 2006. Spread the news to your friends and let us laugh together…. HA HA HA.

From the Desk of Vice President Public Relation,
Ong Siew Chien, DTM.

Club Meeting – Monday 12 June

2006-06-13T23:31:00.000+08:00

12 June 2006 was certainly an eventful night. It was the first time in 2006 where all the assignment speakers made their way to the meeting and presented their wonderful speeches.

Mohd Noor set the ball rolling with how to revive your heart or loved ones from leading into a tragedy.

Sabapathy presented his 9th speech of persuasion with instilling us to have more than one income. He took himself as the example where he has 3 jobs. He did not waste his time during retirement but made full use of his productive twilight years.

Next presenter was Soo Pon, who procrastinate for a while but finally with inspiration from the rehearsals of Flagrante Delicto, she delivered one DCP goal for our club by achieving her ATMB title tonight. She narrated her story just as when she was 10 years old. This was certainly a skill you need to have and not forgetting time to rehearse before the speech was presented to us. Bravo Soo Pon!!

M Ariff was a long lost member, nevertheless he made it tonight by sharing with us, one week workshop he had recently. He condensed it to 7 mins. One of the things where I really concur with him from his speech is Steven Covey's book is the past and 'in thing' is empowering with knowledge that will bring us to the next level of success.

Simon, M Ariff's evaluator, suggested M Ariff should hold a one day seminar for his speech presentation.

The meeting this evening brought achievements to the club from Distinguished Status to Select Distinguished Status in Toastmasters International standards. President Distinguished status is just a kilometer away. With the contribution and dedication of our members in completing their CTMs and ATMS, we will achieve 10 goals as desired by Toastmasters International, USA. This the standard of a quality club instilled by Toastmasters International, USA.

This evening, we learned how to save a heart from collapse, reflect on our childhood memories, an eye opener of reality to arm ourselves with another income and close the meeting with reinforcement of acquiring more knowledge for the betterment of our lives.

Our President, Kam Peng, was just back from a wonderful trip to India. She has a tiring day but certainly was rejuvenated after the club meeting.

26 JUNE 2006 is the last meeting of the current term. We will have a surprise for you.

Keep a date with us and make this an eventful memory for you.

Good Nite.

From the Desk of VPPR
Ong Siew Chien, DTM

Changing Your Attitude

Very often, it is not how the world is. It is how we perceived it to be. Happiness and peace of mind are simply mental state that can be invoked, maintained, developed, or abandoned. Your attitude has a tremendous influence on your life. It can shape your thoughts, your behavior, the things you say or do, your habits. Collectively, these things form your life.

The wonderful thing about attitude is that although it has the ability to transform your entire life, it does not require a lifetime of meditative solitude state to change. Anyone can change their attitude virtually at the snap of a finger. Believe it or not, just try it.

If you are torn between staying home and watching the World Cup 2006 and coming for the Toastmasters meeting on Monday, just decide resolutely to come for the meeting, you will. Try it.

See you in tomorrow’s Club meeting, Bring a friend.

Date:- 12th June 2006
Time: 7.00 p.m to 9.15 pm.
Venue: KPGA, Kiara Room
1st Floor, Bukit Kiara

Attach is the Meeting Agenda for your perusal.

Power To Change.

Yours Truly,
Gwen Gwee
VPE

From the desk of VPPR

2006-05-23T22:39:00.000+08:00

22 May 2006 is not another ordinary club meeting but it is the 9th Annual General Meeting for Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club. Most of the Past Presidents were present to support this important event. Who else was there??

New members like Mohd Nor, King Thim and Alfred came to support the 9th Annual General Meeting. Our committee member Sabapathy wanted so much to come and support the AGM and to present his 8th speech but due to unforeseen circumstances at the last minute. Then we have our long lost member Mohd Ariff who finally made it to the AGM despite his busy schedule for meetings at the office. Celine T eh, DTM, despite her busy schedule also came to support the AGM by volunteering to take up the role as Parliamentarian. Our Treasurer took leave to attend the AGM cos it is impossible for her to attend the AGM after work. There are also other members who were quietly managing their stress level at work but gave their dedication and commitment to the club by showing support this evening.

Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club is indeed a fortunate club, well endowed with committed members and with full support by Past Presidents.

