Sunway University Toastmaster Club - 2012

Sunway University Toastmaster Club - 2012

Sunway University Toastmaster Maiden Meeting

4th May 2012

First of all, I would like to congratulate Sunway University Toastmaster for successfully organized its maiden meeting! Personally, I thought it was a very interesting meeting with all the great people making it enjoyable.

Everyone was enjoying their dinner before the meeting.

 Mr. Nagiah giving his welcome speech.

Toastmaster of the Evening facilitating the meeting.

 

Our wonderful table topic speakers presenting on the table topics.



Speakers giving their CC speeches.


Evaluators sharing their valuable feedback to speakers.


General Evaluator giving his thought of the meeting.


Kenneth, Best Tabletopic Speaker and Best Speech of the Evening.

Mr. Victor wrote about this meeting.

Sunway University Toastmasters Club 1st Demo Meeting (4th April 2012)

Sunway University Toastmasters Club 1st Demo Meeting (4th April 2012)

Registration

Exco Team Members Registering Guests :) 

On the 4th of April was the 1st Demo Meeting for our club. The venue for the meeting was room NW 3-1 and NW 3-2. We expected a turn-up of 70 guests but were very shocked when there were over 120 guests!!! The Exco team of only 5 students and 2 lecturers were really stretched out with the registration and handling of guests.
Makan time

Guests getting to know each other over dinner 

After registration was the most delicious part of every Toastmaster meeting, Fellowship time or as we Malaysians like to call "Makan Time". There were two options for food, for those true blue Malaysians that love spicy food, we had Nasi Lemak Ayam with Sambal. As for those that might not like spicy food there was chinese food, white rice with stir fried chicken and stir fried Pak Choy. As for the unexpected guests, we ordered another 50 packets of food from Lunchbox. Based on the feedback received, everyone really enjoyed the food.

 Intro by Toastmasters Demo Team

Everyone was captivated by the guest speakers 

After filling our bellies, the meeting officially started at 6.45 pm, the Toastmasters demo team started of the meeting with flare, by explaining about what is Toastmasters as well as the benefits of joining Toastmasters.
Table topics Session

Lay Koon inviting guests to participate 

Everyone listening attentively to the table topic speakers 

The table topics session is an impromptu speech session where members and guests are encouraged to take part. This is usually the most exciting part of every Toastmaster meeting. Every participant is expected to speak on a given topic for 1-2 minutes. The best part is that participants have to think on their feet as they only have a maximum of 30 seconds to organize their thoughts and start speaking. 5 guests participated in the table topics, all of them spoke eloquently and gracefully capturing the attention of the audience, reminding us all again that the beauty of Toastmasters is that we can all learn from one another and grow together.

Prepared Speeches Session

Stephanie: "Life is just like rock climbing" 

Daniel wowing the crowd with his magic @.@ 

The 2nd session of a Toastmasters meeting is the prepared speech session where members prepare their project speeches according to their Competent Communication Manuals or Advanced Manual. The speakers for the night were Stephanie from Taylor's University who compared life to rock climbing, as well as Patrick who wowed us all with his magic tricks such as setting his wallet on fire and pulling a stick out from his hat.

Evaluations Session

DTM, Ramdas Nayar giving his grammarian report 

Chan Siew Peng from "Taman Indrahana TM" giving her evaluation 

Many people have often asked me what is the most important part of Toastmasters? Is it the fact that you get to speak in front of so many different people? Or is it the fact that you get to know many accomplished speakers? All of these in my viewpoint would be meaningless if there was nobody to guide you and tell you your mistakes. That is why the evaluation session is as equally important a part of a Toastmasters meeting as all the other parts. For our demo meeting, we were very fortunate to have DTM, Ramdas Nayar who also happens to be the incoming district governor for District 51 to be our grammarian. He shared not only his grammarian report but also a piece of his mind to all the aspiring and budding toastmasters. The speech evaluators were also remarkable in presenting their evaluations with what we call the KKK method in Toastmasters. This stands for Kiss, Kick, Kiss. Whereby the evaluators praise you at first to make you feel good, and then they proceed on to mention your shortcomings and areas of improvement, this is the kick, and finally they give you a parting kiss, which is by complementing you for your performance and wrapping up the evaluation at the same time.

Closing Address and Meeting Adjourned

Our President, Dr. Nagiah giving his closing address 

As they say, all good things come to an end, after many exciting and inspiring speeches and evaluations, and a little magic show of course, the meeting had finally come to an end. At this time, most of the guest were already tired and so were the Toastmasters. Overall the meeting was a success, and we successfully recruited 28 new members not including the already existing exco team which had 7 members, totalling 35 members, a very impressive start for the Sunway University Toastmaster Club.

History of Our Club

The History of Sunway University Toastmasters

Dr. Nagiah Ramasamy

Victor Ong

Our Club was started by 2 Lecturers in Sunway University, namely Dr. Nagiah Ramasamy and Mr Victor Ong. Both of them are senior toastmasters as well as lecturers in Sunway University. Over their years of teaching in Sunway University, both of them observed that the students in Sunway University were not lacking in academic skills, but in terms of public speaking and confidence they still had a lot more to learn. Having benefited tremendously themselves from Toastmasters, they decided that they wanted to share the benefits of toastmasters with their students. However, starting a club is by no means an easy task, and it took more than a year of meetings, discussions and careful planning. 

Finally, on the 5th of April, 2012, The Sunway University Toastmaster Club had its first demo meeting which successfully attracted a crowd of more than 120 guests and the rest is history. 

What is Toastmasters?

What is Toastmasters?

Toastmasters is an international non-profit organization which aims to develop public speaking and leadership skills in men and women of all ages. This is done by providing members with a friendly environment to practice public speaking as well as giving them constructive feedback. In Toastmasters, there are no teachers only students, every single members learns at their own pace, while being helped by. fellow members along the way.

History of Toastmasters

Even the greatest successes may start with a humblest beginning. This is no exception for Toastmasters International. Toastmasters International was first founded by Dr Ralph C. Smedley in the basement of  YMCA, Santa Ana, California. During that period of time, Smedley was working as the director of education for YMCA. He realized that a lot of young men at that time lacked proficiency in the art of public speaking and presiding over meetings. Therefore Smedley decided to help them by providing them with training which would later form the backbone of Toastmaster speeches.

Why the Name "Toastmasters"?

During the early 1900's the word "toastmaster" referred to a person who proposes the toasts and introduced the speakers at a banquet. Hence, Smedley named his group "Toastmasters" as he felt this suggested a pleasant and social atmosphere which was appealing to the public.

Toastmasters International Today

Ever since that fateful day in 1924, Toastmasters International has expanded from its basement origins to become an international organization with more than 13,000 clubs which have a membership of more than 270,000 members in 116 countries across the world. Even now as we speak, Ralph Smedley's Basement Brainstorm continues to thrive in the 21st Century!!!