If you have never been to a Kota Kinabalu Toastmasters Club meeting, perhaps you should make it a point to do so. Short of comparing KKTMC's meeting with other meetings in terms of quality, it would provide a different learning experience to any serious Toastmaster.

A typical KKTMC's Toastmasters meeting is attended by about 30 people, comprising members and guests. At any one time, there can be as many as 10 guests.

One of these meetings was held on 14 December 2004 at 7.30pm at the meeting venue, the Pacific Sutera Hotel, Kota Kinabalu. 34 people attended the meeting, of which 10 were guests. The Toastmaster of the Evening, Ronald Tang, ATM-B, was introduced by the President, John Liew, ATM-B, who presided over the event before the meeting proper commenced. It was during this time that he asked his VPs to report on matters pertaining to their areas of responsibility.

Earlier, the ASAA, TM Lawrence Lee, reminded everyone to refrain from speaking on the subjects of race, politics, religion and sex. He was followed by the Invocator, TM Constantine Chong, who got the audience to join him in proposing toasts to the Yang DiPertuan Agong, Yang DiPertua Negeri Sabah and Toastmasters International. He then shared the Thought of the Evening, in which he asked everyone to think positively.

Ronald, who is the Club's VPE, set the mood of the meeting by getting the participants to interview each other for a few minutes. Next, the roles players explained their roles, before the Word Master, TM Joanna Lim, took the floor. She expounded on the Word of the Evening, "Eminence," which was printed and distributed for easy reference, and requested everyone to use the word and its derivatives throughout the evening.

The friendly Table Topics Master, Kevin Lim, ATM-B, took charge of the Table Topics Session. After posing each question, he would select his respondent, after giving opportunities to volunteers to tackle the question. As many as 10 questions were posed, which most of the fortunate respondents took 2 minutes to respond to. The Table Topics Evaluator, TC Lim, DTM, evaluated not only the performance of the Table Topics Master, but also the questions posed and the performance of the respondents.

After the Table Topics Topics Session, there was a 30-minutes break, from 8.30 to 9.00pm, in which the participants were treated to fried mee, cakes and tea or coffee while they mingled about exchanging views and enhancing general fellowship. The 30-minute break was soon over, and everyone was back in the room by 9.00pm.

The ASAA once again called the meeting to order, and reminded the participants not to speak on the taboo subjects. The meeting launched into the manual speech session, in which TME Ronald introduced each speaker briefly before the speaker took the floor. By then, the objectives of the each speech would have been spelt out by each speaker's evaluator.

Usually there are 6 manual speakers at a KKTMC's meeting. That evening, there were only four speakers. The first to speak was TM Dora Danny, who talked about eating healthy food for her C & L Speech No. 7. She was followed by James Wong, CTM, who, for his ATM-B Speech No. 2, presented a humorous speech on his days as a biker. The final speaker for the evening was Richard A. Gontusan, DTM, who talked about being a seminar speaker for his C & L Speech No. 2. Richard is embarking on his second round of CTM.

Before the General Evaluator, Yee That Hian, ATM-S, took control of the meeting, the Humour Master, Paul Mathew, CTM, conducted the Humour Session without the aid of a script, eliciting tremendous amount of laughter from the delighted audience. Paul was voted “Best Gestures” by his peers, and subsequently received a ribbon towards the end of the evening from the Club’s VPE, Ronald.

Yee then called for each evaluator to deliver his or her report. TM Dora Dany was evaluated by TM Shahar Banon; James Wong, CTM by Andrew Thien, ATM-G; and Richard A. Gontusan by Kevin Lim, ATM-B. Ronald, who was doing his ATM-S Speech No.1, Introduce the Speaker, was evaluated by Florence Majanil-Liau, CTM.

All the evaluations went directly to the point. Each evaluator highlighted the strengths of the speech, points for improvement, and whether the speaker had fulfilled the speech objectives. Each evaluation was not a review of the speech, and ended on a positive and encouraging note.

The role of the Grammarian, who is accorded 3 minutes, is taken seriously. At the meeting, the Grammarian, Christine Yap, DTM, corrected sentence structures, tenses used and pronunciations without naming the users. However, when she reported on the use of vivid sentences and the Word of the Evening, she named all the users.

TM John Sham, who was the Timer, timed everyone to a fault to ensure that the meeting ended on schedule. The Ah Counter, Sylvia Maten, ATM-B, meticulously counted everyone's pause fillers, highlighting not only repeated word but also unnecessary sounds made by the speakers and role players.

As the General Evaluator, Yee commented on the evaluation of each evaluator, the performance of the role players, the timeliness of the meeting and the set-up of the room, among others. After his general evaluation, he handed control back to TME Ronald, who closed his segment of the meeting by thanking the role players and all participants for rendering the meeting a success. He then handed the control for the last time to the President, who called for comments from the guests to the meeting. This time around he called upon four of the guests, who found the meeting to be exciting and educational. John then closed with words of encouragement. The meeting ended at 10.30pm, the usual time.

The dress code at a KKTMC's meeting is formal although the interactions are informal. Men and ladies come in office attires. Men are required to wear ties. The President and his VPs wear jackets.

As the participants mill into the meeting room prior to the commencement of the meeting, VPPR Andrew Thien, ATM-G sets up an LCD presentation of the digital pictures taken at the previous meeting. Members who come before 7.00pm are called early birds, and are entitled to get pictures taken at the previous meetings printed free of charge as a reward.

The KKTMC holds its meeting every second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Each meeting date is publicised in the Sabah's newspapers. Any Toastmaster, including non members of the Club, who wishes to present his or her speech to a bigger audience, is welcomed to do so in the club subject to speaking slot availability. The Clubs is after all the sponsor of most of the clubs in Division K.

As a community club, everyone of sound mind, regardless of social status, is welcomed to attend the club meeting. Please contact the Club's VPE, Ronald Tang at 016-8200033, for speaking slots and other meeting related matters.