It was a smooth sailing AGM with the election of the new Executive Committee Members and they were :-

President - Gwendoline Gwee, CL
VP Education - Robert Hue, CTM
VP Membership - Chow Mun Yuen, CTM
VP Public Relations - Mohd Ariff, CTM
Secretary - Mohd Nor, TM
Treasurer - Ismail Fahmy, CTM
SAA - Choo Yew Fai, TM
Committee Members - Alfred Koh, CTM
Ong Siew Chien, DTM

Incoming President Gwendoline gave an impressive speech and acknowledged the dedication of mentors, Past Presidents plus seek the support of all members to make Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club, a stronger club for the betterment of community.

Before the AGM, we had the club meeting where our Club President Kam Peng presented the Best Speakers Series entitled “Take the terror out of the talk”. She shared with us, the breathing techniques and exercises for relaxation. The next speaker was Siew Chien, DTM who attempted assignment number 2 from the C&L manual with her title “Georgia” where she spoke of her sister’s pampered dog imported from Australia and lead a life where a small percentage of the dogs in the world were enjoying life on planet earth.

The next club meeting is on 12 June 2006, the EXCO would certainly urge all members to attend and share plus network.

From Ong Siew Chien, DTM.

Annual General Meeting - 22 May 2006

2006-05-23T21:49:00.000+08:00

Below is the inaugural and inspiring speech presented by the in-coming President, Gwen Gwee, CTM.

Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters, I am very honoured today to be elected the President of Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club for 2006/2007. Let me share with you a bit of my Toastmasters History.

After having surveyed a few clubs, I joined IBBM TM club in Jan 2000. Unlike some of our fellow members who took Toastmastering like duck in the water the minute they signed up, it was definitely a love / hate affair for me. Love because I knew Toastmasters program offers the best value for money in self-development especially in the Communication and Leadership skills. But hate because speaking had never been my forte. I always have butterflies in my stomach every time I turn up for a meeting but I assure you after much practice the butterflies are flying in formation. That is because we have such a fantastic and supportive club environment.

I started as a Committee member, A Treasurer, a Secretary, Vice President Membership and with much encouragement/support from our DTM Ong Siew Chien I took up the post of Vice President Education.

To be or not to be – This is a question we had encountered very often in the course of our life. It had been said –To be Ordinary is easy but to be a little bit Extraordinary requires commitment and lots of insider’s job. Sometimes we cannot afford not to be, if we astay put, we atrophied. That is what Life is meant to be, creating a better you so that we can find Our Voice and Serve Our world. In the club, changes often does not occur instantly, it is through a series of invisible actions like:-

A word of encouragement
A comment that something said is interesting, meaningful, inspiring etc.
A push to next assignment / to come out of your comfort zone
A push to take up new roles.
People who rally you on.
Giving feedbacks for improvement.

With this I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the mentors / advisers for the club, DTM K.Loghandran, DTM Celine Teh, DTM Ong Siew Chien, all the Past Presidents, and also the Past VPEs. A big thank you to all of you for your contribution, advice, expertise ,encouragement and support. And to all club members, you do make a difference, without you there will be no club.

By functional default as a VPE, I am now President of the Club and I look forward to build a strong club with all your continuous support. Together as a Team we shape a better world , a better Speakers Dream Toastmasters Club and more important a better US.

With that, I hand over the control back to the President.

Dazzle With the STARS

2006-03-14T23:37:00.000+08:00

Monday, 13 March 2006

To view 131 photos taken by KC, please click here.

We certainly had another interesting event to remember in our diary of events as down memory lane.

Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club will always venture into new ground to bring new excitement for our members. Learning to acquire confidence in public speaking is where most Toastmasters Clubs in Klang Valley offer but we as Speakers’ Dream Toastmasters Club believe in doing more for our members’ development.

This evening, we had presentation of speeches by Celine, DTM who shared with us on “SNIOP” and Simon, ATMB presented his winning speech as Area W3 Champion recently. Celine, DTM was not feeling well, but being a charter member and a dedicated member, she pursued on with her presentation.

As the programme progressed with Loggie and Montie’s comedy skit, the room was filled with big turnout; we had almost 60 members and guests attending our function this evening.

Next, came the highlight of the event – Wine Presentation by the winemakers from Austria and was brought possible to us by Wine Gourmet Singapore Pte Ltd.

It has certainly changed my perception on wine, I always thought wine was dry and taste like hard water but this evening, the wine was superb. The sweet wine was like fruit juice. Normally, white wine can be very dry but the white wine this evening was like grape juice being freshly squeezed. The winemaker commented that their sweet wine was special because the sweetness was enhanced by the favourable climatic conditions.

