HELLO 2017!

Meeting #103 (First Meeting for 2017)

Well, won't you look here...it's a new year. I'd like to say that I feel as new as the year but nah, who am I kidding? I came across a particular quote a few days before the first of January, by T.S. Eliot, which I really liked and it goes:
"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."

Now don't ask me why I randomly brought up a quote without any further explanations; I actually have nothing further to say about it. On a more substantial note, SUTM Club has held its first meeting for the year just five days after New Year which also proves that Ethan was very anxious to start our meetings as soon as possible (I think TM should be his middle name!). Our theme was... YES YOU GUESSED IT RIGHT!...New Year's Resolutions. The theme of the meeting had me pondering on my resolutions throughout the meeting, which I have yet to list down.

As our beloved President, Thinesh Naidu is currently doing his internship and traffic jams are a serious issue in Malaysia, Ethan stepped in to make the presidential address. The Toastmaster of the Evening was our one and only Muhammad Ali, who took up the role of TME for the first time!

As usual, the Table Topics session was filled with interesting and perspective-filled topics, and were prepared by the lovely Shasvini.

For the prepared speech sessions, Sweet Ling took a courageous first step and did her maiden speech, Swee Lynn did her CC #2 and Yi Ying did her CC #5. We also had our seasoned member, Mirosha give a speech from the Leadership Excellence Series.

I've taken a few pictures which I will attach below but just a heads up, our grammarian, Ken, had his camera set up and it was along my line of vision. Hence, the camera makes up a part of every single picture I've taken. Hope everyone enjoyed our meeting and the yummy chicken sambal (Thanks Wynnie!). Cheers to a prosperous 2017 filled with nothing but the best of everything!

The pun master, Muhammad Ali as our TME.

Table Topics Master, Shasvini.

Anis talking about New Year Resolutions and how she would like to be more prepared for an emotional ride in 2017.

Sweet Ling, warming up before her prepared speech and talking about her goals for 2017.

A first time guest, Benedict with his speech on 'Did 2016 Go As Planned?'

Anna talking about 'New Year, New Me'.

Bo Ren talking about 'The Challenges to Expect in 2017'.

Sweet Ling giving her maiden speech titled "My Journey So Far".

Swee Lynn giving her CC #2 titled "An Unforgettable Trip".

Yi Ying giving her CC #5 titled "Plan Ahead!"

Mirosha is an ACL now! :D

General Evaluator for the meeting, Mas Marlena.

Best Table Topics Speaker for the evening, Anna Maria!

Best Evaluator for the meeting, Mas Mahathir!

Best speaker for the meeting, Yi Ying!

And lastly, a picture of Danya Menon trying to avoid the camera while smiling.

Final Meeting to Mark the End of 2016

 Written By : Danya Menon

It has been a great year for the SUTM family. 17^th November marked the end of our toastmasters meetings for the year 2016. Bravo to the skilful and humorous TME, Thashaa who managed to energize us all with her wit and brilliance in executing the task at hand (Believe it or not, it was her first time as the TME!). The theme for the night was ‘Take a Hike’ but fortunately, no one took a hike literally (haha) .The GE for this meeting was our very own Area Director, Uncle Jeff! And oh, we also had the pleasure of meeting a very special guest that night-Danny’s mother!

 Due to the high demand for speaking slots, our VPE, Ethan opened up 5 speech slots for the last meeting instead of the usual 4. We had two ice breaker speakers, Goh Kar Yan and Ng Swee Lyn who decided to come out of their comfort zone and begin their journey in public speaking. The other speakers on this night include Lee Yuan Hui, with her CC #2 , Anna Maria with her CC #4 and last but not least, Mohd Ali with his CC #8. Congratulations to them for taking the next step in their endeavour in public speaking.

As always, our meeting that night too ended with a sense of fun and further strengthened the bond between us.    Together, we wait with eagerness for the new year to see the possibilities of Toastmasters Pathways (Toastmasters’ innovative new learning experience) which is anchored in the first and most important beliefs and understanding of our founder. To quote the words of Ralph C. Smedley, “Training in speech….opens the way to more creative and constructive living for the person who takes full advantage of the opportunities offered”.

For pictures, please visit our SUTM FB Page!

SUTM DEMO MEETING

The founder of Toastmasters, Ralph Smedley once said " Ours is the only organization I know dedicated to the individual, we work together to bring out the best in each of us then we apply these skills to help others." Now, you'd probably be thinking that he only said so as he is after all the founder, but catch anyone you know involved in Toastmasters, and they'd wholly agree with the saying!

