Stamp Denomination

An old woman who have not been to Post Office (PO) for 20 years decided to buy stamps, to send Christmas greeting cards.

The PO clerk attended to the old lady: Ma'am may I know what denominations you want to have?".

Madam: Good grief! What the world it have come to, after 20 years! Ok...ok, give me four (4) stamps Methodist, 6 Lutheran, 7 Roman Catholic and 9 Baptist..... and add 10 more sundries denominations :) in case some in my greeting listing are cult group :)

Contributed by Ban Huat

2010/2011 Humour and Speech Evaluation Contest

Hi Fellow Toastmasters,

Competition time is here on us again. Get ready to be the club’s flag bearers . Make the club proud and etch the name PD Toastmasters Club on the mind of everyone in the Area than the Division than the World!

Blur for the new guys........? Ok, let me explain. Every year Toastmasters International carry out two major contests to give the opportunity to members to show how much they have learned in all aspect of toastmastering; giving humour speeches, speech evaluations, prepared speeches and table topics. The first contest is the Humour and Speech Evaluation Contest which is the present one. The next contest (about 5/6 months time) will be the International Speech and Table Topics Contest.

We will announce the rules and regulations in the coming meeting (13th July) to keep the new members in the loop. In meantime I strongly urge all members to dig into their memory banks and think of funny stories or incidents that you can share with everyone in 5-7min. You may also use your past speeches (advantage because it is already evaluated and you know the strength and weakness). Start preparing now!

Since the Committee do not have the chance to meet until a week or so, let me propose that we carry out the contest at the club level either on the 10th August or latest on the 24th August. I proposed that we will make following meeting after the contest a special ‘competition grooming’ meeting. I will put forward my proposal to the Committee in the coming round table talk. So you will have about at least a month of practise.

I strongly urge all members to participate in the contest. It might not be the glory you want to seek but this will definitely be a good place to assess how far you have gone in this journey of Toastmastering.

“Growth Starts from Within”

Regards,
Soo Guan

President's 1st Message 1st July 2010

Hi Fellow PD Toastmasters,

This will be my first mail as President of Port Dickson Toastmasters Club 2010/2011.
I had planned to write a long mail telling you how honored I am, how this club can reach even greater heights, what ideas and plans I have for the club moving forward…….....etc. Then I STOPPED………......

I realized that this is already a great club. There is no need for any changes. There might be in some rare occasions, challenges, but these are normal growing pains in any organization. What is important is not what the challenge is but rather how well we resolve it. This is all part of the learning and growing process. This is leadership!

I do not know your reasons for joining and staying on as members. Some joined for the communication and leadership training, some for personal development, some for career advancement, some to get speaking platform, some wants to mixed with other fine people, some to improve their English, some to support the club, some to look after the club, some to get recognition……….……

Whatever your reasons is not important and I commend you nevertheless by being and staying on as a member, but what is important is that we must all realized that the very spirit of this club is about helping each other. How do help each other? By contributing……..By giving…..….

When you take up a role, give a prepared speech, answer at table topics, join the committee, you are both learning and teaching. You are learning by doing it and you are teaching others by doing it. Just do not be the silent observer but instead take the lead! Do not do it for yourself but rather do it for the other members. Only then, with this positive attitude and energy, I am sure this great club will be even greater.

“GROWTH STARTS FROM WITHIN”

Regards,
Soo Guan

Let us celebrate our Silver +1 years (26 years) club anniversary this 14th August in a big way by inviting your partner and friends.

Toastmasters Leadership Institute's Club Officer's Training (a.k.a TLI COTS)

I’m not sure how many newly-elected Club Officers reacted like myself. “Oh dear…now that I’ve just become an Office-bearer, how can I perform effectively to serve our members well?”

Well, the COTS training could not have come at a better time. Organized by the TLI (Toastmaster Leadership Institute) of Division C on the 3rd of July with the theme “Achieving Greatness Together, this half-day event served as the venue to orientate new Club Officers for 2010/2011 term towards achieving success in their roles. It also presented and excellent networking opportunity for Club Officers from each club, to know and meet their fellow counterparts in Division C.

(For those unfamiliar with Toastmaster International’s demarcation of locations, there are 14 Regions around the world (as of 1 July, 2010). About half of South-East Asian countries fall under Region 14, where there are four Districts (51, 75, 80 and 87. You can see this visually here: http://www.toastmasters.org/websiteApps/policyProcedures/SectionVIA99DistrictMap.pdf

Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia make up District 51, where there are 15 Divisions. Division C, consisting of clubs mainly in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan are divided into 7 Areas, in which our own Port Dickson Toastmaster’s Club fall under Area C2.)

More than 130 Toastmasters filled up the entire lecture hall at the PJ Stamford College. Four officers from the Port Dickson Toastmaster’s Club attended, myself included. The session started on time at 1.30pm, was already in full swing by the time I arrived at 1.45pm (now, doesn’t that sound familiar…). Our President Soo Guan, and VPs Kay Ku and Rosa Phua were already seated somewhere in the room, so I quietly sneaked in by the sidelines after the conclusion of the opening address.

Subjects like Leadership, Goal Setting, and the likes has been spoken so often nowadays, and yet I found the presentations very engaging. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the topics focused specifically on the context of running a successful Toastmasters club, and I was bowled over by the level of devotion these seasoned Toastmasters had in advancing the mission of Toastmasters International.