We were impressed by the taste of the wine as these wine were called boutique wines and not available at supermarkets. Some of us sign up immediately as members of Wine Gourmet and ordered our preferred wine. The cost of the wine was between RM67 - RM219.

It was certainly a wonderful evening, where we were reinforced by the speeches to be positive and be aware of negative people around you plus perception and choice we make in our lives. We had light hearted moments with Loggie and Montie.

The sweet wine that I had this evening has made me alert that I could complete my write up for this event tonight. Normally, at this time, I will be fast asleep. Even Celine, DTM who was not well, was feeling better after sipping the sweet wine. It certainly has some medicinal value as proclaimed by the winemaker from Austria.

From the desk of Vice President Public Relations

Ong Siew Chien, DTM.

Speech Contest - 13 Feb 2006

2006-02-13T23:06:00.000+08:00

To view 44 photos taken by KC, please click here.

Spot the Stars with the date the 13th of Feb 2006 and falls on the eve of Valentine’s day was certainly an event to be remembered..

We have 5 stars who crafted their speeches for the International Speech Contest. Lim Hin Chong set the ball rolling with “Happiness is what we want.” Simon Soh returned to the club after a long absence and delivered “Is what is isn’t, what isn’t is?” Meanwhile, Ng Cheong Boon gave his version on “Searching for Success.” Then came Robert Hue who gave an interesting account of “Mother-In-Law”. Koh Teck Lee close the speech contest with his speech title “Face up with reality.”

The judges certainly had a challenging task in identifying the winners of the International Speech Contest.

Who were present at this event?....Our Area W3 Governor James Arokiasamy, ATMS and Past District 51 DPRO Lucky, ATMB and Past Division W Governor Ramdas Nayar, ATMB who came to support this event by being in the judging team headed by Lucky, ATMB.

We had 30% of the audience who were non Toastmasters and participated in the Spot the Stars Contest where 1 guest managed to match the official results of the judges in the International Speech Contest. The other winner was our President Hor Kam Peng.

After the refreshments, we moved on to the Table Topics Contest, the Contest Chair Celine, DTM gave an interesting topic “Life is like a box of chocolates” which lead 7 stars to try on their creativity with their interesting versions. We had a new member who courageously went for the contest. We had another ‘long lost member’ Robert Hue who was hesitant at first in taking part and finally got supportive senior members to encourage him to take up the challenge. Who are the other stars in this contest, they were Koh Teck Lee, Ng Cheong Boon, Simon Soh, Lim Hin Chong and Hor Kam Peng.

Besides, having 3 contests on the same evening, our President Hor Kam Peng managed to source from ACER for lucky draws where 2 guests and our member Simon Soh were the lucky winners for the evening.

Who were the winners for the International Speech Contest?

Champion - Simon Soh, ATMB
1st Runner Up - Ng Cheong Boon, CL
2nd Runner Up - Lim Hin Chong, ATMS

The winners for the Table Topics Contest were…….

Champion - Hor Kam Peng, ATMB
1st Runner Up - Simon Soh, ATMB
2nd Runner Up - Lee King Thim, CTM

Congratulations!!!!

The Champions and the 1st Runners Up for both the contests will deliver their ‘show’ on 11 March 2006 in the Area W3 International Speech and Table Topics Contest. Keep a date with them on 11 March 2006. Watch for the news on the venue of the contests.

We need to graciously thank our Organising Chair Gwendoline Gwen, CTM who tirelessly reminded and constantly encourage members to take part in the speech contests. Despite her busy schedule, Celine, DTM took up the role as Contest Chair and ensure the contestants were adequately brief on the contests.

Our Chief Judge Lucky, ATMB chose credible judges in his team and carefully brief the roleplayers. Our President Hor Kam Peng, despite her busy meeting schedule managed to get the assistance of another member to deliver the prizes and souvenirs from ACER on time for the contests. Our sponsors ACER, Berjaya Hotels and Resorts, C-Excel Training, Macsam Sdn Bhd, Mines Cruise Management and Saba Safety and Health Management who made their contributions for this event.

Of course, our cameraman, KC Leong, CL who ensure everyone were covered in this event. You could be on candid camera! Be sure to look out for photos taken by him.

Thank You to All, who have made this event, a success and memorable one.

Kudos!! To All Winners for this event.

From the desk of VPPR...Siew Chen