On the 8th of September, Sunway University Toastmasters Club had our first demo meeting for the 2016/17 term. The meeting was held in collaboration with the Club & Society Week and we even had the meeting at a new venue( Kind of gave our SAA a headache preparing the venue though…thank you, Wynnie!). As you'd know, TM meetings are normally composed of a Table Topics session, the prepared speech session and the evaluation session. However, as it was a meeting held mainly in engaging the guests and prospective members, we had two Table Topics sessions! As proclaimed by Ethan, one was on a serious note ( in which he was the TTM-obviously) and another, on a jovial note( TTM-Danny because he ain't as serious as Ethan). The outcome was pretty interesting-we had volunteers composed of the guests and members, and everyone had a good laugh( some, such as I, were pondering over the depth of the topics…). 

As we had two Table Topics session, we had to cut short on our prepared speeches but boy, wasn't it spectacular. Our first speaker, Joshua did his CC#5 and it was called "The Hindustani". Basically, he gave everyone an insight on how it is like growing up in an Indian household and the typical Indian parents' gestures-he even had a few dance moves in store for us! Our other speaker-The Shark Lady, Thaneswary- did her ST#2( which is from the Story Telling Manual) "No Boundaries". It was about her first encounter with sharks and how that particular experience opened her eyes and sparked her interest in the animal kingdom. Now, the much awaited pictures!

A very frustrated Ali during Table Topics.

Hossen, a guest, giving a shot at Table Topics.

Frustrated Ali Part ii

Joshua showing us his dance moves!

The Shark Lady(Thanes) talking about her passion.

Aerina, our TTE for the first Table Topics session.

Jonathan, our TTE for the second Table Topics session.

Ronald, evaluating Joshua's speech.

Winnie, evaluating Thanes' speech.

General Evaluator for the day, Vincent Hoy.

Jia Wei, grammarian.

Anna Maria, Ah Counter.

Our lovely TME, Mirosha (After a two year hiatus of being TME!)

Vin Kit, our timer.

The winner of our first Table Topics session, Mazni.

Brenda, the winner of second Table Topics session.

Our dashing young President, Thinesh ;)

The evaluators, being serious as usual.

The guests!

And last but not least, a group photo!


And basically, everyone lived happily ever after and attended our meetings every fortnight because c'mon, who wouldn't want to spend their Thursdays with such fun people?! :D

Asian English Olympics 2016

Soooo... although this is superrrrrr late, it is better late than never right? *please forgive me (show puppy-dog eyes)*


This year we were once again invited to compete in the Asian English Olympics that was held in Jakarta. And the three representatives were

Nawal Lyana
Mirosha Somasundram
Lee Seng Zhen

Jonathan Moh was sent as an observer.

They have certainly made all of us proud competing against the best speakers from different countries in seven different categories such as debate, news casting, scrabble and etc.


Mirosha Somasundram, CC successfully championed this year Asian English Olympics 2016 for the speech category. She also won an additional award for the best Humorous Speech. For your information, Mirosha is also our D1 Area Governor. With that said, she has not only made our club very proud but also the whole D1 area!!! Congratulations, Mirosha!!


Besides, both of our CC, Lee Seng Zhen and Nawal Lyana have also certainly made us proud. Lee Seng Zhen was ranked 6 and Nawal Lyana was ranked 33 out of the 77 speakers in the Speech category.


Congratulations to all their hard work!! Keep it up and we hope to see another champion from our club next year!

[from left: Dr Nagiah, Nawal, Mirosha, Seng Zhen, Jonathan]

P/s: The good news was also appeared in the Star (woohoo!) 

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/education/2016/03/20/speaking-their-way-to-awards/ 

The Double Sunway (yay!) ; 28.04.16

Guess what? It's the joint meeting between our club, Sunway University Toastmasters Club and Sunway Toastmasters Club. Hence, the title - Double Sunway (yay!). Okay... we know you are here because you are excited to see the photos. Let's keep this short and have fun scrolling!  

General Evaluator, Chang Sau Fun, CC 

TME, Ethan Ganes, TM 

Table Topics Speakers:

Assignment Speakers: 

Evaluators: 

The awards of the night:

Best Table Topics Speaker: Benedict, TM 

[pic: Rubein, CC as his representative] 

Best Assignment Speaker: Shan Naren, CC

Best Evaluator: Kay Wong, DTM