The message from some presentations stood out for me. Sue Chan who came all the way from Seberang Jaya Toastmasters Club presented ‘Charting Course for Club Success’, which exposed me for the first time the scoring system used in the Distinguished Club Programme award. As she detailed out the criteria for success for the club and Club Officers alike, it dawned upon me achieving any Distinguished Club award is no small feat, and can only be attributed to that a great deal of personal commitment of resources and time by our PD Toastmasters Club’s past Presidents and Club Officers – coupled with precise planning and most importantly, teamwork.

Equally outstanding was the presentation delivery by Dennis Wee from D’Utama Toastmasters Club, ‘Attracting New Members’. Here, he detailed out the importance of the need to constantly inject new blood into the club. He also shared many useful promotional tips on how to bring in the crowd to club events – effectively cutting out the work ahead especially for the club’s VP Membership and Public Relations.

A 1-hour breakout session halfway through the afternoon was a welcomed break. It allowed interactions between counterparts of Club Officers, via separate sessions were held in different rooms for Presidents, VP Membership, VP Public Relations, Treasurer, Secretary and Sergeant-at-Arms. These sessions were facilitated by experienced Club Officers who shared many successful practices Office-bearers can use to achieve success in their respective roles.

The COTS training ended at about 6pm. Although it was 20 minutes past the original time schedule, this was quite an achievement in time-keeping looking at the fact that the entire COTS training spanned over 5 and a half hours, and also the tendency for Toastmasters to continue talking non-stop whenever they congregate!

Overall, I felt that the TLI committee did a wonderful job putting the programme together. It achieved its objective of orientating newly-elected committee members, especially those who are holding office for the first time. For the more seasoned committee members who have attended similar events before, they also noticed an improvement in some presentations by some speakers – cementing the fact that even good speakers get better with conscious effort!

All said and done, armed with new perspectives gained from the presentations, it is time for the Committee of each club to get cracking towards Achieving their goals!

VPPR
Chua Eu Chieh

Ps. I'm having some problems extracting the photos taken during the event onto my computer...once I get some expert help, look out for them!

2010 07 12: Still not able to download the photos taken on my 'smart' phone. But, thanks to Soo Guan and Robert Ram, I've gotten hold of these pics. Do enjoy!

During one of the break-out group sessions:

Meeting on 22nd June 2010

We had our normal meeting on 22nd June 2010. Below are photos which captured those moments in time forever.

The meeting started with the President's address.

The Toastmaster of the Evening speaks.....

Tabletopic master putting forward her impromptu question......

Chua Eu Chieh had to deal with a question on Father's day.

Dharma had to think hard on what to do when Father's day clash with his work.

Amy had to deal with a reversal of role. Mum works and dad stay at home.

New Toastmaster Kenneth spoke like a pro on the joy and challenges of fatherhood.

Part of the audience listening to the impromptu speeches.

Kay had to explain on the differing expectations of parents and children.

Robert had an easy one. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

After trembling during the tabletopics session, either due to nervousness or hunger, it was time to tuck into our food. Yeoh was seen making sure everyone had their ordered food.

Ooops!! This photo should be before the refreshment break photo. Aiyaa when you speak of food, this writer got momentarily lost. No wonder his size is getting bigger by the day.

This is tabletopic evaluator Dr Subhassh giving feedback to the speakers.

Kenneth during his icebreaker speech. He was good.

Our pro speaker, Harold did his speech #10. Congrats to our new CC.

Amy kept us in suspense about her early days of audit checking at the District office.

General Evaluator GT Singam chairing the Evaluation session.

Lee Kah Tor evaluating Kenneth.

Robert Tan evaluated Harold.

Kala evaluated Amy Siew.

Dharma evaluated on the language used during the nite.

And the winners are........ Best tabletopic speaker is ...........

Best speaker is .............

Best evaluator goes to .....................

The President closing the meeting.

It was a good meeting and everyone went home happy. See you at our next meeting on 13th July 2010.

Adios Amigoes.

The Language Perfectionist: Eschew Ambiguity

By Don Hauptman

Here are four passages I encountered in newspapers. Observe how, in each case, poor wording creates an ambiguity that can lead the reader astray.

• "He found himself wondering how much time he spent doing one of his roommates' dishes."

And I found myself wondering why washing a single dish would take so long -- until I realized that one referred to the roommate, not to the tableware.

• "These companies have used the sharp downturn as an opportunity to cull their payrolls for good...."

The phrase for good here means "permanently," but might be misconstrued as meaning beneficial.

• "A regulation now in the works will require the operators of printing and photocopying shops [in Tibet]... to take down identifying information about their clients and the specific documents printed or copied...."

The phrase to take down means "record" but also "remove."

• "American forces blew up a captured Japanese I-401 aircraft carrier submarine... which was designed during the war to execute air strikes on land from the sea."

A submarine that operates on land? Once again, bad phrasing made me do a double take until I realized what the writer intended to say.

The lesson: Always review your writing to ensure that nothing is likely to puzzle or mislead the reader.

Conversation with God

Man: God?
God: Yes?
Man: Can I ask you something?
God: Of course!
Man: What's a million years to you?
God: A second.
Man: And a million dollars?
God: A penny.
Man: God, can I have a penny?
God: Yes, just wait a second.