An Outstanding Member pin was presented to Pushfa Ramasamy, ATM-B, the Organising Chairperson of the Division K 9th Semi Annual Convention, by the Guest of Honour at the convention, R Sivanganam, DTM, the Lieutenant Governor – Marketing. Among others, the Pin recognised Pushfa’s outstanding effort at organising the Division Convention with the assistance of her fellow members of the Labuan Toastmasters Club, the host club of the convention.
The Division K 9th Semi Annual Convention, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel, Labuan from 16 to 17 October 2004, commenced with the Second Division K Council Meeting, which was attended by most of the Division K Council Members and many of the Club Presidents and VPEs. The Division K Council members updated those present on the progress of Toastmasters activities in Division K. LGM Sivanganam shared his views on weak clubs, in that he suggested that the Division establish more clubs to replace the weak clubs in the Division.
Two English Educational Workshops and one Mandarin Educational Workshop were successfully held in the afternoon. The first English Educational Workshop, which was entitled “The 5 Steps to Speech Evaluation Made Simple,” was conducted by the Division K Governor, Richard A. Gontusan, DTM. The second English Educational Workshop, which was entitled “Leadership – The Choice Ahead,” was conducted by Iskandar Ahmad, DTM. Meanwhile, in another room, Dr Jacob Yan, DTM conducted the Mandarin Educational Workshop entitled, “Impromptu Speaking” for the Mandarin club members of Division K.
In the evening, the Fellowship Nite was held. The guests themselves created the entertainment for the evening, guided by the creative minds of the host club. The 6 Areas took turns to perform cultural dances – Indian, Chinese, Malay, Hawaiian, Iban and a modern dance – each led by a “professional” dancer from the host club. Next a team from each Area was requested to perform a catwalk to parade the latest designer clothes, real or imaginary, while a speaker described each design.
When the results were finally announced, Area K2 won the cultural dance performance while Area K3 won the catwalk. It is correct to deduce that everyone had a fun time, with painful jaws to boot from all that laughing. The food was great and the entertainers – Amy Sim, ATM-B, TM Marleenah Ramlee and Tan Chui Eng, CTM – were simply superb.
Pushfa declared that Labuan never sleeps. A bunch of the Toastmasters decided to put the declaration to the test by painting the town red after the Fellowship Nite. Word had it that many did not retire to bed until about 4.00am. Many barely made it to the speech contests the following morning.
The Contest Chairs for the Evaluation and Humorous Speech Contests, Alicia Wong, CTM and Emelinah Ampon, CTM respectively, handled the contests and the contestants marvellously. The audience had a whale of time witnessing the contestants as they attempted to give each other a run for his/her money with their evaluation skills and humorous antics.
When the results were announced, Azlina Abdul Jalil of the IEM Sabah TMC/Area K4 won the Evaluation Speech Contest. The First Runner-up was Kevin Lim of the Kota Kinabalu TMC/Area K1. The other contestants were Dr Edmond Fernandez of Sandakan TMC/Area K2 and Anita Wong of Labuan TMC/Area K6.
In the Humorous Speech Contest, Kevin Lim clinched the championship while Rozana Yunos of the Brunei Speakers’ Club/Area K6 came in second. Kevin spoke on “Aggressive Dragon, Blossomed Flower” while Rozana spoke on “The F Word.” The other contestants were Soo Yuen Mee of SWEPA/Area K4, who spoke on “Shape Up;” and Janet Chin of Sandakan TMC/Area K2, who spoke on “Outward Bound.” Besides their champion trophies, Kevin and Azlina also received for the first time a Challenge Trophy each. We had TC Lim, DTM and Yee That Hian, ATM-S to thank for providing guidance to ensure the success of the contests.
Pushfa Ramasamy and her Labuan Toastmasters Club members were the perfect hosts of the convention. They made every guest feel welcomed, not only in words but also in deeds. Pushfa and members saw to it that everything for the guests was taken care of, from the airport transfer to a well organised convention. They had certainly created magical moments for everyone, which will be the talk of Division K for many months to come. For this round, they achieved excellence, in keeping with their presidential theme for the term, “Pursuing Excellence.” Area K6 Governor Zelie Ho, ATM-B could not be any happier and prouder with the achievement of her charge.
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